Speaker 1: Hi, Brian, Hi Katie. You know, the past couple of
Speaker 1: weeks we've been all about politics, but we thought it
Speaker 1: would be nice to take a little break from it all,
Speaker 1: which is kind of fitting because that's what today's guests
Speaker 1: might be best known for, Brian, at least until recently,
Speaker 1: taking a very long break. That's true. Our guest today
Speaker 1: is Steve Perry. He was the frontman for the band
Speaker 1: Journey in the nineteen eighties, and unless you're truly living
Speaker 1: under a rock, you've heard Steve's lead vocals on the
Speaker 1: most downloaded song of the twentieth century. St Just hearing
Speaker 1: a few seconds of that transports me to another time
Speaker 1: and place, specifically Atlanta, Georgia, when I was work keen
Speaker 1: as an associate producer for CNN and this song came
Speaker 1: on the radio and I loved it. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: would have loved it had I been born at the time.
Speaker 1: But thanks, Brian, that is real. Welcol You're very welcome anyway.
Speaker 1: Steve Perry always wanted to be a musician, but by
Speaker 1: his late twenties he felt he'd run out his music
Speaker 1: career playing for small time bands in dusty bars. He
Speaker 1: left his musical dreams two men turkey coops on a
Speaker 1: farm in California. But then one day he got a
Speaker 1: call from a band manager named Herbie Herbert that would
Speaker 1: change his life. That's an understatement, because Herbie asked Steve
Speaker 1: if he'd be the lead singer in a band called Journey,
Speaker 1: alongside guitarist Neil Seawn Now with Steve at the mic.
Speaker 1: The band went on to record eight multi platinum albums
Speaker 1: Toward the World, but the life of a mega star
Speaker 1: grew kind of old for Steve. It was really hard
Speaker 1: on him, so following his mom's death, he walked away.
Speaker 1: The last time he performed live, which Journey, was in
Speaker 1: n seven, more than thirty years ago, and Steve has
Speaker 1: pretty much stayed out of the spotlight since then until
Speaker 1: last month. That's right, after decades of keeping a very
Speaker 1: low profile, Steve came out of retirement and recorded a
Speaker 1: new album called Traces. He was motivated by a late
Speaker 1: in life love who made him think twice about how
Speaker 1: he was going to spend the next thirty years. So
Speaker 1: we'll get to his music, his career, and why he
Speaker 1: felt the need to walk away, or I should say, Katie,
Speaker 1: you will get to all of that since I wasn't
Speaker 1: able to join you for your conversation with Steve, we
Speaker 1: missed you, Brian. I think you really would have liked him, Hi, Beat,
Speaker 1: I would have, and honestly, I could have used some
Speaker 1: backup vocals. You'll hear that a little bit later on.
Speaker 1: But we talked about so many things. So let's get
Speaker 1: right to my interview with Steve Perry. Are you having
Speaker 1: fund Steve, where we talk about your life and what's
Speaker 1: been going on and how you got to this moment
Speaker 1: in time. Is it nice to be back. I'm having fun.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of work and I haven't been working
Speaker 1: for a long time, so I had a nice vacation.
Speaker 1: I think that's probably you had a twenty year vacation.
Speaker 1: Actually I left years ago. Yeah, I can't it. Wow,
Speaker 1: And here we are February. I was home and that
Speaker 1: was it. You just walked away from everything. And before
Speaker 1: we talk about all that, I'm curious what your life
Speaker 1: has been like since you left the band. You went
Speaker 1: from such an intense, extreme grueling, high profile schedule right
Speaker 1: and so many demands on you to being able to
Speaker 1: kind of get up in the morning and say, what
Speaker 1: am I going to do today? Was that a huge adjustment?
Speaker 1: Did you love it? Tell me everything? It was? It
Speaker 1: was very, very difficult just to go back to, uh,
Speaker 1: the simplicities of life when as a child I reached
Speaker 1: for so much more. I don't know why I needed more.
Speaker 1: I think it was something that started when I watched
Speaker 1: my father sing when I was about four or five
Speaker 1: years old, and I saw him singing at the Hamperd
Speaker 1: Civic Auditorium and my mother was performing in her big
Speaker 1: can can dress in the same production. I can't remember
Speaker 1: what it was, but I remember looking at my father
Speaker 1: and he's singing, and I knew I had that inside
Speaker 1: of me. I just knew I had it inside of
Speaker 1: me because I said to myself, I can do that.
Speaker 1: And so I would sing around the house. And then,
Speaker 1: of course I discovered music. That was a big part
Speaker 1: of my life. I started playing at an early age.
Speaker 1: I guess it drove me. The discovery of music and
Speaker 1: the songwriting, the recording, the sound of their voices, the
Speaker 1: string parts, that it lifted me in such a way
Speaker 1: emotionally that I wanted to get closer to it. I
Speaker 1: was drawn to it. Now, you gotta know. Of course,
Speaker 1: my dad was a musical guy. Did he play instruments?
Speaker 1: You know? The only instrument I remember is he had
Speaker 1: a forty nine Ford and he had this big steering
Speaker 1: wheel and he literally had a ring on each finger.
Speaker 1: And he was sitting there and you know, when some
Speaker 1: swing song was on the radio, he'd be tapping away
Speaker 1: like a drum pocket thing and um. And I would
Speaker 1: just pay attention to certain things like that, simple things
Speaker 1: at a very early age, like I'm I'm three or
Speaker 1: four years old, like I said, you know, and everything
Speaker 1: seemed musical to me at that point. You just had
Speaker 1: that I guess I think I had a hyper connected
Speaker 1: to you know, maybe it's an auditory auditory You're correct,
Speaker 1: is auditory more than it is. I'm not trained. I
Speaker 1: don't know how to really play in truments. I was
Speaker 1: a drummer for years. That's my main instrument. Drummer, singer.
Speaker 1: Do you play the piano a little bit? A little
Speaker 1: enough to write, but I don't play. You were the
Speaker 1: voice of Journey, so I mean it sounds like a
Speaker 1: very difficult life. Your tour schedule was so relentless, the
Speaker 1: demands on you as the voice were so But I
Speaker 1: was a singer and the demands of the same. You're right, right,
Speaker 1: but I mean I know you just performed, you went home,
Speaker 1: and then you never went back. Let's talk about sort
Speaker 1: of what led you to to make that decision and
Speaker 1: what was it that brought you to that breaking point.
Speaker 1: I would love to mind that a little bit. I guess, Well,
Speaker 1: we weren't getting along very well. I mean, the band
Speaker 1: is a band, and that happens to groups, right of course.
Speaker 1: You know. Well, it's like you spend so much time together, right,
Speaker 1: and and you have so many different opinions about the
Speaker 1: direction you want things to go. H you disagree, and
Speaker 1: you agree on so many levels. And um, as it's
Speaker 1: moving forward and growing and becoming this other big thing
Speaker 1: called success. Um, everybody digs in for their own I
Speaker 1: think opinions, and it becomes a bit collidive. You collide
Speaker 1: and I think that's a new word. I'm making up
Speaker 1: words collidive, like collidive. I like it. And uh, um,
Speaker 1: so we're writing songs here today, um, and that's what happens.
Speaker 1: And uh we weren't talking much. We were just colliding
Speaker 1: with each other a lot. And that was going on
Speaker 1: for a while. And that's stressful and it was and
Speaker 1: U and the touring schedule was intense, and I would
Speaker 1: have liked to have slowed that all down a bit
Speaker 1: and been a little bit more. How do I say? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, if you go to a hardware store to
Speaker 1: get a cart in the milk, you're probably in the
Speaker 1: wrong place. It's not there. So you just felt like
Speaker 1: your your visions weren't aligned. Yeah, I think I was
Speaker 1: asking it to be something, is what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1: What did you want it to be? I wanted to
Speaker 1: be more spaced out. I thought we would tour for
Speaker 1: a while, stop for a while, have some life in
Speaker 1: their tour for a while, stop for a while. And
Speaker 1: when you would suggest that, suggest that what would be management?
Speaker 1: And most of the members their lifestyles required more dare
Speaker 1: I say? Cash flow? And and you know my upbringing
Speaker 1: was Portuguese. My grandfather taught me when I was very young.
Speaker 1: He said, it's not how much you make, it's how
Speaker 1: much you save. And I went, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: He says, if you make forty dollars, I want you
Speaker 1: to put twenty in the bank, and I want you
Speaker 1: to forget about it, and I want you to try
Speaker 1: to make that work. Forget about the twenty I think, Dad,
Speaker 1: I mean, really, it's such It's such wise stuff to
Speaker 1: hear as kids. You know, I was raised that way,
Speaker 1: so I was saving my money along the whole time.
Speaker 1: So your lifestyle was clearly very different than a lot
Speaker 1: of members, very different. Did you succumb to all the
Speaker 1: sort of tropes that we associate with rock and rollers
Speaker 1: and people you know on the road, like sex, drugs, alcohol,
Speaker 1: lavish spending I had, I have had occasional for the
Speaker 1: first three but lavish spending. It was not my game, right,
Speaker 1: you know? Uh yeah, I thought that that was just crazy.
Speaker 1: In fact, I kept my yellow Volkswagen that was so
Speaker 1: beat up. I just thought it was fine. You know.
Speaker 1: That was the way I was raised. When I came
Speaker 1: off tour, I went home to my mom's house and
Speaker 1: I remember coming down, going back in the back bedroom
Speaker 1: and and crashing for a couple of days, and the
Speaker 1: phone ring, and I swear this is the truth. I
Speaker 1: ran down the hallway completely naked as a as a
Speaker 1: as a jay bird, grabbing the phone, thinking I'm I'm
Speaker 1: late for the bus because I was in deep sort
Speaker 1: of like sleep. So that was how roadburn we used
Speaker 1: to call it roadburn to where you're so burnt, because
Speaker 1: this is what you do. You get a cycle. You know.
Speaker 1: It seems to me from a business perspective if the
Speaker 1: band heard your cries of help, that they would not,
Speaker 1: as my dad would say, I want to kill the
Speaker 1: goose that laid the golden egg. Right. Well, I think
Speaker 1: at the time it was interpreted as just whining, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, and maybe I was whining a bit because
Speaker 1: it was hard work. Well, let's talk about the hard
Speaker 1: work it was because when I mentioned that your voice
Speaker 1: is your instrument, it required really an obsessive it sounds
Speaker 1: to me amount of attention paid to it to keep
Speaker 1: it Roger is the word. It's an erotic, obsessive feeling
Speaker 1: that you just don't know what you have from one
Speaker 1: night to the name. It sounds like it almost took
Speaker 1: over your life. Steve, it does. It does take over
Speaker 1: your life, because explain that to people who don't sing
Speaker 1: for a living. Well, because if the instrument you have
Speaker 1: is you, it's not just the vocal cords in your throat.
Speaker 1: It's you and the vocal cords and their inflammation issues.
Speaker 1: And if one vocal cord is slightly inflamed more than
Speaker 1: the other. They don't line up. You've got trouble. If
Speaker 1: you don't get enough sleep, if you don't drink enough water,
Speaker 1: if you stay up too late, if you're just completely
Speaker 1: burnt out and fatigue. That's enough on its own. And
Speaker 1: if you if you ask anyone from striisand to anyone
Speaker 1: about this, they will say, gosh, finally somebody's talking about it,
Speaker 1: you know, because the truth is it is it is
Speaker 1: an eurosis into itself. Do you think it is for
Speaker 1: all singers or are more for you? Well, okay, I
Speaker 1: guess I should speak for myself. I mean, I'm just curious.
Speaker 1: You've probably talked to a lot of singers. Did you
Speaker 1: find this commonality um most among nother heads to say?
Speaker 1: Nobody gets it? Do they know? Nobody? Does? I understand?
Speaker 1: That's so interesting. I wonder why don't people talk about
Speaker 1: how much care and attention and neurosis often a company.
Speaker 1: I think I think the word fear. The fear is this, Katie.
Speaker 1: People have been waiting for a long time for you
Speaker 1: to sing the songs that they have decided to embrace
Speaker 1: and bring into their lives and make part of something
Speaker 1: that enriches their emotional part of their lives. And you're
Speaker 1: coming to town and you pull in the day of
Speaker 1: the gig, and you go to the sound check and
Speaker 1: you open your throat, you feel crumby and grumby, as
Speaker 1: I call it our crusty. It can be really scary
Speaker 1: to think that you're going to fall short of what
Speaker 1: these people have been waiting so much for you to
Speaker 1: give them. It's it's not fair to them, and at
Speaker 1: some point then it is not fair to you to
Speaker 1: put yourself in that position all the time. That's a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure. Now, now I want to make clear
Speaker 1: I'm not complaining. I'm not whining. Please anybody listening out there,
Speaker 1: I'd like to talk about things that people don't talk about,
Speaker 1: and this is certainly one of them. Have you ever
Speaker 1: been performing and felt that you disappointed the crowd and
Speaker 1: I'm curious what was their reaction and how did you
Speaker 1: feel I did. Now that's a whole nether landscape of neurosis,
Speaker 1: because sometimes what do you get? By the way, no, no,
Speaker 1: only once I think I was in I was in
Speaker 1: Toledo and I said Cleveland because I was so tired.
Speaker 1: So from that point on, between the two bass drums
Speaker 1: with a little led like the city would have to
Speaker 1: be written on a piece of paper, because I didn't
Speaker 1: want to make that mistake again. That's how tired I was.
Speaker 1: That's what I got. The only time I got booed.
Speaker 1: The only other time I could recall was I was
Speaker 1: so fatigued that all I could remember it was the
Speaker 1: first verse of Oll Sherry. I couldn't remember the second verse.
Speaker 1: So I did the first verse twice, and I looked
Speaker 1: at the answer and put my palms in me here,
Speaker 1: like I don't know what to tell you. So you
Speaker 1: were pretty much just completely burnt out, Steve, and you said,
Speaker 1: I can't do this anymore. So so for all those years,
Speaker 1: and obviously you had a a solo career after that,
Speaker 1: but for for much of that time, you were just
Speaker 1: living in California doing your thing. So what would you
Speaker 1: do all day? Well, first I went to my hometown
Speaker 1: and I hung out with friends, and I went to
Speaker 1: the old ice cream parlor and went out to a cemetery,
Speaker 1: and I would spend solitude moments when my departed parents
Speaker 1: and grandparents and uh um. And then I had a
Speaker 1: step grandmother, and I had my father's sister, my aunt Betty,
Speaker 1: and I really I went back and took care of them,
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, but that's that. That probably
Speaker 1: wasn't your entire day. I mean, did you did you
Speaker 1: still make music? Did you still think about songs? Did
Speaker 1: you mean? I know you spent some time at the
Speaker 1: carnival when it came at the fair. Well, the fair
Speaker 1: would come to town in June in my hometown, and
Speaker 1: I always dreamt of running away with that with the circus,
Speaker 1: so to speak, because it would show up and it
Speaker 1: would be so amazing and it looked like the island
Speaker 1: on Pinocchio, you know, the Sperris wheels and the lights
Speaker 1: and everything, and I thought it was so amazing, and
Speaker 1: next thing I know, they're gone. So I thought, gosh,
Speaker 1: some day I'd like to, you know, run away with
Speaker 1: the circus. And being in a rocket roll band is
Speaker 1: a circus life, you know, you do run away with
Speaker 1: the circus, so to speak, and you do travel just
Speaker 1: like that. When you were off and it turned like
Speaker 1: the clock struck eight pm wherever you were, did you
Speaker 1: ever think, wow, I you know, in my old life
Speaker 1: I'd be stepping onto a stage right now. I mean,
Speaker 1: did you miss the rush the adrenaline of course, of
Speaker 1: kind of just being in that moment. To me, that
Speaker 1: would be I wish I could could sing. And the
Speaker 1: idea of just being able to sing something a song
Speaker 1: you love and that people really respond to it, that
Speaker 1: just must There must be nothing like it. Yeah, to
Speaker 1: be able to write music that you believe in and
Speaker 1: have someone else love it as you initially sort of
Speaker 1: feel like it's worth being loved. Nothing like it, nothing
Speaker 1: like it, and then and then to record it and
Speaker 1: they embrace it, and then to go out and perform it.
Speaker 1: It's just the whip cream on the cheesecake, you know,
Speaker 1: it really is. It's just it's just something I can't explain.
Speaker 1: And yes, to answer your question, I really did miss
Speaker 1: it terribly, but it came with too much. I think
Speaker 1: returned to our baggage together. I think that you know,
Speaker 1: look were tired of me, and I was kind of
Speaker 1: tired of them, you know, and I think we needed
Speaker 1: just to go our ways. That's all. Well, you did
Speaker 1: then go onto your solo career, right, and was that
Speaker 1: more satisfying for you? You did? I really didn't go
Speaker 1: into a solo career at that point. I did the
Speaker 1: solo career because Neil Sean had done two solo albums
Speaker 1: while I was in the band. I told the manager,
Speaker 1: why is Neil doing a solo album? Well, I can't
Speaker 1: stop him. He said, he wants to record it, you know.
Speaker 1: So we did a song and a whole record with
Speaker 1: John Hammer. Then we do another journey. I'm another tour,
Speaker 1: and then I told the manager, look, I'm gonna do one,
Speaker 1: and you shouldn't keep doing this because you know it's
Speaker 1: gonna I think you could damage the band at some level.
Speaker 1: Next thing, I know he's doing a second one beyond Hammer.
Speaker 1: So I turned the manager and I said, Okay, I
Speaker 1: told you I'm going to do one. So that's when
Speaker 1: I went to l A and did street Talk and
Speaker 1: wrote O's Sherry and full Shart with Randy Goodram and
Speaker 1: strung out with with Craig Cramp and a bunch of
Speaker 1: friends and and and Nicole Bolos as the engineer. We
Speaker 1: recorded that record so fast at this little studio in
Speaker 1: the valley, and we had a great time and the
Speaker 1: record came out and it was just a great moment.
Speaker 1: Then I asked my mother what should I do? Because
Speaker 1: she was already sick at that point. She was very sick,
Speaker 1: and I asked her what I should do. Should I
Speaker 1: go back to Journey, should continue my solo career? Just
Speaker 1: to think about it? Please Mom? Because she was so
Speaker 1: instrumental in my early years of of being in bands
Speaker 1: in high school and everything. I just wanted her opinion,
Speaker 1: And honestly, she couldn't talk very well because her speech
Speaker 1: was severely impaired. The next day she said, you and
Speaker 1: I want, are you sure, Mom? Because that means I
Speaker 1: won't be able to hang out with you. If I
Speaker 1: do the solo stuff, I can. I can do it
Speaker 1: at my own pace, she said, YOUNI just like that.
Speaker 1: So I went back and did the record. Uh, and
Speaker 1: you look at that record. It says this one's for
Speaker 1: you Mom. After you left Journey, why wouldn't you just
Speaker 1: do a solo career? Because that's not why I left
Speaker 1: the band. I left the band for all kinds of reasons. Okay.
Speaker 1: I didn't leave the band to hurt anybody or run
Speaker 1: away from him. I left the band to go back
Speaker 1: to my life, I think, and reconnect with some foundational
Speaker 1: things um that I felt. I think we're slipping away.
Speaker 1: I think we're slipping away. Thank you. I think we're
Speaker 1: slipping away. Like I just I think that it was
Speaker 1: such an amazing ride that I was on. There was
Speaker 1: no room for anything else in my life. So I
Speaker 1: think I had to leave it all to open up
Speaker 1: and have some room for something else. And so that
Speaker 1: meant to go back and find out what that is.
Speaker 1: Any regrets that you that you left, or any regrets
Speaker 1: the way your life unfolded? Mmmmm, I don't. It was
Speaker 1: like tempering steel, to be honest with you. You know,
Speaker 1: steel's kind of often to heat it up. I had
Speaker 1: to get heated up and then putting the cold water
Speaker 1: and heat it up, putting the cold water, and it
Speaker 1: kind of tempered me at this point in my age.
Speaker 1: Right now, I don't have any regrets. I can tell
Speaker 1: you that, though others may not agree with me, I
Speaker 1: think it was the best thing for everybody. I really do. Um.
Speaker 1: But before we get a break, Um, at what moment
Speaker 1: did you think, Wow, I have a good voice. Probably
Speaker 1: singing into the into the well out the ranch. It
Speaker 1: was so beautiful to hear that echo. I just loved
Speaker 1: the way it sounded. And then also I used to
Speaker 1: sing when I couldn't get to the ranch, I would
Speaker 1: unplug mom's hose from the vacuum cleaner and put one
Speaker 1: in my left ear and singing the other end. And
Speaker 1: I love the way that sounded. What would you sing? Um?
Speaker 1: I would just make things up. I don't know, I
Speaker 1: would just I love the way it sounded. Those are
Speaker 1: the young I do remember, though, um ah angels listending,
Speaker 1: listen me crying. You know, I remember those guys. I
Speaker 1: think it was the Crests. You know. I think it
Speaker 1: was the crest You must have been singing some Sam
Speaker 1: cooked too back in the day, and I worshiped him
Speaker 1: because that was what was your favorite Sam Cooke song?
Speaker 1: The first one would be, Um, Cupid came on the
Speaker 1: radio and my mom's shifty six Thunderbird, and oh man, uh,
Speaker 1: the whole world got so small, it got so tunnel vision.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget it. And I was just captivated by
Speaker 1: the emotion coming out of that speaker and how it
Speaker 1: was landing. And so I think that's what got me
Speaker 1: reaching for music from the very beginning, was why does
Speaker 1: this make me feel this way? Why is what is
Speaker 1: happening here? You know it connected with me. You know,
Speaker 1: do you sink? Can you sing? Cupid? I know that
Speaker 1: all the word Cupid, drawback your boat and let your
Speaker 1: aero flow straight to my love is hot for me,
Speaker 1: nobody even me. Now, I can't sing now, I'm criticizing
Speaker 1: that just to show you. I just criticized for phrases
Speaker 1: that I just sang at the same time I was
Speaker 1: singing them, okay, And I really got to tell you
Speaker 1: without echo, I'm singing dry in this room. I don't
Speaker 1: sing dry. Well, thank you for singing dry for us
Speaker 1: quick pro quo no no no, no, no no no.
Speaker 1: But my favorite Sam Cook is I don't know much
Speaker 1: about his story, don't know much blogy, I don't know
Speaker 1: much about the French I took. I don't know much
Speaker 1: about But I don't know that I love you right
Speaker 1: and know that if you love me too, want a
Speaker 1: wonderful world, this would be harmony. I'll never forget when
Speaker 1: that was in the movie Witness and Harrison Ford and
Speaker 1: Kelly McGinnis were dancing. It was so sexy, And isn't
Speaker 1: that what it's about? It? It really is about the
Speaker 1: intimacy of music is so personal. Well, I'm excited to
Speaker 1: talk to you more about this new album and the
Speaker 1: genesis of this album. We'll talk about that right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to my interview with Steve Perry. So, Steve,
Speaker 1: you're back after all these years, after all still crazy
Speaker 1: after a Yeah, I know, it's been a long time
Speaker 1: coming since I saw your face. I know. So let's
Speaker 1: talk about this new album, Traces, and it comes from
Speaker 1: a deeply, deeply personal place. You fell in love with
Speaker 1: someone who unfortunately was diagnosed with breast cancer, was in
Speaker 1: remission when you first learned about her, and then when
Speaker 1: you met her it had come spread and come back,
Speaker 1: and uh, you decided to jump into the relationship anyway.
Speaker 1: What was it about that relationship that just almost had
Speaker 1: the same attraction for you as music? It was it
Speaker 1: was just almost terrifyingly wonderful because I could not stay
Speaker 1: away from her and I knew she was sick. It
Speaker 1: was like it was like what am I doing? There
Speaker 1: was times I would talk to a therapist that what
Speaker 1: am I dooling? I was going to say. I wonder
Speaker 1: if there was something about the potentially ephemeral nature of
Speaker 1: that relationship that somehow attracted you not to be fleeting,
Speaker 1: you know, not not permanent. Wow, I don't know. All
Speaker 1: I know is that the connection was so strong and
Speaker 1: it was very, very difficult to not run. At the
Speaker 1: same time, there was this incredible connection that said, you
Speaker 1: have nowhere to run, there's nowhere else you want to
Speaker 1: be like. I talked to Nico Bollis, the front of
Speaker 1: Mine Engineer, and one day I was watching him work
Speaker 1: when I just started seeing Kelly, and he said, what
Speaker 1: are you doing here? I said, well, I'm I'm hanging out,
Speaker 1: but you're watching you mix a little bit on this
Speaker 1: this cool band. He said, Man, you should be with
Speaker 1: your girl. I said, well, we went on a few times.
Speaker 1: Because I'm not sure what to do about that. I'm
Speaker 1: just very confused about it because it's scary because she's
Speaker 1: not well. I don't want to fall in love and
Speaker 1: lose again. I don't I just don't want to. I
Speaker 1: don't know what to do, you know. He said, Dude,
Speaker 1: I've never seen you like this before. He says, I
Speaker 1: have never see you're so happy with anyone. There's something
Speaker 1: else going on for you and her. He said, men,
Speaker 1: you should be with your girl. Man, that's your girl.
Speaker 1: I could tell that, and so I left called her
Speaker 1: when at luncheon that kept continued. How long were you together?
Speaker 1: A year and a half. How long was she sick?
Speaker 1: Really sick during that period of time, often on the
Speaker 1: whole time, but not as bad as God. Of course
Speaker 1: the last um I would say, the last six months,
Speaker 1: especially for the last three months. Of course, we're the worst.
Speaker 1: But there was a time here in New York where
Speaker 1: she was on this incredible clinical trial treatment that didn't
Speaker 1: make her sick, that was invented by this guy, and
Speaker 1: it was doing amazing things for her. And she had
Speaker 1: tumors in her lungs and she had um some in
Speaker 1: her bone marrow. And we would do the scans and
Speaker 1: the tumors would have scar tissue where the m r
Speaker 1: I would show there's, well there was scar tissue there,
Speaker 1: but I don't see the tumors anymore, they would say.
Speaker 1: And we look at each other, said what what do
Speaker 1: you say? What do you say? You know? And we
Speaker 1: would go from not being able to ride bicycles in
Speaker 1: New York to riding bicycles in the park and just thinking,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is insane, this is so great,
Speaker 1: you know, And then come around September of that year
Speaker 1: as when she said, you know, honey, something's not right.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it is. I know my body,
Speaker 1: believe me. I. So it's not right to just scan
Speaker 1: and and come back, you know. So cancer is so cruel,
Speaker 1: you know. And well, you know, let's talk about the
Speaker 1: promise you made to Kelly Steve. You said that you
Speaker 1: would not go back into isolation, that you would put
Speaker 1: out some of the music that you were writing and
Speaker 1: thinking about. Tell me about the promise you made to her. Well,
Speaker 1: my favorite time we would spend together was, you know,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, we would kind of
Speaker 1: lights down and give each other a smooch and I'd
Speaker 1: either talk her to sleep or she talked me to sleep.
Speaker 1: And one night she said, I, I need to ask
Speaker 1: you to make me a promise and I and I said, well,
Speaker 1: what's up. I want you to promise that if something
Speaker 1: ever happened to me, that you would not go back
Speaker 1: into isolation, for I think it would make this all
Speaker 1: for not. So I was never given such an amazing
Speaker 1: long sentence, was so in encompassing value of my whole
Speaker 1: everything like that. But remember she was a PhD psychologist,
Speaker 1: so she she was very good assembling her words and
Speaker 1: and very clear when she had something to say or feel,
Speaker 1: You're gonna hear pretty much to the to the bone
Speaker 1: what it is, and this was one of those moments.
Speaker 1: So I said, of course, I promise I won't go
Speaker 1: back into isolation. But look, it wasn't like we weren't
Speaker 1: hanging out or going on trips or having dinner with friends.
Speaker 1: We were living our lives. But she knew that I
Speaker 1: was isolating from music. She knew I was isolating from singing.
Speaker 1: I never really sang much, So that's what she was
Speaker 1: talking about. Your new album, Traces is full of ballad
Speaker 1: summer sad. Others are nostalgic, and I think people listening
Speaker 1: to this one song called No More Crying would assume
Speaker 1: it's about losing Kelly. Let's listen to a little bit
Speaker 1: and you can tell us how that song came about. Good,
Speaker 1: let's talk about that song. Well, actually that song is
Speaker 1: more of a of a of a of a different
Speaker 1: sort of dyslexic version of what you're saying. That meaning
Speaker 1: he's trying to convince himself the answer to not crying
Speaker 1: is to just not love again and basically to shut
Speaker 1: down his heart. Now, there is that component in there.
Speaker 1: It is a relationship song. But if you listen to
Speaker 1: the second verse, I'm so free. I need nobody, no
Speaker 1: more lies, no surprises, no confrontations. It's a peaceful life
Speaker 1: behind closed doors. But in the dark of the night,
Speaker 1: I start to remember. Okay. So that whole arc of
Speaker 1: all those lyrics right there is about isolation and how
Speaker 1: just pull away from it all and you won't have
Speaker 1: to deal with lies and and by the way, there's
Speaker 1: a bit of my past past and there. Okay, but
Speaker 1: lies and confrontations and you know, surprises. I mean there
Speaker 1: was a lot of surprises that when you're in a band,
Speaker 1: you're being told to do and go and perform and
Speaker 1: do places that you just don't want to do. But
Speaker 1: guess what, it's been booked in your stock. So there
Speaker 1: was always this stuff I didn't like too much either.
Speaker 1: So there's a bit of my past in all this.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you the song I think you're
Speaker 1: really looking for is most of All Now. If they
Speaker 1: have most of All here, if you were to hear
Speaker 1: the opening line of most of All, he says, promises
Speaker 1: that won't fade away. Um, it's about reflecting all those memories. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's about the whole thing. To the ones who have
Speaker 1: lost their most of all many years won't heal when
Speaker 1: tears still call their most of all, you know that
Speaker 1: song I worked with any good Room before I met
Speaker 1: Kelly and turned out it ended up becoming a song
Speaker 1: of Let's listen to it for a second. From that
Speaker 1: wall facely golden members read that will lave raise all
Speaker 1: the plants and treads so hard to replace. From another
Speaker 1: place to another town, still drifting to the minds fathers plenty,
Speaker 1: still where you surprised Steve that a song that you
Speaker 1: had already written before you met Kelly seemed to look
Speaker 1: I have goose bumps on my arms. I can't. I
Speaker 1: can't make that happen. It's something that happens to me.
Speaker 1: Where that comes from is life sustaining, and He's the
Speaker 1: most important thing of my life right now, Katie. I
Speaker 1: mean to connect with music like that, and even if
Speaker 1: it's my own music, it means so much to me
Speaker 1: at this time in my life. I'm not a spring chicken, honey, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, and I need this so more than I've
Speaker 1: ever needed it in my whole life. This connect, this
Speaker 1: connection with emotion in music and songwriting, nothing means more
Speaker 1: to me than reconnecting like a song like that. Uh,
Speaker 1: the lyrics of that. I'm so proud of him because
Speaker 1: he's just being honest about the memories and everything is
Speaker 1: going on. And then he says, from another place to
Speaker 1: another town, still drifting, That's what I did when I
Speaker 1: was home. He just shifts, He goes he's being memorable.
Speaker 1: Then he shifts to like just drifting around again. Lost.
Speaker 1: But to the ones you've lost their most of all
Speaker 1: many years, won't heal when tears still call their most
Speaker 1: of all? That means so much to me. I need
Speaker 1: that out there for me, And I just hope it
Speaker 1: touches somebody, but for me, I mean I need it.
Speaker 1: I think that also there's some very up tempo songs,
Speaker 1: kind of of course rock songs, like like Noah Racin,
Speaker 1: which is about a high school reunion. Let's listen to
Speaker 1: that song for a second. Sorry, offend together you'll call
Speaker 1: what is it about high school that keeps drawing you
Speaker 1: back there? Steve? I think we're all in high school still,
Speaker 1: I think emotionally, if we look honestly within ourselves, some
Speaker 1: of our teenage years, the foundation of our hearts and
Speaker 1: soul were completely fed by all the fantasies. These teenage
Speaker 1: fantasies of our youth. I read that you don't like
Speaker 1: to dissect songs because you say, if you talk too
Speaker 1: much about what they mean, it takes away the ability
Speaker 1: for everyone to interpret it for themselves and for have
Speaker 1: it to make it meaningful for them experience their own experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. Having said that, I love the story behind,
Speaker 1: don't stop believe it. So you have to tell us
Speaker 1: a little bit about the circumstances. You're in a hotel. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm in a hotel in Detroit, and we just finished
Speaker 1: a show at the Cobo Hall and uh, I think
Speaker 1: it was the Poncha train. Somebody brought it to my attention.
Speaker 1: Hotel and I'm at the top floor looking down and
Speaker 1: I'm not sleepy. It's like three in the morning. I'm
Speaker 1: seeing the street lights glowing the entire streets from the
Speaker 1: top down and they're sort of a of a rust
Speaker 1: colored amber color, and I just could not believe it.
Speaker 1: Everybody's still milling around, you know. Uh, I thought these
Speaker 1: are like street light people. They're like people living under
Speaker 1: these street lights. And it's three in the morning, so
Speaker 1: I remember that street light people. And then down the
Speaker 1: boulevard up and down the boulevard. That's right. And then uh,
Speaker 1: and then I remembered, Um, there was this place in
Speaker 1: my hometown called the l Rancho Hotel that had a bar,
Speaker 1: a terrible bar and club with a little stage in
Speaker 1: the corner. That's where I used to play all my
Speaker 1: cover band music with the band I wasn't at the time.
Speaker 1: And you'd walk into this place and it had a
Speaker 1: red carpet that was just stained with all sorts of
Speaker 1: alcohol and wine spilling and everything, and they never washed it.
Speaker 1: And they're the smell of wine and cheap perfume. Women
Speaker 1: would wear the cheapest perfume, okay, and to show up,
Speaker 1: you know, to try to have a smile and share
Speaker 1: of a night, right. So that came from it came
Speaker 1: from there, you know. And that was just sort of
Speaker 1: reflections of a bunch of different places in your life.
Speaker 1: That's right. And this city motel or hotel, that's right.
Speaker 1: And and and ultimately though it's a love story, isn't it. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's about not giving up. It's really about you know,
Speaker 1: you've got to keep believing. It's about a city boy
Speaker 1: and a city girl and and just taking the world. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm making a midnight taking the midnight train to anywhere.
Speaker 1: It's about throwing yourself to the wind and and just
Speaker 1: living your life. You know. I think that is what
Speaker 1: resonates with the youth of today because the song really
Speaker 1: is about it's okay where you're at right now. You're
Speaker 1: doing what you're supposed to be doing. You're throwing your
Speaker 1: life to the wind and just follow the wind. You know,
Speaker 1: it must be fun for you to see a whole
Speaker 1: new generation fall in love with Journey. I think we
Speaker 1: can give a little credit possibly to the cast of Glee,
Speaker 1: which covered Don't Stop Believing. So let's listen for a second.
Speaker 1: Stop hold on to that. When you saw that on Glee, Steve,
Speaker 1: did you get such a kick out of it? Because
Speaker 1: I remember my daughter we were super you know, glee freaks.
Speaker 1: I guess they call them gleeks. We used to watch it,
Speaker 1: you know, it was there a thing we did together,
Speaker 1: and Kara used to record herself and put herself on YouTube.
Speaker 1: She since taking it down, uh singing don't Stop Believing?
Speaker 1: And I mean it really did you get a kick
Speaker 1: out of that? Did I did? Because it was a
Speaker 1: whole new generation and again a high school generation. You see,
Speaker 1: it's that, it's that it's that period that I'm talking
Speaker 1: about that is an important period in any evolution of
Speaker 1: a human being. It just is a magical time our
Speaker 1: teen years and and to see that song become part
Speaker 1: of the joys of that generation really really warmed my heart.
Speaker 1: And then it continued by the way, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean it continued all sorts of places, sporting events and
Speaker 1: ended up with sopranos of course, well, of course, and
Speaker 1: and and that was a thrill for you. I know
Speaker 1: that they reached out that you knew before the rest
Speaker 1: of the country. I didn't know that it was going
Speaker 1: to happen at the end of the Sopranos because I
Speaker 1: held out. I was the only one who held out.
Speaker 1: You know, there's three writers and everybody said yes, but me.
Speaker 1: And the only reason I held out was because I
Speaker 1: want to make sure if that David Chase wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: whack the family with the song playing, you know, because
Speaker 1: Scorsese would do that. You know. Going to the Rock
Speaker 1: and Roll Hall of Fame, was it great senior bandmates
Speaker 1: or did you? Were you conflicted? I was conflicted, and
Speaker 1: I and I almost didn't go because I was so conflicted.
Speaker 1: But what happened was I started going online and I
Speaker 1: remembered the times I had spent away in my hometown
Speaker 1: and we spoke of earlier and all my heroes that
Speaker 1: I grew up with on those forty fives were inducted,
Speaker 1: and I thought, oh my god, this is where I'm going.
Speaker 1: This is this. I'm gonna goose bumps again, stee my
Speaker 1: arms because I really felt like, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: is real. I'm really going to be inducted with my heroes,
Speaker 1: the ones that I looked up to. So I felt
Speaker 1: a sense of purpose and insistence within myself that I
Speaker 1: must be there because at that point, no matter what
Speaker 1: we did or didn't do, or you know, you could
Speaker 1: still love somebody and not hang out with him, by
Speaker 1: the way, you know, I really think that needs to
Speaker 1: be said, all right, And so the point is that
Speaker 1: I still have feelings because we were in the trenches
Speaker 1: together as a group, trying to accomplish a mission that
Speaker 1: you know, the concept of a band is when you
Speaker 1: band together to do collectively what you can't do by yourself.
Speaker 1: It would have been so epic if you had just
Speaker 1: done one song. But I didn't understand that. But but
Speaker 1: instead I wanted to pay tribute to everyone who had
Speaker 1: done so much for giving this kid, a San Joaquin
Speaker 1: Valley kid from the Hanford, California a chance to live
Speaker 1: his dream and chase after it. That meant more to me.
Speaker 1: I think Greg Rowley, I think Neil Sean, I think
Speaker 1: the manager for believing me. And then I had to
Speaker 1: thank Arnell for for pouring his heart out every night
Speaker 1: for ten years. You're the guy who, I can't say
Speaker 1: your replacement, but the guy who became the lead singer.
Speaker 1: But he but he's so good. He's a good kid.
Speaker 1: He's he really has been pouring his heart out in
Speaker 1: that band for ten years and generous about it. Look
Speaker 1: why not? I mean, I mean that's the way I
Speaker 1: see it. If you you know, you had some good
Speaker 1: times with these band members, obviously didn't see eye to eye,
Speaker 1: obviously got on each other's nerves, and you were happy
Speaker 1: to walk away. But you know, a lot of this
Speaker 1: is about friendship, and I don't know I have friends
Speaker 1: that I have I'm no longer friends with me. Why well,
Speaker 1: it's no, no, I mean, it's too complicated. But in
Speaker 1: my heart, well it leaves a hole in your heart,
Speaker 1: but it is too complicated. Why why can't you go
Speaker 1: back to your friends because it's complicated. I should. I
Speaker 1: want to and hope it will, but it's but it's
Speaker 1: very to you. But it's very complicated, very difficult. I should.
Speaker 1: I hope to and one day I will, and you,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can. Why not? It's too complicated.
Speaker 1: I just can't. Can't go back. No, I don't think
Speaker 1: people can go back. I think that's one of the
Speaker 1: things I learned when I was away that if I'm
Speaker 1: to push through life, I like the adventure of always
Speaker 1: going somewhere I've never been and growing with that. And
Speaker 1: the biggest thing, Katie, the biggest thing is a second ago.
Speaker 1: I just played most of all for you, and I
Speaker 1: got goose bumps on my arm. I have not had
Speaker 1: that connection with something I lost when I left the
Speaker 1: group in years, remember thirty one years I left. Then
Speaker 1: somewhere in the middle, I came back to them again, tried.
Speaker 1: I tried to go back. It didn't work a second time.
Speaker 1: Why should I try a third time if it didn't work.
Speaker 1: And I'm not even talking about music, I'm talking about
Speaker 1: a relationship. I guess Steve, Look, if relationships were possible
Speaker 1: like that, I just don't know if people can separate
Speaker 1: there their motives from their relationships, if you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, I think I know what you mean. Yeah, really,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's friendships are private and intimate and
Speaker 1: protective to themselves. When they get spilled into motives, it
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like a friendship. It seems like you're afraid
Speaker 1: to rekindle a relationship for fear it will be exploited
Speaker 1: for something else. Pretty much, if it's going to be
Speaker 1: a friendship, exploitation of a friendship is just not a friendship.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Time. Time tells everything. You know. Life
Speaker 1: is a very strange place. And I think that the Eels,
Speaker 1: that the lead singer of the Eels set, Yeah, he said,
Speaker 1: Steve Perry moves in mysterious ways. Do you think you're
Speaker 1: going to do another album? I mean, is this is this,
Speaker 1: is this reconnection with music going to last? Or do
Speaker 1: you think that this is a new chapter and we'll
Speaker 1: be hearing a lot more from you? How much stuff
Speaker 1: I want to do? I've got songs started, I've got
Speaker 1: songs already recorded that are sketched. I've got more material.
Speaker 1: I have more material than I need, and maybe that
Speaker 1: I have time left in my life to finish. To
Speaker 1: be honest, it's a commitment to continue to make music
Speaker 1: for the time I have left. I tell you from
Speaker 1: the bottom of my heart, this is life sustaining to me.
Speaker 1: And I need that right now because Katie, have lost
Speaker 1: my mother and my dad, my grandparents who raised me.
Speaker 1: I'm an only child. I need this. Why didn't you
Speaker 1: ever get married, Steve? Scared? Scared, And I'll tell you
Speaker 1: With Kelly, I was really close, so close. I just
Speaker 1: didn't like what happened and what I saw growing up,
Speaker 1: and I just don't think it was for me. And
Speaker 1: then I wasn't deposed, and so many divorces with the
Speaker 1: band members, one after another, and the next time I
Speaker 1: turned around, this guy is marrying a new one. And
Speaker 1: now I've been across at least three wives with one
Speaker 1: guy while I was in the band, and a couple
Speaker 1: with others, and and deposed because you're in a partnership together.
Speaker 1: So I watched them lose half of every thing every time,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, it's not how much you make, it's
Speaker 1: how much you save. So maybe I should stay single.
Speaker 1: Or have a good prenup, Steve, Well, I hear they're
Speaker 1: not so great, and I know the album is doing great.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy, so happy. Nothing makes me happier right
Speaker 1: now than the people here this music and hopefully love
Speaker 1: it and feel it. That's all I want, that's all.
Speaker 1: I don't care if they stream it. I don't even care.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy for this new chapter in your life,
Speaker 1: and I wish you a lot of happiness, but I
Speaker 1: also wish you a lot of peace, Steve Perry. On
Speaker 1: that note, that wraps up my interview with Steve Perry,
Speaker 1: such a treat to talk with him and to sing
Speaker 1: with him too. Well, Katie, we've gotten a lot of
Speaker 1: listener emails asking for more singing from you, not from me.
Speaker 1: I have to get the people what they want, then, Brian,
Speaker 1: you do you do? Before we go, I want to
Speaker 1: thank the team that produces this pot cast Producer Emma
Speaker 1: morgen Stern, associate producer Noura, Richie Jared O'Connell, our engineer,
Speaker 1: and special thanks to my good friend Matt Lombardi who
Speaker 1: really helped me so much with this episode. Matt reunited
Speaker 1: and it feels so good. Also, thank you, Gianna Palmer
Speaker 1: for your help, and Casey Holford for putting up with
Speaker 1: Steve and me on a Saturday morning in the studio.
Speaker 1: Thanks to everyone at Katie currk Media Beta. Mas is
Speaker 1: Katie's assistant and a fabulous one at that, and Julia
Speaker 1: Lewis is the social media whiz. Jared Arnold composed our
Speaker 1: theme music. You can find Brian on Twitter under Goldsmith
Speaker 1: b and I am everywhere Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, all as
Speaker 1: Katie CURRC. If you've thoughts about the show, or questions
Speaker 1: for Katie or me, or guest suggestions, or really anything,
Speaker 1: please reach out our email addresses comments at currect podcast
Speaker 1: dot com, or you can leave us a voicemail by
Speaker 1: calling nine to nine two to four, four six three seven.
Speaker 1: We'll talk you next week. M