The legendary Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts back in 1950 and started his musical career when he was still teenager in 1965. Five years later, in 1970, he helped to form Aerosmith, that became one of the biggest bands in the history of music. In more than five decades in the music business, they have sold an estimated amount of more than 150 million records worldwide.
Perry had the chance over the years to share the stage with the incredible Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. However, he also named once another frontman that he thinks is one of the best of all time.
One of the best frontmans of all time according to Joe Perry
The state of Massachusetts gave Rock and Roll music many incredible bands over the decades and not all of them came out of Boston. Worcester, which is the second largest city in the state also produced an incredible group that was formed in 1967, which was a big inspiration for Joe Perry when he was young.
In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2016, the Aerosmith guitarist revealed some of his favorite songs and mentioned the J. Geils Band track “Love Stinks”. He also took the opportunity to praise the band’s vocalist Peter Wolf.
“I don’t know if there is a better frontman than Peter Wolf. They were one of the first bands to understand the value of videos and MTV,” Joe Perry said.
They were one of the best bands in the world according to Perry
Perry had the chance to see them playing live in the early days of their career before they achieved a huge commercial success in the late 70s and early 80s with bigger hit songs. Talking with Cape Code Times back in 2017, the guitarist recalled seeing them at the Tea Party, which was Boston’s famous late 60’s Rock and Roll club.
“They would start off as a three piece and then another guy would come up on stage, and then another guy, and finally Peter would come out. They always had such showmanship and dynamics. But Jay was all about the song, the music.”
“He (J. Geils) played great solos, he knew blues inside and out and they just took it to the max. The image I have is him driving the band, whether he’s playing rhythm or lead. It was always about the band and about the show.
Joe Perry continued:
“I mean, man, if you saw that band when they were in their prime, you were spoiled. You probably expected that that’s how rock is. Well, no. They’re a cut above. They definitely were like Sly and the Family Stone, and two or three other bands had that thing. They knew how to take a whole arena and just tear it up.”
“Boston doesn’t have the roster that New York or LA does, but (the J. Geils Band) set the bar for rock ‘n’ roll as far as I was concerned. They could stand toe-to-toe with any band in the world. And they did. Jay was, to me, the anchor,” Joe Perry said.
Led by the guitarist John “J.” Geils, the J. Geils Band was active from 1967 to 1985, 1999, 2005 to 2006 and from 2009 to 2015. They released 11 studio albums and 3 live records.
Some of their biggest hits are “Centerfold”, “Freeze-Frame”, “Must of Got Lost”, “Love Stinks” and “Whammer Jammer”. The band’s founder John “J.” Geils died in 2017 at the age of 71 of natural causes. The group’s frotnman Peter Wolf (77) is still active and esporadically tours performing his solo career tracks combined with J. Geils Band’s hits.