JOE PERRY To Be Honored With Les Paul Award At 32nd Annual NAMM TEC Awards

AEROSMITH guitarist Joe Perry will receive the prestigious Les Paul Award during the 32nd annual NAMM Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards, to be held January 21, 2017 in Anaheim, California. The NAMM TEC Awards honors individuals and companies across 30 categories, for outstanding achievement in professional audio technology and production.

The Les Paul Award named for the revolutionary inventor and esteemed musician, honors individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio and music technology. Instituted in 1991, the honor has been granted to luminaries, including Pete Townshend, Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young, Todd Rundgren, Peter Gabriel and Slash.

Perry, who was included in Rolling Stone's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time," is also scheduled to perform live before an audience of pro audio and sound production inventors, musicians and industry friends.

"Anytime my name is mentioned in the same sentence as Les Paul, it's a huge honor," says Perry. "Getting an award bearing his name is the icing on the cake."

A longstanding co-founding member of a group whose music repertoire spans four decades, Perry's versatile musicianship and influence has helped pave the way for a long list of accolades that reach beyond the band's more than 150 million albums sold. In the role of principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and as producer for multiple tracks featured on several notable AEROSMITH albums, Perry's talent has helped contribute to the supergroup's four Grammy Awards, (one of which includes Perry's guitar-based instrumental "Boogie Man"); six Billboard Music Awards; twelve MTV Video Awards; and two People's Choice Awards, to name a few.

"Joe Perry was a friend of Les Paul's and is undoubtedly one of the most innovative and talented musicians of our time," says Michael K. Braunstein, executive director, Les Paul Foundation. "His ability to push boundaries of the electric guitar with his signature sound and deft playing ability embodies the true spirit of what Les Paul and the award given in his name stands for. The Les Paul Award has been presented at the NAMM TEC Awards to remarkably distinguished and accomplished individuals from the music industry, including such luminaries as Sir Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townsend, Slash and last year's recipient, Don Was. The Les Paul Foundation could not be more thrilled to be adding Joe Perry to this amazing list."

Hollywood also became a part of Perry's musical resume when his familiar riffs were heard on the band's hit song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (from the soundtrack to "Armageddon"),which received an Oscar nomination for Best Song. Among many other TV and film projects, Perry also composed the theme song for the "Spiderman" animated TV series and provided the instrumental music for "This Thing of Ours", starring James Caan.

Along with Perry, famed AEROSMITH engineer and producer Jack Douglas, will be inducted into the NAMM TEC Hall Of Fame, which was created nearly thirty years ago to honor pioneers of audio technology, as well as the music industry's most accomplished producers and audio technicians. Douglas is associated with many of the band's most iconic releases and affectionately dubbed "the sixth member" of AEROSMITH for having contributed lyrics to several tracks released from the band. He also engineered and produced many multi-platinum AEROSMITH albums, including "Toys In The Attic" and "Rocks", both of which ranked among Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time." Douglas rose to prominence when the Record Plant Studio opened its doors and eventually engineered John Lennon's "Imagine" and THE WHO's "Who's Next" EP.

The NAMM TEC Awards celebrate the pro audio community by recognizing the individuals, companies and technical innovations behind today's sound recordings, live sound, films, television, and video games.

Outstanding Technical Achievement and Outstanding Creative Achievement nominees were announced earlier for the Saturday, January 21 event. Tickets can be purchased on site or in advance for $50 (General Admission) or $175 (VIP). The show will be hosted by comedian Sinbad and will be available via a live event web stream during the NAMM show.