In a recent interview with Vulture, Journey Guitarist Neal Schon revealed some of his enduring memories with former singer Steve Perry. According to Blabbermouth, Schoen stated “I have great memories of when Steve and I first met,” he continued. “We hung out all the time, man. We were like brothers. We were crazy. We spent a lot of nights out way too late doing things we shouldn’t be doing. Drinking and whatnot. We overindulged in a lot of stuff. But bottom line, we had a really good time for many, many years. Lots of enduring moments onstage and offstage. He was a really funny guy. I saw a fraction of a moment of it when we got together before the Rock Hall Of Fame induction. I managed to get into his room, which was locked down like Fort Knox. We had a good hang in there. I felt like I still knew this guy and we were still really great friends.”
Schon and Perry were members of Journey from 1978 to 1987 during which Journey had their greatest commercial success. Perry’s final full concert with Journey took place in early 1987 while he joined the band for a brief performance in 1991 to honor the late concert promoter, Bill Graham. When Journey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, Perry joined his former bandmates on stage and gave a speech but declined to perform with his former band.
Schon later continued, “Somehow, things always get twisted to where I’m trying to take advantage of somebody, and it’s really not the issue at all. I am a true friend of his, whether he knows it or not,” Neal continued. “And I get the feeling when I’m trying to talk to him, that he thinks that I just want something. I don’t want anything. I just wanna support him, to show him respect for all the great years that we had. And that’s it — simply, that is it.”
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