Joe Perry has logged millions of miles over the course of his career, and with Aerosmith ready to run through a series of shows with Slash this summer, that total's only going to grow. But he hasn't forgotten the band's early days playing to the Boston crowds that came out to see them before they were famous.

Perry looked back on those gigs during a recent interview with Guitar World, recalling the first flush of excitement the group felt as its career started taking off. Asked to pick a most memorable moment from his years in music, he said, "It's got to be that period where you realize that all of a sudden the club that you've been playing in for years is crowded. Where at one time, the only people who were there were just your close friends and a small gathering of fans. I remember we had been out of Boston touring around the Midwest when 'Dream On' had been re-released and had gotten a lot of airplay in Boston. We came back and suddenly every place that we played was filled, from the theaters to even some of the bigger clubs. Over those next couple of months it was like, 'Holy s---! This is really happening! People are listening to our songs!' After all of the time and work you put into it, that's got be the most exciting time for any band."

Perry may have been in a reflective mood due to his recent work on his upcoming memoir, which he promised will be worth the wait. "Aerosmith fans will get a kick out of it because there's a lot of stuff in the book that may come as a surprise," he hinted. "But what I'm really hoping is that people discover that it deals a lot about human nature and how people get along. You don't necessarily have to be an Aerosmith fan or a rock and roller to relate to or appreciate some of the situations we found ourselves in -- and how we worked them out."

Once the book's out of the way, Perry plans to get back to the music -- although as we previously reported, that may not include a new Aerosmith record. "I've done five solo albums now and am working on my sixth. As it turns out, it's taken a little longer than I expected but it's all going to work out OK," he insisted. "After the book promotion I'll probably take a little time off and then finish it up. It probably will come out sometime next year. As far as Aerosmith goes, I'm not really sure yet. We've talked about it. It may turn out that we feel inspired and want to get back into the studio. We’ll see."

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