Neal Schon knows that fans would love to see Steve Perry sing with Journey. But as he’s said time and time again, it’s a door — even from a friendship standpoint — which seems to be permanently closed.
In a 2012 interview with UCR, the guitarist and cofounder noted, “We didn’t kick him out — he walked.” But he lamented the lack of contact with his former bandmate, who departed the group for the final time in 1998.
“I hope that someday, that we can get to the point to where I can pick up the telephone and I can talk to him without talking through management and attorneys,” he said then. “I still don’t quite realize why we can’t just talk one on one, for whatever reason, just to say hello. Not to pressure anybody to do anything or anything like that – it wouldn’t be like that. [It would be] just in a friendly manner.”
Though they would stand with arms around each other during Journey’s 2017 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the communication status has remained largely the same. The guitarist says he has “zero dialogue” with Perry presently.
READ MORE: The Rift That Steve Perry Fixed at Journey’s Rock Hall Induction
“I reached out, wrote him an email, and I’m sure it’s probably still his email, because he did, you know, reach back to me about a year ago through the email,” Schon shared in a new interview with Eddie Trunk. “[I] invited him to the [San Francisco] Giants game, because I knew that he was a fan as well and was going to be there, and it’d be cool just to catch up and hang out and watch a ballgame, and [I] never heard anything back. So, I mean, you can’t keep chasing something that’s just not interested in, you know, correlating with you.”
Regardless, Schon continues to wish his old friend well in anything that he might do. “I think we’ve seen that he wants to still create and you know, more would be great,” he says. “I was like, totally behind his [Traces] album. When he came out with his album, I thought there was some very good stuff on it. I’d like to see him create some more.”
Is Journey Working on New Music?
When Trunk inquired about the possibility of something new from Journey, the prolific guitarist was quick to confirm that he has no shortage of ideas, but being able to wrangle the various band members would be important. “I’m always working on new material and I have, you know, quite a lot that I’ve compiled in this year that we’ve had off and many, many ideas for new songs,” he offered. “[We would need] to get in a room and throw it around and see what happens with it. We get very inspired once we get in a room together and actually rehearse. You know, anything could happen.”
On the positive side of things, Schon said that after taking a hiatus from touring in 2025, Journey (with longtime singer Arnel Pineda) will return to the road in the new year. In fact, they have as many as 120 shows booked over the next two years, including an April 25 appearance at the Stagecoach Music Festival. “We’re going to dig deep and the sets are going to be much longer,” he reported. “I think that our fans are really going to dig what we’re putting together for them.”
Journey Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide
Journey has a deep history outside of the platinum-selling Steve Perry era. Here’s a look.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
