GUITARIST "REMEMBERS THE NIGHTS"
IN THE MOTELS
Adrian Peritore (the guitarist formerly known as"Guy Perry")
talks with the Bellboy
The following is a telephone interview I recently had with
Adrian Peritore (aka "Guy Perry") on the 27th of May 2001.
So what has Adrian been up to since the band broke up in '87?
Everything! I went back into doing session work. I tried to
launch what had to be the world's worst heavy metal band. I
played bass, my then wife was on guitar and her brother was on
drums. We had a girl singer that was a truck driver. The band
was called "Harlow." Eventually the lead singer was signed to
Warner Brothers and bought the name from us. Mostly what I've
been doing is writing and producing stuff for film and
television. There was a Disney film we did - First Kid, starring
Sinbad. It was a film about a president's son. I got involved
with a production company for five years. We developed a young
singer named Hadas, who we got signed to Epic Records. They
are finally going to release her record this fall.
Do you ever get recognized as being the former lead guitarist
of The MOTELS?
[laughing] Only by the most rabid of fans. No one has ever come
running up to me saying, "You used to play for The Motels!"
How did you get the job of lead guitarist for the group?
Well, a friend of mine, Steve Goldstein, was working on their
recording [of All Four One]. He said they needed a guitar player
and they put me on the list, and when the smoke cleared there I
was.
What was your initial reaction when approached with the idea
of auditioning for The Motels?
I didn't know anything about them. I had met them one night on
New Year's Eve. They had played at Madame Wong's or one of those
Santa Monica places. I was still doing session work at that
time. I really didn't know anything about them. I liked All Four
One. I wasn't nuts about the stuff they had done before that.
When you came on board, The Motels went from being almost an
unknown New Wave band to becoming nation phenomena, were you
prepared for such instant success in a short period of time?
[laughing] I was ready for it! In my egomaniacal mind it was
long overdue.
What were your contributions on the All Four One album? Were
you able to lay down any guitar tracks down on any of the songs?
I did two or three; most of it was done by the time I got
in. "He Hit Me" is one I remember.
What are some of your favorite moments during your time as
The Motels lead guitarist?
Toughy. Uhm ... I don't really know. I was the hated Motel.
[laughs] Largely because I wasn't cool enough for them. I played
too loud on stage and they were all pissed off about it. I
wasn't a true New Waver. I wasn't sincere enough in their view.
They weren't mean to me. Martha was always really sweet and
really cool. Michael Goodroe was the sweetest guy on the planet.
Marty even hugged me after a concert one time and said that if
anyone deserved to be the lead guitarist in the band it was me,
but there was a certain amount of feelings that . . . well,
let's just say I wouldn't have been friends with them absent the
band. I always felt the band should be more aggressive and
unfortunately they interpreted that as meaning heavy metal. I
would tell them we could do some more aggressive music like
Billy Idol, the B-52s, and even the Bangles for Christ sake! We
suffered from the mid-tempo, semi-ballad syndrome. I didn't
think you could carry a two-hour show on the basis of that kind
of thing.
So, do you keep in touch with any of the former band members?
I saw Martha a couple of years ago; she had played at a place
called the Key Club. And I ran into Brian Glascock's ex-wife and
she gave me Martha's number and I called her and went up to
Ventura where she was living at the time and visited with her. A
couple of months ago, I stumbled across Marty's website where I
read that he never felt like I belonged in the band and that in
my heart, I really wanted to be in Night Ranger. I emailed him a
short set of instructions. Other than that, no I haven't been in
touch with any of them.
How do you feel about the music on the albums you worked on?
All Four - I thought it was great. I thought the production was
overly slick, but I was the new guy so I had nothing to say about
it anyway. I think because Apocalypso was such an adventurous
album that it [All Four One] still retained a lot of that
adventurous spirit. The problem with All Four One was that they
released the album before they released the single. That takes
all the control away from the promotion people. On a record
where we had four or five strong singles, it got watered down.
The songs were being heard before they could get promoted.
Little Robbers and Shock were just slick. The writing wasn't
there and the production wasn't there. I was more into what
Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush were doing. Even Midnight Oil. I
liked edgier, more out there kind of stuff. I thought it was
ironic that, before I was in it, the band had built its
reputation on the energy, drive and power of its live show. They
were considered dynamic and quirky and genuinely arty. Since I'd
been with them, I'd watched one power person after another water
down the elements that made them a great band and replace those
elements with soul-less attempts at cracking the top ten.
Did you leave the band when it broke up in '87?
I left a month or 6 weeks before Martha fired everybody else. We
were trying to find the direction for the band. Capitol no longer
wanted to pay the band's salaries. Scott had left to go play with
Jackson Browne. The rest of us had a meeting to figure out if we
want to break up now and let Martha go solo or do we want to
regroup this thing? We decided we were going to do this as a
band. At the next meeting, producer Richie Zito announced that,
in effect, he was going to do his record with Martha singing. I
thought that if we didn't get some integrity back we were going
to be washed out. I didn't want to spend another two years
recording and promoting something I was convinced was going to
be another misguided mediocre record. It became really apparent
we were going to do what Richie Zito wanted to do and I wasn't
comfortable with that. Especially in that the band had gone to
bat for him when Capitol didn't want him to produce the record
and now, as producer, his first move was to put the band members
on ice and hire all session guys. I quit one week before my 5th
anniversary with the band. I was one week shy of five years.
If you had to do it all over again, what would you have done
in the band?
I would have put my amps off-stage so as not to piss off the
rest of the band every night. I also would have done a lot less
drugs...or at least different ones.
How do you look back on the years you were in The Motels?
Honestly, I was confused and baffled and had my focus in all the
wrong places. I had a blast touring, despite the animosity and I
always loved the recording environment. Making videos was a
complete and total yawn, especially once you see how much the
band members were actually seen in the final product. Overall it
was nice to have been a part of something that got some notice.
How would you like Motel fans to remember you?
I don't know. It's funny to me that I'm remembered at all.
Any chances of you doing a solo project or starting your own band?
As a matter of fact, I'm currently putting together a band called
Little Rubie and the Empty Ones. I kinda came into it through the
side door. It was suppose to be a showcase thing for this actress
I know. We played one show and the response was amazingly
positive so I've been writing like a fiend and prepping tracks
while she's off on location somewhere. We'll do a few more shows
in July and see where we stand at that point. But there have
already been a few inquiries from "industry" types based on that
one show.
This was an interview with Alan. Thanks.
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