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Post by AeroCooper on Oct 13, 2014 18:28:57 GMT -5
Joe Perry visits Arlington Hts. guitar shop Lexi Wachal of Arlington Heights gets her picture taken with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, who signed copies of his new book Monday at Guitar Center in Arlington Heights. Bob Chwedyk | Staff Photographer Rock fans from near and far visited Guitar Center in Arlington Heights on Monday afternoon to meet legendary Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. Pouring rain and a line wrapped around the store couldn't keep more than 200 fans away as they waited to meet the rocker and have him sign copies of his new book, "Rocks: My Life In And Out of Aerosmith." "I've been following Aerosmith since I was 12," said Tony Delmenico of Roselle, who saw his first Aerosmith concert in 1998. "Joe Perry is the reason I started playing guitar." Getting to meet his idol made standing in the rain for 40 minutes worth it, Delmenico said. Jim Brown and his 19-year-old daughter, Genevieve, made the drive from Elgin to meet Perry. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing," Jim said. "And he was a real nice guy." Jim said they made the trip at his daughter's urging, though he was the original rock fan in the household. "She just kept saying 'Dad, we gotta go, we gotta go,'" he said. "I guess I rubbed off on her." "I was so excited, I didn't even say anything to (Perry)," Genevieve said. Perry and Aerosmith's music has crossed generations, said many fans who stood in line with their children or planned to give the autographed book to a younger relative. "He's from my generation. I've been a fan since the 1970s," said Sue Champley of Schaumburg, who planned to give the book to her 18-year-old nephew. "They are ageless." And a little bit of rain wasn't going to keep fans away. "I had an umbrella so it was worth it," said Liz Small of Arlington Heights. Small brought her 9-year-old son, Cole, who has seen Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler as a judge on "American Idol," and is starting to listen to the music his mom has enjoyed for years. "Being able to meet a rock star down the street sounded pretty good," Small said. Brooke Kidd said she drove five hours from Indiana to see Perry and started crying the second she met him. "Aerosmith saved my life. I went through a lot and they were always there," Kidd said. "It was almost like an out-of-body experience to meet him." www.dailyherald.com/article/20141013/news/141019285/
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Post by donnaroxx on Oct 13, 2014 21:00:00 GMT -5
Awesome article. Brooke may still be riding her adrenaline high...and rightfully so. She looks ecstatic in her pictures! I met Joe and Billie at The Standard Club earlier today....Billie is not only a sweet, sweet woman, but positively gorgeous. It was great to meet her and talk with her. When I met Joe, I asked him if I could give Billie a gift, and he pointed to where she was in the room and I told him how gorgeous I thought she was. He was absolutely beaming when I said that. Very genuine people, they are. She is the love of his life. My daughter went with me and we had lunch with him, then he signed everyone's books. The valet brought my car around just as Joe and Billie were leaving for Arlington Hts. We *may* have gone one or two blocks out of our way to be behind their limo. I blame the parade.... Can't wait to read the book!!
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Post by jj on Oct 14, 2014 0:01:44 GMT -5
Guitar Center, eh? I would have liked to pick up a Les Paul and groove on the Same Old Song and Dance riff just to see his reaction. Okay, no, i wouldn't ever do that. Too shy. But it is fun to fantasize!
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Post by AeroCooper on Oct 14, 2014 4:52:59 GMT -5
Awesome article. Brooke may still be riding her adrenaline high...and rightfully so. She looks ecstatic in her pictures! I met Joe and Billie at The Standard Club earlier today....Billie is not only a sweet, sweet woman, but positively gorgeous. It was great to meet her and talk with her. When I met Joe, I asked him if I could give Billie a gift, and he pointed to where she was in the room and I told him how gorgeous I thought she was. He was absolutely beaming when I said that. Very genuine people, they are. She is the love of his life. My daughter went with me and we had lunch with him, then he signed everyone's books. The valet brought my car around just as Joe and Billie were leaving for Arlington Hts. We *may* have gone one or two blocks out of our way to be behind their limo. I blame the parade.... Can't wait to read the book!! Wait, you met Joe and Billie and had lunch with them??
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Post by tomass on Oct 14, 2014 8:30:58 GMT -5
Awesome article. Brooke may still be riding her adrenaline high...and rightfully so. She looks ecstatic in her pictures! I met Joe and Billie at The Standard Club earlier today....Billie is not only a sweet, sweet woman, but positively gorgeous. It was great to meet her and talk with her. When I met Joe, I asked him if I could give Billie a gift, and he pointed to where she was in the room and I told him how gorgeous I thought she was. He was absolutely beaming when I said that. Very genuine people, they are. She is the love of his life. My daughter went with me and we had lunch with him, then he signed everyone's books. The valet brought my car around just as Joe and Billie were leaving for Arlington Hts. We *may* have gone one or two blocks out of our way to be behind their limo. I blame the parade.... Can't wait to read the book!! Wait, you met Joe and Billie and had lunch with them?? Yeah, way to just slip that in there like it was no big deal hahaha. We expect a full write up of your experience..
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Post by aerognr87 on Oct 14, 2014 9:16:22 GMT -5
I was there at the Standard Club in Chicago too! It was 200 people having lunch with Joe Perry and Billie Perry and John Bionelli. It was billed as a "Lunch & Learn" at this private club called the Standard Club in the city. Ordinarily, it's where a lot of big whigs go for lunches and seminars, and they also have weddings there and the like. The event was held in the grand ballroom. Per the club, you have to sort of dress up a bit. An independent suburban bookshop called Anderson's Bookshop was there selling books. So everyone initially stood in line to purchase their book, and some of the early birds started going up for signatures before lunch, even though that's not how it was planned. Then, we sat down for lunch. It was banquet style, with tables of 10, and servers dishing out food, much like a wedding reception or any other banquet. We were all served a lunch with chicken, salad, bread, water, and for dessert, cheesecake ("looser than her sister, her sugar gets me high"). While we were eating (and Billie and John B. were at Table 1), Joe Perry was up on stage being interviewed by a longtime Chicago rock radio host. The crowd listened intently and applauded at various times. After lunch, we all stood in line again to meet Joe and get our books signed. They were nice in allowing us pictures with him (they said they wouldn't do this in the emails about the event, but they ended up allowing it, and one of their people was nice enough to take people's phones and cameras and take pictures for them).
I was so star-struck when I met Joe. I was so nervous and it went by in a flash. I said something like "Thank you Joe, your music is such an inspiration". And in his cool tone, he said, "Hey, thanks for comin' out!" We really didn't have much time to say a whole lot beyond that. I wish I could've talked more. Also, I wish the photo they took of me and Joe didn't come out blurry. The one they took of Joe signing my book as me and John B. watched turned out good though, so at least there's that! I wanted to say hi to John B. too, but he was so preoccupied. And they really kinda hustle you through like cattle. But for $40...lunch in a fancy venue, meeting Joe Perry, getting his autograph, getting a picture...not bad at all! Joe is really such a nice and humble guy and so good to the fans.
A smaller line formed to meet Billie. I don't think this was planned, but people probably just figured, "hey, what the heck...I may as well meet her too." Since it was very unorganized, she was also talking to fans for longer. However, by the time I got up there, one of the club people was encouraging people to leave. Still I stood in line along with others, and I was able to meet her, shake her hand, and have her sign my book. I told her I had been a fan my whole life, ever since I was a little kid. She asked me what my favorite song was. I meant to say "Dream On". But I was a little star-struck meeting her. So, not thinking, I said "probably "Livin' on the Edge" from Get a Grip, since that was the first record I really got into when I was a kid." Which is sorta true. I do like the song a lot, but it's not my absolute favorite. But then I also said, "and I also love the old stuff, like "Lord of the Thighs" and "Kings and Queens", and I went absolutely nuts when they played that one this tour." I think she said she also liked Thighs and said that Kings and Queens has a very magical sound to it or something like that. And then I said it was nice meeting her and let other people talk to her.
What a blast though! And the book has been amazing so far. He fills in the blanks a lot more than Walk This Way, Steven's book, or Joey's book do. Plus, it's very chronological and I think Joe and David Ritz and the people involved are much more accurate about dates and stuff. The inaccuracies and incoherent rambling in Steven's book was certainly entertaining, but a little distracting at times.
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Post by lin on Oct 14, 2014 10:32:09 GMT -5
Awesome article. Brooke may still be riding her adrenaline high...and rightfully so. She looks ecstatic in her pictures! I met Joe and Billie at The Standard Club earlier today....Billie is not only a sweet, sweet woman, but positively gorgeous. It was great to meet her and talk with her. When I met Joe, I asked him if I could give Billie a gift, and he pointed to where she was in the room and I told him how gorgeous I thought she was. He was absolutely beaming when I said that. Very genuine people, they are. She is the love of his life. My daughter went with me and we had lunch with him, then he signed everyone's books. The valet brought my car around just as Joe and Billie were leaving for Arlington Hts. We *may* have gone one or two blocks out of our way to be behind their limo. I blame the parade.... Can't wait to read the book!! Wait, you met Joe and Billie and had lunch with them?? LOL.. and a few hundred other friends. I met Billie at the Brookline signing. She really is very nice and very down to earth.
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Post by donnaroxx on Oct 14, 2014 21:17:47 GMT -5
It pretty much went the way Aerognr87 and lin said(and a few hundred other friends). I'm guessing The Standard Club was a little less crowded than Guitar center and we were fortunate enough to not have to stand outside in the rain. A few minor differences for me, though. I said hi to Joe on the stage where he was signing our books after lunch, and he was very sweet, just like in July at the M&G...only more talkative this time, especially when I asked about Billie and giving her a gift. A few minutes before that Joe had given a guitar pick to a boy about my daughter's age and that kids was shaking! We felt the energy roll off of him as we waited in line for our books to be signed. The first pic one of Joe's assistants took with my camera was blurry, and as I was walking away, she said,"WAIT!" and took another one. Then I went to wait in the other line while people were talking with Billie. She listened intently to them all, even tearing up at one point when one fan was talking about losing her mom. One of the Main Dudes announced that people needed to start clearing out, and we were next in line...and Billie told the Dude she wanted to meet with "these ladies"...my daughter and me. So, I said hello to her and began to hand her what I'd brought and she looked at me and said, "You have the most beautiful eyes!!" I was a little flabbergasted and thanked her, and told her I thought she was not only a gorgeous woman, but also a very strong and kind person. She just gave off the most awesome vibe....like the others said, very down to earth. Genuine. I told her more about the gift, which was in part, a heart-shaped rock which I put in a white satin drawstring bag, which was in our yard when we bought our house ten years ago. Told her that since we'd be moving, that I knew she'd collected rocks forever and with the name of Joe's book, we wanted to share some love from our family to hers/theirs. It all kinda tied in. Invited them to spend time at the spa I work at...that we'd be happy to shut it down so it could be just them, and that I did outcalls as well. She asked for my card. Told her there were a few inside the gift for everyone in the band and their family, but handed her my own personal business card and one for the outside spa as well. Yes,I already warned the higher-ups at my spa that I would be offering this to the band. As we were leaving, my daughter and I stopped at Garrett's to get some popcorn and then went to pay the valet. As luck would have it, while we were waiting for them to bring my car, Joe and Billie exited the building and we wound up right behind their limo. Got a few pix of them before they got into their car to go to Guitar Center. A pretty fantastic day.
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Post by lin on Oct 15, 2014 7:15:40 GMT -5
Yes.. Billie was really very genuine and personable. At Brookline, it was in a book store and she was over to the side of the book store looking at books. I saw her and stepped out of line quietly because I wasn't sure if she wanted to be seen. Not too many people were paying attention to her I guess so it was nice to be able to approach her. Anyway, I said hi and said my name, and she smiled and then I said my full name and her eyes lit up in recognition because we chat a lot on twitter. We tried to take a selfie but I'm lousy at taking them so my brother came over and took a pic and then Billie and I continued to talk for a good ten minutes. I actually had to pull away because our spot had moved up almost to the point where Joe was signing. But my take away was that she seemed like a very normal, every day kind of person. Joe also seemed much more engaged during the book signing. The book store folks taking the pics did a real good job. Actually took a couple of pics and they came out really nice.
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