Friday, December 9, 1994
The Fresno Bee
Back Home Steve Perry
By Ken Robison/The Fresno Bee
Back on record, back on stage. And on Sunday, back in Fresno.
Perry, Lemoore High School class of 1967, gained fame as one of
rock 'n roll's most popular vocalists when he fronted Journey for 10
years in the 1970s and '80's.
Through four Top-10 albums and such hit songs as "Who's Crying
Now", "Don't Stop Believing", "Open Arms", "Faithfully" and "Lovin',
Touchin', Squeezin", Journey sold 35 million records to rank as
Columbia Records' best-selling rock band.
His appearance Sunday (the show was postponed from Saturday
because of a scheduling conflict) at Warnors Theatre comes nearly
eight years after his last performance in Fresno. That was Jan. 2,
1987, when Journey played its second show in four days at Selland
Arena toward the end of its "Raised On Radio" tour.
Perry abruptly quit Journey - and rock 'n' roll - after that tour. He
has since revealed that he didn't sing a note for two years.
For the last several years, he has been out of the national limelight.
But he didn't exactly disappear; the folks in Kings County have seen
him hanging out with his buddies, Dan Humason of the Fox Theatre
and Perry has periodically shown up at the theater and also has been
seen at local eateries.
Perry's love of music must have returned, because he ended his
musical silence with this summer's "For the Love of Strange Medicine",
his second solo album. Now, apparently over his mid-'80s case of
burnout, he's back on tour.
Despite several attempts, The Bee was unable to persuade Perry
to do an interview. So we'll put one together using press material
from earlier this year:
Q: After 10 years with Journey, you quit after the
1986-87 tour. Why?
A: "At the end of that tour, I honestly had to stop. I
was suffering from serious fatigue, job burnout and
all sorts of other things happening in my personal
life as the result of the 10-year burn.
"I had to get off the merry-go-round. And there is
no easy way to get off when everybody else is on it
with you. But it really felt that my life depended on it.
I couldn't make anyone understand at the time, and
I don't know if I can make them understand it now."
(Source: Columbia Records biography accompanying his new
album, July, 1994)
Q: Was it just Journey you were tired of, or the
whole rock life?
A: "I just had to leave the group and stop touring
and not be creative anywhere. It wasn't like it was
specifically Journey, because if it was, it would have
been the most opportune time for me to leap into
a solo career. "I wasn't sure if I could get back from a lot of things,
because when I did leave Journey, I was just a bit
tired and singed around the edges."
(Source: Associated Press, August 1994)
Q: Was it a joint decision?
A: "After the 'Raised on Radio' tour ended, I had
a conversation with [keyboardist] Jon Cain and
[guitarist] Neal Schon, and I told them I just
couldn't do it. They wanted to keep going, and I
just couldn't. I didn't feel good about it, but what
could I do? It had been 10 years at that point."
(Source: San Francisco Chronicle, August, 1994)
Q: Were there personal reasons for wanting
time off?
A: "There were just so many things happening
to me at the time. During the last years of Journey,
my mother had gotten progressively worse [from
cancer], and she passed away while I was doing
vocals for 'Raised on Radio'. On top of that I lost
a relationship that didn't work out.
"I had never dealt with any of the personal stuff.
It's so easy to keep busy and not feel what's going
on, especially if you're in the music business.
"Basically, I had no direction, and I had lost my
passion for something I'd loved. Relatives, who
I had believed would never die, were gone. Then
immediately after I told the guys I was leaving, my
grandfather who had helped raise me, developed
a terminal illness and died.
"There's the fallacy that you're a little more
immortal if you reach a certain status in life.
When I was young, I believed all that immortality
stuff. But I learned a few things about immortality
upon re-entering the atmosphere. I lost some of
my heat tiles on the way in. So now I'm a little
singed but a lot better."
(Source: San Francisco Chronicle)
Q: What about those rumors that you had
health problems?
A: "My mother had a terminal illness that
took her life. After i left the band, people who
had seen me in radiology started talking. But
I was with my mom trying to get her well."
(Source: People magazine, July, 1994)
Q: What made you come back to music?
A: "I was bored without it in my life. People
would stop me on the street and ask, 'Are you
Steve Perry? What happened to you?' That
helped me to want to come back and make
music again."
(Source: People magazine)
Q: How did the new album come together?
A: "A lot of the songs were conceived in a
jam/rehearsal situation, which is best. So they
have size to them already. They weren't conceived
in a room with a keyboard and then made big -
they were born big. That's why they sound the way
they do."
(Source: Columbia bio)
Q: You recorded this with your new band. Is
that better than working with session musicians?
A: "You can get yourself a great-sounding
section, but it's all about spirit. There are a lot
of groups that aren't proficient individually, but
collectively there's a spirit. And I feel that and see
that with this combination.
"I wanted to have a band feeling. I had made a
record like 'Street Talk' already [using session
musicians], and I wanted to have an interactive,
creative environment. That's what you get with
a band."
(Source: Columbia bio)
Q: What does the title "For the Love of Strange
Medicine" mean?
A: "More times than I'd care to mention, I have
hinged my happiness on outside stuff - strange
medicine. Whether it's gambling, or relationships,
or a new car or winning the lotto, whatever. It's all
strange medicine because it only works so long."
(Source: Columbia bio)
"I've done a lot of things in my life for the love of
strange medicine - and I still do, by the way.
Relationships that I thought were going to fix me,
certain achievements I thought would take care of
it. The honeymoon is over on all these things.
"I'm not saying I've made it to the top of the
Himalayas and I've got my white robe on and I'm
cured. I'm still alive and living the same life you are."
(Source: Associated Press)
