Throughout his multi-decade career, Joe Perry of Aerosmith has also developed quite a reputation as a guitar collector. His arsenal includes everything from highly sought-after ’59 ’bursts to a Gibson B.B. King Lucille Custom (featuring his wife Billie’s face), the Guild X-100 Blade Runner made famous by the Walk This Way music video, and even a couple of guitars he’s built himself.
The jewel of his collection, however, is a storied 1959 Gibson Les Paul that was Perry's main guitar in the ’70s, before it famously ended up in Slash's hands. Now, in the new issue of Guitar World, Perry discusses his collection, and details the guitar’s journey.
“Different people had it and sold it,” he explains. “And then I came across it – and for a good price! I can’t remember what I paid for it, but it was around $2,500.”
Sadly, Perry was forced to sell it after he left Aerosmith in 1979 – partway through the recording of Night in the Ruts – due to intense internal disputes.
Leaving Aerosmith also meant leaving behind the guitar that had accompanied him through the best part of a decade. “I needed money for Christmas,” says Perry. “And I remember selling it for $4,500.”
However, after the band got back together in 1984 – and signed a new (and more advantageous) deal with Geffen Records – Perry thought it was the right time to track down his long-lost ’59 Les Paul. However, by that time, the prices of Gibsons from the era had already started to skyrocket...
“I started making calls and talking to some of my techs, and it seemed like every six months, the dollar signs in front of those ’59s were going up. But I really wanted to try and get back some of the guitars I’d had, and I remember calling everybody.”
As it turned out, he didn't have to search too far – his own bandmate, Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford, had the answer.
“[Brad] said, ‘I know where it is.’” remembers Perry. “I said, ‘Really? Where?’ He opened up Guitar Player, I think, and there was a spread of Slash’s guitar collection, and right in the middle of it was my ’59 Les Paul – right there in the magazine.”
Owning such a desirable guitar meant that Slash wasn’t so keen to part ways with it – even if that meant returning it to its original owner.
“We’d gotten to be friends, and when I asked him, he went, ‘Oh, man… don’t ask me that.’ I said, ‘I’ll buy it back and pay whatever you want.’ But he said, ‘Don’t ask me, please!’
“It got to the point where he wouldn’t take my calls because he knew I was gonna ask him,” Perry admits. “He hated saying no, and I realized I was potentially losing a friend over this thing. I finally said, ‘Listen, I’m not gonna ask you again. It’s not even an issue. It’s your guitar. This is fucking up our friendship, so no more.’”
However, a few years went by, and right around the time Perry was about to turn 50 – marked by a huge birthday blowout – the Aerosmith guitarist got the surprise of a lifetime, or rather, one that he had been waiting decades for.
“I asked Cheap Trick if they’d come and play [at my birthday party] and I’d sit in on a set,” he recalls.
“When we were getting ready to go up and do the set at a restaurant that Steven [Tyler] and I owned in South Boston near the Cape, where we all lived, I got up on stage, and my guitar tech goes, ‘Slash wanted me to give you this,’ and it was the ’59. It was dead silent in the room. I was just blown away. But that was it – I got it back.”
And, speaking of Perry’s exploits, the guitarist recently gave Guitar World more insight into why Aerosmith decided to link up with Yungblud on an EP – and the gear he used during the recording process.
For more from Perry, plus new interviews with Alter Bridge’s Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy, and a tribute to the legendary Bob Weir, pick up issue 602 of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.
