Steve Perry has a message for Journey fans: The time has come to stop believin’. In a social media message, the band’s former singer, who went his separate ways from the group nearly three decades ago, torpedoed online gossip that he was considering a reunion.
“While I’m always grateful for the love people still have for Journey, the rumors about me rejoining the band are simply not true, and I want to gently put them to rest,” he wrote. “I completely understand why people would hope for that. The music we created together means a great deal to me too. But I’m continuing to explore new creative work and really enjoy working on new music that reflects where I am today.”
The rumors stemmed from an interview Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain gave to Ultimate Classic Rock in which he was asked whether or not they’d approached Perry about a reunion. “Neal [Schon, guitarist] already asked, and he says [Perry’s] thinking about it,” Cain said. “I hope he comes out. It’s never too late. We’ve got 100 shows, so he’s welcome at any one of them. He didn’t say no – leave it at that.” Well, now, Perry has said no, so it’s officially OK to let go of that feeling.
It’s understandable, though, why fans would be excited for a reunion since even though Perry was Journey’s third frontman and his first record with the band was their fourth, he sang all of their biggest hits, recorded between his 1977 arrival and Journey’s 1987 breakup: “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Lights,” “Open Arms,” “Any Way You Want It,” and “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),” among them. When Journey reunited in 1995, Perry remained in the group for three years until a hip injury sidelined him. In the years since, Journey have had several frontmen, eventually recruiting their current singer, Arnel Pineda, from a cover band called the Zoo, in 2007. Pineda has been Journey’s frontman longer than Perry did at this point.
Meanwhile, Perry took a long break from the music business while dealing with health issues. He released Traces, his first solo album in 24 years, in 2018, and a Christmas album, The Season, in 2021. He has not embarked on a tour since his return, but he did sporadically make guest appearances with the band Eels in 2014.
In a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone, Perry explicitly shot down any possibility of reuniting with Journey. “I left the band 31 fucking years ago, my friend,” he said at the time. “You can still love someone, but not want to work with them. And if they only love you because they want to work with you, that doesn’t feel good to me.”
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