Speaker 1: High Heart Radio Presents Inside the Studio, I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Joe Levy. Now this time around, I got to sit
Speaker 1: down with Steve Perry, who is the singer for Journey,
Speaker 1: provided the soundtrack to somewhere between seventy and one ten
Speaker 1: million high school proms, as well as several billion Trips
Speaker 1: Down the Highway and the final episode of The Sopranos.
Speaker 1: We talked about his new album Traces, his return to
Speaker 1: music after a two decade absence. We talked about the
Speaker 1: loss of a loved one that motivated that return, and
Speaker 1: we talked about the pressures and pains that led to
Speaker 1: that long absence, a time when he found he couldn't
Speaker 1: even listen to music, let alone make it. When Perry
Speaker 1: joined Journey in seven, he was twenty six and he
Speaker 1: had already been through several bands but never landed an
Speaker 1: album deal. For their part, Ernie had already recorded three
Speaker 1: albums to not much notice. They were technically gifted. Guitarist
Speaker 1: Neil Showan and keyboardist Gregg Rolie had played with Santana,
Speaker 1: and at that point Journey was a slightly proggy band
Speaker 1: that sang about walking across the clouds and then backed
Speaker 1: it up with five or six minutes of skyscraping guitar solos,
Speaker 1: so they had chops. What they lacked was a rock
Speaker 1: and roll hert. Perry provided just that. Yea, so how
Speaker 1: The first song he ever wrote with Neil Shane, Patiently,
Speaker 1: was packed with personal longing, both for loves and success.
Speaker 1: You listen to the lyrics, it's really a story about
Speaker 1: where I'm at at that moment, talking to them, about
Speaker 1: patiently waiting to join that banner, to be under the
Speaker 1: lights that they were under, or your lights inside of me.
Speaker 1: This we bring to you. The opening track on the
Speaker 1: first album Perry recorded with Journey Infinity was Lights, which
Speaker 1: is familiar to anyone who's seen a San Francisco Giants game,
Speaker 1: and you can hear the classic soul music that Perry
Speaker 1: grew up loving in those opening chords. Once again, this
Speaker 1: song is packed full of longing, except in this case,
Speaker 1: it's not about wanting to be under the spotlight. It's
Speaker 1: about wanting to return home. In some sense, those two
Speaker 1: impulses and the contradiction between them, would define everything Perry
Speaker 1: and Journey did over the next decade. He helped create
Speaker 1: a stadium packing monster of rock. Seven consecutive multi platinum albums,
Speaker 1: eighteen top forty singles, from the speeding ticket inducing stomper
Speaker 1: me Way You Want It Where to the slow waltzing
Speaker 1: Open Arms, which will be one of the cornerstones of
Speaker 1: the power Ballot Hall of Fame if they ever get
Speaker 1: around the building. One should have been done. No Hall
Speaker 1: Magic feels. And then there were songs that combined both
Speaker 1: stomping and power balloting, like Don't Stop Believing or Oh
Speaker 1: Sherry single from Perry's first solo album, Street Talk. So
Speaker 1: Steve Perry was a guy who could combine prog rock
Speaker 1: with soul music, or the classicism of Bruce Springsteen with
Speaker 1: new wave synths and drums. He had a voice that
Speaker 1: was operatic Freddie Mercury style. But one reason his music
Speaker 1: became a soundtrack to everyday life is that it actually
Speaker 1: felt rooted in it. It really doesn't matter that there
Speaker 1: is no such place as South Detroit. What matters is
Speaker 1: that there are lonely people who feel the way the
Speaker 1: small town girl and the city boy and Don't Stop
Speaker 1: Believing feel, and who want to both experience that feeling
Speaker 1: and get some relief from it. For the four minutes
Speaker 1: in nine seconds, that that song lasts. Now, there were
Speaker 1: a lot of those kinds of people. Journey's Greatest Hits
Speaker 1: has sold better than ten million copies. But in February,
Speaker 1: Steve Perry played the last of seventy four dates on
Speaker 1: Journeys tour for their ninth album, the aptly named Raised
Speaker 1: on radio, and he returned home and for a long
Speaker 1: while that was it. He was done. Perry was suffering
Speaker 1: from what he describes his PTSD, and he went back
Speaker 1: to the San Joaquin Valley in central California where he
Speaker 1: grew up in order to recover. And PTSD is actually
Speaker 1: something other musicians I've spoken with referred to when they
Speaker 1: talk about how difficult it can be to adjust to
Speaker 1: the real world after life on the road. In Perry's case,
Speaker 1: it was something more than that, a burnout so severe
Speaker 1: that initially he found himself unable to listen to any
Speaker 1: music other than the soothing sounds of ambient He spent
Speaker 1: time writing as Harley, caring for family, and trying to
Speaker 1: reconnect with himself. Though he'd make another solo album in
Speaker 1: four it was a little out of step with things
Speaker 1: at the height of grunge, and though he'd reunite with
Speaker 1: Journey for an album in nine six. He did not
Speaker 1: want to tour for it. He seemed to be done
Speaker 1: with the hot light that he had been longing for
Speaker 1: back when he wrote patiently in ninety seven. But something
Speaker 1: happened during Perry's time away. The music he made with Journey,
Speaker 1: critically dismissed at the height of its popularity, is corporate
Speaker 1: rock began to be more beloved, which is the kind
Speaker 1: of thing that does happen as cultural gatekeepers begin to
Speaker 1: change and the people raised on radio when it was
Speaker 1: defined by Journey to begin to make culture of their own.
Speaker 1: In Perry's case, Patty Jenkins, whould go on to direct
Speaker 1: the blockbuster Wonder World, contacted him about using Don't Stop
Speaker 1: Believing in a scene for her two thousand and three
Speaker 1: independent film Monster, and shortly after she made the request,
Speaker 1: Perry turned up on set, asking how he could help
Speaker 1: her with her movie. The two became friends. Four years later.
Speaker 1: Don't Stop Believing turned up again in the two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven finale of The Sopranos, after which it shot
Speaker 1: right up the iTunes chart, becoming the number three selling
Speaker 1: download twenty four years after its release, and the Journey
Speaker 1: revival would only continue from there. It's that that revival
Speaker 1: did nothing to coax Perry back into public life, but
Speaker 1: eventually he met a woman who would ultimately do so.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and eleven, Patty Jenkins directed an episode
Speaker 1: of five, an anthology of TV movies about breast cancer
Speaker 1: and its impact on people's lives. Perry was visiting Jenkins
Speaker 1: one day when she was editing, and he was struck
Speaker 1: by one of the extras in a scene that featured
Speaker 1: real cancer patients. It was Kelly Nash, a Los Angeles psychologist.
Speaker 1: Perry asked for an email introduction, but Jenkins wanted him
Speaker 1: to know Nash's condition before reaching out. She had been
Speaker 1: in remission, but her cancer had returned and spread to
Speaker 1: her lungs and bones. At that moment, I had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to send no email, pull back, no harm, no foul,
Speaker 1: Perry told Rolling Stone recently. I would just go back
Speaker 1: to my safe life. Instead, I said, send the email,
Speaker 1: and an email turned into a phone call that lasted
Speaker 1: more than five hours, and soon enough the two were
Speaker 1: living together. They had just a year and a half
Speaker 1: together before Nash passed away in December. Dot wolf Fly
Speaker 1: Golden before her death Nash asked Perry for a promise
Speaker 1: that he would not return to isolation. In fact, she
Speaker 1: urged him to return to music. That's part of the
Speaker 1: remarkable story behind Traces, and Perry had already been working
Speaker 1: on some music before he began recording Traces To. The
Speaker 1: most heartbreaking songs on the album, Most of All and
Speaker 1: in the Rain, were actually written before he ever met
Speaker 1: Kelly Nash. But one reason the recording of this album
Speaker 1: took five years is that Perry actually built a home
Speaker 1: studio so that he could work his own way, at
Speaker 1: his own pace, and he did that work very much
Speaker 1: in private. Those who participated signed nondisclosure agreements. The album
Speaker 1: certainly has music of loss and heartbreak, but it also
Speaker 1: has songs that that had that healing vibe of Perry's
Speaker 1: return to his hometown, like Nowhere Racing, which involves the
Speaker 1: high school reunion, reconnection and some time in the backseat
Speaker 1: of a car. And then there are songs that involved
Speaker 1: both heartbreak and healing, like Perry's remarkable cover of the
Speaker 1: Beatles I Need You. That cover was actually a long
Speaker 1: time coming. Perry had been thinking about what he might
Speaker 1: want to do with that song, written by George Harrison
Speaker 1: since he first heard it on the soundtrack to Help
Speaker 1: in nineteen. He told me about playing his version of
Speaker 1: it for Harrison's widow, Olivia, and about how music, something
Speaker 1: he swore he'd never returned to, became once again the
Speaker 1: most powerful focus of his life. Here's what else he
Speaker 1: had to say to me. I'm lonely, could be Steve Perry.
Speaker 1: Welcome to inside the studio. Thank you, it's nice to
Speaker 1: be here. Oh, you've got the motorcycle boots and you
Speaker 1: actually ride. I do have motorcycle boots, but I sold
Speaker 1: my bike. I had to get rid of it. I
Speaker 1: was afraid I was gonna kill myself, but I did
Speaker 1: save my life. When I first left the band, first
Speaker 1: thing I did was go back to my hometown and
Speaker 1: jump on Harley that I bought. I never owned before.
Speaker 1: I bought a soft tail Custom was a beautiful motorcycle.
Speaker 1: I bought it and by Salia, California, and I drove
Speaker 1: it to Hamford, California, put it in a storage unit
Speaker 1: which I rented, and it lived there. So every time
Speaker 1: I could have had hometown of mine, I just parked
Speaker 1: the car and jump on that bike and I'd ride it.
Speaker 1: Out in the country where the Vince posts and the
Speaker 1: jack Rabbits were of my youth. To be honest with you, man,
Speaker 1: I did that a lot back then. There was no
Speaker 1: helmet law. I was just long hair flying behind you.
Speaker 1: You know. I kind of helped put my head back
Speaker 1: together again. Did you grow up riding? No, But I
Speaker 1: did have a Honda when I was a young kid,
Speaker 1: I had a Honda trail bike, so I used to
Speaker 1: drive to school. So I kind of like scooters like that.
Speaker 1: You know. Wait, so this Harley, this is like the
Speaker 1: fulfillment of some sort of it was it was. I
Speaker 1: finally bought a Harley and it was an Evolution engine,
Speaker 1: beautiful and soft tail custom had a Cabernet color tank
Speaker 1: and fenders, just really beautiful. I used to drive out
Speaker 1: in the country and then after it helped put my
Speaker 1: brain back together and give me that comfort, I actually
Speaker 1: just gave it to somebody about a year because I
Speaker 1: just didn't think I should be on it more because
Speaker 1: I'm I'm just not that talented writing anymore. Were in
Speaker 1: an accident, well, when I used to drink, I certainly
Speaker 1: would lay it down a couple of times, right because
Speaker 1: the truism is that there are two kinds of motorcycle riders,
Speaker 1: those who have been in an accident and those who
Speaker 1: will be in an accident. That's right, that's right. How
Speaker 1: bad was it when you laid it down? Well, I
Speaker 1: was actually just coming out of a bar. I had
Speaker 1: had too many drinks, and I just went to write
Speaker 1: it and started and I lost my balance and then
Speaker 1: dropped it. With people who don't ride don't realize no
Speaker 1: matter of pounds, it's heavy, it's heavy. I had to
Speaker 1: have two buddies help me straighten it up. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of taught me that, remember when I and drink
Speaker 1: and ride. The thing Number two is that to maybe
Speaker 1: I'm just not that skilled of a writer. You've said
Speaker 1: that when you left the band thought this Harley had
Speaker 1: helped put your head back together. But you've talked about
Speaker 1: that as a period where you had a kind of PTSD.
Speaker 1: I did what form did this PTSD take for you?
Speaker 1: For me, I could not listen to music of any kind,
Speaker 1: and I could not sing or write music of any kind.
Speaker 1: The only thing I could listen to was stuff that
Speaker 1: was called ambient at that time, which was like liquid mind.
Speaker 1: Steve Roach had some music out This was like ambient
Speaker 1: and there was no drums, there's no guitars, there's no voices,
Speaker 1: there was no you know, anything like that. And it
Speaker 1: was just something I thought that, especially liquid mine, the
Speaker 1: changes of liquid mind, sort of we're emotionally putting me
Speaker 1: back together a little bit at a time. But it
Speaker 1: was quite some time before I could listen to the
Speaker 1: music of my youth, which was the R and B
Speaker 1: and said Cooks and all that. It took a while
Speaker 1: just to get back to that and just to stick
Speaker 1: with that notion of putting your mind back together. That
Speaker 1: PTSD it sounds like also you were self medicating at
Speaker 1: that point, self medicating. I was not medicating. There's no
Speaker 1: doubt that before I even left the group, there were
Speaker 1: all in some sort of behaviors, okay, And that contributed
Speaker 1: to the emptiness. That was a feeling of disconnected with
Speaker 1: the passion for music. It was a pretty scary thing.
Speaker 1: So I didn't just go back to my hometown and disappear.
Speaker 1: I I reconvened with some feelings and streets and the
Speaker 1: country roads and the old ice cream parlor. Plus I
Speaker 1: had at that time my father's sister was still alive,
Speaker 1: and I went and helped take care of her because
Speaker 1: she was in her nineties, and got her situated and
Speaker 1: visited her a lot because she was going from from
Speaker 1: one home of assisted living to another as her needs
Speaker 1: became more required for assistance. So I was taking care
Speaker 1: of her too. I was a thing I was doing
Speaker 1: at the time. You mentioned the music that had first
Speaker 1: met a lot to you, the music that you grew
Speaker 1: up on. Tell me more about that. Who were the
Speaker 1: singers that you learned from. Oh, my goodness, the ones
Speaker 1: I learned the most from. We're pocket singers. They had
Speaker 1: rhythm in their phrasings. The Sam Cooks, the Jackie Wilson's,
Speaker 1: the Levi Stubbs from the Four Tops. Even Smokey Robinson
Speaker 1: in his own way was very light and lilty, but
Speaker 1: so so full. Marvin Gay of course, then later came
Speaker 1: Glady's Night. Um. I love the Supremes. When I was
Speaker 1: growing up, you know, I was really big Motown fan.
Speaker 1: So besides the songwriting and recording of the music I
Speaker 1: grew up with, there was this other factor of what
Speaker 1: were they doing? Meaning, how are they recording it? How
Speaker 1: does it sound that way? And why does it feel
Speaker 1: that way? And how did they get that drum sound,
Speaker 1: and what kind of echoes on the voice of Levi
Speaker 1: Stubbs and the song Bernadine or Baby I Need Your
Speaker 1: Loving There or the Marvin Gay Troubled Man. I mean,
Speaker 1: there was just another focus that started to show up
Speaker 1: in my heart of trying to learn from all that
Speaker 1: at an early age are production engineering. They were, but
Speaker 1: they were invaluable things that I thought I needed to
Speaker 1: pay attention to. And I started really early on listening
Speaker 1: to to the whole thing because I realized very early on,
Speaker 1: like about seven eight years old, why does it feel
Speaker 1: in sound that way? It wasn't just a forty five?
Speaker 1: What went into this? Why does it come out like that?
Speaker 1: I wanted to know what's behind it? So I slowly
Speaker 1: started to just go to school, so to speak, with
Speaker 1: going into these tracks, listening to the echoes, is it stereo?
Speaker 1: Isn't mono? My goodness's mono? Wow? Okay? And started really
Speaker 1: getting into why it works the way it does, you know,
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden years later when the
Speaker 1: Beatles showed up, what I found fascinating is if you
Speaker 1: listen to Motown, most of those are done on four track,
Speaker 1: and if you listen to the early Beatles for sale record.
Speaker 1: It's four track because you can hear that they've recorded
Speaker 1: like three tracks and bounced them to the left of
Speaker 1: the band. Then you can hear that they have on
Speaker 1: no Reply. For instance, they have Ringo and I think
Speaker 1: George and maybe Paul in the distance on the right
Speaker 1: side on one track, accentuating the downbeat of the chorus
Speaker 1: no we plan do. Okay, So you got ring on
Speaker 1: the right going and pinching the symbol with a bassed
Speaker 1: on boom. Okay. See you get that in time with
Speaker 1: what's already there on the left side when they get
Speaker 1: the basic. So they're accentuating with an accent stuff that
Speaker 1: works with the main track in the most cool way.
Speaker 1: And then they have two tracks left of them to
Speaker 1: mess around and do vocals down the middle. Now what's
Speaker 1: really fascinating is if you listen to lead vocal of
Speaker 1: John in the middle, the echoes on the right, it's
Speaker 1: not on the left. So when they're mixing this stuff,
Speaker 1: these are the things. These are the decisions I've decided
Speaker 1: to make to give it spread, to give it this
Speaker 1: inclusive feeling. Dude. Four channels, four channels. What that means
Speaker 1: is that they had to really make a commitment. Once
Speaker 1: you commit to these tracks, you can't go back. It
Speaker 1: isn't like today where you got tracks to choose from.
Speaker 1: You know, like we're recording right now, you've got multiple
Speaker 1: tracks we can choose from. No, you got four channels.
Speaker 1: Since we're talking about the Beatles, there's a Beatles song
Speaker 1: on Traces on your new album, Yes there is I
Speaker 1: Need You. How did you come to choose that one?
Speaker 1: What drew you to it? When I was really younger?
Speaker 1: I love the help her, but there was one song
Speaker 1: by George Harrison called I Need You that was so
Speaker 1: beautiful and it was a Bossanova field. They were kind
Speaker 1: of into that Bossanova thing at that time. They did
Speaker 1: a lot of tunes like that. Though I liked it,
Speaker 1: I thought it was a bigger song than that. I
Speaker 1: wasn't being there rative. I just thought, my goodness, this
Speaker 1: is such a great song. I think it needs a
Speaker 1: different treatment. And I knew that as a kid, so
Speaker 1: that when it came time to do the Traces record,
Speaker 1: So this is when you've been thinking about her feeling
Speaker 1: for a long time, then well that has been in
Speaker 1: the back pocket for years since I was a kid.
Speaker 1: So I turned to my co producer, engineer Tom Flowers,
Speaker 1: and said, Tom, you know, I got this idea. I
Speaker 1: got the sketch of me just with acoustic voice on
Speaker 1: one of my drives. Can I play for him? It's
Speaker 1: a Beatles song called I Need You by George Harrison.
Speaker 1: So I played it for him and he loved it.
Speaker 1: So the next thing I know, Vinny cal Udo was
Speaker 1: over there recording some drums I think for no more crying.
Speaker 1: I said, Vinnie, I got this other song. Would you
Speaker 1: mind just doing a pass on it? She? Sure, Man,
Speaker 1: what do you got? I played it for him and says, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, Vinny Caludo has got a feel from heaven.
Speaker 1: So he went out there were the past just nailed it.
Speaker 1: So from that point on, that song became what I
Speaker 1: always envisioned it to be, which is the piano and
Speaker 1: voice at the beginning, then coming in and growing and
Speaker 1: growing with background vocals. I wrote different background vocals at
Speaker 1: the outro then are on the original and with a
Speaker 1: drum break going into them. And it's on my record now.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have that if it wasn't for Olivia. By
Speaker 1: that because I was only going to put it on
Speaker 1: my record if I got her. So you played her
Speaker 1: the finished version. So I brought the CD into Olivia
Speaker 1: and uh, she turned it on and listened to the
Speaker 1: whole thing top to bohm. And I was very nervous
Speaker 1: because this is Olivia Harrison, you know, and I loved
Speaker 1: George so much. She listened to the whole track one
Speaker 1: time and she grabbed the remote and quickly restarted it.
Speaker 1: And I went, oh, my goodness, that she hears something
Speaker 1: she wasn't pleased with, I thought, you know, And she
Speaker 1: got halfway through the second listen, turned the volume down
Speaker 1: and said, George would have just loved this so much.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you what, I felt his soul just
Speaker 1: give me approval through Olivia, and I needed her blessing.
Speaker 1: So that's why it's on the record. You know. It's
Speaker 1: also interesting as well that this is a song you've
Speaker 1: been thinking about since you first heard it, that you've
Speaker 1: had in your back pocket. As you say, emotionally but
Speaker 1: thematically fits a record that often deals with love loss,
Speaker 1: a record that you said would not exist without a heartbreak.
Speaker 1: I think that's very true. I've said it before, and
Speaker 1: I guess I should say it again. The heart isn't
Speaker 1: complete until it's completely broken, and until you lose somebody
Speaker 1: that completely breaks your heart, you're just not probably as
Speaker 1: seasoned or complete as a human being as you could be.
Speaker 1: And I can only tell you that's been my experience.
Speaker 1: It didn't feel great losing Kelly. It was horrible. From
Speaker 1: time to time, I still go through the the heartbreak
Speaker 1: like it was yesterday. But that's just, I think, an
Speaker 1: affirmation of the strength of what we had. It's just
Speaker 1: an affirmation of that. But the record Traces is not
Speaker 1: all heartbreak. It's about rocket roll, it's about class reunion moments.
Speaker 1: It's it's about we're still here, it's about you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of great music on the record, but
Speaker 1: there are a couple of songs that do deal with
Speaker 1: the loss of someone. Well, you just mentioned a reunion moment.
Speaker 1: I think you might be referring to the first track
Speaker 1: on the record, It's been Coming Sweat Again in the
Speaker 1: back seat of You'll call You Still Beck and the
Speaker 1: first words I know it's been a long time coming
Speaker 1: since I've seen your face, which is an interesting way.
Speaker 1: It's a reintroduction for you. It's been a minute since
Speaker 1: we've heard from you. But that song tell us what
Speaker 1: inspired that song in Originally just started as a sketch
Speaker 1: with David Spring at my house, and it started to grow.
Speaker 1: And I love the words no eracin. I felt this
Speaker 1: way before no eracin no running anymore. That's how it started.
Speaker 1: And then it came time to do the verse that
Speaker 1: just came out. I know, it's been a long time
Speaker 1: coming since I've seen your face. Uh, since I saw
Speaker 1: your face. I you can't remember now. So the song
Speaker 1: itself evolved into a reunion song where these two people
Speaker 1: meet each other at a class reunion and they get together,
Speaker 1: go outside and talk a little bit about old times.
Speaker 1: And they both have lives in different cities in the world,
Speaker 1: but they're together by themselves, and they get into her
Speaker 1: car and they go for a drive. And in my town,
Speaker 1: people would go smoothe at this once particular place. Is
Speaker 1: that all they do? They just go for a drive in,
Speaker 1: they jump in the backseat of the car and you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know you. Lets you figure that out, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you what happens, all right, Okay, Um,
Speaker 1: you were saying that where you grew up there was
Speaker 1: such a spot, Oh yeah, where I grew up. There
Speaker 1: was a place called Pier nine where four or five canals,
Speaker 1: irrigation canals converged, and in that spot there was actually
Speaker 1: a few oil drums out there where people could leave
Speaker 1: their beer cans or whatever. So it was a very
Speaker 1: well known spot to park and smooch or whatever. And
Speaker 1: so that's kind of the the vision of what the
Speaker 1: spot is that they would go to in the backseat
Speaker 1: of her car, you know. I mean, I can't be
Speaker 1: the only one to feel this way because I grew
Speaker 1: up on your music and I grew up on my music. Interesting,
Speaker 1: well put, but to start with that kind of return
Speaker 1: to the high school smooching spot, as it were, right,
Speaker 1: there's something very fitting about that. Don't you think that
Speaker 1: everything comes from high school? Don't you think that after
Speaker 1: we leave high school, all we're trying to do is
Speaker 1: become a little more powerful, a little bit more monetary.
Speaker 1: But the truth is we're still all in high school emotionally.
Speaker 1: I mean, there is the old saying about Hollywood being
Speaker 1: like high school with money. You know, I think that's true.
Speaker 1: I think rock and roll is high school and money.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well, the emotionally, I think the whole thing
Speaker 1: Hollywood and rock and roll can be wow. Now that
Speaker 1: you mentioned I have a theory about, for instance, Hollywood,
Speaker 1: when you go to a set, which I did a
Speaker 1: lot while I was on vacation, by the way, because
Speaker 1: I love film and I love directing, and so many
Speaker 1: of my friends are directors, so I've been hanging out
Speaker 1: a lot of sets. If you walk onto a set,
Speaker 1: what's fascinating is the food that's on a set. It's
Speaker 1: children's food. It's a cookie. Ye always cookies doughnuts a day.
Speaker 1: It's children's food. It's like a dream come true, kind
Speaker 1: of like candy store. So I think it's fulfilling this
Speaker 1: dream that you're living, the dream which starts with you
Speaker 1: can have anything you want, almost like a Pinocchio or
Speaker 1: they all go to the island where they can do
Speaker 1: whatever they want and they grow ears. You know. I
Speaker 1: really think there's some truth to that. So there's never
Speaker 1: never land quality and backstage can be the same, by
Speaker 1: the way, presumably along with the M and m's, you
Speaker 1: have other delicious things that you can have. No sure,
Speaker 1: backstage famously can be that way. Let's talk about rock
Speaker 1: and roll. I want to go back to a moment
Speaker 1: April seventeen the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
Speaker 1: It was the first time some of us had seen
Speaker 1: you for a long while. And I want to go
Speaker 1: back to something you said in your induction speech talking
Speaker 1: about growing up being in Los Angeles in the mid
Speaker 1: seventies and going to see Journey at the star Wood
Speaker 1: before you were a member of the band, and I quote,
Speaker 1: are you fucking shitting me? Any singer would give his
Speaker 1: ass for that ship? I mean, they played so well. Now, Steve,
Speaker 1: let me ask you a question, Okay, is that the
Speaker 1: way you wrote it out in advance? I was up
Speaker 1: there and I just kind of turned into Joe Pesci
Speaker 1: for a minute. Tell me a little bit about what
Speaker 1: it was like to see those guys at the star
Speaker 1: Wood whenever they were amazing. I mean, it was Greg Role,
Speaker 1: it was Neil Sean, it was Ross Valerie. He needs
Speaker 1: to be dunbar. I think George Tickner at that point
Speaker 1: had already left the group. So that was the lineup.
Speaker 1: Now you know that the band was originally built around
Speaker 1: Neil Sean and that Greg Role. He used to pick
Speaker 1: him up in high school when he was like sixteen
Speaker 1: and brought him into Santana so that when Gregor left Santana,
Speaker 1: he brought Neil with him and they formed this group
Speaker 1: around Neil. So that was the beginning of Journey. And
Speaker 1: I would see them play all the time, and I
Speaker 1: knew people could get me backstage, and I got to
Speaker 1: sort of hang around and meet him and just sort
Speaker 1: of like, you know, make my presence like high, you know.
Speaker 1: But they're thinking, who's this big nose kid, you know,
Speaker 1: what's he doing back here? All I know is I
Speaker 1: remember the Star with like it was yesterday. I can
Speaker 1: see that stage in the corner. They would be just
Speaker 1: cranking it and Neil would have one of these Finder
Speaker 1: amps leaning back and he'd have one strap plugged into
Speaker 1: a wal Wap pedal and we'd only use the wal
Speaker 1: Wap pedal for a tone enhance. He really didn't do
Speaker 1: a lot of my mom watch stuff. He just used
Speaker 1: it to like have its scream at spots or pulled back.
Speaker 1: It's like a tone change. It was very, very creative.
Speaker 1: Killing his guitar was sore over the whole city of
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. He really was. It was amazing. So when
Speaker 1: I got the call from Don Ellis, who was running
Speaker 1: Columbia Records at the time. He loved my demo, but
Speaker 1: my basse player of it in the band I was
Speaker 1: in that he loved. I got killed in a car
Speaker 1: wrect the fourth of July weekend. So the next thing
Speaker 1: I know, I get this call from Don Ellis and
Speaker 1: he wants to know if I'm interested in the band
Speaker 1: that's on the label. Sorry to hear what happened to
Speaker 1: your band, But Journey is looking for a singer and
Speaker 1: they want to write songs. They want to make up
Speaker 1: musical change. That's exactly what I was told. Sauce. Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1: The next thing I know, I'm in Denver, Colorado with
Speaker 1: Neil Sean and we're rooming together after they had opened
Speaker 1: for Emerson Nakel Palmer, and we wrote Paciently. That was
Speaker 1: our first song. So what song? Shot? This? Sweep by?
Speaker 1: And that's the song that you sat down and wrote
Speaker 1: together because you had this other band, So I imagine
Speaker 1: you might have had some songs in your back pocket already.
Speaker 1: Did I had great songs in my pocket, but they
Speaker 1: were not the kind of songs that the Journey was
Speaker 1: probably going to be good at writing or playing. Just
Speaker 1: out of curiosity, what kind of songs were they if
Speaker 1: you listen to my Steve Perry Greatest sits up and
Speaker 1: you'll hear that demo that got me the gig with
Speaker 1: Journey is on there. It's called if you need Me
Speaker 1: Call Me. You should play that and we will say
Speaker 1: the truth. I started a pack when I heard if
Speaker 1: you need Me Call Me is a song. That was
Speaker 1: the first song that got me the demo action with
Speaker 1: Columbia Records. And that's the one that Herbie Herbert, the
Speaker 1: band's manager, heard and convince them to fly me out
Speaker 1: to right So you flew out to write with them.
Speaker 1: They were for LP and so you had yet to
Speaker 1: perform with them. You just sit down. It's literally after
Speaker 1: a show and you sit down and start writing, just sketching,
Speaker 1: just catching some ideas. And I mean, he had these
Speaker 1: changes that were just beautiful. So I just started singing,
Speaker 1: here I stands so patiently, you know, for your lives
Speaker 1: to shine at me, for your song inside of me,
Speaker 1: this we bring to you. It just started to go.
Speaker 1: That song just came quick. If you listen to the lyrics,
Speaker 1: it's really a story about where I'm at at that
Speaker 1: moment talking to them about patiently waiting to join that
Speaker 1: banner or to be under the lights that they were
Speaker 1: under for your lights inside of me, this we bring
Speaker 1: to you. You know, when you were writing these songs
Speaker 1: that have never left the radio, did you know? No? No,
Speaker 1: I think that only anyone can do is chase after
Speaker 1: the honest emotion of making it the best it can be,
Speaker 1: just making it great and then turning it over and
Speaker 1: hoping that people get what you're trying to put into it.
Speaker 1: They all got that kind of concerted effort, including don't
Speaker 1: stop believing that one didn't get any more than any
Speaker 1: of the other ones, Like there's so many other songs
Speaker 1: that I love just as much, but that one has
Speaker 1: been embraced by a large amount of people. So when
Speaker 1: you came back to recording, when you came back to
Speaker 1: writing for this record, when and how did things start?
Speaker 1: Because you've been working on this for a number of years,
Speaker 1: and several songs were written before you knew Kelly, Well,
Speaker 1: they were written before I met Kelly. The two you're
Speaker 1: mentioning is actually most of all and in the Rain,
Speaker 1: and those are the two songs I never played for
Speaker 1: because they were about laws. Especially in the Rain is
Speaker 1: about grieving and laws, and I did not want to
Speaker 1: bring that energy into her struggle. She was already going
Speaker 1: through plenty, so that was the only secret I kept
Speaker 1: from her. Really, I wish you. After I lost Kelly,
Speaker 1: I found those songs on the hard drive and decided
Speaker 1: they now are about my life after losing her, and
Speaker 1: I wrote them before I met her, so it was
Speaker 1: kind of an interesting, bizarre thing, and so that's why
Speaker 1: they're on the record. Then I built a studio and
Speaker 1: that took some time, and getting that dialed in the
Speaker 1: way I wanted it took some time. Once that was
Speaker 1: up and running with the proper equipment, UH started recording.
Speaker 1: So this home studio is something you built to make
Speaker 1: this record, And when you were recording writing demos before that,
Speaker 1: I was recording in a pro tool rig on a laptop,
Speaker 1: but I had outboard gear annoy him and M forty
Speaker 1: nine is a Mike, and I had an a p
Speaker 1: I would call it a lunch pail, which has a
Speaker 1: pre amp and e Q and a compressor limitter in
Speaker 1: it so I can go right into the inbox into
Speaker 1: my computer. And so the vocals on this record, a
Speaker 1: lot of them are just some of the rough sketches
Speaker 1: because the first time I sang it and had a
Speaker 1: magic to it. And then I started surrounding musicians around
Speaker 1: some of those vocals. I mean, I have to say,
Speaker 1: when you listen to this record, my first reaction was,
Speaker 1: holy sh it, it's Steve Perry again. It had been
Speaker 1: a minute. But the vocals are there. There is a
Speaker 1: certain difference to them. You've got a little more wisdom
Speaker 1: in the vocals. Now. Yeah, they're a little bit more grainy,
Speaker 1: a little bit more spicy. I think, a little bit
Speaker 1: more soulful. I think in a lot of ways. I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you, I think Patty Jenkins is a big
Speaker 1: part of that. Who is one of my close friends.
Speaker 1: And I had played her one of my early sketches
Speaker 1: and I didn't know if she would like it or not.
Speaker 1: And I was afraid to play it for anybody but her,
Speaker 1: because I trust her. She had seen me go through
Speaker 1: a lot. We were close friends, and so I played
Speaker 1: it for after we had lunch one day in the
Speaker 1: car and I looked out of the window to the
Speaker 1: left because I didn't want to watch her reaction. And
Speaker 1: after it was over, I looked at the right and
Speaker 1: I said, so, what do you think She said, I
Speaker 1: think it's amazing, I said, but the vocals aren't done
Speaker 1: and it's just there's a lyrics. I'm just mumbling this
Speaker 1: and that's that. She said. I know all that, but
Speaker 1: it just sounds so much like you. I know, I know.
Speaker 1: I guess I had to turn all that thinking off
Speaker 1: because there was no way for me to leave if
Speaker 1: I was going to keep that going. Turn what thinking off?
Speaker 1: What do you mean? I guess to walk away from
Speaker 1: an amazing ride and leave the group and look at
Speaker 1: anything that you're saying. I had to turn my heart
Speaker 1: off to keep walking away from the music business and
Speaker 1: including the fact that people love me perhaps and I
Speaker 1: just couldn't look at It's like any relationship, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're leaving a relationship and you need to leave
Speaker 1: even though it's I you love it, but it's painful
Speaker 1: how many people have done that, no matter what the
Speaker 1: relationship is. Bands are no different relationship and relationship. Sometimes
Speaker 1: to walk away, you've got to keep walking. You can't
Speaker 1: fall back into it. And in order for me not
Speaker 1: to fall back in at that particular time when I left,
Speaker 1: I had to turn the volume down on my heart.
Speaker 1: But it's so interesting because absolute we understand what you're
Speaker 1: talking about. And at the same time, when you leave
Speaker 1: a relationship, you don't always walk away from a relationship
Speaker 1: thinking that's it. I can never have another relationship. But
Speaker 1: you left music, and for a moment that was it.
Speaker 1: You couldn't hear it only because I was toast. I
Speaker 1: mean I was so ptsd burnt that whenever I started
Speaker 1: getting back into music, I would twinge, you know at
Speaker 1: that one. So when did that begin to change? And
Speaker 1: how a couple of years? It took good two years, honestly,
Speaker 1: two years out of leaving the group. I started to
Speaker 1: listen to music again, and and the music of my
Speaker 1: youth and and radio again. And you know, by then,
Speaker 1: by the way, Nirvana showed up, and I'm going, Wow,
Speaker 1: good for you guys, man, Now it's your turn. Fantastic
Speaker 1: grudge love it, garage band, go get it, We'll get some.
Speaker 1: And so here came all the Seattle groups. So the
Speaker 1: music had turned another corner. I was just happy for everybody.
Speaker 1: I just thought, well, I had my time, now they're
Speaker 1: having there. So what began to draw you back into songwriting?
Speaker 1: I think that the passion for sketching some rough ideas
Speaker 1: gave me a moment occasionally where I go, wow, that
Speaker 1: could be cool, and I would do what I call
Speaker 1: going under where I wear the headphones and I turned
Speaker 1: the echoes up in very very large amounts to where
Speaker 1: I can just zone out and pretend there's a landscape
Speaker 1: of possibilities in my mind, and I just love some
Speaker 1: of the interaction of the harmonics of changes and my
Speaker 1: voice melodies and see what actually becomes complimentary to those.
Speaker 1: And then I listen and I wait, and I start
Speaker 1: to follow those little moments whenever they cross like that.
Speaker 1: That started to feed me some hopeful possibilities that maybe
Speaker 1: I could write somewhere music again. What about performing. That's
Speaker 1: something we're gonna talk about when I get back to
Speaker 1: the West coast. Right now, I'm just talking about this record,
Speaker 1: and I'm so glad it's finally out. It's really been
Speaker 1: a long time coming, really, to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: and that's the most powerful focus of my life right now,
Speaker 1: is that I actually have completed something that there wasn't
Speaker 1: time I saw i'd never do again. And it's really crazy.
Speaker 1: Never say never, sometimes be careful. I gotta tell you, Steve,
Speaker 1: we're so happy to have you back, and we're so
Speaker 1: happy to have you here. It Inside the Studio. Boy,
Speaker 1: It's been my pleasure and thank you very much for
Speaker 1: having me. We'll still for shot us fun. It's calling
Speaker 1: of you. We're Still. Inside the Studio is an I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio original podcast. This episode was written in did
Speaker 1: by me Joe Levy. We'd like to give a big
Speaker 1: thank you to Steve Perry and Fantasy Records. You can
Speaker 1: follow Inside the Studio on I Heart Radio, or you
Speaker 1: can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.