Joe Perry Project

The Joe Perry Project was a short-lived band during the early '80s led by Aerosmith's founding guitarist (and obtained the dubious feat of featuring a different singer for each of their three albums). After Perry grew disenchanted with the indulgent, drug-consuming, time-wasting monster that Aerosmith had become (despite the fact that they were still one of the biggest rock outfits in the U.S.), Perry jumped ship and rang up a trio of acquaintances from the Boston area: singer Ralph Mormon, bassist David Hull, and drummer Ronnie Stewart. The quartet got off to a good start with the back-to-basics debut Let the Music Do the Talking, but not long afterwards, the same vices that plagued Aerosmith began to rear their ugly heads once more in Perry's latest band. By the Project's sophomore release, 1981's I've Got the Rock 'n' Rolls Again, Mormon was replaced with Charlie Farren, which proved to not be up to par with the quartet's debut. But their weakest release was yet to come, 1984's unfocused Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker, which saw the entire band (save Perry) replaced: as singer Cowboy Mach Bell, bassist Danny Hargrove, and drummer Joe Pet signed on. Realizing that he was on a sinking ship, Perry made up with his former Aerosmith bandmates and rejoined them full-time later the same year. 1999 saw the release of a 20-track Joe Perry Project retrospective, The Music Still Does the Talking: The Best Of, which contained a rare instrumental version of Aerosmith's "Bone to Bone," previously available only as a B-side. Mormon eventually surfaced briefly as a frontman for Savoy Brown (appearing on a pair of 1981 releases, Greatest Hits Live in Concert and Rock 'N' Roll Warriors), while Farren formed the group Farrenheit, and later issued a solo debut in 1999 (Deja Blue, the Color of Love). ~ Greg Prato, Rovi