A prominent voice in the hard rock arena as well as an accomplished guitarist and songwriter, Franky Perez is a former member of Scars on Broadway with members of System of a Down, and has worked with Finnish symphonic rockers Apocalyptica, rock supergroup Deadland Ritual, and other acts. And when he’s not on the road with superstar players, Perez performs rock and soul in the showrooms of his hometown of Las Vegas. A motorcycle rider, Perez also contributed several songs to the FX outlaw biker series Sons of Anarchy.
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Unable to perform live or get out of the house much, Perez unexpectedly wrote and recorded an acoustic album of entirely new material called Suddenly 44 last summer. He then combined his love of music and motorcycles to tour the country on a bike provided by Ducati, playing songs from the album for healthcare workers during the COVID-19 crisis, using a black-with-white pickguard 000-17 acoustic guitar provided by Martin Guitars. Parts of his trip were chronicled in a video series on Ducati’s North American YouTube channel.
Perez is currently in the process of editing an in-depth video documentary about his journey called Crossing the Great Divide. It will include highlights of his visits with healthcare workers, as well as interviews he conducted on the road with artists like Randy Travis and Blackberry Smoke. He’s also preparing a new full-band album, also called Crossing the Great Divide, and is involved in a new project with guitarist Frank Sidoris of Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth WVH. Perez sat down with American Songwriter on a chilly Las Vegas morning to discuss Suddenly 44, and his trip across America to entertain healthcare personnel who are putting their lives on the line daily.
“I was just gonna write some songs and record them for my friends,” he said. “I was never gonna put it out. But I was about three or four songs in and I was writing the song ‘Crossing the Great Divide,’ an open-tuning thing, and came up with the line, Kiss like we’re going off to war. And that one line made me realize I had something special going on, something was happening to me in that moment with this project. So I wrote and recorded eight songs in two or three weeks.”
Perez had a hankering to tour behind the new music, but that wasn’t really much of an option in pandemic times. Then he came up with a way to perform the new tunes while making a contribution to those risking their lives to provide care to the millions affected by COVID-19. Perez contacted the Ducati company to see about borrowing a motorcycle, and the company immediately got on board for the project. “I partnered up with Ducati, which I’ve been involved with in the past,” he said, recalling his time singing with the Ducati All-Stars, a superstar band that performed on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. “They see a direct connection between music and motorcycles.
“I needed to take a smaller guitar, like a parlor guitar,” Perez continued. “I’ve always played Martins, I’m a huge fan of the instrument and the company itself, and we contacted them and they ‘got it’ in an instant. So now we had the bike and we had the guitar, but how do we keep the guitar on the bike and [safe] in the elements? So we contacted Hoffee Cases out of Illinois who make these incredible carbon-fiber cases. Then the question was, how do we [mount] the case on the bike? So I contacted my friend Danny Koker of [the History Channel’s] Counting Cars, he’s a fan and supporter of what I do.” Koker retrofitted the Ducati to make it possible to attach the guitar case to the motorcycle and Perez hit the road, usually playing two shows a day, ultimately riding thousands of miles and performing at dozens of healthcare facilities nationwide.
Perez said that seeing firsthand what doctors, nurses and other health professionals and their patients were going through was more than he could have ever imagined. “It was incredible,” he said. “Everybody, including myself, was in such need of human connection. It was as much a conversation as a show. The songs on Suddenly 44 are about what we’re all going through, they weren’t original only to me. The songs are all relatable. When I did a song I would set it up before I sang it, and people would react to it. We were all in it together. I sit and reflect on it every day.
“This was one of the coolest things I’ve done in my life,” Perez added. “This came from an honest place. From the inception of the record, to me sitting here today, I had no expectations other than to be of service. The world is in disarray, and this was my little contribution, no one else was doing anything like it. This is all done in service, there’s no monetary gain from this for anyone. It was done for service.”
Pausing to look away, Perez said, “This has probably been the most selfless period of my life. This is what I could contribute. I don’t have money, I don’t have the cure, I don’t even have the facts. Nobody does. But I have my talent. Everybody supplied what they had – Martin, Ducati, Hoffee, LR Baggs [pickups], Bell Helmets, Belstaff Clothing – everybody donated what they do. And I supplied the talent and my back.”
