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Few bands have created as many memorable riffs as Aerosmith. Joe Perry and Brad Whitford recall how two of their finest, 'Love In An Elevator' and 'Walk This Way', came about
Interview: Chris Burke

I love rock 'n' roll!

TG: How did you come up with the riff for 'Love In An Elevator?'

Joe Perry: "That particular riff kind of floated my way during one of mine and Steven [Tyler]'s writing sessions. I was probably listening to Jimi Hendrix on the ride up. I was talking to Rick Rubin once about writer's block and he said, 'Make a CD of all the songs that you fell in love with and made you love rock 'n' roll. Listen to that over and over again and it'll start the wheels going'. So I was listening to a lot of Hendrix, and it was one of those riffs that just played itself. I picked up the guitar and it just started coming out."

TG: At what point did you realise you had a killer riff on your hands?

Joe: "I don't know if you ever do. Sometimes when a record's done I'm satisfied and I won't listen back to it for a while 'cos I'm usually pretty tired of the songs. Then I've got to learn them again to play them live and sometimes it takes a while to realise it's a really good record. Even now I'll listen to a record and go, 'I kind of forgot about that riff, it's actually pretty good!'"

Aerosmith 'love in an elevator'

TG: Are there any particular techniques you use for playing the riff?

Brad Whitford: "To get it to sound big I use a fairly clean sound. I try to stay very faithful to the way Joe created it because he has a very unique technique that he uses, which is essentially his picking hand – so when it's played correctly it's very powerful."

TG: Did the riff change much from its conception?

Joe: "I remember it came out pretty well done! I remember this clearly because there's a video of us actually writing that song ['The Making Of Pump'] and it was one of those days when we were really on the ball, the video tape was running and it captured the moment."

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