AEROSMITH's PERRY: 'It Takes More Than Talent And Being In The Right Place At The Right Time To Keep A Band Together'

AEROSMITH guitarist Joe Perry spoke to GuitarWorld.com about his long-awaited memoir, "Rocks: My Life In And Out Of Aerosmith", which is slated to hit shelves on October 7 via Simon & Schuster. Perry worked with author David Ritz, who has written books with B.B. King, Jerry Wexler and Bettye LaVette.

"It takes more than talent and being in the right place at the right time to keep a band together," he said. "It's the reason I wanted to write the book. Not just to talk about how I ended up doing what I do, but also to give people insight into what some of the pressures can be and what has to be done to keep things moving. In spite of the personality crises, you have to learn how to deal with it and keep going. Then you can look back and go, 'You know, we were literally just kids when we started trying to do what 10,000 other kids were trying to do. Now here we are 40 years later and — where's everybody else? [laughs]"

He added: "AEROSMITH fans will get a kick out of [my memoir], because there's a lot of stuff in the book that may come as a surprise. But what I'm really hoping is that people discover that it deals a lot about human nature and how people get along. You don't necessarily have to be an AEROSMITH fan or a rock and roller to relate to or appreciate some of the situations we found ourselves in — and how we worked them out."

AEROSMITH singer Steven Tyler's "Does The Noise In My Head Bother You?" autobiography was issued in 2011, while the band's drummer, Joey Kramer, had his own tale, "Hit Hard: A Story Of Hitting Rock Bottom At The Top", published in 2009. AEROSMITH bassist Tom Hamilton is also working on a book.

Perry told RollingStone.com: "I've wanted to write one for a while. But Joey put his book out and I wanted to leave some room there and then Steven put his book out. I didn't want to make it seem like mine was an answer to his, so I waited a little longer."

Perry admitted to RollingStone.com that he read Tyler's book, calling it "definitely Steven's truth, no doubt about it." He added: "He's allowed to perceive things how he perceives things. He can write his book any way he wants. But I didn't agree with a lot of the things he said. I know he worked hard on it, but it's got a totally different tenor and energy than my book. Mine tends to be a little more traditional. It's an autobiography in the real classic sense. I just hope Steven accepts the things I say about how I felt and how I saw things happen. I don't put words in other people's mouths or talk about conversations that I wasn't there for."

AEROSMITH's latest album, "Music From Another Dimension!", arrived in November 2012 via Columbia Records. The CD was helmed by producer Jack Douglas, who previously worked with AEROSMITH on classic early albums like "Toys In The Attic" and "Rocks" as well as on 2004's "Honkin' On Bobo".

AEROSMITH and Slash's upcoming summer trek, dubbed the "Let Rock Rule" tour, kicks off on Thursday, July 10 at Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre in Wantagh, New York.