Aerosmith’s Co-Founding Member & Lead Guitarist Joe Perry to Receive Les Paul Award
As part of its 32nd Annual NAMM Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards (NAMM TEC Awards), The NAMM Foundation has announced that rocker Joe Perry will receive the prestigious Les Paul Award. The annual award is given on behalf of the Les Paul Foundation and honors individuals that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of recording technology in the spirit of the famed audio pioneer, inventor and musician, Les Paul. The award will be presented at a January 21st ceremony being held in Anaheim, CA as part of The 2017 NAMM Show. Perry, who was included in Rolling Stone’s list of “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time,” is also scheduled to perform live before an audience of pro audio and sound production inventors, musicians and industry friends.
“Anytime my name is mentioned in the same sentence as Les Paul, it’s a huge honor,” says Perry. “Getting an award bearing his name is the icing on the cake.”
A long-standing co-founding member of a group whose music repertoire spans four decades, Perry’s versatile musicianship and influence has helped pave the way for a long list of accolades that reach beyond the band’s more than 150 million albums sold. In the role of principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and as producer for multiple tracks featured on several notable Aerosmith albums, Perry’s talent has helped contribute to the super group’s four Grammy® Awards, (one of which includes Perry’s guitar-based instrumental “Boogie Man”); six Billboard Music Awards; twelve MTV Video Awards; and two People’s Choice Awards, to name a few.
“Joe Perry was a friend of Les Paul’s and is undoubtedly one of the most innovative and talented musicians of our time,” says Michael K. Braunstein, Executive Director, Les Paul Foundation. “His ability to push boundaries of the electric guitar with his signature sound and deft playing ability embodies the true spirit of what Les Paul and the award given in his name stands for. The Les Paul Award has been presented at the NAMM TEC Awards to remarkably-distinguished and accomplished individuals from the music industry, including such luminaries as Sir Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townsend, Slash and last year’s recipient, Don Was. The Les Paul Foundation could not be more thrilled to be adding Joe Perry to this amazing list.”
Hollywood also became a part of Perry’s musical resume when his familiar riffs were heard on the band’s hit song “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” (from the soundtrack to “Armageddon”), which received an Oscar® nomination for Best Song. Among many other TV and film projects, Perry also composed the theme song for the “Spiderman” animated TV series and provided the instrumental music for “This Thing of Ours,” starring James Caan.
Along with Perry, famed Aerosmith engineer and producer Jack Douglas, will be inducted into the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame, which was created nearly thirty years ago to honor pioneers of audio technology, as well as the music industry’s most accomplished producers and audio technicians. Douglas is associated with many of the band’s most iconic releases and affectionately dubbed “the sixth member” of Aerosmith for having contributed lyrics to several tracks released from the band. He also engineered and produced many multi-platinum Aerosmith albums including Toys in the Attic and Rocks, both of which ranked among Rolling Stone’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” Douglas rose to prominence when the Record Plant Studio opened its doors and eventually engineered John Lennon’s Imagine and the Who’s Who’s Next EP.
