While many have called Greta Van Fleet the saviors of rock, Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford named Rival Songs, Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown, and Blackberry Smoke as the bands keeping the ‘spirit’ of rock alive in 2019 in a new joint interview with Joe Perry in Guitar Player. Steven Tyler recently uploaded a video of himself appearing to annoy Joe Perry in his Aerosmith dressing room.
Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant told Channel Ten last year that he heard that Greta Van Fleet singer Josh Kiszka said he took his style from Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.
“There’s a band in Detroit called Greta Van Fleet, they are Led Zeppelin I. Beautiful little singer, I hate him!”
“He borrowed [his voice] from somebody I know very well, but what are you going to do? At least he’s got a bit of style, because he’s said he based his whole style on Aerosmith *rolls eyes*.”
Perry said, “Rock definitely has its place alongside pop and dance and hip-hop and country and all of that. And to me, there’s this feeling of a resurgence, or at least of finding its level again. One thing we’re seeing is there are a lot of younger kids who want to see the real thing — the guys that played the music that they grew up listening to. And there are also a lot of talented younger bands that are coming up with good stuff. Whether they can take it to the next level, that remains to be seen. But I don’t think there will ever be another earth-shaking event like the Beatles. I mean, there could be, but I don’t know.”
Whitford added, “This genre that we’re a part of, it seems like it’s pretty much been overfished. Like, how many great riffs are left? What can you do that sounds new or different? But then there’s a lot of young guys waving the rock flag, and they’re doing a great job at it. I like Rival Sons. They’re not new anymore, but they’re still new-ish. And I like Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown, Blackberry Smoke…guys like that. I feel like they’re doing it the way we did it, and with the same kind of spirit. So I hear a lot of stuff that’s really encouraging.”
Perry said, “The way I see it, it might not be like the days when rock really ruled the roost, but, you know, if 20 percent of the people love rock and roll, 20 percent of the people now might mean 20 times as many people as it did 50 years ago, because there’s just that many more people in the world. And hell, half the good rock and roll I hear these days is in TV commercials! So it’s amazing to me how much the music has become part of the mainstream.”
Joe Perry recently played with Hollywood Vampires, his supergroup with Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp, in Indio, CA. California Rocker wrote in a review:
The place was packed and anticipation was running high, the lights dimmed and “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” began playing over the house PA. The band slides out on stage one by one to a thunderous round of applause. Suddenly the lights explode and there is Alice center stage with his fellow vampires kicking into the first song off the new album called “I Want My Now”.
This is a serious rock and roll number and a good one to get things started. Right away you realize these guys are serious and even being well seasoned rock stars, you could see they were out to have some fun. Not only was it brave to open with a song 90% of the audience hasn’t heard yet, they followed with the first two opening tracks from their debut album “Hollywood Vampires.”
We reported yesterday on an emotional story Steven Tyler told Howard Stern.
