Marcus Len: Who was your music guru?

Shawn Perry: if you’re asking which artists influenced me the most I would probably have to say, Freddie Mercury, Sammy Hagar, and Prince… If you’re asking who personally mentored me I would have to say that would be my main guitar teacher growing up Ron Renick, he still teaching and was actually my big inspiration for becoming a guitar instructor myself. he was crazy talented could play everything from Bach to Van Halen and smooth jazz….he made me learn a little bit of everything regardless of what I was actually into and I think that really helped me to be a well-rounded guitar player and songwriter overall.

Marcus Len: What is it about Lemonade, a Lawnchair, music and a beach that came to you for this single/video “Lawnchair”?

Shawn Perry: I’ve been getting asked this question a lot, the simple answer is I need a damn vacation like vanilla ice needs another hit… I think like most people around the world I’m overworked and underpaid I’m probably doing you know 60 hours a week when all said and done and I’m thankful that I get to do music for a living but like most folks I’m just barely scraping by and I need a dang vacation LOL…. I think just about everybody who’s not in the top 1% or you know whatever can relate to that.

 

Marcus Len: How many staff, friends and family and even strangers showed up the day you recorded your video by the water?

Shawn Perry: I want to say right around 40…. It was a pretty big production we actually had a legit motion picture camera crane that we roll down to this guy’s private beach it was pretty nuts… I am very okay with Overkill

Marcus Len: Who do the dogs belong to in the video, names?

Shawn Perry: one of the dogs actually belongs to a friend of mine and former student named Travis Mayer….I don’t recall his name offhand but I believe it is in the comments section of the Lawnchair music video….the other dogs I couldn’t tell you as fate would have it they were having an event for dogs at the city beach which was about a block away from the private beach we were filming on so we decided to just go down and take advantage of it and get all these wogies on camera.

Marcus Len: At what time did you all start and end that day on the beachside?

Shawn Perry: I think all in all it was about a 16-hour day I know the film crew started setting things up super early in the morning and we started filming at 9 a.m. and didn’t finish until after 9 p.m. the last thing we did were the shots in the country with the Corvette cuz we wanted to capture the sunset, so we just film that until it got too dark to use the footage and that was that

Marcus Len: Is there a story behind the guitar you grab to play when you are stopped on the bridge? 

Shawn Perry: I don’t know if there’s a story per se but I do own my own guitar company called Valkyrie and everyone in the video except our bass player is using one because I don’t really make bases I’ve made a couple of custom ones but the custom work has been going by the wayside because I’m just too busy to do it….But she does on one…. actually she owns two, she’s a pretty wicked guitar player as well but the green one is my personal guitar and the color is an omage to one of my favorite guitar players dimebag Darrell from Pantera…. I was always a fan of the dime slime color ….most guitar companies on offer such a thing so it was always important to me from the get-go to have something like that available in our lineup…. That color combo has always been one of my favorites.

Marcus Len: Where is the bridge located and is it a one-lane bridge?

Shawn Perry: That bridge is about 10 minutes south of where we shot most of the rest of the video, way out in the country it’s pretty rad I’ve actually kayaked under it a few times. it’s absolutely beautiful. There is a gigantic multimillion-dollar house right behind it, maybe one day I’ll have enough money to buy it…. probably not but a guy can dream…

Marcus Len: Where do you draw inspiration from when writing?

Shawn Perry: Well some songs I start off with just coming up with a melody or a chord progression on the guitar….some songs believe it or not start off with a drum beats whether it’s one that I sat down to a kit and came up with or one that I programmed.. and a lot of them we’ll start with a lyric theme I tend to get a lot of ideas from crazy things people around me say or just ridiculous things I see while traveling…for instance we have a song called Jesus and rehab our old guitar player Dave wrote the song years prior to me adding lyrics to it and one of my adult students who was a Vietnam vet ask me what happened to a another fellow that used to play with us back in the day so I told him the story and John said sounds like that boy needs Jesus and rehab….And there you go that point the song just about road itself…

Marcus Len: When/where do you do your best writing?

Shawn Perry: Usually at my house late at night on my couch watching TV with my dog Ghost… Who is snoring next to me right now…I do like to try and write when I travel as well though… I like getting inspiration from different places like New Orleans and other cities like that, some places just have the mojo.

Marcus Len: What is your go-to for listening to music nowadays?

Shawn Perry: Depends on what I’m doing if I’m lifting weights that’s definitely Pantera or something similar, I tend to do classic rock or Megadeth if I’m doing karate…but my morning routine is usually either the Naughty by Nature or salt n Pepa channel on Pandora…. Both of which are heavy on the Snoop Dogg.

Marcus Len: Do you have a bucketlist of artists you would love to perform with, if so who would they be? 

Shawn Perry: Yeah, Van Halen and queen for sure…I got to open for Chicken Foot at Rocklahoma 2013…it was so stinking rad I got to watch their whole set from the pit up front my first real concert was Van Halen in 1993 and I was way back in the lawn seats but I would love to actually go out on tour with either Van Halen or Sammy’s circle I mean shoot I’d love to sing for Van Halen but that Sammy’s job…. I also would love to do something with Brian and Rodger from Queen

I also would love to work with Anne Wilson, Joan Jett, Lizzy Hale or P!nk…but the #1 is Snoop and Dre I am trying really hard right now to get them on my next single

Marcus Len: Where can we find you and your laid back attitude next?

Shawn Perry: Man I’m like Johnny Cash I’m everywhere,… well I’m flying down to Nashville for CMA fest and then I got all kinds of concerts throughout the summer and then we’re going to be hitting the studio to cut some new music soon so hopefully mid-fall will have another single a music video out and we’re hoping to have a new full-length record out early next year-

Marcus Len: Finally, it is summer, what is your favorite go-to kind of weekend dinner set up and what time should we be there?

Shawn Perry: summertime is usually BBQ time for us I will often have a big band cookout if there is a WrestleMania are UFC usually ends up being several folks from the band and several folks that I do karate with and we just hang out and watch folks beat on each other while we enjoy copious copious amounts of barbecue..

Either that or I do one pound burgers that I’ve been doing since high school that all my friends call anvil burgers… legendary.