Ramona Diaz thanks Steve Perry

[Don]

http://documentarychannel.com/interview ... eve-perry/

I remember Steveo777 asking her this question in the old Arnel Pineda forums a few years ago, about getting permission for song usage from Steve Perry.
She sort of danced around answering it, downplaying its importance at the time.

Nice to to finally hear a full response, even if it did take a few years.


"You thank Steve Perry in the credits. Did he have any help or input, or did you attempt or want to interview him for the film?"

Ramona Diaz:
"We thanked Steve Perry because he did grant us the rights to the music, which is a very big deal. The Journey catalog is one of the hardest catalogs in pop music to clear. Especially “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Faithfully.” Very difficult. And he still owns a third of all the biggest hits, and we use all the biggest hits in the film. The fact that he signed off on a film that’s about his replacement is pretty incredible. So that’s why we thanked him.

I always, in the process of making the film, thought that in the end I would attempt to interview him. But it became very apparent towards the end of filming that it couldn’t be… The presence of Steve Perry wouldn’t have really fit the film. That’s such a storied past, Steve Perry in Journey. That deserves its own film. I think this film is about Arnel and sticks to that story. I decided I wasn’t even going to attempt to interview him. I don’t think I would have used it, and then that would have been a whole other political thing if we had ended up not using it. The trouble we’d get into! That’s another film that someone else should do."

[slucero]

why would she even bother talking about possibly interviewing Perry.. unless she actually inquired and was denied..

[Don]

why would she even bother talking about possibly interviewing Perry.. unless she actually inquired and was denied..

That was when there was still a lot of vitriol towards Pineda by some fans. I think her hope was that if Perry could accept Arnel, it would allay some of that. I think she probably realized later that a lot of the smack was being caused by what happened with Augeri and JSS, not just a bunch of disgruntled Perry fans sounding off. Once she figured that out, SP bringing any kind of closure to the issue was certainly understood to not be in the cards. We have to remember that a lot of Diaz's info about the feelings of Journey fans was coming from what was a being posted at MR. This was the #1 Journey related website at that time and she probably assumed that the pulse of the average Journey fan might be read here which we know isn't really the case as this place, despite the misconception was never a dedicated Journey fan board, like Backtalk or Journey's own website in 2008.
The plokkers found that out first hand and after a brief invasion, they packed their stuff and left this place pronto.

[FamilyMan]

We had similar issues when I was at CBS putting the Sunday Morning piece together. Right up until the night before the interview, Perry hadn't issued permission for us to use any of the original songs/hits in our show. But in the 11th hour, he signed off. I haven't heaped praise on Perry here in these forums as much as the loons, but I will say the guy has been very generous in his support of this current lineup. He could shut down all this PR with one phone call if he wanted to - but he hasn't. Whatever his reasons are, he should be given props for staying respectfully silent about Arnel - and allowing the band to soldier on with him in his stead.

[The Sushi Hunter]

We had similar issues when I was at CBS putting the Sunday Morning piece together. Right up until the night before the interview, Perry hadn't issued permission for us to use any of the original songs/hits in our show. But in the 11th hour, he signed off. I haven't heaped praise on Perry here in these forums as much as the loons, but I will say the guy has been very generous in his support of this current lineup. He could shut down all this PR with one phone call if he wanted to - but he hasn't. Whatever his reasons are, he should be given props for staying respectfully silent about Arnel - and allowing the band to soldier on with him in his stead.

I would think Perry is very happy with AP though since he's been able to get these songs, that Perry gets royalties for, back into the limelight and back on the top selling charts. Would you agree with that or am I way off?

Personally, I don't think I would have purchased another Journey album of the same old Journey classics if it wasn't for AP joining the band. Am I alone on this or is it possible that there are others just like me who feel the same way about it? I didn't buy Revelation because of the classic Journey CD that was included, I purchased it for the new Journey tracks on the second CD that was part of the release.

[Pelata]

We had similar issues when I was at CBS putting the Sunday Morning piece together. Right up until the night before the interview, Perry hadn't issued permission for us to use any of the original songs/hits in our show. But in the 11th hour, he signed off. I haven't heaped praise on Perry here in these forums as much as the loons, but I will say the guy has been very generous in his support of this current lineup. He could shut down all this PR with one phone call if he wanted to - but he hasn't. Whatever his reasons are, he should be given props for staying respectfully silent about Arnel - and allowing the band to soldier on with him in his stead.

I would think Perry is very happy with AP though since he's been able to get these songs, that Perry gets royalties for, back into the limelight and back on the top selling charts. Would you agree with that or am I way off?

Personally, I don't think I would have purchased another Journey album of the same old Journey classics if it wasn't for AP joining the band. Am I alone on this or is it possible that there are others just like me who feel the same way about it? I didn't buy Revelation because of the classic Journey CD that was included, I purchased it for the new Journey tracks on the second CD that was part of the release.

I bought Revelation for the new songs...but I would have also bought it if it were SA or JSS doing it.

[The Sushi Hunter]

We had similar issues when I was at CBS putting the Sunday Morning piece together. Right up until the night before the interview, Perry hadn't issued permission for us to use any of the original songs/hits in our show. But in the 11th hour, he signed off. I haven't heaped praise on Perry here in these forums as much as the loons, but I will say the guy has been very generous in his support of this current lineup. He could shut down all this PR with one phone call if he wanted to - but he hasn't. Whatever his reasons are, he should be given props for staying respectfully silent about Arnel - and allowing the band to soldier on with him in his stead.

I would think Perry is very happy with AP though since he's been able to get these songs, that Perry gets royalties for, back into the limelight and back on the top selling charts. Would you agree with that or am I way off?

Personally, I don't think I would have purchased another Journey album of the same old Journey classics if it wasn't for AP joining the band. Am I alone on this or is it possible that there are others just like me who feel the same way about it? I didn't buy Revelation because of the classic Journey CD that was included, I purchased it for the new Journey tracks on the second CD that was part of the release.

I bought Revelation for the new songs...but I would have also bought it if it were SA or JSS doing it.

You are a dedicated fan I believe. In my situation, I sort of went "away" from listening to Journey sometime starting in the very late 80's and early 90's primarily because I already knew how their songs sounded and it didn't seem to me that they had the same song output as I was used to, compared to the early to mid 80's. My only "issue" with the band now is I wish they would put more new songs out instead of still playing the old classic tunes. But this discussion has been made before and I understand that it's the old Journey classics that brings in the most of their "bread and butter". That could be an interesting album title.

[Rick]

We had similar issues when I was at CBS putting the Sunday Morning piece together. Right up until the night before the interview, Perry hadn't issued permission for us to use any of the original songs/hits in our show. But in the 11th hour, he signed off. I haven't heaped praise on Perry here in these forums as much as the loons, but I will say the guy has been very generous in his support of this current lineup. He could shut down all this PR with one phone call if he wanted to - but he hasn't. Whatever his reasons are, he should be given props for staying respectfully silent about Arnel - and allowing the band to soldier on with him in his stead.

I would think Perry is very happy with AP though since he's been able to get these songs, that Perry gets royalties for, back into the limelight and back on the top selling charts. Would you agree with that or am I way off?

Personally, I don't think I would have purchased another Journey album of the same old Journey classics if it wasn't for AP joining the band. Am I alone on this or is it possible that there are others just like me who feel the same way about it? I didn't buy Revelation because of the classic Journey CD that was included, I purchased it for the new Journey tracks on the second CD that was part of the release.

I already owned everything, so I bought Augeri's and Arnel's albums for the new music.

[Yoda]

We had similar issues when I was at CBS putting the Sunday Morning piece together. Right up until the night before the interview, Perry hadn't issued permission for us to use any of the original songs/hits in our show. But in the 11th hour, he signed off. I haven't heaped praise on Perry here in these forums as much as the loons, but I will say the guy has been very generous in his support of this current lineup. He could shut down all this PR with one phone call if he wanted to - but he hasn't. Whatever his reasons are, he should be given props for staying respectfully silent about Arnel - and allowing the band to soldier on with him in his stead.

I would think Perry is very happy with AP though since he's been able to get these songs, that Perry gets royalties for, back into the limelight and back on the top selling charts. Would you agree with that or am I way off?

Personally, I don't think I would have purchased another Journey album of the same old Journey classics if it wasn't for AP joining the band. Am I alone on this or is it possible that there are others just like me who feel the same way about it? I didn't buy Revelation because of the classic Journey CD that was included, I purchased it for the new Journey tracks on the second CD that was part of the release.

I purchased Revelation for the new stuff, but was curious to see what they did with the classics. I absolutely hated everything they did with the remake CD. That CD doesn't ever get played. Likewise, I would have purchased Revelation if Augeri or JSS were still in the band.

[Don]

We had similar issues when I was at CBS putting the Sunday Morning piece together. Right up until the night before the interview, Perry hadn't issued permission for us to use any of the original songs/hits in our show. But in the 11th hour, he signed off. I haven't heaped praise on Perry here in these forums as much as the loons, but I will say the guy has been very generous in his support of this current lineup. He could shut down all this PR with one phone call if he wanted to - but he hasn't. Whatever his reasons are, he should be given props for staying respectfully silent about Arnel - and allowing the band to soldier on with him in his stead.

I would think Perry is very happy with AP though since he's been able to get these songs, that Perry gets royalties for, back into the limelight and back on the top selling charts. Would you agree with that or am I way off?

Personally, I don't think I would have purchased another Journey album of the same old Journey classics if it wasn't for AP joining the band. Am I alone on this or is it possible that there are others just like me who feel the same way about it? I didn't buy Revelation because of the classic Journey CD that was included, I purchased it for the new Journey tracks on the second CD that was part of the release.

Glee's use of DSB is what set off the huge sales in Journey's back catalog. Before that, it had been the Soprano's use of the song. Journey's biggest year at retail was 2010. While Revelation did well in 2008, Journey sales went through the roof on a worldwide scale in 2010, the year Journey wasn't even touring. I think the success of DSB on Glee (and earlier on the Sopranos) is what these guys see as the catalyst to their popularity taking off again. Jon has even said as much during some interviews.
That is when all the interview requests for Steve Perry started rolling and when he was awarded Classic Rock's greatest AOR frontman ever. Even in Europe, it was Journey's Greatest Hits that went to #12 charts in 2010, Revelation never even charted over there.