Former Journey singer Steve Perry is commenting on rumors regarding a possible reunion with his old band following his return to the live stage last month after an 18 year absence.
In the past weeks, Perry teamed up with alternative rock band EELS for shows in St. Paul, Minnesota, Washington, DC and Los Angeles, creating a major buzz and fueling speculation that he and Journey may reconnect.
Current Journey frontman Arnel Pineda added to the headlines when he said that Perry should reunite with the group.
A fan tweeted Pineda a link to video of Perry’s St. Paul performance, to which he replied, “He should come back. His voice is still there. [I] missed that voice."
The dialogue continued, with Pineda offering up more thoughts on the subject.
"It will be cool if [Steve would] come to one of your shows and just come up and sing with you guys. That will definitely be epic, wrote the fan. "He can take over too,” replied Pineda. “It's his righteous place anyway. [I] wanna see them happy together."
Asked for his reaction to Pineda’s comments, Perry tells Fan Asylum, “I don’t know who or what would make Arnel want to say such a thing. He's their lead singer and I only wish him all of the very best! There is no reunion.”
As for his return to live action, Perry said “I realized in a nano second as I walked on stage [in St. Paul] how much I had missed it. I had been away from live performing for a long time. Walking out on that stage was like having sex for the first time in 20 years. I didn't have a lot of stamina or restraint ……. but it still felt really AMAZING!!”
Asked about the buzz his first appearance with EELS caused, Perry says “Yes, I was very surprised. I woke up in St. Paul MN thinking I'd have a little YouTube leak about the gig and that would be it. After 20 years of not singing live, I really thought I could just stick my toe in the waters of love and then go home and start blowing the rust off my pipes……. but that's not what happened. So I flew out for a second one in D.C. and that was even more fun SO -- I did L.A. and that was even more FUN-NER!”
Journey had their most successful commercial period with Perry, who joined the group in 1977; a string of multi-platinum albums followed before he left the band in 1998.
See also:
VIDEO: Steve Perry performs Journey classics with EELS in Washington
Journey singer says Steve Perry should reunite with band
VIDEO: Steve Perry performs Journey classics with EELS
Journey planning new album
Search Journey at hennemusic
