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Jonathan Cain Of The Band Journey Talks About Writing Their Classic Songs “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Open Arms,” “Who’s Crying Now” And “Faithfully”

By Dale Kawashima

Songwriter & keyboardist Jonathan Cain has been known as a key member of legendary rock band Journey for over three decades. He co-wrote or wrote many of the group’s biggest hits, including “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Open Arms,” “Who’s Crying Now” and “Faithfully.” Notably, Cain and the Journey members were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year (2017).

In addition to this work with Journey, Cain has recently released his memoir, Don’t Stop Believin’ (published by Zondervan/Harper Collins Books), which recalls his career with Journey and his life story. He has also released new solo album, The Songs You Leave Behind, a collection of 19 songs that serves as an audio companion to his book.

Cain was born and raised in Chicago, and then he moved to California in the 1970s. He first joined the band The Babys, which featured lead vocalist John Waite. He then accepted an offer to join Journey in 1980, becoming their keyboard player and songwriting contributor. Following seven years of success with Journey, Cain joined the band Bad English in 1987 after Journey had broken up at that time. Then in 1996, Cain reunited with Journey, and he has been touring and recording with them ever since.

We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Cain. But before we get started, here’s a rundown of his hit credits with Journey, The Babys and Bad English. Cain has co-written or written 16  Billboard Top 30 pop hits, including 13 with Journey. Here’s a list of his Journey hits (mostly written with Steve Perry and Neal Schon): “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Open Arms,” “Who’s Crying Now,” “Faithfully,” “Separate Ways/World Apart,” “Only The Young,” “Girl Can’t Help It,” “Be Good To Yourself,” “Still They Ride,” “Send Her My Love,” “I’ll Be Alright Without You,” “After the Fall” and “When You Love a Woman.”

For Bad English, Cain co-wrote the Top 5 hit “Price of Love,” and he also co-wrote their Top 30 single, “Possession.” For The Babys, he co-wrote their single, “Back On My Feet Again.”

Cain has also released a number of solo albums, particularly over the past two decades. One of his key solo albums is Back to the Innocence (released in 1995, which includes several songs that are featured in the audiobook edition of his new memoir, Don’t Stop Believin’ .

Currently, Journey is on a major concert tour, co-headlining shows across North America  with Def Leppard.

Jonathan Cain Interview Here is our interview with Jonathan Cain. He discusses his new book and album, and he tells how he wrote the classic Journey songs “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Open Arms,” “Who’s Crying Now” and “Faithfully.”

DK : You recently released your memoir, Don’t Stop Believin’ . Can you tell me about the writing of this book?

Jonathan Cain : I was on a bus ride with Ross Valory (bass player of Journey) and I would tell him stories about my old days growing up in Chicago and all the crazy stuff I went through, and he said, “You’ve gotta write a book. Your story’s a good story.” So I guess I took it from there, and I started working on it. I picked up a book by Stephen King called On Writing, and when I finished that I was off and running, because he said everybody has a book in them. But I had no idea how difficult it was to write a memoir. So I just got it all down…I started collecting all the memories, and I remembered everything I wanted to put down. So that was encouraging for me.

I met this book editor, and he helped me find a home for the book; we landed a deal with (book publishers) Zondervan/Harper Collins. They’re a bigtime publisher and they were excited about my story, and they wanted to tell it the way I wanted to tell it.

Also, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (induction ceremony for Journey) was on the horizon (in 2017). It was a blessing, because I would be remiss if I had released the book and not had the Hall of Fame event in the book. The night of the ceremony, I really saw how the book should go. I saw Steve Perry standing next to me, and I remember him and I having this conversation (many years earlier) about writing a song for the ages. We had just met each other, and yet that’s what our dream was. At the time, the Beatles were having their resurgence (when their albums were released on CD), and we were amazed at their sales even 20 years later. And we thought…Wow, what if that happened for us one day? We were a couple guys who had just met each other, and we were marveling at the power of the songs the Beatles wrote, being together for just six years (1964-1970). It was remarkable what they did in six years. And for us, six years seemed to be the period of time that Steve and I and Neal (Schon) hunkered down together and did the big records… Escape , Frontiers and Raised on Radio …those were the big ones. It was pretty crazy that it happened in just six years.

So as I was standing onstage at the Hall of Fame, it was like the Lord showed me, “Here’s how you begin and here’s how you’ll end” (laughs). And to have the Hall of Fame event come into my life, it made me put everything in its place. I knew then the story I needed to tell, which is encouraging people to have a dream, and that anything is possible. Also, that you’re not what other people say you are…you’re uniquely you. That was my message.

DK : You’ve also released a new album called The Songs You Leave Behind . Can you talk about this album?

Cain : This was a kind of prophetic thing…I had been writing these songs about my life. After Steve (Perry) left Journey in 1987, I had to define who I was as a songwriter. Was I just the guy in Journey, or did I have something to say? And I really put myself to it. I wanted to find the guy that wrote “Faithfully,” and I did. I built a studio in my backyard, and I set about making a solo album in the ‘90s. [As it turns out] these songs fit in the audiobook perfectly, because I was defining the crossroads of my life. I wrote songs about the school fire [I survived as a child], almost drowning in a lake, my children being born, my father passing, and even my dog that I loved so much. So all these songs fit in the audiobook perfectly.

The album ( The Songs You Leave Behind ) is a collection of 19 songs for the people that love the story of my book Don’t Stop Believin’ that want the whole song. This is because a lot of the songs in the audiobook are only a minute or minute-in-a-half long, and then they fade away. So if you want to hear the whole songs, this album is sort of the partner to the book.

DK : You’ve written many songs for Journey with Steve Perry and Neal Schon. What was the songwriting process for the three of you?

Cain : There was a certain preparation. We knew we were going to get together on any given day. We’d come in with something—Steve would have something in his head, I’d have something in mind, and Neal would have something in mind. We all came to the table with something to contribute, and beautifully enough, it worked well. We were on the same wavelength many times. Steve would bring in a melody and I would have the piano part for it. Or one of us would have the chorus, and I would have the lyric and he would have the melody for that lyric.

I remember how we wrote “Who’s Crying Now.” Steve was just humming this thing and snapping his fingers to this groovy thing. Steve sang what sounded like “Wooh ooh, wow ooh wow” and I’m like, “Well it sounds like you’re saying Who’s Crying Now.” And this was me just pulling stuff out of the air and pinning the tail on the donkey and there it is…Boom. Many times, Steve would scat stuff and it would sound like something. And I would ask myself…what did it sound like? Knowing we would get together, we would always try to bring a nugget to the table. We trusted each other enough in that brotherhood, to see the ideas through.

DK : In recent years, “Don’t Stop Believin’” has become Journey’s most popular song. How did you, Steve and Neal write this song?

Cain : In a nutshell, I was in Hollywood trying to make it in the ‘70s, [and at the time money was tight and] I had to ask my father for money. My dog got hit by a car, and it was a $1000 vet bill to keep her alive. I worked out a deal with the vet, and then I called my dad and said, “Gosh, I don’t have this money.” I was living month-to-month. So he loaned me some money and I said to him, “You know, I’m gettin’ my butt kicked here…should I come home?” And he said, “Jon, don’t stop believing. We had this vision for you all along since you were a little kid. You’re gonna make it, don’t worry.” And I said, “Okay dad.” So I wrote the words “don’t stop believin’” in my lyric book and kept it with me.

Then years later when I working with Journey on an album, Steve Perry asked if I had any lyrics or melodies that might work for the new album. I went home and paged through all my spiral notebooks. On the last page of my notebook I found three words scribbled: “Don’t stop believin’.” And I thought that could be a good song, and Steve would like the title and love singing that. So I wrote the chorus that night and brought it to rehearsal, and they loved it. Then the three of us kind of wrote the song backwards. Neal came up with the bass line and the B section. We didn’t really know what the lyric was going to be until the next day.

I had the title and most of the lyrics for the chorus, but we didn’t know how we were gonna get there. So we went backwards (working on the verse after writing the chorus first). I shared with them how I grew up and lived in Laurel Canyon in the ‘70s, going down to Sunset Boulevard on a Friday night and seeing the menagerie of hustlers and dreamers and stuff. And I asked, “What if it was like this? This small town girl and this city boy, and they were gonna jump on a midnight train going anywhere.” [We came up with train] because Neal had this staccato guitar line that sounded like a train going somewhere. So it was like dreaming about making it. [We came up with the lyrics] “Some will win and some will lose,” and “the smell of wine and cheap perfume” might as well be the Whisky a Go Go club. And Steve and I were both singers in a smoky room, because we grew up in the nightclubs. So it was sort of a perfect concept for Steve too, so the two of us grafted that lyric and the rest is history. We laid the track down and it was the first song on the Escape album.

DK : Another one of your big hits was the ballad, “Open Arms.” How did you and Steve write this song?

Cain : I actually had that song when I came up to San Francisco. I had written the melody and the chorus, and I had lyrics to the chorus but I didn’t have lyrics to the verse. When I landed in San Francisco, Steve wanted to know if I had any ballads. He said, “I really want to sing a ballad on this album, and I’m thinking about making a solo album.” I looked at him and said, “You don’t need to make a solo album. You’ve got Journey, man. You can do anything you want in this band.” And he said, “No, I’m just looking for a ballad I can soar on.” I said, “Well I have a song called ‘Open Arms’.” So I played him the song on a little Wurlitzer piano I’d brought over to his house. Steve loved it and said, “Let’s finish the lyric.” And so we did—in about two hours, the lyrics were done.

This is one of the first songs that I knew we were a team, because it was so magically easy. Steve and I were on the same wavelength in a lot of ways lyrically. And Neal and I were very close musically. So when I would get Neal’s music, I could give it to Steve and give him some ideas. “Open Arms” was a song that Neal wasn’t part of [the writing], so we brought it in rehearsal, and the band looked at us puzzled, like “What do we do with this?” (because it was a piano ballad). And Steve was so positive—he said, “This is gonna be orchestrated and we’re gonna make it this epic ballad. It’s gonna be soaring…it will be amazing in the arenas.” The song ended up doing very well for us. It’s still the [romantic song] that couples hold on to each other and hug and kiss when they hear it.

DK : A Journey hit that you wrote by yourself was “Faithfully.” What inspired you to write this song?

Cain : I was feeling distance with my (first) wife. I was the new guy in the band, and one day I was sitting out at an empty arena; we were waiting for our crew. I sat and watched the riggers take down the big stage and I was thinking, “Wow this is crazy, we’re like a circus family.” And I thought about how we all missed our family and loved ones…we all pay a price for the road life. Then I thought…what if we had a song that we could all hold on to each other and say “This is what we do,” and they could send that song home and Journey says, “We’re forever yours…Faithfully.” And so I started writing this song on a bus. I wrote the lyrics on a napkin.

I went to sleep and I woke up the next morning, and I took the napkin with me. I looked at it and I started writing. I wrote the lyrics, line after line. It was pouring out of me. And then I had a little Casio keyboard and I started plunking out the melody. Then I took the song to soundcheck, and I found this big symphony piano and started playing the song. I realized that it was a good song and that I would show it to Steve. I knew he would love it.

So I played Steve “Faithfully,” but then he said he wanted it for his solo album. And I took the cassette from him and said, “No…it has to be for Journey.” And he said, “Really?” I said, “You write your own album. This is a Journey song.”

Then later on for the Frontiers album (in 1983), the producer called me and said, “We’re gonna cut a ballad. Bring in a ballad tomorrow. I was wondering…how did he know this? I had only played “Faithfully” for Steve. But it was the producer who brought this song into light. Then we recorded it—Neal wrote a chart, Ross wrote a chart…we did three takes. Then Steve said, “I’ll sing it on one condition. You stay away from the studio and let me do my thing with it.” I said, “You got it, sir.” So I think he sang it for a couple of days, and they comped the vocals and called me in and I got chills when I heard it. And that’s how the song came to be. Sreve did an amazing job. And Neal played an amazing guitar solo on it, and he came up with the french horn part.

Some songs you write just get bigger than anything you’d imagine.  When we played it live, we started seeing fans coming into the show with signs saying, “We’re forever yours…Faithfully.” And I said, “Alright…that’s it—they can’t kick me out of the band now (laughs).

DK : You’ve been with Journey for almost 40 years now. How would you sum up the experience of being with this band for all these years?

Cain : Yeah it’s been 37 years. You know, I guess we became the soundtrack for people’s lives. It’s remarkable to be part of that musical legacy, and then to go into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame really caps it off. You realize that this music resonates with people, and it’s important to keep it alive. It’s just remarkable and an honor, and you live in that grateful place all the time and just go, “Thank you.”  And I give the Lord all credit and praise for my success throughout these years. As I mentioned in the book, it had to be divine intervention to send a kid from Chicago into the Journey camp (laughs). We would write this music, and I had no idea what I was walking into, except the Lord did. He said, “It’s gonna be great, Jon.” (laughs).

Here’s the link to Jonathan Cain’s site: https://www.jonathancain.org/

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The odd couple: the brotherly battles at the heart of Journey's Freedom

Given the years of mud slinging, threats, power grabs, lawsuits and general animosity, it looked like Journey’s 2011 album Eclipse might have been their last. But then Freedom arrived

It was Bruce Springsteen who finally got Journey into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. The hard-rock giants had been eligible for inclusion since the year 2000, and had the record sales (gold, platinum and diamond discs up the wazoo) and the all-pervading cultural influence (you’ve heard of Don’t Stop Believin’ , right?) to back it up. But year after year the HOF gatekeepers said no. Enter The Boss. 

“The rumour has it that Springsteen, who’s a big deal for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, sang Don’t Stop Believin’ at a benefit with Elton John and Lady Gaga one night,” says Journey keyboard player Jonathan Cain. “He said: ‘That’s a killer tune, yeah. Journey, we should give them a shot.’ So he started championing us with the Hall Of Fame. They put us in the ballot, and the fans who voted us number one did the rest.” 

And so it was that several current and past members of Journey gathered on stage at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on April 7, 2017 for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony. Co-founding guitarist Neal Schon was there, along with second-longest tenured member Cain. So too were original keyboard player Gregg Rolie and drummer Aynsley Dunbar, bassist Ross Valory, drummer Steve Smith and, most surprisingly of all, vocalist Steve Perry, who had seemingly turned his back on both Journey and the music industry in the late 90s. 

It was, as they say, emotional. It was also Journey, a band whose graceful power and perfectly poised music is in inverse proportion to their capacity for squabbling, in-fighting and shit-talking. The HOF induction marked the beginning of an almost comically turbulent period in which Schon and Cain had a very public falling out in 2017 over a trip to the White House. They patched things up, only to fire two long-standing band members over an ill-fated ‘coup’, instigating a potentially ruinous lawsuit. 

Oh, and somewhere in between they ditched their longtime managers for good measure. That Journey are still here after 40-odd years of that kind of behaviour is remarkable. But not as remarkable as the fact that they’ve just delivered their first new album in 11 years, Freedom . It’s a record that draws on the Journey of the past and updates it for today. It’s no Escape or Frontiers , but it certainly doesn’t disgrace itself in their company. 

“I’m always in creative mode,” says Neal Schon. “My work is never done. But I never lost hope that we’d do another Journey album. Not at all."

Even speaking separately, it’s clear that Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain have little in common other than being members of Journey. The guitarist is fast-talking and passionate, wearing his zero-tolerance approach to music industry bullshit proudly. “I said: ‘How about I wrap the fucking guitar around your neck?’” is the conclusion to one anecdote about once working with a producer who rubbed him up the wrong way. You’d imagine being in a band with him would be eventful. 

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By contrast, Cain is measured and calm, answering questions about the band’s turbulent recent history and his relationship with Schon thoughtfully. “There’s always going to be bumps in the road,” he says of the dynamic between them. “No forty-year relationship is ever not going to have them.”  

Even before those bumps in the road appeared, Schon was putting the responsibility for the lack of a follow-up to Journey’s last album, 2011’s Eclipse , squarely at Cain’s door. He claimed Cain had no interest in recording a new album. Cain doesn’t dispute that, although he says he always intended to make another Journey record – it just had to be at the right time. 

“The amount of money it takes for us to make an album in the studio is extraordinary,” says Cain. “You’re talking six or seven hundred grand. The Eclipse album had been extraordinarily expensive and I didn’t think anybody had any fun making it. It was the worst seller of everything we’ve ever done. It left a bad taste in my mouth.” 

He says it was the pandemic that shifted his attitude to new Journey music. “Covid made this album happen, a hundred per cent. I wrote a thing about a guy and girl not sure why they broke up and missing each other. It had parallels with the separation so many couples had to endure.” 

Those lyrics, hitched to “a bluesy, pissed-off loop” that Schon had come up with became the starting point for the new album and its first single, the soaring The Way We Used To Be .

Cain puts his resurgence of interest in a new Journey album down to something much higher: call it divine intervention. In the mid-2010s he became a devout born-again Christian after meeting his current wife, the conservative pastor Paula White. 

“Singing music for the Lord seems to have helped my creativity,” he says. “I gave my gift to God and it spilled over into the Journey thing. The lyrics kept flowing out of me.” 

It was Cain’s faith that indirectly caused the rift between him and Schon. Cain’s wife has been a friend of Donald Trump for two decades, and when the mogul was elected president he appointed White the chair of his evangelical advisory board – effectively his spiritual advisor. Cain says he likes Trump, a fellow golfer. “This guy is not who they say. They paint him as a villain, but it’s far from it.” 

When the then President Trump invited Cain and the rest of Journey – with the pointed exception of Schon – for a tour of the White House, he jumped at the chance. 

“I’ve never put any politics into Journey’s music,” says Cain. “I’m not going to run on stage in a ‘MAGA’ hat. It was just a tour of the White House, that was supposed to go down pretty unnoticed. Unfortunately it got noticed.” 

It certainly did, not least by Schon. What followed was a one-man Twitterstorm in which the guitarist took a flamethrower to Cain , his wife and the entity that was Journey at the time. The gist of it – and we’re paraphrasing here – was: ‘Journey isn’t and has never been a political or religious band, and by the way, Journey is my band.’

An unfortunate series of events went down,” Cain says evenly. “They chose to come against me and my wife and take it public, and it was a mistake. I stayed clear of it.” 

Cain thinks that part of the problem, and also the solution, was his memoir, Don’t Stop Believin’ , published in 2018. “I think he thought I was going to throw him under the bus in the book. But I was respectful and grateful for everything that he had been part of. It came out, he read it, go figure. Everybody has bumps in the road.”

Except that wasn’t the last bump in the road that Journey would face. By the end of the 2010s, the line-up included original bassist Ross Valory and former drummer Steve Smith, both of whom had previously done time in the band in the 70s and 80s. In March 2020, Schon and Cain fired the pair , alleging they had launched a “coup d’état” to seize control of Journey. 

Lawsuits flew both ways, sparking a full year of tiresome and costly litigation that would eventually result in an “amicable settlement”, a phrase that conjures images of gritted teeth and fingers crossed behind backs. 

“It came out of the blue,” Cain says now. “They tried to drum me and Neal out. It was unbelievable what they did. Really, really disappointing. Many, many millions were spent battling it.” 

Cain has seen his former bandmates once since the lawsuit was settled. Amusingly, he ended up in one of their Zoom meetings by mistake. “I just said: ‘Hey guys, hope you have a good life, we’ll see you down the road.’ What else can you say to someone who tried to come after you? ‘What a pain in the ass you guys were’?” 

Despite their differences, the argy-bargy with their former bandmates seems to have brought Schon and Cain closer, at least professionally. 

“In the end, he needs me as much as I need him,” says Cain. “You don’t like me or you don’t like my religion or my politics, fine. But in the end we come together to play music. That’s what it’s about.”

One of the few things that Schon and Cain seem to agree on is the nature of their relationship. “I have to look at the positive aspects of it,”says Schon. “Our relationship is more of a musical one. Jon and I have a great chemistry musically. When we get together we always come up with something that’s happening.” 

Schon is at home in Marin County, north of San Francisco. A few awards for record sales are on the wall behind him. It’s not vanity, he says of the discs, more to make his computer room look a little more lively on Zoom calls. 

“This is the only room with that stuff, all the rest is in my attic,” he says. “I don’t need to look at that every day to feel good about myself and what I’ve accomplished. I know what I’ve accomplished.” 

Like Cain, Schon hasn’t stopped making music since Journey released their last album, Eclipse , in 2011. In that time he’s released four solo albums, reunited with his old mentor Carlos Santana for 2015’s Santana IV album, and guested with the likes of Jimmy Barnes, Jason Becker and Sammy Hagar , his old bandmate in one-and-done supergroup HSAS. Schon is as open as Cain about the tensions of a few years ago, although blunter. 

“I was very vocal about it publicly,” he says. “Everybody hated that. But, you know, I’m like, I’m gonna put it out there, because I want the fans to either back me or say: ‘Man, you should shut up and go behind the doors with this.’ And there was an overabundance of people that came forward and said we support you a thousand per cent.” 

He sighs. “Bands… you get married to these guys. And like in a marriage, people can go in different directions. Bands can be difficult and challenging, but removing certain individuals…”

Ah, ‘certain individuals’. The legal entanglement with Ross Valory and Steve Smith was, he says, “an ugly thing to go through”, but indirectly it gave Schon the impetus to make a new Journey album. When he and Cain were fishing around for a new drummer to replace Smith, the guitarist suggested Narada Michael Walden. 

A respected journeyman who has played with and/or produced a list of artists that includes Santana, Jeff Beck and Diana Ross, Walden produced Schon’s last solo album, 2020’s Universe, and the two had hit it off in the studio. Schon liked the idea of making a new Journey album with him.

“Nobody was really into having new music, except for myself and, I think, Arnel [Pineda, Jouney’s vocalist since 2007],” says Schon. “Having that support [from Walden] where it wasn’t there before, there was none of this, ‘Well, I don’t know if I want to make a record.’ It was, like, ‘Let’s go, man, let’s go now!’” 

As the title suggests, Freedom covers a lot of ground musically, from the solid-gold hard rock of Together We Run to the un-Journey-like etherealness of After Glow (sung by recently returned drummer Deen Castronovo). But there’s another, deeper significance to the title. In 2020, Journey parted company with their longtime manager, industry powerhouse Irving Azoff, who took over from original handler Herbie Herbert when the band reunited in 1995. 

As Schon puts it: “I managed to get out of the clenches of the old management we were with.” He’s cautious about going into too much depth – “I’m trying to think of an easy way of putting it that you’re not going to twist” – then proceeds to go into quite a lot of depth anyway. 

It’s complicated and business heavy, but the gist of it is that Schon feels he wasn’t being given the full picture when it came to tickets and merchandise. Such was his suspicion, he started consulting car park attendants at Journey shows to get a sense of just how many people had come to that night’s gigs, and whether it tallied with what he was being told. There was a fight to be had and, Schon being Schon, he was up for it. “

I fought so hard with everybody: management and accountants and lawyers,” he says. “I was being threatened by every attorney – even my own at some times. I was gonna be sued by everybody, just to back off. They really tried scare tactics. I went: ‘Fucking bring it, man. I’ve got the goods. Just try to fuck with me.’”

The upshot was that Journey parted company with Irving Azoff in 2020. Talking about the whole episode, Schon sounds exasperated but defiant. “I love music, I love playing guitar, I’m a real musician,” he says. “But at the same time, this is going to be my fiftieth year in this band next year. The only founding member still here. I felt it was my duty to start paying attention and watch what was going on, to watch over the mothership. If someone’s gonna make billions of dollars off us, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be us.” 

The past few years haven’t just been a series of soul-sapping arguments and lawsuits. There was Journey’s induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2017 – a long-overdue night of reunions, rapprochements and general celebration. At least that was what it was supposed to be. In reality there were a lot of what Schon calls “dynamics” going on in the build-up. 

“I refused to go without Gregg [Rolie, original Journey keyboard player], because he was there in the beginning with me, and they didn’t want him,” he says. “Two days before we were actually due to go to the event, I said I’m not showing unless Gregg comes. I stood my ground and they fucking hated me for it.” 

There was weirdness on the night too, although talking to Schon it’s not entirely clear how or what. “If you notice, certain people were in maroon suits,” he says conspiratorially. “Our manager had a maroon tie, Ross [Valory] had a maroon suit, Jon had a maroon jacket…” 

Colour-coded strangeness aside, the event provided one genuinely emotional moment for Schon, and for Journey fans too, when they were joined for their acceptance speech by Steve Perry – the first time Schon had spoken to Journey’s former singer since 2005. 

“The best part of the evening was speaking with Steve Perry in his room before we went on stage,” says Schon. “We hadn’t seen each other for many years. That was the most moving part of the evening to me. We really had a connection, and a love for one another. It was emotional, I think for both of us."

Perry‘s appearance inevitably sparked rumours ahead of the night that he might rejoin Journey for their performance at the ceremony. But it never happened, and Schon still sounds disappointed. 

“I was ready if he wanted to do it at the last second, to do Lights or something like that. I thought he would do it on the night. And he declined. You know, it is what it is.” 

And the Hall Of Fame themselves? Schon says he gave them “a bunch of guitars” to put on the walls, but they never did it. “You know what?” he says triumphantly. “I don’t really care.”

And so here Journey are, in 2022, armed with one of the best albums they’ve made since their 80s' heyday, yet still finely balanced between tiptoeing around each other and wanting to shout: “To hell with it” and stamp on each other’s feet. 

Schon says he’s ready to do another album as soon as he can. He came up with 2,500 ideas for Freedom, all of which are stored on his iPhone. 

“Are we going to wait another eleven years to do another album? I don’t think so. Do I want to do another one? Absolutely. And I’m sure we’re going to do another one after that. As long as I’m here, we’re gonna keep creating.” 

Cain is more pragmatic about another Journey album after Freedom. 

“Yeah,” he says cautiously. “I could do it if I had to. If it was put on me. It would have to warrant it. If this album is not a success, why do another one?” 

Of course, no one knows what the future holds for Journey, not even the odd couple at the centre of it all. Spats? Maybe. Bust-ups? Possibly. But smooth sailing? That would be too easy – which wouldn’t be very Journey at all. 

Freedom is out now via Frontiers .

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock , Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw , not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo , the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill . He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.

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From Standards to Stadiums, Journey's Jonathan Cain Retraces His Steps

By Chris Steffen

Jun. 1, 2018

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Jonathan Cain of Journey

By dan macintosh.

Comments: 4

• Camille from Aurora Steve Perry doesn’t even sound like Steve Perry anymore.
• Sarah from Lakeland Fl Steve Perry is and will always be the voice of Journey.
• Dennis Mcmahon from Vero Beach, Florida I don't care WHO it is; you will NEVER find another Steve Perry !! You might find someone that SOUNDS like Steve Perry; but THAT'S not Steve Perry. ONE..........only ONE.........Best male voice AND heart. He put EVERYTHING into his singing. Miss him.
• John Murden from Metairie, Louisiana Jonathan, you and Steve Perry are such a great duo. We as fans need that duo back together soon. The music industry craves Journey to be the "real Journey" again. As fans we thank You and Steve for the great lyrics and amazing voice that conveyed meaningful music. We won't stop believing that Journey will have Steve back and be a super force in the music industry again. Reach out and help make it happen. I have faith that you can make it happen.

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Journey’s Jonathan Cain writes of escaping Our Lady of Angels fire, writing hits

Jonathan Cain performs with Journey during a 2017 show in Las Vegas. | Getty Images

Sometimes it’s impossible to ignore the obvious play on words because it really has been quite the journey for Jonathan Cain, the Chicago native best known for his songwriting and keyboard work with the mega-successful rock anthem band Journey.

In his new memoir “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Cain, 68, chronicles a path that includes surviving the deadly Our Lady of the Angels School fire in 1958, coming of age in the tumultuous 1960s in Chicago, co-writing such hits as “Faithfully” and “Open Arms” (and, of course, the song that gave title to the book), rediscovering his religious faith and marrying Paula White, the pastor / televangelist and longtime spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump.

Cain worked on the book, which is out Tuesday, for the better part of decade. The result is an autobiography that’s equal parts trip down memory lane, detailed recap of writing and recording of some of Journey’s biggest hits, spiritual quest — and love letter to Cain’s father.

Young Jonathan Cain (right) with his brother Tom. | Zondervan

Born as Leonard Friga to working-class Italian parents, Cain was a third grader at Our Lady of Angels and was in class on Dec. 1, 1958, when students and teachers began to smell smoke, and the classes on first floor (including Cain’s) were evacuated even before the fire alarm was sounded.

“I looked at my Mickey Mouse watch and saw it was a quarter to three,” writes Cain. “School was almost done. We were so close to leaving.”

Many of the students on the second floor never made it out. A total of 92 students and three nuns perished in the fire.

“My life was just [filled with] love, everything was fine,” Cain told me. “Until that fateful day: December 1st, 1958, when we faced evil right in the eye. … We were all destroyed by that. How could this happen next to God’s house?”

Cain returns to the subject of his faith again and again in the book. He also speaks in glowing terms of his father, who always encouraged him and even provided musical inspiration by telling his son, “Don’t stop believing,” over and over.“

“He was my hero,” says Cain of his dad. “He was an affectionate man. He’d come home and hug ya. My mother, not so much. She was the disciplinarian. But it was a good balance.”

The cover of “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” by Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain.

By his late teens, Cain knew he wanted to be a musician. (He writes of being blown away by a local band and its live performance of a song called “Beginnings.” That band became the Chicago Transit Authority, and then simply: Chicago.)

Cain moved to California, recorded a solo album and found work as a musician — but it would be years before he found any kind of mainstream success, first as the keyboardist for the Babys (“Isn’t It Time), and then with Journey.

“By the time I was in the studio with Journey, I was from the wrong side of the tracks, I’d been through a lot of things. So the experience of recording with them still feels fresh to me,” said Cain in a recent telephone interview.

In the spring of 1981, Journey recorded “Escape,” which went on to sell nearly 10 millions copies and yield hit singles “Who’s Cryin’ Now,” “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” and “Open Arms.” In the early and mid-1980s, the group could sell out football stadiums.

But Cain struggled with his marriages and his faith. The man who wrote “Faithfully” for his first wife wasn’t always faithful. (A second marriage, which produced three children, also ended in divorce.)

“The first divorce was a crusher for me and I never really dealt with it. We lose ourselves sometimes in these painful moments, but that’s not who my dad raised. I was losing my way, if you will.

“The road messes you up. You’re floating in space, you’re not grounded, there’s no anchor. You don’t make great life decisions.

“I never thought I’d be that guy, and you look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘How am I ever going to get back to the guy I was?’ The only way I knew was to call on God and surrender to it all.”

Jonathan Cain (right) with singer Steve Perry (second from right) and the rest of Journey in 1981. | Pat Johnson

Cain says he’s in a good place with vocalist Steve Perry, who walked away from the group (“He got a point where he didn’t want the fame any more, he just wanted to live his life and be with his family”) and with guitarist Neal Schon, who was critical of Cain on Twitter and in interviews after Cain and some other members of Journey went to the White House and posed with Trump.

“We’ve hit reset,” Cain says. “Thirty-seven years, there are going to be bumps in the road and misunderstandings. That shouldn’t happen, but hey, we’re moving on.”

Jonathan Cain will sign copies of “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” at 7 p.m. May 3 at the 2nd and Charles store in Naperville. Tickets — which cover an autographed book and a photo with Cain — are $29, available at jonathancain.eventbrite.com .

Journey- Escape- Neal Schon- Jonathan Cain- Steve Perry

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Three New Journey Members Announced by Neal Schon

Journey have a rhythm section again. And a second keyboardist and singer.

Founding guitarist Neal Schon took to Twitter late tonight to announce that Randy Jackson and Narada Michael Walden will become the band's new bass player and drummer, respectively. He also confirmed the addition of a sixth member, keyboardist/vocalist Jason Derlatka . The trio join Schon, keyboardist Jonathan Cain and vocalist Arnel Pineda .

You can see Journey's new lineup performing a socially distanced version of "Don't Stop Believin'" for the UNICEF: We Won't Stop fundraising event below.

This will be a return engagement for longtime American Idol judge Jackson, who was a member of Journey from 1985 through 1987, appearing on 1986's Raised on Radio . Walden is a renowned songwriter, singer and producer who has drummed in Mahavishnu Orchestra and alongside Jeff Beck, Tommy Bolin and Robert Fripp.

Schon actually first publicly welcomed Derlatka as a new bandmate back in November, when he tweeted that the keyboardist and vocalist would take part in a benefit concert in Nashville with the guitarist and Cain. (You can see them performing "Separate Ways" together at the event here.) Eight months before that, Derlatka joined Schon's Journey Through Time to perform "Faithfully" at their March 2, 2019 show in Los Angeles.

Jason Derlatka Joins Neal Schon's Journey Through Time to Sing "Faithfully"

Derlatka is an an Emmy-nominated composer who has worked on shows such as The Resident , Goliath , Perfect Harmony , House  and Parenthood . He can be seen performing covers of several famous songs, including Journey's "Send Her My Love," on his official YouTube page .

Journey's former rhythm section was fired earlier this year. Ross Valory played bass for Journey from 1973 until 1985 then from 1995 until earlier this year. Steve Smith had served three stints as the group's drummer, beginning in 1978. Court documents filed by a lawyer representing Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain accused the duo of launching an "ill-conceived corporate coup d'etat" in an effort to take control of the band's name.

Valory then countersued Schon and Cain , charging them last month with breach of contract and emotional distress. He is seeking "past and future compensatory damages," while asking a judge to decide who has the right to use the band's name going forward.

Journey were to have kicked off a North American tour with opening act the Pretenders earlier this month, but canceled those plans amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Journey Lineup Changes: A Complete Guide

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Journey’s Original Keyboardist Gregg Rolie to Join Band on Upcoming Tour

• Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

The post Journey’s Original Keyboardist Gregg Rolie to Join Band on Upcoming Tour appeared first on Consequence .

Journey will hit the road next month on a North American tour, and you can expect a familiar face to be among them: according to guitarist Neal Schon , original keyboardist Gregg Rolie will perform with the band for the first time in over four decades.

Rolie helped found Journey back in 1973 and left the band in 1980. This past November, Schon teased the idea of a reunion, tweeting a photo of himself and Rolie with the caption, “2 original founding members. I think my brother Gregg Rolie should join us for 2023 tour. What do you think friends? He will spice it up and we will have a great variety of songs to choose from.” Now, Schon has confirmed that Rollie will appear on the “Freedom Tour 2023” in some capacity, replying to a fan on Facebook that “you’ll be seeing him” at the shows.

It’s unclear whether Rolie will perform a full set with Journey on the upcoming trek or if he’ll act as more of a special guest, particularly because Jonathan Cain , who’s held the keyboardist position in the band since 1980, will be on the tour as well. However, the relationship between Cain and Schon has been less than idyllic in recent months; the artists are in the midst of a legal battle pertaining to the band’s finances, and last month, Schon hit Cain with a cease and desist order after he performed “Don’t Stop Believin” at Mar-A-Lago. So it should be an eventful tour!

Journey’s upcoming tour coincides with Freedom , their first new album in 11 years. Grab tickets to one of their shows here , and see Schon’s statements regarding Rolie’s return below.

2 original founding members ???? I think my brother Gregg Rolie should join us for 2023 tour. What do you think friends? He will spice it up and we will have a great variety of songs to choose from. What would you like to hear for the 50th anniversary tour ? A pic.twitter.com/kausFAsdtD — NEAL SCHON MUSIC (@NealSchonMusic) November 27, 2022

Journey’s Original Keyboardist Gregg Rolie to Join Band on Upcoming Tour Carys Anderson

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Neal Schon on Journey’s ‘New Strut,’ Possible Arnel Pineda Biopic, and His New Solo LP

By Andy Greene

Andy Greene

Three years ago, Journey guitarist Neal Schon finished a solo album of instrumental tracks that mixed classic-rock covers like “Hey Jude” and “Voodoo Child” with originals he created with producer-drummer Narada Michael Walden. Since that time, Journey fired drummer Steve Smith and bassist Ross Valory after a bitter business dispute, brought in Walden and Raised on Radio –era bassist Randy Jackson to take their places, and canceled a 2020 summer tour with the Pretenders due to the pandemic.

During his forced downtime, Schon decided it was finally time to share his instrumental album, The Universe , with the world. “This has been a hellacious year,” he says. “There’s some healing music on here. I feel like it’s going to ease a lot of people’s pain and give them something new to listen to and some hope.”

Schon called up Rolling Stone to talk about The Universe (which is streaming right now), the legal battle that split Journey apart, parting ways with manager Irving Azoff, repairing his relationship with keyboardist Jonathan Cain, cutting Journey’s new album while on lockdown, his continued hopes of making peace with Steve Perry, the possibility of an Arnel Pineda biopic, and why he thinks this new lineup of Journey will lead to a whole new era for the band.

Tell me the backstory of The Universe. About three years ago, I ran into Narada Michael Walden. I said, “Narada, why don’t you write me a record?” We’d known each other forever and had jammed and played live together, but we’d never really worked together with him as a producer and me as a guitar player.

I said, “I really want to veer away from anything that sounds like Jeff Beck.” That’s because there’s only one Jeff Beck and only one Jimi [Hendrix]. But I said, “You’ve known me for a long time and you know what I like to play. What I’m hearing is a very majestic, symphonic-type blues-R&B-fusion rock album.”

He goes, “That’s the whole spectrum.” I go, “Let’s just diversify it.” And so he said, “Let me have a few days and I’ll call you when I have some tracks.” Three days later, he calls me and says, “Why don’t you come by the studio? I have some stuff to play for you.”

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Where did it go from there? I went by the studio and he had like six tracks that he had written with drums on them, keyboard bass, and voice singing the main melody of a guitar. He said, “Take this home and get comfortable with it and let me know when you’ve got it down.”

This was something new for me because I usually write my own material. I took it home, listened to it, and worked my way around it. I felt like I was going to improv my way through the melodies and add my own shtick to it.

I went into the first session with him and I started playing something from the heart where I veered away from the melody. He said, “What are you doing?” I said, “I’m just playing what it is.” He said, “No, you have to play that melody exactly like I’m singing it.” I went, “Oh. OK.” He goes, “I’m treating you like you’re a vocalist and your guitar is the vocal.”

After conforming to that, I managed to get things down very quickly on the record. We worked on it in different time periods. We got as much done as I could when I was home and then I’d go tour and come back and work with him when he was available. We finished it over the duration of about a year with three, four weeks in the studio altogether.

Let’s talk about some of the specific songs. Tell me about your version of Prince’s “Purple Rain.” There’s a clip of me on the internet playing it in the Twin Cities right after he passed [in 2016]. I get a few sections in the [Journey] set to do my own thing. And I’ve been looping for years. And so a lot of times I’ll loop some chord changes to a song and improv my way through it.

That night, I didn’t really know what I was going to do. But I felt his presence and I played the chord changes. I overdubbed one of the melodies he did on the end. I put that in there and just blew through it and the audience really came unglued. It was his hometown, but he just passed and I captured the moment.

That stuck with me and I said to my friend Gary Cirimelli, who I did the [2001]  Voice record with, “Please do me an orchestration of ‘Purple Rain.'” He did an amazing job and I actually recorded that before I started the record with Narada.

You also tackle “Voodoo Child.” Clearly you weren’t shy about taking on some of the greatest guitarists of all time. You know what? They are in my blood. I grew up with these people and I’ve been playing a long time. I’d actually been jamming with Narada before at Golden Gate Park in front of about 100,000 people. He said, “We’re going to play ‘Voodoo Child.'” I said, “Great, I know it.” I jumped onstage and we jammed for a while and the audience loved it. It actually goes back in time where I played the Crossroads Festival for Eric Clapton. It was Narada, myself, Randy Jackson, and Jonathan Cain. It’s ironic that’s what Journey has become with Arnel.

We did play “Voodoo Child” that day, too. It was a no-brainer for me. I was like, “Why don’t we jam it out and have a live jam in the studio?” That is what we did. We played live, one take. You can tell that it falls apart a little when it goes into “Third Stone From the Sun” at the end. I was lost and playing and I had to find a place to put my arm up and then everyone jumps in a few seconds later. You can tell it was a little loose and we were just finding our way through it. I felt there was some magic there and being real since it wasn’t overdubbed to death. It was just what it was.

Why did you decide to revisit the Journey song “Lights?” That was Narada’s idea. I was not sure about it. I had done, with Gary Cirimelli the year before, a little EP [ Ave Maria ] around Christmas where I had done an instrumental version of “Faithfully,” “Open Arms,” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley. I had done it before with guitar instead of voice, but “Lights” I had never considered doing as a lead vocal on guitar. He talked me into it. I didn’t know what to think of it, but it sounded good for a guitar version. I tried to capture as many Steve Perry melodies as I could and implement them into the guitar in a soulful way. I think it came out well and people are loving it.

I like hearing vocal melodies on the guitar. Jeff Beck does it a lot, but it’s hard to pull off exactly right. Yeah. There’s something very difficult about it. I see a lot of young guitar players today that have dexterity beyond. I can comprehend what they’re doing technically, but I’m not that interested in trying to do it myself because I’ve never been a scale guy. I was listening more to horn players and vocalists.

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To convey a melody and play it very simply is not an easy task, especially when it’s a slow melody. There’s plenty of room for mistakes and loss of feel. You can lose the feel of it in two seconds flat because there’s no lyrics you’re playing along with. That actually helps you dictate the melody when you hear a singer sing. It’s all about placement, phrasing, and how the vibrato goes, where you put it. It’s complicated and it comes much easier to me as a musician than it does to other guys because I’ve always been a melody guy.

Tell me about your version of “Hey Jude” that ends the record. I had played “Hey Jude” back east in New Jersey, I believe, in some theater we were playing. I looped that one night. I played the chords first, just the ending, and then I looped the melody and had the whole audience singing the song. I went, “Wow, this could be a possible way just to end the record.” As a Beatles fan, I loved it.

What’s the status of the new Journey record? We’re deep in it. It’s coming along, man. It’s really shaping up. Narada and I have been working nonstop. Jonathan [Cain] is also working from his houses in Florida and Nashville. Arnel is working from Manila. Randy Jackson is working mostly from L.A. And it’s one of those Zoom sessions and it sounds phenomenal. It sounds like we’re all playing in the room at the same time. I actually can’t wait until we do get together and start putting the show together. The new single should be coming out mid-February.

Working remotely must have been a big adjustment at first. Yeah. It was at first. What I was really grateful for is that I’m willing to get together with Narada and work with just drums and guitar, which is something I’ve always done with drummers working on records. We’re able to map out and get things feeling right. Narada is very accomplished. He can play keyboards and bass keyboards, and we kind of fill out the tracks. And then everyone does their parts. The end result is sounding amazing.

How is Arnel doing? Arnel sounds very, very strong. I think this break has been good for him. He’s back in there, I feel, like when we first got him. His vocals sound very, very good. We’re planning on a full album release in 2021 before we get back to touring. We did book our first show of 2021. We’re going to be headlining Lollapalooza in Chicago on July 31st unless they move it. My fingers are crossed that everyone is going to get the vaccine and feel good and get back to it. I’m just so looking forward to playing with the new band. Post Malone is headlining at the same time as us about a mile away on another stage. It’ll be interesting.

How have the new members changed the band’s sound? Do you have a different groove now? You have to hear it for yourself. It still sounds very much like Journey thanks to the songwriting, my guitar playing, and the vocals. But the rhythm section is definitely a powerhouse. Narada has been known for years, and Randy Jackson is a completely monstrous bass player. Some people may not be aware of his work, but they have credentials that go way, way back. Randy and I have always been pretty in tune, and Narada and I are in tune. And now it’s coming together. It’s got a new strut to it.

There’s nothing we really can’t play. I’ve got a track I laid down with Narada the other day. I sent it to Arnel and he was freaking out. He said, “This sounds like brand-new Hendrix or Prince. Please write more of that.” And I was just messing around. It was just a jam we did and it turned out to be monstrous. We’re creating. We aren’t afraid to go to new places. It’s easy to stay safe and write where we have always been. We have a bit of that so we don’t lose everyone, but at the same token, this is a new chapter of Journey. I want to go where we have not gone before.

Why did you leave Azoff management and sign with Q Prime? It was a long time coming from myself. I had a falling out with old management and just didn’t agree with a lot of things the way they were coming down or the way that things were being treated that I was bringing up. I felt like they made it seem like I was an outcast even though this was a band that I started. Azoff actually said to me, “Why don’t you quit?” at one point. I said, “I’m not quitting. I’ve been here all my life. Why don’t you quit?”

We kind of went at it. Finally, I made the move. I said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen from here, but I feel like it’s time.” I remember that I talked to Peter Mensch over at Q Prime about a year before that, telling him that I really wanted to make a change. He said that contractually we had to get to this point before we could do anything. When we finally got to that point, I called Peter back up. He said, “This is a no-brainer. We’d love to manage you.”

I’m really happy. They understand the guitar. Cliff [Burnstein] is awesome. I’ve only talked to him a few times, but I can tell we’re on the same wavelength. I send him stuff, unfinished and finished, and I’ll crank up the guitar and he goes, “Oh, yeah. That’s it.” Then we’ll get on the phone with Jonathan [Cain], myself and him, and Jonathan will go, “Do you want the softer version?” They’ll go, “No, we don’t want the softer version. We want the heavier version.” I love the guys.

You and Jonathan Cain are clearly in a much better place than you were a few years ago. How did you patch things up? We found out that there was a lot of miscommunication that I felt was coming from management. The divide-and-conquer situation was going on. They were saying I said things that I didn’t say. I heard it had happened with other bands from guitar techs that I had been with. It was happening in the Van Halen camp between Eddie and Sammy. I was just like, “I’m seeing the same scenario.”

Once we got past all the crap and we talked everything out, we found out that a lot of it was just b.s. and we were actually good. Him and I are still very tight as songwriters. There’s still magic there. He’s still creating amazing music, even without me, but us together, we create something that really sounds like Journey.

Some fans were surprised to see him play in the house band at the White House during the RNC a few months ago. What did you think about that? You know what? I learned to just stay in my music lane through that whole fiasco. I think everyone knows my feelings about politics and religion in music. I just decided that I was going to keep my friendship with him and the music with him. We’re still creating great stuff. I got to a place where I said, “It’s a free world. Everyone has the right to do whatever they want to do.”

In a way, it’s like Mick and Keith. They are two very different people, but they come together in a band and it works. Exactly. That tension leads to great music and not agreeing … Jon and I always have been like that. We’re like bookends with all the music in between. Where we start from is two completely different places. He usually starts from music, melody, and piano. I start from a rocking track. There’s a lot of melody on the new songs we’ve been laying down. We’ve gotten very comfortable with singing on it right afterwards with Narada helping me, giving me the confidence, and so I have a lot of the melodies. I recall even in the old Journey with Steve Perry when I’d hum a few things and he’d go, “Oh, I like that.” Then he’d do his own thing to it. There’s a road map there if you aren’t afraid to put it down.

How about tour-wise? The Pretenders 2020 tour was called off. Might you go out with them in the future? I don’t know what management has planned. We love playing with the Pretenders, but I don’t know if that’s where they are going or even if they are available. I definitely enjoy playing with them. They have so many great songs. Chrissie [Hynde] was very nice. The whole band was. I felt that it was complementary to our show, even with Def Leppard. I don’t know what Peter and Cliff are thinking over at Q Prime, but I’m definitely open to that. And I love the Def Leppard guys. I’m open to that, too. But this time we have to bring our PA. [ Laughs ]

I’ve heard rumblings about a biopic about Arnel. Do you think that’s going to happen? I think it’s something that will come down. The story of me finding him on YouTube is sort of unbelievable. I remember when I first told people I had found him. They were like, “Come on, man. Did you just make this up?” It was like a Cinderella story that was too good to believe. We made the documentary [ Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey ] off the fact we found him in Manila, not New York or L.A., and I heard his voice and went, “This is the guy. I know it’s the guy.” Apparently Warner Bros. thinks is a great story too. I think they are going to make it. I don’t know when. I don’t believe they’ve even started. I think they are still writing the script.

Who would play you? Uh … the only meeting we had took place when we last played in Vegas. They were they talking about Joaquin [Phoenix]. That’s what this director said. [ Laughs ] I was like, “OK!” [ Laughs ]

You could play yourself, I suppose. Have you thought about that? I have not thought about that, but it’s not ruled out. I’d probably prefer not to. It’s gotta be so time consuming. At one point, I was going to try and get into some movie stuff and I was taking some acting classes. Everyone was like, “You look like a young James Caan.” This was way back in the Eighties. There were a couple of producers that were approaching me. But I went on a set and thought about it and auditioned and I was like, “Wow. This is so time-consuming. I can do four albums in the time it takes to do one movie.” I’m too impatient. I like to move quickly, so I doubt I’d be the right choice for it.

Is your Journey spinoff band Journey Through Time something that can get back on the road in the future? Fans loved seeing you back with Gregg Rolie and playing the really old songs. I was met with a lot of resistance from some of the former band members and the trademark guy that was sort of working for Journey, I’m finding out. There were many trademark issues I’ve gotten to the bottom of. I’ve cleaned everything up 1,000 percent. There were too many handshake deals and money deals and no real contracts. I was like, “OK, it’s time for all this to stop and for everyone to get treated fairly and equally.”

They were having a real problem with me using Neal Schon’s Journey Through Time, the name of the band. I don’t see why. It has been my journey from my life and the fans loved it. But to tell you the truth, I foresee us being able to do that with the new band; I foresee us being able to play in two different places. I feel like we can play these outdoor festivals with bands like Phish or for that audience and dive into the older material and play that stuff very well and take it to a new place.

Also, we can play in the 20,000-seaters or the coliseums we were doing with Pretenders and Def Leppard. I feel like it’s two different audience we can play to. The main thing is just playing longer where you can dive deeper into the older stuff and making it all work together.

Do you think you could bring Gregg Rolie into the fold at some point, at least for the jam-focused shows? We might talk about that. I’d have to see what Jonathan thought about that. But it’s not really on my plate right now. It’s something I definitely enjoyed. We were picking up speed very quickly before it was taken down. We had a whole tour that was ready to go. And then Gregg unavailable and then [drummer-vocalist] Deen [Castronovo] wasn’t available. There was a lot of politics involved.

Are you close to resolving the legal dispute with Steve Smith and Ross Valory? Unfortunately, no. [ Laughs ] We will, eventually. I have confidence that we will. It is going to be what it is. We’ve already made that choice and we’re moving on. But we’re not about to get held up, either. We’re going to start playing and ultimately we can settle this and come to a mutual agreement.

Do you ever see a day in the future where you’d play with them again? Who knows? I’ve known these guys for a long time. I didn’t agree with the way they went about business. I had been in a situation in the band with management and some of them for a long time where I felt like they were trying to make me leave. I was catching on to a lot of things that I’m getting to the bottom of now, business-wise.

I spoke with Steve Perry a few weeks ago. He says he misses playing live. As just a fan of his, are you hoping he’ll tour? I am. I was hoping he would tour when he released his record a couple of years ago. After going through the pandemic, I imagine that most everyone that has ever toured is dying to tour. I miss it so much, that energy you get from the audience that you throw back. I’m totally missing that. I’m sure everyone that has ever been onstage is missing that. I’m hoping that he would really do it. He should. He sounds in good voice and he could do it. I hope he’ll actually do it because he talked about it last time.

Are you still hoping that at some point in the future, the two of you will be able to sit down and be friends again? I’m still trying to talk to him directly on the telephone. For some reason, I don’t know if it’s him or his attorney, they do not want us to talk, or he feels uncomfortable. I’m sitting in the same place where I’m waiting to get on the phone or get together and have some coffee, but it just isn’t happening and it’s not because of myself.

It’s crazy that one rock band can get so complicated with all these feuding factions. It’s just people playing music together that a lot of people love. You know what? There’s a lot of things that get in the way, the conquer-and-divide thing. I believe that that’s been happening with him, too. When we got inducted into the Hall of Fame, I felt really connected to him again where it was emotional to see him after not seeing him for a long time. He was moved too. I felt, “Why is all this other crap happening for so long? Why did I feel like we couldn’t get together and talk?”

But at the end, it went right back to that. I watched him do the first interviews that he did. He talked very highly about myself like I’ve always talked about him and how happy he was to see me and the rest of the guys, but he said it was mainly me he was happy to see. And then all of a sudden, in all the interviews after that, after the first two where I felt like he was speaking from the heart, it took a left-hand turn and I was never mentioned again. It’s very weird, man. I felt like politics, once again, were in the way.

I guess the one constant in the whole Journey saga is you marching forward and keeping it alive. It is the ship I’ve been in from the very get-go. I’m the only guy that’s been there for every show, every record, every date. I’m the only guy. And my heart is still in it. We’re definitely moving forward and I’m happy with what I’m hearing. I’m moving. I’m going forward. I’m not going to sit in neutral and wait for things to settle out.

We’ll soon be approaching our 50th anniversary. It’s kind of mind-boggling to me, even sitting here telling you it’s been 50 years for me. It should be a great one. What I do know is that we’ve hardly spent any time abroad, but we are going to be taking this around the world and playing in countries and cities we’ve never been to before. Anytime we’ve done this before — like our first first show with Arnel [in Chile] when the audience went wild — we’d never been there before, but they went crazy. His audition was in front of 30 million people. He was scared to death. I had to push him out onstage.

I really feel like late 2021 and certainly 2022 will be a celebration of live music. I’ve got butterflies about the vibe I’m getting or what it’s going to be like when we put our show together. We’re not just going to play the same old show. We’re going to be adding a lot of new stuff. I know Randy and Narada, because I’ve jammed with them before.

It’s going to conform into a whole new thing. They aren’t afraid to try anything right on the spur of the moment onstage, which is where I’ve always been. I play by ear. If you go there, I’m going there, man. I learned to do that playing with Carlos Santana and Rolie and all the original Santana guys. I’m from that school and I love it.

I think we’ll construct a set in a way where we’ll have time for all of it and it won’t have to stay the same every night. We don’t have to conform to that. Everyone will be able to carry it and feel strongly about improvising on the spot and going with it.

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‘Tragedy into Triumph’ simulcast to be held May 1-3

Come join us for the Tr aged y into Triumph Sim ul cast on May 1 – 3 ! This free event will feature well – known personalities talking about real – world tragedies . Jonathan Cain , the keyboard ist for Journey , will be speaking on Monday night about loss and his journey to finding God . The doors open at 5 : 30 pm each night and this event has already reached over 500 , 000 people in the US and Canada . Don ‘t miss out – all are welcome !

More information available here: ‘Tragedy into Triumph’

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Bios, band histories for the greatest in rock.

Journey Band History

• Latest Posts

• 10 Best 80s Rock Trios –  When Rock Became ‘Modern’ - March 26, 2024
• 10 Best 90s Rock Trios – The Last Great Rock Trios - January 25, 2024
• Best Blues Power Trios of All Time - January 12, 2024

Journey Quick Facts Up Front

Gregg rolie, steve perry, jonathan cain, steve smith, ross valory, journey (1975); look into the future(1976); next (1977), infinity (1970), evolution (1979); departure (1980), dream, after dream (1980), escape (1981), raised in radio (1986), trail by fire (1996), arrivals (2000), revelation (2008), freedom (2022).

• Early Days Journey in their Fusion Days: Journey - Full Concert - 03/30/74 - Winterland (OFFICIAL) 
• Arguably the Best Group Lineup Performing During the Escape Tour: Journey - Don’t Stop Believin’ (from Live in Houston 1981: The Escape Tour) 
• A Recent Performance with Schon at the Helm. Pineda’s Vocal Performance is Stunning: Journey Live @ Lollapalooza Chicago 2021 

The Journey Lawsuit & Replacements

Did journey sell out.

The glorious days of arena rock would not be as memorable without Journey. There could not be a better name for a band that went through many changes, successes, and failures and almost single-handedly rose the power ballad to the charts.

Journey’s band history is the epitome of 80s rock and the clashes between some of the most extraordinary rock musicians of the time.

Like all Journey fans, the first songs I heard were Steve Perry’s lead emotional ballads. He was the perfect singer for the ideal backing band. Yet, listening years later as a musician, I understood that it was not Steve Perry’s or Neal Schon’s Journey; the group’s creative chemistry made it all happen. Apart from the most commercially relevant period, Journey was and still stands strong. This bio might introduce you to some aspects and periods of the band that are now almost forgotten.

Journey Members You Should Know

The lineup changes are crucial to Journey’s band history. Nowadays, with only Neil Schon left as a founding member, we need to go back to the early days to understand who wrote and played the songs that made them famous.

All lineups were made up of the top rock musicians of each era. Not all, though, contribute as much as others. 

Neil George Joseph Schon (born February 27, 1954, in Oklahoma) is the band’s guitar player, founding member, and occasional songwriter.

Born in a musical family, Schon soon became a child prodigy after starting playing guitar at ten and being recruited by Santana at age 17. By the time he started Journey, he had experience playing in one of the best bands in the world and was fluent in jazz, rock, and Latin music.  

Neal Schon is one of the most melodic guitar players of all time. He essentially shifted my perspective of a rock solo to a musical piece that tells a story rather than a power shred, which he occasionally tastefully adds. 

Schon was always the leader behind the scenes, taking a significant say in all the band’s important decisions and even personally firing and replacing members. As a solo artist, he released nine albums and founded the bands “Hardline” and “Bad English.”

Gregg Alan Rolie (born June 17, !947, in Washington) is a founding member and journey original keyboard player and vocalist. As a Santana band member, Rolie was already a senior musician by the time Schon joined. He arguably shared with Santana the same success as with Journey, singing and playing in some of their biggest hits.

He formed Journey in 1973 and co-wrote the band’s first six albums before being replaced by the pressure of Steve Perry’s musical choices.

Rolie was as essential as Schon in creating the “Journey Sound” with signature Hammond, piano sound, and a bed of synths that backed the band’s rock groove. 

Rolie is one of the most prolific musicians ever, with a successful solo career after his time with the band. He founded with Journey’s ex-member “The Storm.” He was part of Ringo Star’s “All Starr Band.”

Steve Ray Perry (born January 22, 1949, in Hanford, California) was Journey’s lead singer, frontman, and main songwriter in their most successful years.

Perry’s exceptional vocal range and affinity for writing ballads and pop songs gave Journey what they needed to become the biggest arena rock band in the world. His musical beginning, though, was unsuccessful, with many failed attempts, sometimes even from misfortunes.

Manager Herbert picked up one of Perry’s demos while he had returned to working on his family’s farm and called him to perform with the band while Rober Fleischman was already hired as a singer. One song performed during soundcheck with the band sealed his place as frontman.

Perry undoubtedly came at the right time in the right band to change it all for Journey. The mental cost of fame and several misfortunes, the last a degenerative bone disease, forced him out of the band. 

Jonathan Leonard Friga (born February 2, 1950, in Chicago, Illinois) was Journey’s most prolific keyboard player, coming in to replace Rolie and helping write the band’s most successful material.

Cain is a multi-instrumentalist who made a name for himself with the band “The Babys.” which opened for Journey. His ability to write with Perry was what convinced the singer to replace the already prolific Rolie.

Cain turned the already well-tuned Journey rhythm section into a hit-power ballad maker. Unlike Rolie, Cain’s signature is more straightforward melodic piano intros that laid the bed for tunes such as “In My Arms” or “Don’t Stop Believing.”

He was part of “Bad English” and recently started publishing Christian Rock records while serving as a Worship leader with his wife. 

Steve Bruce Smith (born August 21, 1954, in Whitman, Massachusetts) was Journey’s drummer through their most prolific years and is widely considered one of the best musicians to ever sit behind a kit.

Smith is one of the most recorded drummers in history, having played sessions for virtually every top charting artist. He was voted five times in a row No.1 All-around Drummer from Modern Drummer magazine and inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame.

The session legend was part of three different Journey Lineups, part of Journey member’s spin-off group “The Storm,” and led his jazz-fusion groups.

Ross Lamont Valory (born February 2, 1949, in San Francisco) is a founding member of Journey and the bass player in two different lineups.

Like the other founding members, Valory played with a legendary group before forming Journey. He was part of Frumious Bandersnatch and later Steve Miller Band. He holds a special place in Journey’s history, playing in all but one studio record. Even when he was not part of the band, he was hired to write and record bass tracks.

Valory is a master bass player who uses his variation of a “Nashville Tuning,” Where the 4-string bass is tuned to B-E-A-D. He continued his career in the 90s with “The Storm,” like most original Journey members.

Journey started as the most accidental Supergroup ever in a time when the notion was still new. Ex-member of Santana and Steve Miller members got together to form their prog rock, jazz fusion band called “The Golden Gate Rhythm Section.”

The mastermind behind much of Journey’s career was their manager Herbier Herbert who previously managed Santana. 

The band would perform as a backing band for Bay Area artists, with Schon and George Tickner on guitar, Rolie on Keyboards and vocals, Valory on bass, and Prairie Prince on drums. The latter would be replaced by Aynsley Dunbar around the same time Tickner quit.

The early “Journey” never achieved commercial success, mostly due to their previous musically complex influences and the lack of a strong frontman. Roli was an excellent keyboard player and vocalist, but his old-style appeal was not what the band needed to relate to young audiences.

As a band, Journey has evolved and changed more than most. It sounds like a different band from the 1st to their 14th studio album. I’ll detail most of their stunning discography according to their impact on the band and rock music.

The first 3 Journey albums are a musical treat for every sophisticated rock lover. The complex compositions, delicate songwriting, and individual chops of members are three key elements that made them. There are no weak songs in any of them, yet there are not many memorable ones.

The Debut album is the ex-Santana and Steve Miller Band members having fun. The prog style might be their favorite thing to do, but as prog rock was slowly going off the charts, rock audiences needed something else.

From the first to the third album, the experimentation leaves off more place for catchy tracks. With Roli at the creative front and Herbert at the back, the band seemed to tone down their fusion influences to achieve success finally.

Commercially none of the albums did exceptionally well, and most of the band’s time was spent touring and trying to promote them.

As a guitar player and prog rock freak, I love early Journey sometimes more than the Steve Perry one. I find Neal Schon’s best guitar performances when some glimpses of jazz fusion are put in the mix.

Not to say that his later solos were less iconic, but later I found he would mainly “serve the songs” while the guitars made the song on the early Records. The same can be said about every lead instrument.

Depending on your background and taste, you could either love this version of Journey or, like many new fans, skip the three albums entirely. If you belong to the second group, I will encourage you to listen to the first song from the Debut Album, “Of a lifetime, “and you might change your mind.

The Much Needed Lead Singer 

The musical chemistry, management, and inspiration were there for Journey, but their image and performances lacked the strong crowd-pleasing frontman. Behind the Keyboards, singing lead vocals, Roli did his part musically, but not stylistically.

The band’s first singer, hired with Herber’s suggestion, was glam rocker Robert Fleischman. With a high register and great stage presence, Fleischman toured successfully with Journey in 1977 until Steve Perry replaced him after he sang one in soundcheck with the band on the same tour.

Perry not only performed flawlessly exciting songs but managed to bond immediately with Neil Schon in writing their first songs together. The band changed direction and with that also their drummer. Session ace Smith replaced Dunbar, who was unhappy with the new pop direction of the band.

The first album with Perry as lead vocalist launched the band to commercial success reaching No. 21 on Billboard. “Infinity” marks the band’s change in musical direction, with Queen’s producer Roy Thomas Baker directing the shift.

The album is strong in every aspect. The songwriting, production, intent, and musicianship are top-notch. It combines the band’s collected materials and Perry’s melancholic songwriting over the years. His voice added character to the virtuoso band that needed it. My favorite song from the album is “Wheel in the Sky,” written by Fleischman and the band before Perry joined in. Perry’s voice, though, I think, does it more justice.

It starts with Neil Schon’s classically influenced guitar part and develops to a hard rock tone with a country riff. The mixture of different genres is, I think, what makes all individuals of the band shine.

The two songs that better defined the band’s musical direction were the power ballads “Lights” and “Patiently.” Slow-tempo emotional tracks with a solid vocal melody that builds up to guitar solos and live encores. Both tracks are now legendary and staples of the band’s live shows.

The following two Journey studio albums saw the band’s rise to fame, each doing better than the previous. They were headlining tours and festivals and having crowds resonate massively with their songs for the first time.

Both albums continued where “Infinity” left off, merging Perry’s now-proven hit songwriting skills with the band’s musicianship. The new frontman was now contributing to all the songs and indirectly dictating the band’s sound. Not all songs are great, though; most lack memorable hooks and fade compared to the hits.

My favorite of the two albums is “Departure.” There’s a spice more of prog rock in that album which I think brings out the best of the band. After all, the band was not originally an Arena rock act. 

“Any way you want” and “Loving’, Touchin’, Squeezin;” are widely known tracks. My favorites are the less popular “Do You Recall” and “I’m Cryin,” which Perry and Rolie co-wrote.

The next record was a musical spin-off as a soundtrack album. Beyond all expectations, the band produced the most musically intricate prog rock album of their career. 

It’s arguably the most polarising album of Journey’s catalog, yet one the band truly enjoyed making. The all-star band of virtuoso musicians couldn’t wait to stretch the musical muscles once again as in the old days. The result is fantastic prog rock, yet not one you would most likely hear on the radio.

I adore the compositions and musicianship on all the songs, especially the 8-minute opening track “Destiny.” In true prog fashion, extended instrumentation and solos weren’t missing.

It’s not an album for everyone, but those who like it, love it.

Rolie leaving the band in favor of Jonathan Cain might have consisted of one of the best musicians on earth, but it gave them the best-selling album of their career . The album almost single-handedly created the 80s sound. 

The album starts with the band’s epic rock anthem, “Don’t Stop Believin’.” The song was started by Perry and Schon and later finished by Cain, who added the piano hook and hook. As Cain relieves in an interview, those were the three words his dad told him when he wanted to quit music.

The song is today the best-selling catalog track of the digital era. It’s now beyond a rock anthem to a pop culture hit. Journey’s “Free Bird” in a sense.

Cain brought in the catchy hooks and memorable piano parts and perfectly completed Perry’s ideas. The ballad “Open Arms” they wrote together differed from previous ones. It was more delicate, straightforward, catchy, and singable. After some struggles in getting it through Schoun skeptical reception of the song, it became a fan favorite.

Journey – Open Arms (Official Video – 1982)  

The song that moves me the most is “Mother, Father.” Perry recorded the vocals in one mesmerizing take. What’s more impressive is that it is probably the hardest Journey song to sing. 

“Espace” paved the way for the next charting album in 1983, “Frontiers.” It produced hit songs and anthems and delivered on the success of the previous albums.

Success and Downfall

Journey waited three years to release an album for the first time in their career. The continuous touring and fame were starting to kick back. Schon and Perry had also released their solo records capitalizing on Journey’s Success.

Perry, at this time, dominated the band’s musical direction completely. According to him, only Schon and Cain were suited for the band as he fired Roos Valory and, slightly later, Steve Smith. As he declared in an interview, he thought it was the best decision at the time, but he regrets doing it.

His mental health was also deteriorating as the rise to fame alienated him from the rest of the world. 

Replacing both members with session musicians gave the trio more control over the songs. Perry himself took up the role of producer for the album. “Raised In Radio” is a successful attempt to top the charts through their hit song formula, but the lack of team effort is felt. 

I think the album is too poppy and sacrifices the musical input of Valory and Smith for attempted hooks. There are undoubtedly hit songs such as “Girl, I Can’t Help It” and “Be Good To Yourself,” yet it’s not an album I can enjoy listening to back to back like the rest. 

Commercially it did well, as expected. The band knew how to write hit songs and what the audience wanted by this time. Listening to it now, It feels like Perry’s rushed attempt to stay on top of the game and even outdo himself. 

Disbandment and Attempted Comeback

The problems with Perry’s control over the band and continuous isolated life lead to him wanting to stop everything. After his last show with the band in February 1987, he left the band and stopped Journey for almost ten years.

Perry never released an official statement, and some still wonder if the animosity between members was the main cause of his leaving. The fact that he released music after leaving the band makes me think he still wanted to make music on his own, in less frantic terms.

One thing is for sure; Journey couldn’t keep up their successful streak without Perry, so each went separate ways. 

In 1995 the band reunited again at Perry’s request to fire current manager Herbert for the well-known Irving Azoff, which staged the Eagles’ comeback some years prior. 

Journey was back, and a long-awaited successful album came shortly after. All members had amassed material during the years, so a musically rich album was bound to come.

“Trial by Fire” is my favorite Journey album after “Escape,” as it delivers the quality you’d expect from a great comeback. The hit song “When You Love a Woman” was surely meant to be a hit, but it’s not formulaic in any way.  

Valory and Smith back on the band brought back the original backbone of the group. Putting this album back to back with its predecessor, you will notice the difference the rhythm section had in Journey after a few tracks. It gives character to songs having individual doing their thing and not hired guns.

I wish it had some more elements of hard rock, but that might be just the nostalgia from the days of “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

This album is the last Perry contribution as he was diagnosed unexpectedly with a bone condition and was unwilling to undergo surgery to continue touring.

Modern Journey

Journey is still touring and releasing albums today, with only Schon remaining an original band member. He calls the shots about the music direction and often replaces members.

After Perry distanced himself from music, the band moved on and recruited Steve Augeri as frontman, with drummer Deen Castronovo as occasional lead vocalist. Augeri was the perfect vocalist for Journey, who needed the same high-pitched power Steve Perry had.

Of the two albums Journey released with Perry, the first one is the only one that somehow matched the previous albums’ quality. It’s not the band’s most creative work, yet it’s an album with the pure Journey sound almost intact.

The album is instrumentally great but lacks strong songwriting. Augeri contributed to some  songs, yet his role as the newcomer was to sing, according to Schon and Cain’s writing.

The song “World Gone Wild” is my favorite of the whole album, showing off Augeri skills at best and some great guitar work by Schon.

Commercially it did well, considering that arena rock was not the most popular genre of the early 2000s. I think that part of the merit goes to the fans’ curiosity and joy of having another Journey album.

The next album with Augeri, “Generations,” was the band’s least successful record after having him fired.

Ariel Pineda replaced Augeri in a dream story of Schon recruiting him after watching his Journey Covers on YouTube. The album was the band’s last big commercial success, even though the era of rock bands topping the charts was gone.

In true Journey style, Cain delivers a hit power ballad. “After All These Years” is just as good as any of the band’s legendary ballads and is only penalized by the rise of pop and dance music. I love how the band switched to a hard rock style for this record, flexing some fast-paced tempo grooves after a while.

Pineda seemed to be a bigger creative force than Augeri and an equally experienced live frontman. The live shows with the classic hits were and still are the band’s main focus, accumulating ridiculous amounts from the tour.

Having survived a pandemic, lawsuit, and personnel changes, Journey released their new record in more than a decade. Years of accumulated creativity resulted in an arena rock juggernaut. 

Cain and Schon were in charge of the production, while drummer Narada, a prolific songwriter and singer, helped write and co-produce much of the material. It starts with the power ballad “Together We Run” and the expected melodic Cain piano intro.

Listening to album after ten other Journey pop-rock records can be too much if you’re not a die-hard fan. I would have preferred a more Prog rock Journey record as that always brings new sounds.  

Notable Performances

Early days journey in their fusion days:   journey – full concert – 03/30/74 – winterland (official)  .

Arguably the Best Group Lineup Performing During the Escape Tour: Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ (from Live in Houston 1981: The Escape Tour)  

A Recent Performance with Schon at the Helm. Pineda’s Vocal Performance is Stunning: Journey Live @ Lollapalooza Chicago 2021  

Changes in band members always come with legal issues when rights to songs are on the table. In the 80s, they maintained a good balance between members. Primarily due to solid management from Herbert, things were kept quiet.

Valory and Smith were fired from the band in 2019 after attempting to own one of the band’s corporate entities. According to the two, Perry gave them the right to hold that part of the business. Schon and Cain considered this an attempt to squeeze more money even when they were not playing. 

Journey did write beautiful songs, yet the term’ corporate rock’ started to haunt them as each charting album chased the next big thing. The bad reputation arena rock gets from rock fans sometimes comes from the many attempts to write hits and please the crowd.

My stand as a rock fan with a taste from Beatles to modern metal is that Journey didn’t sell out in the sense of chasing money. Their style evolved, sometimes in search of a bigger fanbase, but still, they delivered nongeneric hits.

They developed a successful style that pushed them to recreate the success repeatedly. The members’ egos, management pressures, and fans’ high expectations had their parts.

Answer : One roadie, John Villanueva, suggested the name after failed attempts, including a radio contest involving the fans to find a proper name. 

Answer : Journey had six lead singers in the band from the 70s to today. 

Answer : Arena rock is considered any rock genre that can fill a stadium on a one-night event. In the mid-70s and 80s, it took a slightly different meaning, becoming a synonym for successful commercial rock bands who were best known for Power Ballads. Arena rock bands deliver great spectacles with massive crowds and often have predictable, straightforward music to resonate with as many people as possible.

• Journey (band) – Wikipedia
• Journey Documentary (Behind The Music)
• Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey HD
• Journey – Raised On Radio (1986 Tour Documentary)
• Journey Music
• Journey (band)  
• Journey’s Neal Schon says he and Steve Perry are ‘in a good place’ before band’s 50th anniversary
• Journey Biography, Songs, & Albums | AllMusic
• Journey – The Brilliant Band Members, Stories & Struggles | Eagle 106.5
• Journey: Band Members and History      

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• R.E.M. Band History

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Jonathan Cain JUPITER-80 & V-Piano Grand

Musician Jonathan Cain is a multi-instrumentalist keyboard player and songwriter for the American rock band Journey, one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time. “Faithfully,” written by Cain, was among the eighteen Top 40 Journey singles that fueled their rise to fame and to record sales of nearly 100 million worldwide. His songwriting credits also extend to a wide range of talented artists like Joe Bonamassa, Peter Frampton, Sammy Hagar, Michael Bolton, Kenny Rogers, Heart, Conway Twitty, and rocker, Jimmy Barnes of Australia. Recent production and recording credits for Cain include two solo Christian albums with his wife, tele-evangelist and pastor Paula White, called What God Wants to Hear in 2016 and Unsung Noel in 2017. Cain was inducted with members of Journey to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame™ in 2017 and is still a touring member of the band.

Jonathan Cain on the V-Piano Grand

“I don’t like computers on-stage after all the horror stories I had with laptops. I love soft synths in the studio, and I’m a big fan of the Native Instruments and Output stuff. But on the road, things can go south, so I like to keep it simple. With Journey, I do a lot of programming, and when I do a [Roland V-Piano Grand] solo, I’ll run symphonic, Vangelis-type tracks behind me. But with my setup, I don’t have to worry about things going wrong.”

Jonathan Cain on the JUPITER-80

“Roland actually wanted to buy my JUPITER-8 back from me, because they didn’t have one for their museum. But I said, ‘No. You can’t have it. Mine is not for sale.’ I pulled it out of storage and it’s up and running at the studio. You know what’s funny? After listening to the JUPITER-8 and then going back to my JUPITER-80, the 80 sounds like three JUPITER-8s! It’s that big. And with the Supernatural engine, and the dynamics of it—it seems like the oscillators correspond to your velocity. You can actually put nuance into your playing, and the harder you hit it, the more oscillators fire. It’s fun, but it’s a deep box. I’m barely scratching the surface of it.”

— Jonathan Cain

Quotes courtesy of Keyboard Magazine interview with Jonathan Cain.

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Tiny Desk Contest

Tiny desk contest fan favorite: nobigdyl..

Elle Mannion

Last week, we asked fans what their favorite entry from this year's Tiny Desk Contest was — and 10,000 of you voted. We're excited to share that the winner of our Fan Favorite vote is "Go With The Ghost" by nobigdyl. ! The band, which is based in Murfreesboro, Tenn., is Dylan Phillips (vocalist), Court Clement (guitarist), EJ Ford (keyboard player), Anton Nesbitt (bassist) and Derrek Phillips (drummer). This is their first year submitting to the Contest.

The fans loved nobigdyl.'s entry — and so did this year's Contest judges. In the second episode of Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf , Tiny Desk alum and judge Durand Bernarr selected "Go With The Ghost" as one of his favorite entries. Bernarr talked with Tiny Desk series producer and host Bobby Carter about "the groove" and "catchiness" of the entry, noting that even though Dylan Phillips doesn't move from his desk in the video, "I was captivated — and that's what I'm always looking for."

Carter also complimented nobigdyl.'s lyrics. "He's talking about the choice between giving yourself away to your vices or really making a change," Carter shared. "He's really going deep." Here's what nobigdyl. has to share about the entry:

I wrote "Go With The Ghost" from a place of surrender. Knowing that the life that I wanted to live would cost me the life I was living. There was a moment where I knew I had to give myself over to my vices or submit to the hard work of trusting God and thus, healing. This song is about that moment and the moments after. It's a song that I hope resonates with anyone on a journey of hearing and choosing God's voice.

Congratulations to nobigdyl. and all of this year's Top Shelf artists ! Stay tuned in the coming weeks for when we announce this year's Contest winner: the artist, selected by the judges, who will play their own Tiny Desk concert and headline our Tiny Desk Contest On The Road tour this summer.

AFK Journey Preview: Song of Strife Brings New Battles, Characters, and More

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One Animal Crossing Collaboration Could Be an Even Bigger Hit Than Its Sanrio Crossover

6 hardest open-world games published by square enix, ranked, pokemon kanto region recreated in terraria.

AFK Journey will receive its first major update today, titled Song of Strife. AFK Journey 's update brings with it a new map, music, cosmetics, game modes, seasonal equipment, two new heroes, and a host of other content. The story of Song of Strife revolves around a "Fake Merlin," who appears to be impersonating the game's main character, and the new region's Warsong Festival.

Game Rant recently got a first look at Song of Strife and the many changes it's bringing to the AFK universe . Fans of AFK Journey 's hex-grid based combat will want to check out the novel mechanics associated with the game's new heroes, Alsa and Soren, and the cinematic trailer heralding the launch of the new season.

Onward, to the Ashen Wastes

Players with a Resident Level of 240 (and an account that has been active for at least 42 days) can access the new content today by taking a wagon from Hollystone to the Ashen Wastes. Day one players should be ready to tackle the new environment, while new AFK Journey players may have a short wait before they can venture into the desert. This new region is an entirely separate map, and as its name suggests, the area is an unforgiving expanse of sand with all-new lighting and weather effects in the game's signature storybook style.

Players will quickly find Sunseek Arena, the new hub area comparable to Hollystone. The arena is the venue for the season's Warsong Festival, which plays a central role in the season's storyline, and its eponymous colosseum hosts the new battle modes that are arriving in Song of Strife. But the new battles are not for the faint-hearted, and even experienced players may want to brush up on winning team comps in AFK Journey if they are having trouble.

Alsa and Soren

Perhaps the most exciting additions to Song of Strife are the new heroes from the Uru Tribe: Alsa and Soren. Both heroes are from the Mauler faction , bringing new mechanics that will enable exciting new party compositions.

Alsa, the "Desert Flare," is in AFK Journey's Mage class . She creates stone structures that can be used for offense and defense. Her barriers can intercept enemies to protect fragile fighters, or they can box in enemies with her team's damage dealers. Meanwhile, Soren, the "Silent Fury," is a Rogue who fights with a staff and heavily favors the game's new knockback mechanic, which is also employed by the Ashen Wastes' new spider enemies. His ult, a whirling strike with his staff, can be used for evasion or AOE damage.

Other Tweaks

Other new content coming to AFK Journey includes a new soundtrack, new puzzles, new seasonal artifacts, and equipment, which dedicated players will want to secure to maximize their options. One of AFK Journey 's novel features is that equipment is shared between all characters of the same class , alleviating some of the grinding elements typically associated with gacha or wish-based games. Players will also be able to acquire new cosmetics for heroes based on the Ashen Wastes.

In addition to the new battles, mechanics, and content, the new season brings a handful of QOL improvements as well, such as check marks next to completed dialogue options.

AFK Journey

A spin-off to AFK Arena, AFK Journey is a free-to-play fantasy RPG available on mobile devices and PC. AFK Journey features hex-based tactical combat and a wide range of heroes to unlock.

Detroit Lions rookie Gio Manu reflects on long journey from Tonga to NFL draft pick

Gio Manu woke up at 4 a.m. Friday and couldn't go back to sleep, too excited about his first NFL practice to catch more shut-eye.

On the bus ride from the player's hotel to the Detroit Lions ' Allen Park training facility, Manu sat in the last row and got choked up thinking about how far he'd come.

"I was really emotional," Manu said. "I was tearing up because it’s been such a long journey, man, and just to see me here competing with the best and putting on this jersey, I kind of like find myself looking back at my journey and I tell myself it’s only going to be up from here, so this is just the start."

A fourth-round pick in last month's draft, Manu was one of 42 players and six draft picks on the field Friday for the first day of Lions rookie minicamp.

COLLEGE COACH: 'No one even came close to challenging' new Lions OL Giovanni Manu

He played left tackle. He took a few team reps against the most experienced player in camp, last year's CFL sack leader , Mathieu Betts. And when it was all done, he reflected on his life-altering opportunity.

Born on the small South Pacific island of Tonga, Manu moved to the Vancouver, Canada, area when he was 11 in search of a better life. His mother sent him and his two siblings to live with her sister, who first introduced him to American football.

A rugby player in Tonga, Manu spent five seasons at the University of British Columbia, including a COVID year when the school did not field a team, before emerging this spring as one of the most intriguing developmental projects in the draft.

The Lions traded a future third-round pick to take Manu early on Day 3, and assistant general manager Ray Agnew gushed Friday about Manu's upside.

"What a talented young man," Agnew said. "Here’s a guy that, he’s got a ways to go as a football player but what better place to come in and learn how to be an offensive tackle in the National Football League than playing behind Penei Sewell and Taylor Decker. I mean, he's got time to learn — being coached by Hank Fraley. So, excited about this young man, and it’s more than just his athletic ability. If you meet this young man, he is an outstanding human being first of all. He’s not entitled. He’s appreciative of everything."

MISSING SOMEBODY? Lions coach Dan Campbell to miss rookie camp for personal reasons

Manu, whose voice cracked at times when he talked Friday, said his motivation to succeed in the NFL is "my family and my will to just get better every day."

His parents have never seen him play football in person, and he said he hopes to bring them to America this summer for the Lions' first preseason game.

"One thing about me is I refuse to get outworked by my peers and my opponents," he said. "That’s one thing I carry myself because the way I look at is if someone outworks me, it stops me from feeding my family and my family means everything to me, so if you’re stopping me from feeding my family that’s just going to add more fuel to my fire. So that’s just the way I approach this."

After practice Friday, Manu said he asked Fraley, the Lions' well-respected offensive line coach, if he could stay on the field and work on some blocking fundamentals.

When Fraley had to head inside to watch film, Manu and the rest of the Lions' linemen stayed back to work on their own.

While veterans are not present at rookie camp and Agnew admitted the competition Manu faced in college was far below NFL level, Manu said his first impression Friday was that "it is definitely not a major jump" to the NFL and would only be "a little jump" for him.

"Guys like (Betts), those are the guys that I found were a little bit more advanced to go against," he said. "But to me it’s — I didn’t feel like I was getting worked. For me, I’m going to continue to come out here every day and keep working hard and it’s going to get to a point where guys like that, I’ll be able to keep up with them."

Manu said he's anxious to face more experienced NFL players like Aidan Hutchinson once organized team activities start later this month, and to learn from veterans such as Sewell and Decker, the Lions' returning starters at right and left tackle.

Sewell, like Manu, is Polynesian, and Manu said he picked No. 59 as his jersey in part because it was one number away from Sewell's 58.

ALL EYES ON THEM: Lions rookies Ennis Rakestraw, Terrion Arnold hope to be 'force to be reckoned with'

"I want to be next up," he said. "I want to be the next great Polynesian to come on this O-line. Penei’s 58 and I want to be 59 and one day it’d be sick if I could be 59 on that left side and he’d be 58 on that right side, but also, I picked 59 because it’s my dad’s birth year and it’s his birthday today."

Agnew said the Lions will cross-train Manu to play guard and tackle, though at 6 feet 7 and 354 pounds, Manu has the size and athletic ability to stay on the edge. That's where Manu said he sees his future, and where Agnew expects him to eventually make an impact, too.

"You watched his feet and his athletic ability, the way he competed, the way he finished blocks and it’s like, 'Man, this guy’s got some stuff,'" Agnew said. "He’s a Lion. He’s a Lions football player. He’s built the way we want. He’s the type of player, he’s wired right. I mean, this kid is going to work his butt off.

"Very excited about that young man. Can’t wait to see where he’s going to go in his career. He’s got some development to do, but he’s got a chance to be a really good player in the National Football League."

Contact Dave Birkett at  [email protected] . Follow him on X and Instagram at  @davebirkett.

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‘It’s never an easy journey’: Greg Inglis on losing track but finding himself again

The rugby league great still bears the burden of mental health struggles but is finding new peace in his post-NRL work

It was a news-making episode with a satisfying redemption arc but Greg Inglis admits his 2020 Australian Story dubbed Beating the Blues offered something less than the complete picture.

In it he had told hundreds of thousands of television viewers his life was “feeling back on track” just two years after he was stripped of the Australian rugby league captaincy due to a charge of drink-driving.

Although he revealed in the program he had been diagnosed with bipolar II, the 37-year-old now says he feels he wasn’t totally open, “because it was still raw”. If he were to do it again he would be “more honest, because there was still a lot there that I’d closed off and didn’t want to share”.

And so four years later Inglis – after another rugby league retirement, a second marriage and days when all he wants to do is sleep – is done holding back. “Now you can ask me anything, I don’t really care,” he says. “I honestly don’t”.

He is still speaking to psychiatrists, including the high-profile professor Gordon Parker. His formal diagnosis is depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, and he is still taking medication to stabilise his mood. “I just take one tablet at night before I go to bed,” he says.

The answers to these deeply private questions seem to come easily to Inglis, seated in the central Sydney office of the Goanna Academy , the mental health program provider he has established in rugby league retirement.

But he pauses before answering a question that has become central to his every day: just how is he going? “I’m very content and very happy with myself and my surroundings,” he says, before adding: “It’s never easy, right?”

Across 32 Origins and 39 matches for his country, Inglis cemented his reputation as one of the best league players in history. Yet a serious knee injury in 2017 upended his routine, and struggles with mental health marked his exit from the game.

Transitioning into retirement, Inglis was compelled to apply his experience to help others. “We’re going to have challenges in our life, there’s no doubt about it, but don’t go down the track of, especially what I did, the alcohol and prescription drugs just to numb things.” With the partnership of a longtime friend, Brent Richardson, the son of former Souths and new Wests chief executive Shane Richardson, Inglis founded the Goanna Academy.

Its work involves Inglis, his former Souths teammate Cody Walker and the NRLW players Kennedy Cherrington and Jakiya Whitfeld, travelling to schools and businesses – with a focus on young First Nations men in regional areas – and starting conversations about mental health. They are supported by three staff and share office space with Richardson’s sports consultancy Enrichd.

The work is challenging and rewarding. But rather than allow him to leave his struggles behind, it means Inglis revisits his past every day. Last year the academy delivered 35 programs to New South Wales high schools. “Some days I’ve been on the road and all I want to do is to sleep, I just don’t want to do anything because it was so heavy,” he says.

It might be in a library in Casino, or an after-school session in western Sydney, but the program starts in a similar way each time: there’s Inglis, standing in front of a room of eyes wide with admiration. He may be a hero to a generation but he is the one nervous and anxious about what comes next.

“It’s never easy going and telling your story, no matter how often you do it,” he says. “You have to be very genuine in the way that you tell it, you can’t just go through the motions, ‘Oh, this is what I’ve been through, hope youse are doing good.’”

Working closely with him is Cherrington, the Jillaroos and Sky Blues Women’s State of Origin forward, who sees the toll it takes on Inglis. “Every time I’ve heard him tell his story, I even see his strength in telling it, his confidence, it’s more of a normal conversation now,” she says. “Sometimes he probably just has to take a deep breath now and then.”

Not only does Inglis bear the burden of his past, but also the futures of those around him. “That’s what we’re here for, we’re talking about preventive mental health and we’re targeting a younger audience, so they become really good leaders and vocal in how they are.”

Some of the thousands he has spoken to need specialist care, and suicide is raised regularly. Inglis speaks of one troubled teen with a directness, of a simple acknowledgment of the importance of the task. “We are changing people’s lives and we are also saving people’s lives,” he says.

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The Dunghutti man later dubbed GI was born in Kempsey on the NSW mid-north coast and was better known as “Grego” growing up in nearby Macksville. He was recruited as a teenager by the Melbourne Storm, who helped to establish him in Brisbane before he moved to Victoria and became an NRL and State of Origin hero.

He signed with Souths in 2010 and won the club’s first premiership in 43 years, securing his place among the legends of the game. The enduring image of the Rabbitohs’ grand final defeat of the Bulldogs in 2014 was Inglis celebrating the final try with a goanna’s crawl.

Indigenous culture is core to Inglis. His cousin Preston Campbell was behind the establishment of the Indigenous All Stars side, which has helped First Nations players share and discover Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander connections since it was established in 2010. Inglis has led the Indigenous All Stars’ pre-match dance in the traditional season opener against the Māori All Stars.

He has transferred this pride into business. “When you pitch something, don’t lose your way, don’t lose your own values, or try to sell something that’s not you,” he says. “Be authentic, be you.”

His new path has inserted him into corporate boardrooms and politicians’ offices. He admits that “never in my wildest dreams would I’ve thought about pitching something to the prime minister, even though he is a mad Rabbitohs supporter.”

Cherrington says that experience gave the entire office a buzz, and encouragement their efforts were on the right track. “We got an email saying Greg is going to see [Anthony] Albanese and I was like, ‘What!?’” she says, leaving her mouth wide open. “I just think that’s the coolest thing, the opportunity and the impact: we’re speaking to literally the prime minister and pitching ideas for the importance around mental health.”

In 2022 Inglis married his girlfriend Alyse, who now also works at the Goanna Academy. He says he feels has the “right people” around him, and that his work-life balance is better than it has been, although his calendar is full. “I’ve never sat behind a computer consistently until four years ago,” he says.

Inglis still loves rugby league but he’s relieved to step back from its relentless rhythms. “I especially love watching the women’s game,” Inglis says, adding he is helping NRLW stars Cherrington and Whitfeld where he can, though he notes he is a mentor and “not a life coach”. While the Goanna Academy can be busy, he is unequivocal: “Rugby league comes first.”

The man with 149 NRL tries – and two for Warrington where he ended his career in 2021 – now has his weekends free. “The last few years have been a whirlwind, but it’s been probably the best few years – lately – that I’ve had, losing track but finding myself again,” he says. “It’s never an easy journey but, you know, sometimes it’s a journey you’ve got to go through.”

The future immortal offers no boasts, just a commitment to his new life, and learning day by day. “You just keep growing and yes, you’re going to have setbacks, without a doubt, there’s no questions about it. But I feel like I’ve come to a place now where I’ve learned how to deal with it a lot better than I used to.”

In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. International helplines can be found at befrienders.org

• Mental health
• Australia sport
• Rugby league
• Women's rugby league

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Every year, thousands of people in Massachusetts pursue parenthood through fertility treatments. One option is in vitro fertilization, or IVF.

According to the CDC, 5.4% of all births in Massachusetts resulted from IVF in 2021, the highest rate of any state in the country. Part of the reason for Massachusetts' strong showing is the commonwealth requires insurance to cover some IVF treatments. Most states don't.

Radio Boston follows one mother's journey. Fatima Shahzad of Somerville recorded herself in 2022 while she was going through her second round of IVF. At the time, she and her husband Dylan were trying to conceive their first child. Fatima and Dylan welcomed a baby girl last August.

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Tiziana Dearing Host, Radio Boston Tiziana Dearing is the host of Radio Boston.

Yasmin Amer Executive Producer, Radio Boston Yasmin Amer is Executive Producer of WBUR's Radio Boston.

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AFK Journey takes players beyond the bounds with Song of Strife, launching today

The new expansion update adds a whole new set of characters & story content

• AFK Journey's first major post-launch update is here with Song of Strife
• Explore the new Ashen Wastes region, recruit two new characters and experience a brand new story
• The Ashen Wastes bring innovative new dynamic landscapes as the dunes shift and change

AFK Journey's first major story update, Song of Strife, is here. After a launch that cemented its place as a worthwhile successor to predecessor AFK Arena, the isometric action-RPG title is taking players beyond the bounds of Esperia thus far and into an entirely new region of the world. Introducing new characters, stories and threats to contend with.

The story of Song of Strife takes you deep into the new region of the Ashen Wastes, hunting down an impostor masquerading as player-character Merlin. You'll need to work with the local Mauler tribe and partake in their Warsong Festival if you want to discover what this false Merlin is all about.

But you won't have to go it alone, as Song of Strife also introduces two new characters to the roster, native to the Ashen Wastes. Alsa is a mage specialising in earth-based magic while Soren focuses on a strong warrior toolset that offers both strong offence and defence as the situation demands.

This is one of those rare treats where we have a lot to talk about that even the layperson can understand. Because Song of Strife also adds an interesting, innovative shifting dynamic landscape. The wind, its direction and its strength can change the shape of the dunes in the Ashen Wastes, drastically altering the landscape even as you move through it.

Additionally, AFK Journey's first expansion offers limited-time power-ups in the form of charms. Magic Charms are seasonal, so you need to use them or lose them, but that only encourages you to check out the next season once you've had a taste of that power.

Want to see what else is standing out this week? Then take a look at our regular feature with the top 5 new mobile games to try this week !