(Credits: Far Out / Joe Perry)
Wed 28 January 2026 19:33, UK
Since the 1970s, Joe Perry has been one of the few remaining living legends of rock and roll. Whereas most critics of the time pigeonholed Aerosmith as being nothing but a cheap knockoff of The Rolling Stones, Perry was the one pushing for the group to reach beyond the traditional sounds of the British Invasion, indulging in heavier affairs across every one of their albums.
To be the archetype of a genre is to absolutely embody it, and while Aerosmith tried hard to be rock legends, they didn’t quite reach those heights. While Perry lives and breathes rock, he insisted that one band was the finest example of the genre he had ever seen.
When Aerosmith first got their wings, the rock scene was already shifting in a different direction. In the wake of The Beatles’ breakup, many of the surviving 1960s bands were either changing their sound or falling by the wayside, with artists like Led Zeppelin previewing what the next movement would sound like.
Looking to make colossal riffs instead of playing ballads, Perry was first attuned to the Stone Age of rock and roll, learning his first licks from artists like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. When he started to venture outside the typical bluesy wheelhouse, though, he found a partner in crime in frontman Steven Tyler.
Having been known around the East Coast as the frontman of the group Chain Reaction, Tyler had become one of the greatest musicians in his field when he heard Perry play with his group, The Jam Band, at the local performance spot, The Barn. Thinking they might have something if they worked together, Perry and Tyler would blossom as songwriters almost immediately, with Tyler putting words to Perry’s riffs to create their first song, ‘Movin’ Out’.
Angus young of AC/DC. (Credits: Harry Potts)
By the time the band honed their craft as a live act across the early 1970s, albums like Toys in the Attic would become massive sonic statements, creating licks that held up as bluesy takes on modern rock on tracks like ‘Walk This Way’ and ‘Sweet Emotion’. Despite the massive firepower in their arsenal, Perry admitted that one of their opening acts blew him away the first time he heard them.
When putting together their first major tours, Perry was drawn to the sounds of AC/DC, who were just making waves out of Australia. Driven by the massive attitude of the Young Brothers, Perry loved the music on albums like Powerage, complete with frontman Bon Scott wailing away about the wonders of being in a massive rock and roll band.
Looking back on his time spent on the road with them, Perry would consider the Aussies to be one of the greatest in their field, telling Classic Rock, “They didn’t need any production, they didn’t need any lights, they just needed their guitars, their amps and plenty of watts. And they’d destroy the place. They were pretty mellow guys off-stage, but once they stepped onstage, they were on fire. They’re rock’n’roll at its best, the real deal.”
That intensity wouldn’t falter for a second after Scott passed away, either, as the band soldiered on with Brian Johnson for the colossal album Back in Black. For all of Aerosmith’s stage presence, even Perry knew that anyone willing to go onstage with AC/DC was going to be given an education in how to play rock and roll properly.
The band have never, ever, backed down from a fight on the airwaves, and they have continuously found themselves at the forefront of what heavy rock is. The band might not be the most progressive in the rock hemisphere, but it is hard to deny that they are the epitome of the genre and have rightly gained their position as perhaps the ultimate rock and roll band.
Related Topics