In a new interview with Vulture, Journey guitarist Neal Schon reveals his most endearing memory of the band's former vocalist, Steve Perry.
Says Neal: "We were very, very tight. We’re talking and getting to know each other again - though not trying to get together musically again, but he’s learning who I am now, through a portion of our business that I’m kind of controlling now. I’m talking about a Journey trademark that I’ve obtained, as we’ve never owned our own trademark. All these years, many people lied to us. My wife and I finally got to the bottom of it after investigating for years. We were fought hard by everybody, but we managed to obtain the trademark. So we’re talking about that and figuring out the future of that, but we’re talking.
I have great memories of when Steve and I first met. We hung out all the time, man. We were like brothers. We were crazy. We spent a lot of nights out way too late doing things we shouldn’t be doing. Drinking and whatnot. We overindulged in a lot of stuff. But bottom line, we had a really good time for many, many years. Lots of enduring moments onstage and offstage. He was a really funny guy. I saw a fraction of a moment of it when we got together before the Rock Hall of Fame induction. I managed to get into his room, which was locked down like Fort Knox. We had a good hang in there. I felt like I still knew this guy and we were still really great friends.
I felt good about what was going to partake on the stage. He was always invited to come and perform at the ceremony, but he declined to do anything besides a speech. I understood why. During that induction, when certain individuals went up and took a really long time with their speeches, there are a few pictures that you can find where I’m talking into Steve’s ears and he’s laughing like hell. Some people like to feel like they’re more important because they have to talk longer. Or they feel like they don’t get the attention they need so they want to talk longer. So, that’s my long way of saying that I hope that we can become even better friends in the future."
Read more at Vulture.com.
Journey have released a visualizer for the new single, "United We Stand", featured on their forthcoming studio album, Freedom, due out Friday, July 8 via BMG. You can also stream the song here.
As the band’s legend continues to grow larger and their touring gets bigger, Freedom will be the first album of new material to be released in eleven years, since 2011’s Eclipse, and in addition to longtime keyboard player and primary lyricist Jonathan Cain and vocalist Arnel Pineda, one more member was recruited for the upcoming album - bassist extraordinaire Randy Jackson, who had played on Journey’s 1986 album Raised On Radio.
Pre-order the album here.
Freedom tracklisting:
"Together We Run"
"Don’t Give Up On Us"
"Still Believe In Love"
"You Got The Best Of Me"
"Live To Love Again"
"The Way We Used To Be"
"Come Away With Me"
"After Glow"
"Let It Rain"
"Holdin On"
"All Day and All Night"
"Don’t Go"
"United We Stand"
"Life Rolls On"
"Beautiful As You Are"
"Don’t Give Up On Us" visualizer:
"You Got The Best Of Me" video:
"Let It Rain" visualizer:
"The Way We Used To Be" video:
* Freedom will be released by Frontiers Records in Europe and Japan. BMG will release the album for the rest of the world.
Journey and AEG have announced four exclusive Las Vegas show dates featuring special symphony orchestra performances at the new, state-of-the-art Resorts World Theatre. Tickets for the special engagement are on sale now. For more info click here.
