It’s trial and Aero
Adrian Perry has found a way to mix white shoes with “Walk This Way.”
The 29-year-old son of legendary Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry lives an amazing double life — working as a lawyer for one of New York’s white-shoe firms by day and playing bass and singing in a successful rock band at night.
“I just don’t sleep,” Adrian Perry told The Post. “There are some hairy mo ments doing this, but, in my mind, it’s very much worth it.”
Perry is a sec ond-year associate at Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP in Manhattan. He handles legal mat ters that come nat urally for his musi cal family: intellectual-property issues, including music copyright.
He said he got into law after learning of troubles his dad — whose band is famous for such hits as “Walk This Way” — had as an up-and- coming musician.
“I’d seen the various mishaps with my dad’s music career,” he said. “When he was a young musician, he’d gotten screwed over a bunch of times, and I just felt I wanted to protect myself.”
Now, the younger Perry uses his legal knowledge to help his own musical group, TAB the Band, in which he plays with his brother Tony and Ben “Bun” Tileston and Lou Jannetty.
TAB — which is playing a gig on July 23 at the Gramercy Theatre — has seen its songs used in episodes of TV shows such as “Entourage” and “CSI:NY,” and the band recently put out a new album, “Zoo Noises.”
Perry said it can get comical juggling both law and music.
“Yeah, it’s pretty absurd,” he said. “I find myself in bizarre scenarios all the time. I remember one example of trying to get out to a show in New Haven [Conn.], and I had to run to Grand Central and change [from a suit and tie] in the bathroom and then run on to the train.
“I had to work [on legal stuff] on the train until I got there, and my brother picked me up at the train station, and I was working in the van all the way to the gig. [After] the show, I got back in the car, and we were driving up to Boston for another show, and I just kept working.”
He said his legal prowess often helps keep his band from being taken advantage of by promoters.
“It definitely helps having that training dealing with agents and venues,” he said.
He added, however, that his rock ‘n’ roll skills haven’t proved much help when he’s in the law office.
“I don’t go for the high-pitch [singing] squeal at the end of a negotiation. It’s more entertaining for me, but for the other people, it’s more confusing,” he joked.
He said his father couldn’t be happier that he is building a career in law.
“He definitely was a supporter of me going to law school,” he said. “If anything, he was more supportive of that than pushing me to being a musician.”
