Lionel Richie explains what happened to Steve Perry.

[brywool]

To other commenters, there have been male singers whose voices held together reasonably well over the years including Tony Lewis from the Outfield, and Dennis DeYoung to name two of them. So the whole rule of 45 is over generalizing a bit

Jon Anderson also.

Agreed.

Didn't Jon have voice issues a year or so ago and that's why YES has another guy? I may be wrong on that, but I thought that was the story there.

[Monker]

To other commenters, there have been male singers whose voices held together reasonably well over the years including Tony Lewis from the Outfield, and Dennis DeYoung to name two of them. So the whole rule of 45 is over generalizing a bit

Yes, I realize that...but it was pretty dramatic during the ROR tour....and pretty hard for even a Perry fan to deny if they compare how he sounded on the ROR to how he sounded on the Frontier tour. It's pretty dramatic...his voice sorta broke on the ROR tour and never recovered completely.

[Monker]

To other commenters, there have been male singers whose voices held together reasonably well over the years including Tony Lewis from the Outfield, and Dennis DeYoung to name two of them. So the whole rule of 45 is over generalizing a bit

Jon Anderson also.

And, John Farnham, and Tommy Shaw.

[BobbyinTN]

It's not age that did Perry's voice in, it was the constant touring and believing he could sing every note, every night without changing keys or taking a break.

Listen to John Farnham. The clips on the page are previews of some one his songs he re-recorded 2011 at the age of 62.

http://www.johnfarnham.com.au/


A singer that takes care of themselves can sing for a VERY long time.

[Monker]

It's not age that did Perry's voice in, it was the constant touring and believing he could sing every note, every night without changing keys or taking a break.

Listen to John Farnham. The clips on the page are previews of some one his songs he re-recorded 2011 at the age of 62.

http://www.johnfarnham.com.au/


A singer that takes care of themselves can sing for a VERY long time.

His voice has hardly changed at all.

[Voyager]

My real concern was the cheap ploy used by Voyager - it totally wasn't necessary...this is the Journey forum.

Oh darn, I forgot that Steve Perry is no longer a member of Journey. My bad.



P.S. - I thought Lionel did a great job of explaining what happens to most singers psychologically at a certain age when their voice begins to deteriorate... he didn't have to mention all of their names for it to be applicable.

[BobbyinTN]

It's not age that did Perry's voice in, it was the constant touring and believing he could sing every note, every night without changing keys or taking a break.

Listen to John Farnham. The clips on the page are previews of some one his songs he re-recorded 2011 at the age of 62.

http://www.johnfarnham.com.au/


A singer that takes care of themselves can sing for a VERY long time.

His voice has hardly changed at all.

I know, amazing huh?

[JrnyScarab]

Another singer that still has an amazing voice is Glenn Hughes. Here's a LIVE clip from 2 years ago when he was 58. He's got some serious range still going on. And, he took drugs for many years. Can't believe it didn't ruin his voice. Still going strong with Black Country Communtion at 60. Check it out. Don't forget, you can play all sorts of games in the studio but this is live!

http://youtu.be/Pu6e0IHuFwY

[DracIsBack]

Dave the past few years appears to have gotten a vocal trainer. He's actually singing better than ever and in some cases hitting notes higher than the records.

Good for him. A lot of his live performances in the past really made me shudder. I always preferred the Roth era of Van Halen, but found Hagar to be a substantially better live singer. Nice to see Dave's got it back. Thanks for the link.

On topic, I think (without knowing Perry personally) that he just damaged his voice over time. Those songs are murderously high. Look at what happened to Augeri. This doesn't strike me as a case of "he's a little older, let's lower the key a bit". It's "he went for that note too many times to put on a good show and shredded his vocal cords eventually". I think anyway.

I also think that he's probably still an excellent singer ... just not able to replicate Steve Perry in his prime, note for note.

The example of Dennis DeYoung was brought up. That one amazes me because he sounds pretty spectacular for his age. Doesn't seem like he's had to lower anything. I've seen Paul McCartney clam some high notes notes (but still sound great typically ), Peter Cetera lower the key a bit on old Chicago songs (but otherwise sound like a high tenor still), Joseph Williams and Peter Gabriel leave the high notes to the background singers. But DeYoung - wow.

[kgdjpubs]

It's not age that did Perry's voice in, it was the constant touring and believing he could sing every note, every night without changing keys or taking a break.

Listen to John Farnham. The clips on the page are previews of some one his songs he re-recorded 2011 at the age of 62.

http://www.johnfarnham.com.au/


A singer that takes care of themselves can sing for a VERY long time.

His voice has hardly changed at all.

I know, amazing huh?

Farnham's lost a little bit off the top end, but some of that could simply be weight or just age. The guy is a freak of nature, but one thing where he was smarter than most was recording in a lower key than he could have. He can sing a lot higher than he normally does, and might be the only singer I've ever heard who's been known to sing HIGHER live than the recorded melody. A lot of his songs have high parts, but they also have lower parts, and there are also a lot of songs where he really isn't pushing that top end at all. It's very smart from a singer's standpoint.

Where this all tends to catch up with singers is when you go on tour. With changing humidity, changing temperature, allergies, colds, lack of normal sleep patterns, etc. you will have those days where your top end is lowered. If you record close to that top end, then when you play the song under those less-than-optimum conditions, you are pushing harder than you should. It's really easy to damage the voice. Dave Bickler from Survivor ended up with nodes on his vocal cords and had to leave the band for just this reason.

Take someone like Farnham however, who isn't really pushing that high end nearly as much as he could, combined with his penchant for altering melody lines as he sees fit, and when that day that your voice isn't 100% arrives, he can get by much easier than some others. Still, if it was that easy, he wouldn't be the exception to the rule....


Danny Bowes of Thunder is another one who simply hasn't changed much at all either. He's lost some depth, but his range is unchanged--and he's a stickler for NOT changing the melody live.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1p0luA_egU

[ForceInfinity]

Dave the past few years appears to have gotten a vocal trainer. He's actually singing better than ever and in some cases hitting notes higher than the records.

Good for him. A lot of his live performances in the past really made me shudder. I always preferred the Roth era of Van Halen, but found Hagar to be a substantially better live singer. Nice to see Dave's got it back. Thanks for the link.

On topic, I think (without knowing Perry personally) that he just damaged his voice over time. Those songs are murderously high. Look at what happened to Augeri. This doesn't strike me as a case of "he's a little older, let's lower the key a bit". It's "he went for that note too many times to put on a good show and shredded his vocal cords eventually". I think anyway.

I also think that he's probably still an excellent singer ... just not able to replicate Steve Perry in his prime, note for note.

The example of Dennis DeYoung was brought up. That one amazes me because he sounds pretty spectacular for his age. Doesn't seem like he's had to lower anything. I've seen Paul McCartney clam some high notes notes (but still sound great typically ), Peter Cetera lower the key a bit on old Chicago songs (but otherwise sound like a high tenor still), Joseph Williams and Peter Gabriel leave the high notes to the background singers. But DeYoung - wow.

Funny that you mention Peter Gabriel, because that is someone who I think trashed his voice something fierce. His voice was already showing signs of wear on So, then there was Us. I mean compare "Solsberry Hill" or "Biko" to "Talk to Me", "Love to be Loved", "When You're Falling", etc. Although on Up's "Signal to Noise", I had to hope that some of that crazy vocal shit wasn't him (I suspect it was somehow) because that voice was going places no man's voice should ever go. I'm not saying Peter can't sing, its just that his voices sounds somewhat trashed compared to his old days, although he can still max out what he does have and turn out some decent stuff (now if only he'd quit with the covers and do some original tunes).

[JohnH]

Another singer that still has an amazing voice is Glenn Hughes. Here's a LIVE clip from 2 years ago when he was 58. He's got some serious range still going on. And, he took drugs for many years. Can't believe it didn't ruin his voice. Still going strong with Black Country Communtion at 60. Check it out. Don't forget, you can play all sorts of games in the studio but this is live!

http://youtu.be/Pu6e0IHuFwY

Glenn states he got a vocal trainer in the past couple of years and is doing a lot of vocal exercises. It's amazing and inspiring the best in the business is still trying to get better. After tuning down live for solo gigs the past 12 years- with Bcc he did the albums and the tour tuned back up to A 440. The shows I saw last year he was on it and not ducking any notes .

[JrnyScarab]

Another singer that still has an amazing voice is Glenn Hughes. Here's a LIVE clip from 2 years ago when he was 58. He's got some serious range still going on. And, he took drugs for many years. Can't believe it didn't ruin his voice. Still going strong with Black Country Communtion at 60. Check it out. Don't forget, you can play all sorts of games in the studio but this is live!

http://youtu.be/Pu6e0IHuFwY

Glenn states he got a vocal trainer in the past couple of years and is doing a lot of vocal exercises. It's amazing and inspiring the best in the business is still trying to get better. After tuning down live for solo gigs the past 12 years- with Bcc he did the albums and the tour tuned back up to A 440. The shows I saw last year he was on it and not ducking any notes .

Didn't know that he was using a vocal coach. Hard to believe anyone could teach him anything after all these years. His voice to me is still spectacular for his age even if he was tuning down in the past.

I've got the BCC live DVD and I heard that he did ZERO vocal overdubs on it. Just incredible.

[stevew2]

beyond making trains ,what is Lionel doing these days other than his daughter having some kinda lame reality show?

[Rick]

beyond making trains ,what is Lionel doing these days other than his daughter having some kinda lame reality show?

I think he just released or is about to release a country album.

[Don]

beyond making trains ,what is Lionel doing these days other than his daughter having some kinda lame reality show?

I think he just released or is about to release a country album.

Lionel Richie just released an album that debuted at #2. It's sold 300,000 copies in two weeks, not bad for a guy that has been out of the spotlight for quite awhile. It's basically a duets album featuring him and country stars performing his and the Commodores greatest hits.

Country music sells and Lionel is a southern boy by birth so it does make a lot of sense.

He is actually doing a TV special on CBS this Friday night to hype his album even more.