Steve Perry has recently embraced Journey’s classic songs, collaborating on duets of “Faithfully” with Willie Nelson and “Open Arms” with Dolly Parton. However, this does not indicate he is contemplating a reunion with the band he led at various times from 1978 to 1998.
“I mean, we’re all good. We were great together,” Perry said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “I think the material and our accomplishments stand the test of time, which proves that we were good together. I’m really proud of what we accomplished together, because we were kind of like soldiers in the trenches trying to do something together. We knew we could do what we believed in.”
Journey achieved significant success with multi-platinum albums, including the 1981 diamond-certified “Escape,” featuring the No. 2 hit “Open Arms.” The band sold millions more copies with 1983’s “Frontiers,” which included the six-times-platinum single “Faithfully.” Perry stated, “But I really love new music, and when I’m writing here in the studio, I try to remove myself so I can continually chase after these new ideas – and not be influenced by anything except these new ideas wherever they show up.”
After a nearly 25-year break, Perry returned in 2018 with the album “Traces” and released “The Season” in 2021. He has continued to refine both albums, offering updated versions such as 2020’s “Traces (Alternate Versions & Sketches)” and 2024’s “The Season 3.” Besides the collaborations with Parton and Nelson, Perry completed his first original holiday song, “Maybe This Year.”
No tour has been announced. “You know, I really don’t have any plans for that at this moment,” Perry told the Times. “I’m really having so much fun recording, writing, mixing and mastering at this moment that I just don’t want to break up the flow I’m in right now.”
Perry’s last significant solo tour was in 1995, and his final tour with Journey concluded in 1987.
“I think I really do enjoy the solitude and privacy that my life has right now. I enjoy my studio,” Perry added. “I’m staring at my speakers right now, and it’s an environment that is so creative and so fruitful with all these other ideas that I have coming that need to be finished. So, I don’t know. I think I really enjoy committing to this creative new buzz that I’m falling into with new music, new writing, new recordings.”