"if It's the Right Les Paul, It Feels Right in Every Way"

Aerosmith legend Joe Perry plays vintage classics and his own signature models. As he puts it: “Les Paul and Gibson just hit the nail on the head”

- By Jenna Scaramanga. Photos by Kevin Nixon

Aerosmith’s Joe Perry has a long and close association with Les Pauls. Just as Jeff Beck was the inspiration for Joe to play a Les Paul, so Joe was the inspiration for Slash to play one. And in partnership with Gibson, Joe now has four signature models to his name.

In Aerosmith’s early career, it was the band’s other guitarist, Brad Whitford, who mostly recorded with a Les Paul while Joe played a Strat for contrast. As Joe tells TG: “I have a lot of guitars.” But wherever he is, he always has a Les Paul close by...

What are some classic Aerosmith songs where you played a Les Paul?

I was just reading a John Lennon interview and he was like, ‘I don’t know about strings. We just used whatever was on there!’ Obviously he was more concerned about the music and writing the songs. In some ways I can identify with that. I was more concerned about writing songs than I was about the particulars of which amp I used or whatever. That said, I would say with a fair amount of confidence I used a Les Paul on Eat The Rich [1993], Toys In The Attic [1975], Pandora’s Box [1974] and Nine Lives [1997]. I would bet that at least one of my tracks on Walk This Way [1975] is a Les Paul, and then everything I did after that was with the Strat. Back then Brad [Whitford] was a hardcore Les Paul player. He doesn’t change guitars all that much. Even if we’re doing a song in an open tuning, he’ll figure it out in standard. I always felt like having a different voice in there worked really well for different parts, rather than just playing in unison.

What made you start playing Les Pauls?