Rick Dufay

Richard Marc Dufay (born February 2, 1952) is a French-American guitarist who played in Aerosmith in the period after Brad Whitford left the band in 1981 up to his return in 1984.

Early life and career Richard Marc Dufay was born in Paris, France.

Before joining Aerosmith, Dufay released an album called Tender Loving Abuse, produced by Aerosmith producer Jack Douglas. It was Douglas who recommended Dufay to Steven Tyler as Whitford's replacement. He joined the band after the completion of Aerosmith's 1982 album Rock in a Hard Place as well being seen in the video for "Lightning Strikes".

Dufay is credited for suggesting to Tyler that he reunite with Whitford and Joe Perry, with Joe saying in a 2023 interview: "Even Rick Dufay said, ‘Listen, you’ve gotta get those guys back in the band. This just isn’t working without them.’ Rick is a really smart, standup guy who was just telling it like he saw it. But Billie encouraged me to get together with Steven, and we hooked up and talked about Aerosmith, and it went from there."

When speaking about Dufay, Tyler said of him: "Rick Dufay was a friend of Jack’s, a guitar player, a total asshole, and we loved him, Rick just so defined what a fuckin’ asshole is. He would come up and spit in my face. He would do something brain-dead and just beg Jack to beat the shit out of him." This eventually led to them forming the band Blue by Nature. Kelly’s mother was Maureen Dumont Kelly, a former Las Vegas showgirl who died in 2008 aged 51.

As of 2008, Dufay has remained on good terms with the other members of Aerosmith; he and Tyler still meet up on occasion, Dufay was jammed with Kramer and Tom Hamilton, and has been asked before by Tyler to bring his guitar and meet them whenever they are in Dufay's town.