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A GlamMetal.com Exclusive!!!
Looking back on the Joe Perry Project
It was over twenty years ago that guitar superstar Joe Perry decided to rejoin Aerosmith after a bitter six year feud with vocalist Steven Tyler. But prior to teaming up again with the Bad Boys from Boston, Perry had a solo band (from 1979-1984) called the Joe Perry Project. And I believe that during that time, I was their biggest fan. The Joe Perry Project released three very solid, hard rocking albums, with each having a different band backing Perry. But the JPP record that I feel was there most noteworthy, was the band’s very last recording, the raw and rocking “Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker.” This album featured former Thundertrain vocalist and Boston native Cowboy Mach Bell. Mach was the ultimate frontman. Perry knew at the time that he needed someone with the rock n’ roll swagger. Someone who was energetic, talented and, most importantly, a kick-ass singer. Perry most certainly found that person in Mach. I often wonder what would of happened if Perry had never gone back to Aerosmith and kept the JPP alive with Mach. My guess is that they would of rocked big time for a long time. They were just getting started. Simply put, the JPP with Mach was a great and extremely underrated band. But this group never received the recognition that they deserved . So to commemorate the twenty one year anniversary of the end of the JPP version Cowboy Mach Bell, I caught up with Mach and asked him to give us some insight into his time as vocalist for the band. He was kind enough to write this exclusive report. Get ready because this is a good read and you wouldn’t see it anywhere else. -Thomas S. Orwat, Jr.
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I got drafted into the Joe Perry Project. I've heard that Joe went through a lengthy audition process before hiring singer Charlie Farren. But less than a year later both Charlie and bassman David Hull suddenly quit the Project . Joe Perry wasted no time. He was sinking into debt and was about to lose his mansion and everything in it. Soon he would be going through a messy divorce with his wife Elyssa. The Project was the last thing Perry had left to cling to. Joe's new manager, Tim Collins, and Tim's associate Earthquake Morton, both knew me from my five years fronting Thundertrain here in Boston. Earthquake called me. A couple days later I was in a Cambridge rehearsal room singing lead with the Project. On that same day Brad Whitford joined. I guess Brad had finally gotten fed up with the "no-Joe" version of Aerosmith. Brad maintained sort of an open door relationship with the JPP. He appeared, off and on, with us over the next two and a half years. We rehearsed for three weeks, we booked into a recording studio for three days, cut some demos and then we hit the road.
Touring with Joe Perry was the high point of my life. It was extra intense because Joe Perry was suddenly broke - just like me. We did most all of our traveling in a humble Dodge maxi-van, the band criss-crossed the USA and Canada together in that thing, blasting our AC/DC and Sex Pistols cassettes, trading road stories and plotting our nightly conquests. Perry himself usually kept pretty quiet. He was almost always wrecked. He was still a heavy user back then (pills, junk, coke, you name it) and he maintained himself with JD the rest of the time. Our driver was a pothead and the reefer smoke was so thick that just entering the van got you blasted.
I had been with Joe's Project for almost 2 years before we finally cut our MCA album . It had been hard on me (and on Joe's audiences) to not have any recorded stuff with my voice on it during all that touring. We could always play a few Aerosmith hits and some of the other songs off the first two JPP albums, but our new songs were unfamiliar to the crowds. We were all very anxious to get our new stuff out on the market. The label tried to pull the plug on us just as we were ready to begin recording. While Tim Collins battled with the hostile new regime at MCA we forged ahead and made the record on our own. Joe Perry produced it himself. Joe and I co-wrote most of the songs. A friend loaned the band a little cash and we cut it right here in Massachusetts. That is part of the reason that "Once A Rocker, Always a Rocker" sounds so odd, raw and underproduced compared to Joe's previous string of big budget, megaproduced Columbia albums.
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Touring got a lot much smoother once we had a record to promote and hear on the radio. We hit #1 at KOME in San Jose and MTV was starting to run our "Black Velvet Pants" music video.
With all the excitement I didn't realize that the Project's clock was ticking, Joe's cash problem had really gotten desperate. Perry considered forming a temporary band with Alice Cooper and doing a quickie tour to raise money. Alice and Joe met at Shep Gordon's home in Hollywood in late 1983 while I and the rest of the Project sat out in Shep's driveway in the Dodge. Not long after that meeting we started to hear rumors of an Aerosmith reunion. I dismissed it at first, but on February 22, 1984 Joe broke the news to me personally.
Getting the chance to sing, record and tour with the Joe Perry was indescribable. Much bigger and better than winning megamillions in a lottery. What are the odds of ever getting the opportunity to come out of nowhere and suddenly be touring and performing with a hall of famer, a rock legend? No amount of money can buy the kind of life I lived with the JPP. I got to perform in giant arenas as well as legendary clubs like the Bottom Line and the Hollywood Palace with Joe Perry wailing by my side every night. We played on bills with Cheap Trick, The Ramones, Stray Cats, Marshall Tucker Band, Nazareth, Huey Lewis and the News, David Johansen, Joan Jett, Clarence Clemons, Krokus, Kix, Steppenwolf, Point Blank, Savoy Brown, Blackfoot, The Alarm, Til Tuesday... the list goes forever.
The after parties with Joe Perry and his fans almost always ended up out of control and that is why many of my best stories must remain unpublished...
The JPP played it's final concert on May 12, 1984 in New Haven. Brad Whitford joined us on guitar and Joey Kramer stood in on the drums that night.
Speaking of parties, the last time I hung out with Joe Perry was at his 50th birthday a few years ago. The party was held at Joe's Mount Blue restaurant in Norwell Mass. The Joe Perry Project (final edition) were all in attendance, drummer Joe Pet and bassist Danny Hargrove joined me and the birthday boy to share memories and do some picture taking. Of course Steven Tyler had to push his ugly mug into our photos too...oh well...it's just another great memory and Cheap Trick even showed up to provide the party music.
How can I ever follow the experiences I got to enjoy with the Project? It ain't easy, but I still gotta rock!
Raw, hard, loud and crazy. Retiring is not an option. Two years ago I got back together with my pre-JPP band, Thundertrain. Our 1977 album "Teenage Suicide" was re-issued on cd in 2002 and did well. It even got written up in Rolling Stone. Then last year a live album called "Hell Tonite!" that was originally recorded in 1979 for a badass Thundertrain radio broadcast was released. Both cds are available now on Gulcher Records.
Today, after a string of successful Thundertrain reunion shows I have formed my own band. I call it Mach 5. Unlike the Thundertrain guys, who all live a thousand miles away from me, Mach 5 is a local Boston band. My new players have all made some serious rock history themselves and they all like to party hard - like I do. Mach 5 will start playing rock'n'roll shows up here in New England this month and I plan to cut a record with the band later this year. Stop by if you're in the area and join me at the bar for some more stories...
contact:
Cowboy Mach Bell, Thundertrain and Mach 5
http://thundertrain.com
Gulcher Records
http://www.gulcher.gemm.com
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