Richard Fortus on how Aerosmith changed his life, and what he and Slash learned from Joe Perry

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My first album, and I remember this very well, I bought in 1975 when I was nine years old. There was a thing called the Columbia Records and Tapes program where you could order eight albums for a penny! I convinced my mother to let me do that. I got the 8-track cassette of Toys In The Attic, Aerosmith’s latest record, and wore it out until it was so thin that you could hear through to the other side playing backwards.

That was my introduction, and that record really changed everything for me. After that I got Draw The Line, I got Live! Bootleg, I got Rocks… I didn’t start playing guitar until a few years later. I think I was 12 or 13. I was playing drums at that point.

I used to play along with it, and then when I started playing guitar, I was going back and figuring out all this stuff on guitar, lifting the needle back and forth. We put quarters on the arm to slow the records down. I remember learning Walk This Way and all the stuff off of Toys. I knew that record from front to back. I learned all the solos.

I absolutely learned about how to play with another guitarist from those albums. How Joe Perry and Brad Whitford worked together was a big deal. The way they wove their guitar parts, I thought was genius. Especially on Toys, it seemed like they were at the peak of their powers, and really working together as a unit. I think later on with Draw The Line, it didn’t seem like they were putting in the same amount of time and effort into creating parts that lock together in the same way.

Rocks is the best for that, I think, as far as the interplay between how the parts lined up and how they divided things to fill the space. It took what the Stones were doing to a whole new level for me, as far as how two guitars can intertwine to create a bigger picture.

Joe and Brad would write parts based on what Steven Tyler’s left and right hands were doing at the piano. With Guns N’ Roses, I don’t really think about it in that way. It’s more about creating a part to fit around what Slash is doing. It seems like Joe and Brad did a lot of that, just trying to complement each other and not play the same thing. Not playing different inversions, but just creating different parts to interlock so well on those records.

I hear a lot of similarities in Guns N’ Roses parts. I think it comes more from Slash’s side, the way he weaves in and out of what Izzy [Stradlin] was doing. That’s similar to how I think Joe Perry would approach things, with playing around the basic riffs, weaving around that.

I have a mix of Rocks from just before they put the vocals on, before the guitar overdubs, just the basic tracking. God, it’s amazing! I remember playing it for Slash and he freaked out over it. You really hear the genesis of the ideas and how they were approaching the songs.

Tonally, you hear how they each approach things from a different point, how their amps were set, the kinds of guitars they were using, and I love that Joe paints with a broad palette. You hear the different guitars that he’s using in the different tones. It sounds like they recorded it live. You can hear mic bleed and stuff like that.

I’ll tell you an interesting story that I discovered through my conversations with Joe. We talk about guitars a lot, and I sent him a photo of a Travis Bean that I just purchased, an early one. He said, ‘Oh man, I’ve got a couple of those. I had them widen the horns and make the body thinner, because they were so heavy.’

He asked to widen the horn so that when he was playing slide, he can get his hand all the way up. I said, ‘Well, you realise that in ’77 they changed the body style to be thinner, and the horns wider.’ He had no idea, but they made him a custom one, and then they I guess they took his suggestions. That’s everything they did after that point.

Nobody plays like Joe. He has such a unique voice as far as soloing, where it’s so slinky and so distinctly Joe. That’s what really blows me away about this stuff. And Brad’s playing as well, they had unique voices.

Lick and a Promise is such a great song, and it’s such an unusual song format-wise. The interplay on that track just blows me away. We play that song before we go on stage sometimes. Nobody’s Fault is genius. The guitar tones are so great on those. They’re so pure, just amp and guitar. I think Joe said he was just using a Plexi on that.

Adam’s Apple is such a great example of his slinkiness, and on Walk This Way the solos are incredible, his use of open strings and rhythm – I had never heard anything like that.

When you look at the other things going on at the time, with the Stones or Queen and KISS, Aerosmith was such a different thing. His solo band The Joe Perry Project was spotty, but I loved [1980 album] Let The Music Do The Talking. Shooting Star – that riff! I love that song. That’s one of the greatest Joe Perry riffs. Just raw rock ’n’ roll. I think you hear elements of the New York Dolls in that as well.

It was all the early Aerosmith stuff that I really loved, but even some of their later big hits, the guitar parts are just incredible. Love In An Elevator and songs that like were so popular you sort of take them for granted, but when you dissect the guitar parts… His slide playing is just incredible.

He turned me on to the Rickenbacker lap steel, which is my favourite. For recording, I use it all the time. He’s got a couple of them, and I think that’s his main in the studio. I think they were made in the ’40s.

I think the things in my own playing that I can pinpoint and think ‘Oh, yeah, that’s Joe Perry’ is more soloing – and rhythmically, I think it really sort of influenced me subconsciously. I spent so many of my formative years when I was learning how to play listening to him.

It’s the slinkiness of his playing that I hear elements of in myself, and in Slash as well. I hear that in Slash big time, in his bending. It’s the way Joe bends down at the start of a phrase, like a pre-bend and a release, that I hear in Slash. That’s the first time I remember hearing somebody do that, starting high and bending down.

Rhythmically, I think it’s very unique. The rhythm of his lead playing. He places notes behind the beat. He’s always bending and weaving around the beat. You can definitely hear The Meters and funk influence on Joe, especially on Live! Bootleg and [the James Brown cover] Mother Popcorn. That’s what makes it slinky, along with all the microtonal notes that surround the line because he’s always bending.

Rhythmically, he’s playing around the beat. I guess that is the Meters influence, because that’s how all that stuff is – it is not dead on the beat, it’s playing around it. The Meters were a big influence on my playing as well.

I lusted after a BC Rich Mockingbird because of the promo ads for the Joe Perry Project. I remember thinking that was the most beautiful guitar I’d ever seen. Also the Rich Bich, where he’s holding it up on the back of Live! Bootleg. We didn’t have videos then, so you’d stare at the photos; that photo collage with all the different guitars he used. All those photos formed my views of what was cool when it came to guitar.

The guitars I bought because of Joe? Well, the Travis Bean, the reverse-headstock Strat – which I associate not only with Hendrix but also with Joe – and the Les Paul. I always wanted a BC Rich, but I could never afford one. I eventually got one and never used it, though it was a great-playing, sexy guitar. I would try and use it on recordings and sessions and never could never make it work, though it’s a great guitar. I’m sure that’s why Slash has Mockingbirds as well.

I think it probably came from his love of Hendrix, but having a left-handed headstock, you’ve got more string length on low strings where you want it, which is probably why Hendrix had such a piano-like low-end. I think Joe figured out that if you have a left-handed headstock, it increases the tension on the low strings and the top strings are going to be easier to bend.

A lot of the photos that you see of Joe, he’s using either a left-handed Strat or a left-handed neck. Also reversing that angle of the bridge pickup makes a big difference. I think Leo Fender sort of got it wrong, and Jimi Hendrix corrected it. It makes more sense.

You wanna talk about Joe’s rhythm playing? It’s all about those riffs, and again his tone. You hear the single coils he’s using, just going straight into the amp. He told me he was probably using just a 50-watt Marshall on Rocks. It was just what they had, you know? He had one amp and that was it. His palate broadened later and as he acquired more gear.

But I like how a lot of those aren’t heavy guitar tones. Those records shaped my ideals of what the perfect rock guitar tone is, where it’s not too distorted. There’s sustain and there’s tube compression, but there’s not a ton of preamp distortion. Those parts are really clean, so you hear the single coils, and you hear when he goes to a humbucker.

You can hear the influence of those riffs on Guns N’ Roses, but I’m sure it’s not a conscious thing. It’s in our subconscious, so ingrained in our DNA, those early Aerosmith records, that it’s hard to stand back and pinpoint what was a direct influence.

I tend to review shows that we’ve played. God bless YouTube, I’m able to go back and listen to what we did the night before. That’s when I really hear it, like, ‘Oh jeez, that’s ripping a little too close there!’

Subconsciously, the way Brad and Joe created complementary guitar tones informs so much of how I approach things. To me, that’s the idyllic guitar tone, where you’ve got the sustain and the compression of an overdriven tube amp without being too gritty.

It’s funny, I sent Joe an amp. I gave one to Slash as well, the B&H Filmosound. I think it started in the ’40s. They were home movie projectors with a built-in amplifier. You can pull those out and use them as guitar amps, just some of them. I sent one to Joe. He had a cabinet built to mount the head because he wanted to take it on the road. They’re very low-wattage.

He’s big into small amps. He’s got all these cabinets that his tech built for them where you can change the baffles and have different size speakers, and different types of speakers. He’s a mad scientist, constantly experimenting with tones.

He uses Fender Champs a lot, and he says this Filmosound is his number one recording amp now. We’re always sending each other photos of little amps. You don’t overload the microphone. It’s much easier for a microphone to capture a small amp. I love the way big 200-watt heads sound in the room.

I had a 200-watt Hiwatt, and I’ve got a Park 150. There’s nothing bigger when you’re standing in the room with it. It’s not the volume, it just sounds so massive. But capturing that with a microphone is very, very difficult. It’s much easier to get a huge sound out of a lower-wattage amp that is not pushing as much air. Joe really likes little speakers for that reason.

And Joe is also one of the best dressed rock and roll stars ever! I think I think that’s often overlooked. Come on – Joe Perry, Keith Richards and Jimmy Page. They wrote the book. That’s what we all aspire to look like!