Rocks: My Life in and Out of Aerosmith

Aerosmith's lead guitarist Joe Perry opens up for the first time to tell the riveting inside story of his lifeinside the band, featuring everyone from Jimmy Page to Alice Cooper, Bette Midler to Chuck Berry, John Belushi to Al Hirschfeld. Before the platinum records or the Super Bowl half-time show or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Joe Perry was a boy growing up in small town Massachusetts. But the guitar became his passion, an object of lust, an outlet for his restlessness and his rebellious soul. That passion quickly blossomed into an obsession, and he got a band together. One night after a performance he met a brash young musician named Steven Tyler; before long, Aerosmith was born. What happened over the next forty-five years has become the stuff of legend: the knock-down, drag-out, band splintering fights; the drugs, the booze, the rehab; the packed arenas and timeless hits; the reconciliations and the comebacks. Full of humour, insight and brutal honesty about life in and out of one of the biggest bands in modern history, Rocks is also the story of a dedicated family man in a thirty-year marriage who has navigated the pressures of an extreme lifestyle. In Perry's own words, it tells the whole story.

Joe Perry is the cofounder of Aerosmith. He is the band's leading guitarist and, along with Steven Tyler, its main songwriter. David Ritz is the only four-time winner of the Gleason Music Book Award.