“The Janie’s Got a Gun solo had a ratty sound. I had a Chet Atkins signature guitar plugged into a 15-watt Marshall practice amp... the producer said, ‘It sounds terrible’”: Joe Perry on 50 years of Aerosmith, and what it takes to nail his “working tone”

Joe Perry solos on a white Strat with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler by his side.

Leading up to August of this year, Joe Perry was busy preparing for a tour. Not just any tour – he was saddling up for what was to be Aerosmith’s rebooted Peace Out tour, the same one that came to a screeching halt after a performance at the UBS Arena in Elmont, Long Island, on September 9, 2023, when normally evergreen vocalist Steven Tyler suffered an injury during the show and fractured his larynx.

But all that changed on August 2, when Aerosmith issued a joint statement informing the world that there would be no second chance at ‘Peacing Out.’