JOE PERRY's 'Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith' Now on NY Times Bestseller List

By: Caryn Robbins Oct. 29, 2014

Since its October 7 release, JOE PERRY's ROCKS: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith (Simon & Schuster) has spent its initial two weeks on the prestigious NEW YORK TIMES bestseller list. ROCKS entered the charts at #8 and remained in the Top Ten (#10) in week two. In the book, PERRY shares--with total candor and without apology--what life is like as the lead guitarist and co-head writer of Aerosmith.

Perry has been in high demand, completing a cross-country book tour with multiple nights in New York, his Boston hometown (three in-stores), Chicago, San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and a stop at The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland. He has been equally busy with top-tier broadcast appearances on The Tonight Show with J immy Fallon, Conan, CBS This Morning, Fox & Friends, Tavis Smiley, and Larry King alongside popular national radio including Howard Stern and Imus In The Morning.

Beginning with a foreword by Johnny Depp ROCKS is both a study in brotherhood and solitude. Throughout the book, Perry reflects on the people who stood beside him during the highs and lows as he and Aerosmith skyrocketed into a world of fame and utter excess. Before he was one half of the "Toxic Twins," Perry was a science-obsessed kid who dreamed of becoming a marine biologist. His loving, supportive parents encouraged his curiosity and sent him to Vermont Academy where his love for rock and roll grew, along with his obsession for the guitar. Within weeks of graduating from Vermont Academy, Perry dropped out for refusing to cut his hair. By 1970, Perry and Tom Hamilton had been playing together for two years when they decided to move to Boston, rent an apartment and fill it with a band that we know today as Aerosmith. Aerosmith--featuring Steven Tyler, Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford alongside Perry and Hamilton--signed with Columbia Records in 1972.

In Perry's own words, ROCKS tells the whole story--"the loner's story, the band's story, the recovery story, the cult story, the love story, the success story, the failure story, the rebirth story, the re-destruction story, and the post-destructive rebirth story"--of what came to pass over the next five decades and details the perks and perils that go hand-in-hand with an extreme rock and roll lifestyle. With over 100 photographs showing Perry's life on- and off-stage, "[ROCKS] will strike gold with every Aerosmith fan" (Publishers Weekly).

About the Authors
Joe Perry is the cofounder of Aerosmith. He is the band's leading guitarist and, along with Steven Tyler, its main songwriter.

David Ritz has been called "the first call celebrity collaborator" by The New York Times. He has written books with everyone from Ray Charles to Janet Jackson.