Secret foodie: Aerosmith's Joe Perry
Nightlife reporter Sam Sessa ended up with a food story recently without meaning to, or anyway a food snippet, and he kindly shared it with me rather than post it on Midnight Sun. Here's Sam. EL
A couple of weeks ago, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry -- buff chest, long locks and all -- stopped by Baltimore to promote his new solo album. ...
I hung out with Perry for a while on his tour bus, and, oddly enough, spent a lot of time talking about food. I had no idea he's been a foodie for more than 35 years, and has his own line of hot sauces. He also told me he's planning on launching his own brand of mac 'n' cheese in the near future, called Joe Perry's Rock 'n' Roni. Heh.
I wrote a piece about Perry that ran in Sunday's paper. As you can imagine, I didn't have much space to mention the foodie side of Perry. Here are the leftovers from our conversation.
Q: What makes a good hot sauce, Joe?
A: A good hot sauce should be versatile. Not too hot that it kills the flavor of everything else around it. It accentuates the flavor of the food as opposed to fighting it.
There's a whole culture of macho. It's like, "Try this, see if you can handle this." They use this pepper extract in the hot sauce. It's brutal. I tried it once or twice, but I won't go near that stuff. It just kills any other flavor around it. Anything within six feet you can forget about tasting.
Q: You've been in great shape for years now. Is it from working out or eating well, or both?
A: I stopped eating preservatives in about 1972. Road food has preservatives in it. Ever since I started buying my own food, I always look at the labels and make sure there are no preservatives. They're finding new ways to preserve foods that are healthier than others. That's a really good thing.
I stay away from the middle of big supermarkets, because that's where all the junk is. I go around the outside where the fresh fruit is. I stick to those areas. ... I don't know if that has anything to do with my present state of health. I've been working with good genes, I think.
(AP photo by Jeff Christensen)
Comments
Sam, that may be the worst pic of Perry, ever!
Posted by: Joyce W. | October 7, 2009 8:02 PM
Every rock pop millionaire should have their own line of sauces. Now get over it and start playing music. None of the chefs that i respect are trying to sell music. Not that i am a Aerosmith fan.
You're back! I thought you had given up on us. :-) EL
Posted by: billy butterbean | October 8, 2009 2:01 AM
I thought Aerosmith was out of commission for the duration. Note that Sam said "solo album."
Posted by: Dahlink | October 8, 2009 6:41 AM
Joyce W., I don't think there has ever been a good picture of any member of Aerosmith over the past 40 years or so of the band's existence as a hard-living rock band.
Posted by: hmpstd | October 8, 2009 7:51 AM
I liked the story, and I love Aerosmith.
Posted by: Pirate1001 | October 8, 2009 7:59 AM
Joyce, heh, you're right. It kinda looks like a bad school portrait from the '80s. It would have been so much more awesome if it had been a laser portrait: http://www.laserportraits.net/
Dahlink, Aerosmith is out of order for the time being. Stephen Tyler is recovering from his broken shoulder, and I think their drummer just wrote an autobiography. But I'm sure they'll be back in action soon enough. It's hard to keep a hard rockin' band down, after all.
Posted by: Sam Sessa | October 8, 2009 8:37 AM
I know Sam, those laser things are the latest and the greatest.
Aw c'mon hmpstd! They still look pretty good to me. Aside from the gender fail thing.
Posted by: Joyce W. | October 8, 2009 9:01 AM
He hasn't had a preservative since 1972?
Was all the heroin he did after that organic? Is their farmer's market coke I don't know about?
Posted by: Ted | October 8, 2009 9:34 AM
Ted wrote: "Was all the heroin he did after that organic? Is their farmer's market coke I don't know about?"
I say: Considering where the farmer's market is located in downtown Baltimore . . . its probably not a stretch.
Rock on wit'ya bad self!
Posted by: AVC | October 8, 2009 12:52 PM
that's not a bad photo, Joe has been super busy and probably burning the candle at both ends, in my book he looks pretty darn good...but he sounds even better. :D btw I heard his hot sauce is not bad. I think his wife Billie's healthy eating habits probably also play a key. Easy to get tired of junk food when there is so much good food out there. true what he said about shopping the outside aisles of the super market too. Since Joe is touring and doing a lot of interviews probably hard to get enough rest these days. Good luck to Joe, glad to see him touring. rock on!
Posted by: Lena | October 8, 2009 1:04 PM
duh, Ted, pharmaceutical! Yeah, he's got it like that!
keep on rockin' everybody!
Posted by: Joyce W. | October 8, 2009 7:37 PM