Return to the spotlight:
Equipped with a new record label (MCA Records) and three new band members in singer Mach Bell, bassist Danny Hargrove and drummer Joe Pet, The Joe Perry Project released Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker in 1983. The album met the same fate as its predecessor, selling 40,000 copies. Despite the poor sales, The Project went out on a final tour in support of the album, adding then ex-Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford to the line-up. During this tour, The Project performed in a series of co-bills with Huey Lewis and the News. The following year, both Perry and Whitford rejoined Aerosmith, who signed with Geffen Records (which coincidentally was sold to MCA in 1990, absorbing the MCA label 13 years later).
In 1986, Perry and Tyler collaborated with Run-D.M.C. in a remake of their 1975 hit “Walk This Way”, which brought their band renewed mainstream attention. After completing drug rehabilitation, Aerosmith went on to collaborate with various big-name songwriters and producers to launch their true comeback. Another string of successful albums (including the triple-platinum Pump in 1989 and 1993′s seven-times platinum Get a Grip) and many hit singles followed. Perry and Tyler resumed their friendship, again co-writing songs and performing very close together on stage. In 1998, Perry helped conceive the group’s first number one single, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”, with pop songwriter Diane Warren. It appeared on the soundtrack to the hit film Armageddon, in which Tyler’s daughter Liv starred. In 2006, Perry performed alongside Steven Tyler for a three-song medley (“Dream On”, “Walk This Way”, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”) with the Boston Pops Orchestraas part of a nationally-televised event to celebrate the Fourth of July in Boston, Massachusetts.