"PERRY BROUGHT THE 'SOUL FACTOR' TO JOURNEY"

[Don]

NEAL SCHON SAYS STEVE PERRY BROUGHT THE 'SOUL FACTOR' TO JOURNEY

http://www.k-hits.com/musicnews/story.aspx?ID=1569972

11/11/2011

Although Neal Schon is thrilled with the current lineup of Journey recording and touring the globe, he took time out to salute former lead singer Steve Perry. When asked about Perry's time in the band, which spanned the late '70s to the late '90s, Schon had to hand it to his former partner, saying, "Steve Perry is an amazing singer, one of the best ever, in the world. I love the fact that he had R&B roots, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson. Anybody that ever listens to Sam Cooke would go, 'Wow, that guy sounds like Steve Perry,' if they didn't' know about him, but really it's the other way around, and God bless Steve for that. He knew exactly what he loved, and he could really do it like nobody's business."

He added: "I love what he brought to the band because of the mixture with my playing; my job was to bring the rough edge to everything. When Jon (Cain) and Steve wrote, it was all melody, beautiful songwriting. I loved that (Perry) brought the soul factor in with the rock, it made it sound to me way different than what we used to get categorized as."

Schon went on to say that he's totally open for the original lineup of Journey with Gregg Rolie to reform for string of dates to perform the band's early prog-tinged music: "I've been wanting to get together with Aynsley (Dunbar) and Ross (Vallory), when and if I do ever have any down time. It seems like an impossibility, because I'm always on tour. I've been talking to Rolie about it for years, that I would love to have a reunion, even if we only played a handful of shows at the House Of Blues in different cities and do nothing but our old songs. I think people would go absolutely nuts for it, just because of the history of it and the fact that it's not been heard in years."

He went on to talk about the pre-Steve Perry era for the band: "We played eight-and-a-half to nine months out of the year, every year, from the beginning. I don't know how we even squeezed in time to make records. If we had a month off, it was spent in the studio, then straight back out on tour, that was our bread and butter back then. We traveled in two station wagons, with the crew in one car and the band in the other car. It was nuts; we'd drive 13 hours, no hotel, jump out of the guitar, and jump on stage. Then we upgraded to a Winnebago, which was even worse than the station wagon, because we ended up pushing the damn thing all the time, it kept breaking down."

When pressed about the kimono outfits and afro hair he sported back in Journey's early days, Schon took it all in stride: ["That was so funny, man. After Behind The Music came out, and they had all that old footage with the big 'fro, y'know? My telephone was ringing off the hook -- people calling up and say, 'Dude, what happened to the 'fro, man? You gotta grow that thing back!' I said, 'I don't think so.' I think I'll just get a wig, man (laughs)"]

[froy]

NEAL SCHON SAYS STEVE PERRY BROUGHT THE 'SOUL FACTOR' TO JOURNEY

http://www.k-hits.com/musicnews/story.aspx?ID=1569972

11/11/2011

Although Neal Schon is thrilled with the current lineup of Journey recording and touring the globe, he took time out to salute former lead singer Steve Perry. When asked about Perry's time in the band, which spanned the late '70s to the late '90s, Schon had to hand it to his former partner, saying, "Steve Perry is an amazing singer, one of the best ever, in the world. I love the fact that he had R&B roots, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson. Anybody that ever listens to Sam Cooke would go, 'Wow, that guy sounds like Steve Perry,' if they didn't' know about him, but really it's the other way around, and God bless Steve for that. He knew exactly what he loved, and he could really do it like nobody's business."

He added: "I love what he brought to the band because of the mixture with my playing; my job was to bring the rough edge to everything. When Jon (Cain) and Steve wrote, it was all melody, beautiful songwriting. I loved that (Perry) brought the soul factor in with the rock, it made it sound to me way different than what we used to get categorized as."

Schon went on to say that he's totally open for the original lineup of Journey with Gregg Rolie to reform for string of dates to perform the band's early prog-tinged music: "I've been wanting to get together with Aynsley (Dunbar) and Ross (Vallory), when and if I do ever have any down time. It seems like an impossibility, because I'm always on tour. I've been talking to Rolie about it for years, that I would love to have a reunion, even if we only played a handful of shows at the House Of Blues in different cities and do nothing but our old songs. I think people would go absolutely nuts for it, just because of the history of it and the fact that it's not been heard in years."

He went on to talk about the pre-Steve Perry era for the band: "We played eight-and-a-half to nine months out of the year, every year, from the beginning. I don't know how we even squeezed in time to make records. If we had a month off, it was spent in the studio, then straight back out on tour, that was our bread and butter back then. We traveled in two station wagons, with the crew in one car and the band in the other car. It was nuts; we'd drive 13 hours, no hotel, jump out of the guitar, and jump on stage. Then we upgraded to a Winnebago, which was even worse than the station wagon, because we ended up pushing the damn thing all the time, it kept breaking down."

When pressed about the kimono outfits and afro hair he sported back in Journey's early days, Schon took it all in stride: ["That was so funny, man. After Behind The Music came out, and they had all that old footage with the big 'fro, y'know? My telephone was ringing off the hook -- people calling up and say, 'Dude, what happened to the 'fro, man? You gotta grow that thing back!' I said, 'I don't think so.' I think I'll just get a wig, man (laughs)"]

Bring it on that would be awesome to see the Infinity lineup again. I know Steve you went your separate ways bla bla bla, But it looks like your the only one with that problem. Hide all you want say whatever bullshit you want to spew out there we have heard your story hundreds of times Your doing what your doing going to baseball games and there doing what there doing playing concerts at baseball stadiums, I like the later
I saw the Infinity lineup all the way to the ROR lineup which sucked with that terrible drummer you had to have over Steve Smith. I say bring on Kevin or any other pure singer and hit the Journey era to 1980 and those shows would kill.
I would be there will you?

[slucero]

[Gideon]

How long did that take?

[journeygal77]

LMFAO

[froy]

[froy]

Baaaaaaa

[tammy]

Got that right. When I hear the old songs by 'soul singers', like Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, even Seal...I hear SP in there.