RossHalfin.com
November 12, 2008

“Flew to Chicago on the red eye, as it’s called, arrived at 5am, then straight on to Boston. Felt okay considering I only slept a couple of hours. Met at the airport by John Bionelli and Kazuyo, who’d flown in yesterday from London to ogle John. Drove out to Joe Perry’s house where I’m doing a photo shoot. It was a sunny autumn day, yellow, brown and red leaves on the trees and freezing cold.

I had a shower in Joe’s gym to wake up and John arranged for Donnie Shiteman to come over and towel me dry – one of the many things Donnie is an expert at and John always looks after his friends…

The last time I’d seen Joe was on a flight back from Russia, so both of us are a bit rusty getting going. Started out shooting him on his horse, Trigger (what else), a big black horse like the Death Dealer in the Frank Franzetta painting. Trigger was extremely flatulent – I asked Joe if it was him or the horse. I next got Joe with a Lotus Super 7. Now I know nothing about cars, but what I did know was it was freeeeeeeeeezing. My head was thumping and I had to force myself to focus on what I was doing. By this time, there was quite crowd watching me work – McGee, Jim Survis, Donnie Shiteman, now dressed as the Lone Ranger, hoping Joe was going to let him ride his horse.”

“Kazuyo did a group shot of all of us with John posing with Joe guitar playing I’ve Got The Rock And Rolls Again while McGee hummed along. We retired to the warmth of the Boneyard Studio to shoot Joe with guitars. Got him to dig out his Telecaster from The Joe Perry Project, his Strat from the 70s, used on Sweet Emotion, a Les Paul Jr which he used a lot in the 70s and on The Joe Perry Project. It’s been painted black with intricate inlays on the headstock that now say Joe Perry, he told me he broke the neck in temper at a Aerosmith show and has never taken it out of the house since.

Finish off the shoot with his motorbikes while Rock’n'roll John Bionelli played most of the Kiss catalog on Joe’s Tele. Left Joe in the studio working on the new Aerosmith album (I think…).

John drove Kaz and I back to Boston airport. We left him in tears. ‘Why don’t you stay for a few days? I always end up having to be nice to Russ Irwin and he’s the most boring man I know and he never pays for dinner.’ Tears were rolling down his cheeks… We both felt sad as we left our friend at check in. John was now singing I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing.

Off to Washington and then back to London. It was heart warming to see my Aero chums again. Back In The Saddle Again – maybe… ”