Happy birthday to guitar slinger Joe Perry of Aerosmith, the Joe Perry Project and the Hollywood Vampires, born Anthony Joseph Pereira on this day in 1950 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Known as 'The Admiral', Perry aspired to be a marine biologist, a dream that faded when he struggled as a student. Enrolling him at a boarding school in Vermont in hopes his academic abilities would improve did not improve his grades. It would be many years before Perry came to recognize that his scholastic and disciplinary issues in high school were caused by ADHD.
Attending a school that included students from bigger cities that the small village his family lived in gave him the chance to gain a much broader appreciation of what was happening musically in America. He'd been playing guitar since age 10, but the bands and artists classmates turned him on to got Perry to dedicated himself to getting much better. He spent countless hours riffing to albums by the Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix, the Who and others.
His first band experience was with Tom Hamilton in a group named The Jam Band that eventually also attracted Steven Tyler, Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford and they switched the group name to Aerosmith and started making Classic Rock history.
Other Noteworthy Classic Rock events on September 10 include...
1942 Three Dog Night's Danny Hutton born.
1944 Mothers of Invention percussionist Art Tripp born.
1946 Slade drummer Don Powell born.
1949 Jethro Tull drummer Barrie Barlow born
1955 King Crimson, XTC, Mr, Mister drummer Pat Mastelotto born.
1966 Rolling Stones play on The Ed Sullivan Show.
1974 New York Dolls break-up.
1975 KISS release KISS Alive.
1976 Bob Dylan releases Hard Rain.
1980 Peter Comita takes over on bass for Tom Petersson in Cheap Trick.
1991 Dire Straits release On Every Street.
1991 Eddie Money releases Right Here.
1996 John Mellencamp releases Mr. Happy Go Lucky.
1996 Rush releases Test For Echo.
1996 R.E.M. releases New Adventures In Hi-Fi.
2004 Jimmy Buffett plays Fenway Park in Boston.
2004 Carlos Santana donates more than 200 instruments for Andre Agassi's Academy in Las Vegas.
