Dr. Rudy Tanzi, "Rock Star of Science," Records with Aerosmith
Besides being a respected geneticist, Dr. Rudy Tanzi has played with Aerosmith, written a book with Deepak Chopra, and will host a PBS special
By Andrew Doerfler
It was 2009 when Dr. Rudy Tanzi was asked to appear in a GQ magazine photo shoot for a campaign called “Rock Stars of Science.” The shoot, organized by the Geoffrey Beene Foundation, was aimed at raising awareness of scientific research by matching accomplished researchers with famous musicians. Tanzi, who heads Massachusetts General Hospital’s Genetics and Aging Research Unit and teaches neurology at Harvard Medical School, was paired with a fellow Bostonian, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.
“After the shoot, I was talking to Joe, and I said that actually I play,” Tanzi said. “He said we should jam some time.”
Three years later, Tanzi really is a rock star of science. He recorded organ tracks for Aerosmith’s just-released new album, “Music From Another Dimension!,” he co-wrote the book “Super Brain” with physician and mind-body expert Deepak Chopra, and he adapted the book into a PBS special, which he also hosts in a Carl Sagan-like manner. Both “Music From Another Dimension!” and the book “Super Brain,” which offers techniques to use your brain most effectively, went on sale this month. The book hit No. 7 on The New York Times Hardcover Advice & Misc. bestseller list, while the record debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. The television special will begin airing nationally on Saturday.
Tanzi, who lives in Cohasset with his wife and daughter, has been balancing his scientific pursuits and his creative endeavors for decades. He’s been a musician since he was a boy in Rhode Island, first picking up the accordion before moving on to organ, piano, and harmonica. By 1980, he was performing in a band five nights a week while researching Huntington’s disease at Harvard during the day.
But his path to performing on the Aerosmith record didn’t really begin until the GQ photo spread.
That led Tanzi to play concerts for the Rock Stars of Science campaign with Perry and National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins, who plays guitar and had also appeared in the GQ shoot. Earlier this year, Perry invited Tanzi to appear with the Joe Perry Project at Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday party and on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” When working on the upcoming Aerosmith album, Perry felt the track “Something,” a slow, bluesy number, called for some of Tanzi’s Hammond B3 organ playing to start it off.
“He’s easily the best Hammond player I’d ever heard face to face,” said Perry, who sings lead vocals on “Something,” while Steven Tyler steps back to man the drums.
Perry said the work ethic Tanzi developed over years in the lab applies perfectly to music.
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