AEROSMITH Guitarist Pays Tribute To GUNS N' ROSES

April 11, 2005

In the special "Immortals" issue of Rolling Stone magazine chronicling "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time," AEROSMITH guitarist Joe Perry pays tribute to GUNS N' ROSES:

"I remember someone handing me a copy of 'Appetite for Destruction' and saying, 'You've got to hear these guys — they're the new big thing.' Bands like BON JOVI and WHITESNAKE were big around then but GUNS N' ROSES were different. They had dug down a little deeper into rock's roots. I heard a lot of AEROSMITH in them, which meant I also heard a lot of bands that came before us. And I remember being a little jealous, because they were really hitting the nail on the head.

"They opened up for us in 1988, and one of the things that impressed me was how much personality they put across, even when they weren't playing. Axl knew how to work an audience. They used to have to go out there and tape foam rubber around everything that Axl could touch — from his teleprompter to his mike stand — to make sure he wouldn't break anything, or hurt himself. I think people saw that he was basically just let out of the cage. Part of the thrill was wondering what he was going to do next.

"They were called metal at the time, but they weren't: Metal isn't sexy, but rock is. To put it another way: You can have the rock, but you need the roll. Songs like 'Paradise City' and 'Welcome to the Jungle' were just simple enough: the chorus lines came right when you wanted them. Slash plays what’s needed for the song, as opposed to trying to make a tune a showcase for his guitar technique. GUNS N' ROSES' music wasn't full of the overblown gymnastics that a lot of guys were doing back then — their stuff is just very tasty. Duff McKagan is like the bass player in AC/DC: His parts were fairly simple, but they made the band an unstoppable force. Izzy Stradlin was also an important part of that band. GUNS N' ROSES played as a gang, which is just what you want.

"GUNS N' ROSES are still an example of how a band can move rock forward. Sometimes you think, 'How can you top anything by THE YARDBIRDS, or ZEPPELIN, or the STONES?' And then you hear GUNS N' ROSES, and it’s inspiring. You can think that it's all been written, but it hasn’t. There's another way to twist those three chords around, to make it sound new, fresh and rebellious."

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).