Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GinSDc0Is8
The Joe Rogan Experience I can remember being in um once uh Def Jam happened and we started having a lot of success putting out music and I'm still probably at NYU um labels would come around and want to be involved in one way or another and and one label asks like what do you attribute the success of this to after all it's not music now these are people in the music business who are wooing us wanting to work with us and they're telling us they don't hear it as music that doesn't even make sense today right no no no now it's it's the world has changed the world has changed wow but it was a completely alien underground form of music and because people were rapping instead of singing that was one piece that didn't wasn't understandable and then because the music was like it's yours where it's it's a drum machine there's no Melody there's no it's it was too foreign at that point in time for people to understand it as songs wow it's hard to it's it's shocking it's ridiculous and and in in some ways like there's a song I produced with um Run DMC and Aerosmith Walk This Way yeah and the whole purpose of doing that was to demonstrate this is music this is music and this is not only is it music it's familiar music you're just not you're not seeing it like you're you're somehow removed from what's happening but it's easy to see if you so again if you create a demonstration so that's what Walk This Way was was I looked for a song that was familiar and that the Way It Was Written in the original version the Aerosmith version the phrasing of it was essentially a rap record the verses are it's not melodic it's all about the phrasing that's how rap works and the beat you know the introops that was already a known break beat in the hip-hop world they they had never heard in hip-hop club no one had heard of Aerosmith no one had heard of um walk this way but they knew the Toys in the Attic break which was just that beat not the song wow yeah let's listen to that can we
play the intro the intro to Aerosmith's Walk This Way I remember when you did that I remember that being a very polarizing song absolutely because people didn't know what to think it's like some people thought you were ruining Walk This Way by adding Run DMC and some people like why do you have Run DMC with rock and roll it doesn't make any sense [Music] that piece is the Toys in the Attic break because it says Toys in the Attic on the record just that so that would that was and so if you went to a hip-hop club you might hear that wow but I grew up on Aerosmith and I grew up on AC DC and I grew up on Ted Nugent you know I grew up on rock and roll music and um when I saw this disconnect this was the way to like bridge the gap just to just to explain what was happening wow how was it received in the music business when you did that um I guess the first thing was radio like it I remember uh I guess it was wbcn in Boston yeah played it once Mark parento I can't remember if it was Mark parento or who else was there um Charles Lockwood era no tell me another name God that's all I remember like DJs the morning mattress was Charles Lockwood dare and afternoons was Mark parento yeah I don't think I don't know that it was either of them but it might have been again I I don't remember I just remember that bcn played the song and it was a big deal also because it was a rock station playing a hip-hop record yeah and I remember that there was this outrage from the audience you know take that garbage off and then Within a few days it was the most requested saw on the station wow yeah so it was like it definitely divided the audience yeah but the best things do that's that's what's really exciting when you when you hear something new and you don't have a reference for it your first reaction might be to push it away you know I remember the first time I heard the Ramones when I was in probably junior high school and I heard the
Ramones and that was the first really punk rock fast music I ever heard there were I don't think there was any before the Ramones so if you're used to hearing normal Tempo rock and roll and then you hear the Ramones I just laughed it seemed like a joke you know it just seemed ridiculous and then eventually it became my favorite thing how did Aerosmith react did you come to Aerosmith and try to bring it to them did the label guy I just had the idea of doing the song and recording the song with with Run DMC and then the label said why don't we reach out to Aerosmith and ask if they would participate and was like that sounds crazy to me but if they'll do it obviously I'd love it you know I love that band growing up they were one of my favorite bands growing up so that seemed like a dream and then they came and we did it wow that that was a groundbreaking moment in music it really was if you really stop and think about all the ripples that came out of that that particular song that that song introduced so many people to hip-hop and I'm sure so many hip-hop fans to rock and roll and Run DMC absolutely you know combining with Aerosmith is like the perfect combination two iconic bands but also at that point in time Aerosmith had fallen on hard times I remember I saw Aerosmith play at Nassau Coliseum sold out incredible show and then six months later Aerosmith were playing at a club on Long Island called speaks which was like a it was like where the cover bands would play six months six months what happened I don't know I don't really know I think maybe Joe Perry left the band which was part of it but I don't know how you can go from that popular to to in this new condition that quickly but it happened that's wild yeah I can't I wasn't aware that that had happened that didn't that doesn't even make sense that something like that can happen in six months Nassau Coliseum yeah which is like sold out forty thousand twenty thousand thousand something Jesus Christ to a club yeah maybe 600 person club like a big Club but still a club a big fall a big fall wow yeah in six months yeah really quick so was it a scandal when
Joe Perry left was that what it was was it like everyone was upset I don't know I really don't know so they did that and then did that song bring them back that song brought them back wow yeah holy they had actually put out an album called done with mirrors which was like their comeback album before Walk This Way and that did not was not well received and then Walk This Way came out and then it both broke Run DMC in a mainstream way and re-broke Aerosmith as mainstream mainstream group