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Dec 18th, 98
Steve Perry interview on Wall Of Sound
Former Journey Frontman Talks
Split, Solo Career
As everyone knows, the latest Journey
reunion was short-lived, producing just
one album, 1996's Trial by Fire. A
degenerative hip condition kept frontman
Steve Perry off the stage and the band off
the road, eventually leading to his split
with the group, which continues on with a
sound-alike named Steve Augeri.
Perry says the other members of Journey
offered to wait for him to convalesce from
his needed surgery in 1996, but only if he
went under the knife immediately. "That
fractured the reunion," says Perry, whose
departure from Journey was made official last May. "I
understood his frustration of wanting to get out on tour,
because I was also very upset and frustrated. But I just
didn't feel like being hooked up to a mule team after
surgery. That's what it was going to feel like.
"It was kind of an ultimatum. I said, 'Hopefully you're
doing what's right for you, and I guess I'm doing what's
right for me.' I also said, 'Why don't you just form a
group and leave Journey alone, and we'll see what
happens.' But they didn't want to do that."
Perry, meanwhile, busied himself with putting together
the just-released Greatest Hits + Five Unreleased. The
project gathers songs from his two solo albums, 1984's
double-platinum Street Talk and 1994's gold For the
Love of Strange Medicine, as well as selections from
his unreleased Against the Wall album. The latter was
recorded between the other two projects, but was
scotched by Columbia over "creative differences."
Perry says he was "excited" by the idea of compiling
his solo work, both as a way of recognizing what he'd
accomplished and as a method of reestablishing his
name with the listening public. "The solo career was
something that's sort of always been hiding in the
wings," explains Perry, who hopes to work on an
album of new material during 1999. "As strange as it
sounds, the solo albums were an attempt to change
my voice; I started listening to what the song called for,
instead of singing in the same voice that came out of
me on everything. I would just hope that the fans would
appreciate my work and open their minds to look into
the solo side."
Gary Graff |