Aerosmith's Joe Perry is still my hero
So I'm hanging with Joe Perry, lead guitarist for Aerosmith. (Wow, I've never had more fun writing a lead sentence in my life.) We're lounging on his tour bus, a rock-nirvana-on-wheels idling almighty outside a St. Pete radio station. The 59-year-old has been driving around the country, chatting up critics about his new solo album, Have Guitar, Will Travel, out Oct. 6. A few weeks ago, his PR rep asked if I wanted to "informally hang" with Joe. I informally answered, "Are you (bleepin') kidding me?" • The man who has ripped solos on Walk This Way, Love in an Elevator and all those classics ingrained in our DNA is long and thin, with a skunk stripe of white blazing through the middle of his black mane. He has myriad necklaces hanging from his tan, leathered neck; his black belt should be sporting six-shooters. The interior of the bus is all high-roller suite; the color schemes are leopard-print and badass. Joe Perry rolls down the blinds. • "Can I get you a drink?" he asks. In my mind: Askforbourbonaskforbourbon. Instead: "I'd love a water." Gutless. • I was told I'd have 30 minutes; Joe gives me 90. Here are excerpts from our chat, complete with notebook scribblings as I tried to look smooth sitting knee-to-knee with rock royalty:

On the vibe of his new album, especially the great blues track Slingshot:

I wanted the feel of driving into Las Vegas at 6 in the morning with the top down after being up for three straight days. I've had nights like those.

As I sip my water, Joe is cradling what looks to be a very expensive brown bottle. I casually try and scope out the label. Finally, across the bottom: ROOT BEER.

On the fate of Aerosmith after singer Steven Tyler fell off the stage during an August show, causing the band to scrap a summer tour, including a Tampa date:

There are plenty of tweets, Twitters, blogs saying the band broke up and that's bulls---. It's just not true. People can be so bitter and cruel. Just because you're anonymous doesn't mean you can lose your manners or your etiquette. . . . Aerosmith is not broken up. We're going to take a good healthy sabbatical.

(Perry was born in Lawrence, Mass., and there are still hearty remnants of a Boston accent. Case in point: He loves Ray "Chahhhles.")

On the whispers that Tyler is addicted to painkillers, brought on by the stage fall:

As far as I know, he was doing what his doctor said. The hardest thing for him to do is try and sit still. That guy is permanently on.

(Apparently falling off the stage is a common occurrence in Aerosmith lore. Perry said he himself plunged from a stage 25 years ago. "What goes up must come down," he says.)

On the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, the thrill ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios:

Steven and I rode it 49 times the first day, to check all the music. The ride was already built when we saw it; that's their thing. But the music they left up to us.

Joe is all about the kids. The art for 2008's Guitar Hero: Aerosmith video game adorns the outside of his tour bus. "I'm not a gamer," he says. "But I have 6- and 7-year-olds coming up to me talking about Aerosmith songs I had forgotten about."