In a new interview with Guitar World, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry recalled the time he quit the band and what caused it.
“One day, I just quit. There was an incident and a big fight backstage, and it was just a bullshit fight. But I also wasn’t happy with what was going on behind the scenes; it felt like we were being told where to go and when to go. Nobody seemed to be looking out for us as far as caring or burning out, and I was trying to get some kind of handle on that,” the guitarist explained.
“So I got my own lawyer and said, ‘If they don’t wanna do it, I’m gonna do it myself. How much did we make last year,’ and blah, blah, blah,” he continued. “There was stuff going on and I wanted to check it out, but I couldn’t get the rest of the guys to go along with it. I finally told my lawyer, ‘Call them up; tell them I’m not coming back,’ and I didn’t. I felt like a huge weight was off my shoulders. I thought, ‘I’m just gonna put a band together, do a record, go out, tour and have fun.'”
Perry left Aerosmith midway through the recording of their 1979 album ‘Night in the Ruts’ because he was dealing with personal issues and needed to focus on himself. But he also felt that ‘the band needed to be more open to new ideas’ and didn’t feel ready for the 80s.
Although he later joined the band again, his bandmate Tom Hamilton is glad that there was a period in the band without Perry. “I think we’d just played Cleveland Stadium to a huge crowd. We gathered in a dressing room trailer and everything exploded. I knew there was no point in trying to talk it out. I just wanted to be free of all the conflict,” the bassist explained.
“I was actually glad that it happened. Joe went off and did solo projects, and the we found Jimmy Crespo, who was an excellent guitarist and writer. We all set up shop in New York and started work on an album. We got work done – but just barely,” he added.
In other news, there is apparently a possibility of a new Aerosmith material. Perry revealed that Steven Tyler has ‘got some stuff in his back pocket,’ but they were currently planning to remix the early Aerosmith songs.
Aerosmith hasn’t released new material since the 2012 album, ‘Music From Another Dimension!’
