In a recent interview with Guitar World, Joe Perry opened up about one of the most personal chapters of his career: selling his 1959 Gibson Les Paul and the long road to getting it back.
Across decades with Aerosmith, Perry built a serious guitar collection. He’s owned everything from coveted ’59 bursts to a Gibson B.B. King Lucille Custom featuring his wife Billie’s face, the Guild X-100 Blade Runner tied to the “Walk This Way” video, and even a few instruments he built himself.
But the centerpiece has always been his 1959 Les Paul — the guitar he leaned on throughout the ’70s before it eventually landed with Slash.
The 1959 Les Paul guitar became his main weapon during Aerosmith’s peak years. Then 1979 hit. Internal tensions boiled over while the band was working on Night In The Ruts, and Perry exited the group.
Money was tight. “I needed money for Christmas,” says Perry. “And I remember selling it for $4,500.”
Parting with the band meant parting with the Les Paul that defined much of that era. When Aerosmith reunited in 1984 and signed a stronger deal with Geffen Records, Perry decided it was time to track the guitar down.
By then, late-’50s Gibsons were climbing fast in value, “I started making calls and talking to some of my techs, and it seemed like every six months, the dollar signs in front of those ’59s were going up. But I really wanted to try and get back some of the guitars I’d had, and I remember calling everybody.”
And the break came from inside his own band. Fellow Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford had a lead: “[Brad] said, ‘I know where it is.’” remembers Perry. “I said, ‘Really? Where?’ He opened up Guitar Player, I think, and there was a spread of Slash’s guitar collection, and right in the middle of it was my ’59 Les Paul – right there in the magazine.”
Through time, we became friends, remembers Perry: “We’d gotten to be friends, and when I asked him, he went, ‘Oh, man… don’t ask me that.’ I said, ‘I’ll buy it back and pay whatever you want.’ But he said, ‘Don’t ask me, please!’
“It got to the point where he wouldn’t take my calls because he knew I was gonna ask him,” Perry admits. “He hated saying no, and I realized I was potentially losing a friend over this thing. I finally said, ‘Listen, I’m not gonna ask you again. It’s not even an issue. It’s your guitar. This is fucking up our friendship, so no more.’”
Years passed. As Perry approached 50, a major birthday party was planned. He invited Cheap Trick to play, with plans to join them onstage. The party took place at a restaurant he and Steven Tyler owned in South Boston and just before he stepped onstage, his tech handed him something unexpected.
“When we were getting ready to go up and do the set … I got up on stage, and my guitar tech goes, ‘Slash wanted me to give you this,’ and it was the ’59. It was dead silent in the room. I was just blown away. But that was it – I got it back.”
After years of chasing it — and nearly straining a friendship in the process — Joe Perry had his ’59 Les Paul back in his hands. For a player whose sound helped define American hard rock, that guitar wasn’t just another collectible. It was part of the story.
