Aerosmith’s Joe Perry Talks How The Band Went Unscathed In ‘Sgt. Pepper’

Aerosmith is just one of those bands that seems to always come back from the dead. No matter the issue, the Steven Tyler fronted band have been through break ups, massive fights, drug addiction, and always see it through for another album. Nothing can destroy Aerosmith, not even a disastrous movie like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

At the time, the film gathered popular acts such as the Bee Gees, Alice Cooper, Peter Frampton, and Earth, Wind & Fire for a failed experiment of Beatles covers within a disjoined film. According to critic Leonard Maltin, it was an “[a]ttempt to link songs from The Beatles’ classic album into some sort of storyline just doesn’t work; sequences range from tolerable to embarrassing. As to The Bee Gees’ acting talent, if you can’t say something nice…”

Aerosmith’s guitarist Joe Perry spoke about how lucky they were to walk away virtually unscathed from the film, even though the rest of the popular acts did not.

Perry spoke to Yahoo! Music ahead of Aerosmith’s concert about the poorly-received film and their role — or lack thereof — in the grand scheme of things.

“I think the critics kind of left us alone on that. We didn’t get slammed, so we got out of it clean.”

After a chuckle or two with Yahoo! Music, Perry continued to explain their tie into the film.

“It kind of exposed us to another part of the entertainment industry, and some of the fans — Peter Frampton fans — got to see us be Future Villains. So far as our career, I think we narrowly escaped it hurting us. Which is about the best I can say!”

Funny enough even though they were the band that walked away from the film, the band members weren’t keen on being in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the first place.

“When we first were presented with this movie, we were totally against it. We just thought that the whole thing was going to be hokey, and we were just not cut from that cloth.”

In the end, it was everything that was happening behind-the-scenes that made Aerosmith reconsider.

“We did it for an adventure, just to do it. They said, ‘Come on out, all expenses paid,’ throwing money around like crazy…It gave us a chance not only to cover one of our favorite Beatles songs, but to work with [legendary Beatles producer] George Martin. And that, of course, was the real hook for us.”

These days, the 1978 film is known as one of the crazy cult film of the times. As for Aerosmith, the guys are still truckin’ way into their 60s.

[Image via Yulia Grigoryeva / Shutterstock.com]]