When the Joe Perry Project played the Viper Room in Los Angeles on October 6, Classic Rock was right there rubbing shoulders with the likes Slash and Nikki Sixx in a star-studded audience. All well and good. But what does the future hold for Aerosmith? Come inside for an exclusive report…

While Aerosmith’s career seems to be in a state of disarray with frontman Steven Tyler’s recent on-stage tumble leading to a cancellation of a series of dates, Joe Perry has turned disaster into opportunity by taking advantage of the downtime and recording a new solo album, Have Guitar, Will Travel.

Perry has also taken a new incarnation of the Joe Perry project on the road for a series of promotional dates.

Classic Rock managed to catch up with the JPP at the legendary and notorious Viper Room in Los Angeles where they played to a full house which included a host of Hollywood’s rock cognoscenti including Slash, Nikki Sixx, Tom Morello and Perry Farrell, who came to pay respect to ‘Mr Joe “Fucking” Perry’.

The show featured a well-received selection of new material, some classics and a few surprises including a reggae version of Aerosmith’s Dream On, which Perry has recorded along with The Beatles’ Revolution. Both songs will be featured on B-sides of future Japanese releases.

The gig was also an opportunity to unveil new singer Hagen Grohe, who was discovered by Perry’s wife Billie on You Tube. The website is fast replacing music paper want ads as a source of fresh new talent.

The band will undertake a short tour of the States in November. Prior to this Perry will rejoin Aerosmith to play a series of rescheduled dates, after which the future of the Toxic Twins seems unclear.

With rumours circulating about Tyler’s state of health and sobriety plus his desire to undertake some solo ventures, Perry seems quite happy to carry on working with the Project and has already made plans for a star-studded follow-up album.

Perry will talk about his future plans in more detail in a Classic Rock exclusive that will appear in the near future. Also look out for a full review of the Viper Room show and Perry’s new album in an upcoming edition of Classic Rock.