<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Remember Rodney Dangerfield\u2019s most famous catch phrase?\u00a0 Rodney built entire routines around the phrase, \u201cI don\u2019t get no respect.\u201d\u00a0 Catching up with guitarist Brad Whitford on the eve of Aerosmith\u2019s \u2018Peace Out\u2019 world tour, the phrase kept popping into my head.\u00a0 I am not saying Whitford is disrespected by his bandmates.\u00a0 No, the negative waves seem to come from the scribes and wags who focused on all the other stuff that was going on in the world of Aerosmith.\u00a0 Bassist Tom Hamilton\u2019s bout with cancer.\u00a0 Drummer Joey Kramer\u2019s penchant for rubbing people the wrong way and quitting over some slight or another.\u00a0 Singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry honed their act as the \u2018Toxic Twins\u2019 and flirted with killing the band or possibly themselves.\u00a0 Through it all, it was Whitford who kept his head above water and accepted the misperception that he was \u2018just Aerosmith\u2019s rhythm guitar player\u2019 – the other guitar player playing second fiddle to Joe Perry.\u00a0 It turns out that nothing could have been further from the truth.\u00a0 Yes, in many ways, Brad Whitford is the rock \u2018n\u2019 roll Rodney Dangerfield.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Brad Whitford wasn\u2019t an original member of Aerosmith.\u00a0 He first heard of them through friends from New Hampshire who knew about Perry, Tyler, and Hamilton from their earliest days gigging there.\u00a0 Whitford played a show with his band in New Hampshire where he first met Joe Perry in 1971.\u00a0 \u201c[Aerosmith] watched us play, and we talked for quite a bit afterward.\u00a0 It was really friendly – just a bunch of young guys talking about gear and all that,\u201d is how Brad recalls it now.\u00a0 As he explained in a December 2023 issue of <\/span>Guitar World<\/span><\/i>, \u201cAbout two weeks after I\u2019d met them, I got a call from Joe, and we hung out a bit and got to know each other better.\u00a0 Shortly after, he mentioned something about me maybe joining Aersosmith, and I told him I wasn\u2019t interested.\u201d\u00a0 After catching an Aerosmith show, he changed his mind.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Joining Aerosmith proved to be a less than smooth operation.\u00a0 The guitarist he replaced, Raymond Tabano, was a good friend of both Tyler and drummer Joey Kramer.\u00a0 Being invited into the band by Perry was, according to Whitford, \u201cThe beginning of the amazing drama and tense moments in and around Aerosmith, for me, it was there from the moment I joined, and remains to this very day.\u201d \u00a0 Trabano\u2019s status as an \u2018old mate\u2019 couldn\u2019t negate his skills or penchant for rolling up on his motorcycle just before show time.\u00a0 Trabano didn\u2019t disappear from the Aerosmith universe completely.\u00a0 He spent time designing their merchandise and editing their fan letter.\u00a0 New management fired Trabano from the corporation in 1979 and he eventually ended up running a catering business.\u00a0 He has also surfaced on a couple of unscripted reality shows selling Aerosmith merch like signed tee-shirts and their original touring van.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fortunately for the band, Whitford was a better player and a more reliable cog in the machine. The issue of Trabano\u2019s exit would fade over time.\u00a0 In his own opinion, Brad feels his addition to the line up \u2018took the band up a couple of notches\u2019.\u00a0 Whitford\u2019s musical background and prowess, however, were sometimes lost by many who could not see past the glare and glitter of the Toxic Twins.\u00a0 History will record that the evolution and eventual resurrection of Aerosmith (of which Whitford says is almost \u2018a miracle\u2019) would have been a different story without his involvement.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bradley Ernest Whitford was born in Winchester, Massachusetts on February 23, 1952.\u00a0 After his graduation from high school, he attended the Berklee College of Music and performed in local bands until he joined Aerosmith in 1971.\u00a0 He and co-guitarist Joe Perry made a formidable team and perhaps it was their different approaches that made it work.\u00a0 Whitford was a schooled musician and he describes how the chemistry with Perry works:\u00a0 \u201cJoe has such an elite sense of timing, rhythm and note choices.\u00a0 I don\u2019t do that,\u00a0 I\u2019m more Berklee-inspired.\u00a0 I\u2019m always thinking about intervals, scales, chords, and now they\u2019re supposed to fit together.\u00a0 Joe is very different;\u00a0 he\u2019s not schooled.\u00a0 So sometimes it doesn\u2019t work for him and sometimes he\u2019ll try playing over something, and he doesn\u2019t realize it\u2019s not pentatonic, but he does find notes.\u00a0 While he doesn\u2019t always know how or why it\u2019s working, he doesn\u2019t really care because it does work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At one time, it did get under Whitford\u2019s skin when Perry got all the accolades and he was filed in the box labeled \u2018rhythm guitar player in Aerosmith\u2019.\u00a0 He told <\/span>Guitar World<\/span><\/i>, \u201cAfter <\/span>Rocks<\/span><\/i> came out, Aerosmith was touring England, and I was sitting in a bar in London reading a review of the album in <\/span>Melody Maker.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>When they went to talking about <\/span>Last Child<\/span><\/i>, they started talking about how it sounded like Jeff Beck, which was very flattering,\u00a0 But then I kept reading, and they gave Joe credit for the guitar solo and kept comparing it to Jeff\u00a0 Beck.\u00a0 I read that, and I (expletive deleted) went nuclear,\u00a0 I was just so pissed off.\u00a0 It\u2019s like, here I am having my (expletive deleted) work being compared to Jeff Beck, and they\u2019re crediting Joe Perry.\u00a0 It was BS, and I was so upset.\u201d\u00a0 Like we said before, it is the Rodney \u2018I don\u2019t get no respect\u2019 Dangerfield thing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Eventually, Whitford stopped worrying about slights like this because, \u201cPeople who actually listen – and know what they\u2019re talking about – can tell the difference.\u201d\u00a0 He never laid any of this baggage on Perry.\u00a0 During his split from Aerosmith (more on that in a bit) and just before they came back together, he toured with the Joe Perry Project.\u00a0 Even with the new tour about to take off, he told <\/span>GW, <\/span><\/i>\u201cAfter this call, I\u2019m going to be standing next to Joe Perry pounding our songs all afternoon, and I\u2019ll be as happy as a clam.\u00a0 That\u2019s what still makes all this worth it.\u201d\u00a0 Perry himself gives credit where credit is due:\u00a0 \u201cIt has always rubbed me the wrong way when people put Brad down and refer to me as the lead guitarist\u2026Some of the best solos in our catalog\u00a0 are ones Brad did.\u00a0 It is time to stop calling him \u2018a rhythm guitarist.\u00a0 We\u2019re both guitarists in the band and Brad is a wicked soloist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first album the group recorded (1973\u2019s <\/span>Aerosmith<\/span><\/i>) was done with equipment Whitford describes as, \u201cthings out of Dr. Frankenstein\u2019s laboratory with knobs the size of small clocks, and all sorts of gear that seemed like it came out of the 1940s.\u201d \u00a0 They would run through arrangements and when ready, the red light \u2018recording\u2019 light would come on\u00a0 and the producer would yell, \u201cOkay, we\u2019re ready to go.\u201d\u00a0 According to Brad, the end result was, \u201cWe became stiff as boards [for fear of goofing up and ruining the take].\u00a0 But we got around that, had fun, and did what we could with the limited opportunity for overdubs that we had.\u00a0 We had to be very creative because it was unlike today, where you have limitless ways to fix things.\u00a0 Back then you had to wait for the tape to rewind.\u00a0 But the end result was just magic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Perry and Whitford got into the groove of trading off rhythm and lead duties.\u00a0 One would bounce something off the other and the places where they traded places evolved naturally.\u00a0 They were still learning to be a guitar duo when they began recording their second release, <\/span>Get Your Wings.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>They had already recorded the basic tracks at New York\u2019s famed Record Plant when their producer, Jack Douglas, struck up a conversation with the brains behind Alice Cooper\u2019s first solo hits, Bob Ezrin.\u00a0 It was Ezrin who had hooked Cooper up with guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner which kicked Alice\u2019s records into the stratosphere.\u00a0 The two decided they could do the same thing for Aerosmith by having Hunter and Wagner come in and cover some of the solos on <\/span>Get Your Wings.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Naturally, Whitford and Perry were disappointed (\u201cThe idea went over like a lead balloon,\u201d according to Whitford), the truth probably hurt more:\u00a0 they just weren\u2019t getting things down on tape that did some of the songs justice.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whitford told <\/span>Guitar World,<\/span><\/i> \u201cThe thing was, we had done some good stuff and could play good stuff, but the tracks required some real finesse, you know?\u00a0 But, I mean\u2026listen to <\/span>Train Kept A-Rollin <\/span><\/i>today, those are some genius rock leads.\u00a0 That was some great stuff and probably some of the stuff [Hunter and Wagner] were most proud of out of anything they\u2019d done.\u00a0 That solo is blistering.\u201d\u00a0 Brad was fortunate to be a fly on the wall when Steve came in to cut the <\/span>Train<\/span><\/i> solo:\u00a0 \u201cHe came in with a little Fender tweed, with a \u201857 Les Paul Junior with a P90.\u00a0 He set the amp down, grabbed the guitar, they started rolling tape and Steve did several passes,\u00a0 The Steve says, \u2018Ikay, I think I\u2019ve got it now,\u2019 and then he did his final pass, which was just mind blowing.\u00a0 I listen back to it even today, and it\u2019s still a lesson on guitar.\u201d\u00a0 The finesse Hunter and Wagner added to the record sold a lot of disks, but people tend to forget it was Whitford and Perry who had to go on stage and reproduce those sounds every night on tour.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whitford gives Steve Hunter credit for nuances in his playing to this day and points out Wagner\u2019s style was closer to that of Perry\u2019s.\u00a0 The experience worked out well for them and the lessons were carried into their next sessions that would produce their mega selling <\/span>Toys in the Attic <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Rocks <\/span><\/i>albums.\u00a0 As good as these albums were, they were overshadowed by the twin demons that bring down so many rock bands.\u00a0 They wasted a lot of time \u2018when the bucks and the drugs began to flow\u2019 and Tyler lost his edge.\u00a0 Tensions grew and the seeds of their destruction were being sown.\u00a0 In the late 1970s, Perry had enough and jumped ship.\u00a0 Whitford hung around to work with a couple of replacement guitarists but finally, he too took his leave in the early 1980s.\u00a0 There were sessions where Tyler would be carried into the control room, placed on the couch to come down, and make the rest of the band wait until he could contribute. The quality of Aerosmith\u2019s recorded output diminished and most wrote them off as successful failures.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0During his last sessions with the band during their first era, Whitford had begun collaborating with former Ted Nugent sideman Derek St. Holmes.\u00a0 He was having such a good time recording their first album together, he decided to not return to New York to work on the new Aerosmith album.\u00a0 He made it all the way to Logan Airport in Boston before he called Aerosmith\u2019s manager David Krebs and said, \u201cI\u2019m done.\u00a0 I can\u2019t do this.\u00a0 You won\u2019t be seeing me in New York.\u00a0 I hung up the phone, and that was it.\u00a0 It felt like I could breathe again.\u00a0 All this weight had been lifted from my shoulders and I honestly didn\u2019t care.\u201d\u00a0 The collaboration he did with St. Holmes was a solid record, but they wouldn\u2019t get together to do another one until 2016 (<\/span>Reunion<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 Part of the reason?\u00a0 Working with the Joe Perry Project which ultimately led them both back into Aerosmith, Part 2 which commenced in 1984.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When <\/span>Guitar World<\/span><\/i> asked Whitford \u2018What led to the classic Aerosmith line up getting back together in \u201884?\u2019, he replied:\u00a0 \u201cThe whole time I was doing the Whitford\/St.Holmes thing, and then when I started playing with Joe again, I\u2019d be in the studio with other Leeber\/Krebs clients.\u00a0 They would say,\u2019When are you going to get back together with Aerosmith?\u2019\u00a0 And I always had the same story:\u00a0 \u2018I\u2019ll tell you what – it comes down to Steven Tyler and Joe Perry.\u00a0 If they can find some way to bury their hatchets, I would follow them.\u2019\u00a0 But I honestly thought it would never happen.\u201d\u00a0 Never say \u2018never\u2019 Brad.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Not only did the reunion happen, the band thrived and was introduced to a whole new generation of fans.\u00a0 Both the old and new generation fans have supported the band and as Whitford repeated over and over again, the 50th year tour will be special for everyone:\u00a0 \u201cSome shows are great, and you search for ways to do it again, but that is the beauty of this.\u00a0 You never know when you\u2019re going to have one of those supernatural shows – it comes down to the band and the audience.\u201d\u00a0 Rock on, Brad, I am betting there will be more of these moments in the Peace Out farewell tour.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Whiteford \/ St. Holmes performing AT DARYL’S HOUSE in 2016 . . . I can see why Brad liked to play with Derek!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Remember Rodney Dangerfield\u2019s most famous catch phrase?\u00a0 Rodney built entire routines around the phrase, \u201cI don\u2019t get no respect.\u201d\u00a0 Catching up with guitarist Brad Whitford on the eve of Aerosmith\u2019s \u2018Peace Out\u2019 world tour, the phrase kept popping into my head.\u00a0 I am not saying Whitford is disrespected by his bandmates.\u00a0 No, the negative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3035"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3038,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions\/3038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}