{"id":147704,"date":"2025-08-15T11:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T11:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/147704\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T11:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T11:40:11","slug":"aerosmiths-joe-perry-brad-whitford-recall-being-blown-away-and-baffled-by-the-late-eddie-van-halens-guitar-talents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/147704\/","title":{"rendered":"Aerosmith\u2019s Joe Perry & Brad Whitford Recall Being Blown Away and Baffled by the Late Eddie Van Halen\u2019s Guitar Talents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aerosmith<\/a>\u2019s Joe Perry<\/a> and Brad Whitford<\/a> are no slouches when it comes to their guitar talents, but both of them admitted to being awestruck by the playing of the late Eddie Van Halen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perry and Whitford recently sat for a lengthy interview with respected YouTube rock pundit Rick Beato<\/a>, and during the conversation, Beato asked the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers what they thought of Eddie when they first heard him.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: Stone Temple Pilot Drummer Eric Kretz Drops Off The Joe Perry Project\u2019s 2025 Tour]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Whitford answered first, noting, \u201cWell, first of all, it was kind of annoying. \u2026 You didn\u2019t know what he was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad then commented, \u201cI mean, we knew a little bit about it,\u201d recalling that famed late guitar and pickup designer Bill Lawrence \u201cused to do the tapping when he\u2019d sit and play for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cBut, it was like, damn \u2026 [Eddie] was on this [other] stratosphere. Like \u2026 the equivalent of Jeff Beck. You know, somebody who was just kind of out of reach. I mean, the more and more I listen to his stuff, it just blows my mind, because it\u2019s so tasty. \u2026 There was nothing schlocky ever in it. And the power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitford went on to explain that he\u2019d recently read Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen\u2019s memoir, Brothers, and it gave him got an understanding about how Alex and Eddie honed their skills.<\/p>\n

\u201c[D]ay out, they would get up in the morning and go and play together till midday, every day,\u201d Brad pointed out. \u201cAnd \u2026 you listen to these records, and you hear the lock that those two guys had, and the power that that had. It was like, \u2018Whoa!\u2019 That\u2019s one of the most powerful bands I\u2019ve ever heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Perry\u2019s Opinion of Eddie Van Halen and His Band<\/p>\n

Perry then discussed what he appreciated about Eddie Van Halen and the band\u2019s self-titled debut album.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat first record, when I heard that, it was like they \u2026 used a lot of the old tricks that we all kind of like did it and left behind,\u201d Joe noted. \u201cAnd they took it and turned it up to 11, you know. And \u2026 that first album was f\u2014ing stunning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perry also shared an interesting recollection of watching Eddie playing live early in Van Halen\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when they were playing clubs that [Eddie] would turn around and do s\u2014 so people couldn\u2019t see what he was doing,\u201d Perry recalled. \u201cThough if people could see it, I don\u2019t think they could do it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perry and Whitford Are Currently Touring Together<\/p>\n

With Aerosmith announcing its retirement from touring in 2024 because of frontman Steven Tyler\u2019s vocal issues, Perry has just launched a North American summer trek with an updated version of his side group The Joe Perry Project. The band\u2019s current lineup features Whitford, Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson, Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo, and Aerosmith touring keyboardist Buck Johnson.<\/p>\n

Stone Temple Pilots drummer Eric Kretz also was supposed to be part of the group, but he had to drop off of the tour because of \u201ca family emergency.\u201d Jason Sutter, who played drums on some of The Joe Perry Project\u2019s previous treks, is filling in for Kretz.<\/p>\n

The tour kicked off on August 13 in Tampa, Florida, and continues tonight (August 14) in Hollywood, Florida. The band will wind down the 11-date trek by opening for The Who at a September 17 concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The Joe Perry Project also will support The Who on August 26 at Fenway Park in Boston. Visit JoePerry.com<\/a> to check out all of the group\u2019s scheduled concerts.<\/p>\n

(Photo by Jeff Kravitz\/FilmMagic; Photo by Paul Natkin\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aerosmith\u2019s Joe Perry and Brad Whitford are no slouches when it comes to their guitar talents, but both…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":147705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[87101,185,976,87102,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-147704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-aerosmith","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-classic-rock","11":"tag-eddie-van-halen","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115032596550898112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}