Former Journey singer Steve Perry made a rare public appearance at the recent Guitar Center Drum-Off Finals in Los Angeles, and he was asked about a possible reunion with guitarist Neal Schon and the rest of the band.
“I haven’t worked with Neal, no,” said Perry. “We’re trying…it’s tough. I’m doing my best in that area and I can only do so much.”
“Bands are the most amazing thing,” Perry shared at the Guitar Center event. “The older I get, the more I do realize how important what we had all together and how it worked.”
“I have not been in a band in years,” he continued. “The older I get, like I said, the more I realize that we brought that out of each other: I brought things out of them and they certainly brought a lot of my vocal stuff out of me just rising each other to this place. If you can’t get along, it’s a different thing, and that’s probably the biggest chemistry thing I recognize now.”
Last summer, Schon extended an olive branch by reaching out to connect with Perry, who left the group in 1998; the guiatrist’s public gesture followed news that the singer had undergone treatment for skin cancer.
Journey had their most successful commercial period with Perry, who joined the group in 1977; a string of multi-platinum albums followed, and the band eventually went on hiatus between 1987 and 1996.
Following the release of the 1996 reunion album, “Trial By Fire”, Perry injured his hip while hiking in Hawaii before a tour could begin, resulting in the need for hip replacement surgery when he was diagnosed with a degenerative bone condition.
Perry hesitated rushing in to have surgery for the issue, holding the group’s plans up for almost two full years before they presented the singer with an ultimatum: get the surgery done so they could tour, or a replacement singer would be brought in to the lineup.
Perry refused the request, and Journey hired Steve Augeri in 1998, followed by Jeff Scott Soto in 2006 and, in 2007, Filipino YouTube discovery (and Perry sound-alike) Arnel Pineda, who helped revitalize the band while their 1981 smash, “Don’t Stop Believin'”, emerged as one of the biggest selling songs of the new digital era.
In December, AWOLNATION frontman Aaron Bruno revealed that Perry has been working with the band as they record the follow-up to their breakthrough debut album, 2011’s “Megalithic Symphony” (read more here).
See also:
VIDEO: Steve Perry performs at Guitar Center Drum-Off Finals
Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ named best driving song
Rock News Artist Of The Year No. 7: JOURNEY
Rock News Story Of The Year No. 8: JOURNEY
Search Journey at hennemusic
