(E) To himself--and to those who grew up with him in the San Joaquin Valley--Steve Perry will always
be a "a Valley Boy born and raised on the near alfalfa field." Although he seldom grants interviews and
never reads press reviews, Perry was frank, thought-provoking and outspoken in his comments about the personnel
changes in Journey, the temptations of corporate sponsorship, the creativity--and lack of it--in radio
, and the success of Steve soundalikes. At the tail end of the massive Journey tour, Perry spoke from the hip
and the heart. Right now, he is truly a road-weary musician who wants just to go home and take stock of his life.
Whether or not you're a dyed-in-the-wool Journey fan, we're sure you'll find his comments both
interesting and entertaining. Our logical starting point was the significance of being raosed on radio
and what that had to do with molding a very principled, opinionated performer.
Gavin: The album title "Raised On Radio" is relevant to what we do here. Can you explain the concept?
Steve Perry: Jonathan Cain and I were writing the lyrics for the album, and along the way we were
looking for a great title for it. We were hoping that at some point in time there would be a song
that would be a title track. We were working on this one song called "Radio."
One thing led to another and I started telling him how absolutely important radio was in my life.
Everything I've learned about music. my creative influences, my writing fluences, my good times
and bad time ALL--centered around the fact that I had a radio in my car, and I started realizing how
important radio was to me. I felt that I'd been "raised on radio"....It seemed like it raised me,
it was there all along. He looked at me and said "Raised On Radio, " and that was it. That became
the title of the album because Journey was raised on radio, the band was born and raised from that
medium.
Gavin: As opposed to TV?
Steve Perry: Yes. We were out before MTV was sliced bread for everybody. But MTV has been very good
to us and we've adapted to that medium too. This band's been together over a decade, and I've been in
, I think, nine years.
Gavin: What about the radio station on the cover of the album? A lot of our readers ask us where it is.
Steve Perry: The radio station in is Hanford California. That's where my dad used to sing. He used to sing on
live radio shows in the early days. It's KNGS on Highway 198, and if you drive by KNGS between
Hanford and Visalia you'll see THAT radio station. It looks exactly like that. I used to see that
station every day on the way to C.O.S. (College of the Sequoias) when I'd drive to school, and the
memory kept on burning in my brain. So when we came up with the title "Raised On Radio," it's the first
thing that came into my mind because of the art deco building with two real nice tripod-type
towers. Usually now the towers are just one long pole going up, but this is one of the old three
-legged trapezoid jobs...It's still that way today.
Gavin: What kind of radio do you listen to?
Steve Perry: Radio right now has never been, in my opinion, so diverse. It seems to be non-committed but still
committed to being diverse. They're playing a wider range of music than ever before. I'm not quite
sure why. I think they are trying to capture what the next high-rating sound will be, but there
seems to be more varied types of music on the radio dial than there ever has been. I don't really
need to buy records any more because radio gives me everything I need, really.
Gavin: When you do buy records, what do you buy?
Steve Perry: Andreas Vollenweider. I like him, I think he's great! I went from Earl Klugh to Andreas
. Andreas has gotten me through more corners of emotional stress in my life with his music than
he would ever realize. I'm sure he's done that for a lot of people. His music is very, very unique
and he's a talented cat...I've never heard anyone play the harp in such a fashion. When it comes
to listening to what's going on. I just turn on the radio and just sweep the dial. You can run
from basic drum-machine, techno-oriented station, then you get your classic rock formats, then
you get Country...and then there is Muzak, or some easy-listening stations that play melodies without voice.
I get sort of burned out hearing singers.
Gavin: Did you listen to Top 40 radio when you were a kid?
Steve Perry: Absolutely. That was it.
Gavin: How do you perceive the differences now compared to when you were driving by that station
on your way to school?
Steve Perry: I think radio was a little freer then. There wasn't as much stress on making the right
move by playing the right song to get the right popularity to the stations. You could turn a radio
station on in those days and get a little bit more freedom in the programming of a radio station
because there was not the much fear that you're not going to have the biggest rating. Since then,
we have become, with the advent of the computer in our lives, so efficient at being successful that
it's taken away certain amounts of guts.
Gavin: Computers giveth and computers taketh away.
Steve Perry: Well, im not blaming it on the computer because that's the instrument with which we
get too efficient and we get too concerned with. "How can we really corner the market? Where have
we been blowing it? How can we get it all together, and get all the share of the ratings in this town?"
It gets a little bit crazy. Unfortunately, I feel, music ends up becoming a secondary thing when it's
truly what's paying the bills. That happens to bands when they write songs. It happens to everybody.
It can be very dangerous when the success factor can dictate a creative factor. Then you're hurting yourself.
That's not what you're into it for , and number two, that's not what's going to make is successful to me. I think radio is one
of the most important--if not the SINGLE most important factor of free creative music, more so than the
video side.
Gavin: Is that why you guys held back on video?
Steve Perry: The reason we held back on video, to be perfectly honest with you, had nothing to do
with any negative response to video. We did not try to pull back away from it to make a statement.
The album was called "Raised On Radio," and we just figured that if there was a video worth doing
, we'd do one. But doing one for the sake of just doing one does not fit. I personally could not
see us saying, "We finished the album, we mixed the album, the album's released, and now we do a
video." I couldn't fall into that. Everything we were approached with from a director's standpoint
was just too predictably jaded and silly. I don't like the concept of directors walking in and going,
"You know, this song means to me..this and this, and I see this and this..." Wait a minute! WE
wrote the tune, you know. So for the first two songs, "Be Good To Yourself" and "Suzanne," we just didn't
do one. Then we got on the road and we decided to do a video of what we are, which is pulling
in a truck and putting in a live tape and rolling with the audio and visual, and just showing that we're
on the road playing the song live.
Gavin: Hence the performance video that you put out.
Steve Perry: We did two performance videos, boom.
Gavin: So what were the circumstances which led you, Steve Perry, to produce the album?
Steve Perry: Steve Smith was the most driving force who wanted me to produce the album.
Gavin: The drummer who use to be with you, right?
Steve Perry: Right. He just said he liked how I did the solo album and thought that no one would
be more safe for the band's sound than myself. There are so many producers out there that put
their stamp on everything and turn a band into what they are.
Gavin: So Steve felt you were the best person for the job?
Steve Perry: I think it was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. The guy he thought
was the best in order to do the album like he wanted it to be done...then he had to be replaced
on a few songs.
Gavin: Ooh, that's tough.
Steve Perry: That was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do, but it was my job.
Gavin: So you felt that you were looking for a certain feel on certain material and he wasn't the one?
Steve Perry: Yes, basically he is a very happy jazz-drummer and he had a difficult time backing up,
so to speak, to play in simplistic-type-"pockets" meaning the groove of the song. It wasn't that he
couldn't do it, he just wasn't enjoying himself, and it came across that way. So we were forced
, Jon, myself and Neal, to make a decision, and the three of us made that decision. We re-cut the whole
album except for two songs.
Gavin: You RE-CUT the entire album?
Steve Perry: Right.
Gavin: There originally was a "Raised On Radio" album with Steve Smith playing drums on all the cuts?
Steve Perry: Yes.
Gavin: What about Ross Valory? What led to his leaving the band?
Steve Perry: (Sighs) Both of them, by their own involvements in their personal lives, sort of
designed themselves out of the group. It's really hard to be in a band. People don't know
how really difficult it is when you are trying to keep a band together. You have personal
lives tugging from five different sides at the hub of the group, and some tugged so hard
they've snapped away. There's nothing better than to have a nice, normal, domestic personal
life, but sometimes you surrender some of that when you're out here in the roadland. So I think
that was some of the reason they left. They were into their personal lives, and it was sort of
conscious decision to get off the road, and stay home more often, and do things they wanted to
do when they wanted to do them, not when the music business or the band is taking time off.
Gavin: Cutting an album twice...that's an awesome expense, and as far as physically...
Steve Perry: That's happening all the time. I know several people that are going through
that right now.
Gavin: Didn't you work on two coasts, too?
Steve Perry: That's right. It was mixed on the East Coast but it was recorded on the West Coast.
We flew in our drummer in to do the tracks from Nashville, Larrie Londin, and Randy Jackson
played on most of the bass.
Gavin: The two additional guys, the rhythm section, are they bona fide JOURNEY, or are they
hired guns? What's the status of the group?
Steve Perry: For all intents and purposes, they really have been performing like they are bona
fide hired-guns Journey people. They are hired guns definitely. I think the nucleus of the
band is Neal , Jon and myself.
Gavin: Coming out of the gate with "Be Good To Yourself," was that an effort to kind of maintain
an Album Radio base?
Steve Perry: I really felt that "Girl Can't Help It" was a better first single, and then "Suzanne"
would have been the better second single. I would have gone from there to some other track on the
second side, I think. "Be Good To Yourself" would have been my last single, because it was the hardest
rocker, and we could have gone with a rock song, which would have been nice and strong. But it
went the other way around. That was Jon Cain's first choice, the next one was CBS's, the third one
was CBS's move. So there are times when I just sit back and say, "Go, go, go," It's best for the band.
Gavin: Is Journey somewhat of a democracy?
Steve Perry: I think so, yes.
Gavin: Between the three people?
Steve Perry: Yes, between the three now, it is.
Gavin: Can you give us a thumbnail personality sketch of the basic differences between you and Jon and Neil?
Steve Perry: They're probably about as opposite as you can ever imagine!
Gavin: Is that why the music's good?
Steve Perry: Perhaps. Neal and Jon consistently compare themselves to each other in the sence that they think
they're an awful lot alike. Sometimes they'll dress up to go somewhere and won't talk to each other and
show up wearing the same clothes. But I know that they're very different people. Neal is more reckless. He's
a reckless musician and has a reckless creativity drive, which is GREAT! He lives his life in a reckless fashion
and plays the guitar the same way! Jonathan is more like David Niven and Amadeus put together!(laughs) He also
is a little reckless, but not as much. ME...I still live in Fresno! (laughs) I probably never have left the
San Joaquin Valley, in my heart. I'm still a Valley Boy, born and raised near an alfalfa field. I love listening
to classic rock and roll music with real singers, not bull**** singers that are out now.
Gavin: You can tell when you hear a bull**** singer?
Steve Perry: Yes, a singer is someone like Whitney Houston. Bull**** singers are people like your typical Boris
Karloff soundalike! They all sound like they took vocal lessons from Boris. (laughs) I mean, that's the way I hear it!
Gavin: Isn't singing an attitude as opposed to someone like yourself, who is trained and who is a technician?
Steve Perry: But I'm NOT trained....I've never had a lesson in my life. It's very strange how people....I've trained
myself. The only training I could ever say I had was when I was in the choir in college, and that was probably as
far as it would go. But that's just singing with other people. There was no real instruction involved.
Gavin: Were you ever a vocal coach?
Perry: No! (emphatically) I was helping Neal and the guys sing their parts, of course, but I never taught anybody.
Gavin: How has this tour helped? Has it put things together for the band? Has it made things harder or easier?
Perry: Well...(laughs) I don't know how to answer that. In the beginning of the tour, I'd say it put things together.
Now that we're near the end of the tour, it's done what it was suppose to do. Now we need a big break! (laughs)
It's been very, very difficult but HAPPY--stressful but successful. It really had provided more enjoyment than any
other tour. It took two years to do it; it started two years ago Christmas.
Gavin: You mean logistics and everything?
Perry: Writing, recording, performing it on tape, mixing it, rehearsing it, building the stages, making the lighting systems,
getting everything all together is a job. Then there was rehearsing the show, doing the tour itself. It's about an 80-to 90-
show tour which started in August and is finished the 24th of January. That's not exactly short, but it definitely was a two-
year project.
Gavin: How do you keep the material fresh, then?
Perry: I don't know (laughs).
Gavin: Is it still fresh?
Perry: Yeeeah! Well, that I think is one of the biggest challenges. To consistenly be fresh in the approach to the songwriting,
without catching yourself being generic like the rest of the people out there. It's hard not to be influenced by what's out there
to the point that you want to drift into some of that type of music along the way. The radio really, to go back to radio, it really
really dictates more creativity than people imagine!
Gavin: Even though we agree that the playlists are tighter?
Perry: The playlists are tighter as far as the diversity of the type of music that radio will play, so therefore creativity gets very,
very shallow and very narrow. What you can get away with creative-wise is not very diverse as it used to be, because radio just won't play it.
They're not interested! And that's sad because that just shows you the power of radio in dictating creativity in music as a whole.
The thing about us is that, I must admit we did not fall prey to that. Consequently, we didn't have a five-million to ten-million
seller because it just was not in the total mainstream pocket. We just went ahead and made a Journey record and tried to just be ourselves.
Gavin: So by being yourselves you feel that's cost you in sales?
Perry: But what else can you do except be who you are? If you don't commit to stay with who you are as a band, I don't think you have a prayer in hell.
If you become someone who chases someone else's tail, you are really only behind someone. So the band just stayed as it is and has been very successful.
The thing that really breaks the mold is this: All these groups are selling records and can't sell tickets to save their life! They cannot go on the
road and sell tickets; they'll make their techno-pop groove album and they'll be the underdog and all the papers from Rolling Stone to whatever will say
, "This group is fantastic," whether it's the Pet Shop Boys this week, or next week it's Level 42 or whatever. I'm not belittling these people because
they're making good music. They're selling records but they're not selling tickets. Those groups cannot go out and sell 20,000 seats two nights in a row
in a town. Or three nights, as we just did. So I think there's a lot to be said for performance. The world does not roll around the latest drum machine
sampling technique.
Gavin: In listening to your records, one hears technology, so how do you keep the machines you've got from taking over the asylum? You've got state-of-the-
art sound, so how do you do it?
Perry: We are definitely into every state-of-the-art aspect that could be to our benfit, but we don't use it against ourselves. That's the difference, I think.
Gavin: Do negative reviews bug you??
Perry: (laughs) You know what? I don't even read 'em! Jon and Neil diligently wake up in the morning and they've got to know. They've got to see what the paper says,
which frustrates me all to hell. I can't figure out why they would let someone and I mean some ONE person, have anything to do with their performance.
Especially after you walk on stage, you get a review when you walk on. During the show you're getting your review and they tell you,IMMEDIATELY,hot-off-the-press
what they think about you! I need no other review. I have just gotten it, and the last thing I'm gonna do is listen to some frustrated cat that may not have even GONE
to the show, for starters, and if he DID go, he got a free ticket to sit there and belittle us!
What for? I don't understand why. It's gotta be some sort of death wish (laughs).
Gavin: What about when you first were getting off the ground? Didn't you read anything then?
Perry: I have read in my life, and I'm not joking you, probably five reviews in my entire career. One was in '82 and I can tell you where. In Canada, a guy said that
I sounded like Velveeta cheese(laughs).And I said to myself, "Now what the HELL does that mean?"
One other one was in Rolling Stone when the live album came out in '84, and it said I sounded like
a seal being beat over the head with a club! (laughs) Now, what the **** was that!!! (laughs)
Then on this tour there was a great picture that Jon brought in that was in a review. It was a good picture
of me and Randy, so I had a gentleman who works for me call the paper and get me the negative, beacause
it was probably one of the nicest picture of Randy and myself. Underneath of it, just to show you, was a caption
that was positive. Unfortunately, (sighs) my eyes dropped down to the first paragraph... It didn't say anything really bad, it strickly
made a comment about the type of singer I was. Most people would have thought that was a positive statement,
but I just don't like to be called anything. I have a good friend, a songwriter, Randy Goodrum, in
Los Angeles. We worked on the solo album together and he writes for a lot of people. He think the critics
are like rodents, a disease of the American way, as we live right now. He says they they build you up...
and then they eat their young! (laughs) They're just terrible.
Gavin: When you listen to the radio, do you hear a lot of things that sound a little too close to your sound?
Perry: (laughs) It's funny, when Bov Jovi first came out, I think in was in your book, your Gavin Report, or one of the trades, it said
, "Is it Bon Journey or Bon Jovi?" That was the first one. Then came Giuffria, they said this guy was trying to cop my groove.
Now the Survivor guy, you know...(pauses)...he...(pauses again) he has no class (laughs).
Gavin: So you don't think it's an accident?
Perry: ACCIDENT? (laughs) This guy is doing everything he can to grab my coupons and take them to his bank! I mean, it's just no class.
They must have no identity of their own, otherwise why would they clone themselves? Silly?
But you know, look it's probably a very high form of flattery, somehow, but I still think it has no class (laughs).
Gavin: So what's next? Is there another Journey album or are you going to rest, or are you going to do another solo album, or nothing?
Perry: You know what, to be honest with you if I had to go into the studio right now I'd lose my mind (laughs).
Gavin: And your voice?
Perry: No my voice is fine, I have no nodes, I have no problem. But what's next, to be perfectly honest with you, is nothing. I have to unplug my
life and look around and see what's still standing. This is the end of the tour and the best thing that ever happened in my life
---the success of this band, Journey, and (*next line is not readable-per bad photo copy of article*) After that album, the most incredible thing
that ever happened to me was to watch, for about the last four years, my mother slowly go away. During the making of the Journey album
, I was doing Journey five days a week and then helicoptering down to the Fresno area to see her on Saturdays and Sundays. So I was working
seven days a week--part of it was stressful, making the album, and then part of it was just horrible, watching her get worse. So, (sighs)
, it never stopped. Then she passed away and I kept going and going on the road never having a chance to really take a deep breath and go back home
and see what's still standing. I really think it's important for me as a human being and as a person to get centered again. I need to just
say to the music business, "Here we are, this is what we've done, this is what I've done," and I've got to go back and see what I have still
standing. Then after that, I'll know what I'm going to do, whether that's music or selling shoes (laughs) I don't know.
Gavin: It'll be music. We know you too well! It must be hard to maintain relationships with all this going on.
Perry: Oh, HARD? Impossible! Im-possible!
Gavin: The family's easier because they're not so demanding. They love you, but they know you've gotta do what you've gotta do abd they're glad
to see you do it because they like to see you doing what you like to do and working. They miss you, but like I say, they're glad for you.
Relationships..(pauses) They're not quite like that. they're more demanding, I think, and therefore, consequently more self destructive
unto itself, the relationship. So, consequently, I do not (pauses) have a quote, unquote "demanding" relationship at this point.
It's easier not to.
Gavin: Anything else you'd like to say to our readers?
Perry: You know, my mother used to love to read The Gavin Report. She used to subscribe to The Gavin Report and Billboard and she used
to sit for hours, when I was on the road, and just try to find anything in print that had my name in it and circle it. It gave her a lot of
joy, I think, which is very nice. So I thank you guys for that, it kind of helped her out. The music business...Wow.
Gavin: It's a strange business. Your tour wasn't sponsored, was it?
Perry: No. We had more opportunities than sliced bread to be sponsored by everybody from Jovan to Pespi to Coca-cola to Pontiac...
who else was beating at our door... I can't remember. But, it just become too cheap. It just cheapens things at this present time.
It just didn't feel correct and I must admit I was the stick-in-the-mud that didn't want to do it when everybody else did. I just
felt that music is music and it doesn't have any business being on a can of Pepsi-Cola--it just didn't feel right to me.
Gavin: The temptation is there, isn't it?
Perry: (laughs) Well, when they offer you huge amounts of money, which takes your overhead and cuts it to NIL... Instead, when you go
out, from dollar one, it's all your money. You wouldn't have to pay any overhead. You know, people don't realize that seven trucks,
four buses, a stage, P.A. and lights are all purchased for this whole situation. We had to sign loans to put this (*next line is not readable-per bad photo copy of article*)
a cheap investment, and when all these endorsement offers come through the mail and on the phone, that they'll take the overhead expense away from you, if you give
them a commercial and the right to use your name... They put their name on the ticket, and put their name on the t-shirt, and you stand in front of
the TV and chug-a-lug a soda pop for a commerical. It is a temptation--it really is--because the world does roll on huge amounts of overhead. Rock and roll is not cheap!
But, I still gotta tell ya! I would rather go down and pay my bills and not make a dime rather than...(pauses) My mug on a soda pop can would make me NAUSEOUS!!!
I'm a singer! I'll go DOWN being a singer...and if it takes me having to sell out to be successful , that only tells me that my singing's not working any more, and
then I won't do it anymore. That's the way I feel. That's not the way a lotta people feel, but it IS the way I feel. (laughs) I'll go back to Vislia and teach school! (laughs)
Gavin: You're a Michael Hedges fan, huh?
Perry: Oh, that's another guy I forgot, YES! How'd you know that?
Gavin: A friend, Elliot Mazer, produced his last album.
Perry: Michael is great. Windham Hill has a lot of artists on their label, but he's probably my favorite at this point. I also like George Winston. As you can tell,
this is pretty mellow stuff. That's because I'm doing this during the day and I need to balance it. Then once I get off the road for awhile, I'll start listening
again to the mainstream of the groove music.
Gavin: There's an art to making commerical music. It's still an art form, don't you agree?
Perry: The term "commerical" is a pretty difficult term.
Gavin: Okay, let's say "hit" records. You guys make "hit records," and there's got to be a certain art to it.
Perry: There's a complete art form to writing hit songs. If it wasn't for the song, I don't think you'd have
anything. People don't realize that the reasons the schlock material that's on the radio right now
is not holding up...How can I say it? After four weeks, you never want to hear it again. It's strictly
ear candy, as Randy would say. It's been recorded great, to where it's tasty to the ear and catches
your ear and then you like it for a while, the beat's good, you're groovin' with it. But it has no substance.
It has no song value, so therefore it has no lasting power. There is a diffinite art form to writing
great songs. That is what really matters to me. To write a great song is the most difficult thing of all.
And a great song sells itself. You can only damage it by putting it in the wrong singer's hands, or
in the wrong band's hands. But even that I've seen become successful. I've heard great songs being
performed poorly, but the song still says, "You know what: (*next few words are not readable-per bad photo copy of article*)
gonna be a hit for a long time." (laughs)
Gavin: "You can't kill me."
Perry: Yes, and a lot of what I'm saying lives in songs like "Under The Boardwalk," Carole King tunes, Motown songs,
Marvin Gaye songs. These are great tunes that won't die. The performances are great or not so great, but the song
is what survives.
Gavin: What songs do you feel you've done with Journey or on your own that you'd predict or you would like to see
live 25 years from now when you turn on the radio on and hear an oldie?
Perry: Once again, I think because they were recorded a certain way and because times move on as far as the technique
of recording and the approach of how to record a song, some of the songs may sound dated. But as for the song itself,
I think "Light" is a great song. I probably would to say "Don't Stop Believing," "Open Arms," which was a great
collaboration between Jon and myself. A lot of material on the new "Raised On Radio" album is more of a classic
nature than people will probably know. I don't particularly enjoy some of the recording techniques used on the final
mixing that was done, I mean, it could be done again, but that just being to close to it.
Gavin: You wrote "Lights".
Perry: Yes.
Gavin: I personally think it's a great song, as far as being a San Francisco person.
Perry: I heard that there was a time that the mayor was trying to switch over to that other song...
what was it..(sings)"San Fran-cisco, open your pearly gates, da da da da, da da..."from" When I come
home to you San Francicso" to the other one. But they were actually considering "Lights" at one
point, which I thought was great!
Gavin: Do you remember when you first wrote "Lights"? What was the seed that inspired you to write
that song?
Perry: I had just joined the band and I had the idea already started when I was in Los Angeles. We were
coming up from the L.A. area to San Francisco. This friend and I got this big truck and loaded up my
apartment. We were driving it up and by the time we got there, the sun was coming up. We were going
across the Golden Gate Bridge towards the Petaluma area, where I was living. The sun was coming up and it
just sorta happened. It was at that of morning when the city lights were still lit and the sun was coming
up, so it wasn't light enough to kill the city lights. It was a really special point. Good songs really
write themselves anyway, you don't have to write them.
Gavin: How many time have you thought about that very image, when you're on the road and you miss
San Francisco?
Perry: (Emphatically) A lot! A lot! Sometimes, depending upon where I am, like here in San Diego,
I change the lyrics because they're got their own bay, too you know? And everybody want to think I'm
writing for their bay, so I do it.
Gavin: You gotta be an international kind of guy, I guess.
Perry: (laughs) Modular! Modular!
Gavin: "When the lights go down in Helsinki!"
Perry: Helsinki! Right! Fresno! "When the lights do down in Fresno! And the sun shines on the swamp!"
Copyright @ The Gavin Report--January 23, 1987.
Brought to you by Perryville!!
!!
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