Song: Strung Out
JB: Talkin' with Steve Perry here Off the Record it's your Uncle Joe Benson - you've made uh one public appearance, one performance in the last 10 years or so….
SP: (Steve laughing) When was that? With the White Sox?
JB: Yeah!
SP: (Laughs)
JB: Standard size crowd for you.
SP: That's right, that's right! (both laugh) They kinda got me back into it, didn't they.
JB: They kinda drug you back into it.
SP: They drug me back into it… yeah..
JB: Actually we haven't spoken about this since it happened.
SP: Yeah, those are great guys - all those guys, I swear to god, they are great guys Anderson, Pierzynski, Rowand was in the team at the time, I mean there are some great guys there. Bobby Jenks. I mean these are some cool guys you know - Crede…
JB: Well I know you've been enamored with baseball for a while.
SP: Yeah.
JB: The pacing of it the way the game puts together and everything that has to go along with that and you were rather surprised to find out that Don't Stop Believin' was kinda like their team song.
SP: Yeah, it was a total accident. Ah, that season that they went to the World Series they had adopted the song around July and I didn't know that until they had clinched the AAL and in the club house in Anaheim, in fact, they had brought Chicago Times and some other reporters and they were down there in the club house playing this song on ten? And singing it out loud and the reporter asked them well what is this all about and they had said they were in a karaoke situation somewhere back in July and they were really wantin' to go to the World Series and as soon as they started ... they asked the karaoke person or the band to start playing the song and they didn't know it and they were giving them, I guess, some, some serious grief for that (JB giggles) and after that they started playing it in the clubhouse. So, they started winning when they started playing it. That's, uh ... from that point on it became their sort of their mascot song.
JB: Were you surprised to find out they wanted you there for every game?
SP: I was stunned. I was really happy to go for one and they wanted me there for all of the home stands and then when they had completely swept at that point, won the two games in Chicago and they were on their way to Houston - oh my gosh, I wasn't, I was downstairs in the club house talking to Crede and Rowand and Jenks and I said congratulations man you guys are going all the way I know you are you are really good man I can see a spirit in you guys that's just unstoppable and we're talkin' and Crede looks at me and says "Where are you going?" I said well I gotta get back because at that point the DVD from Houston was finished and I had some promotion to do and things. And uh he said "Dude, you have to go to Houston." And I said well I gotta get back. He said "Dude, I'm serious you gotta go to Houston." And he had this look in his eyes like don't play around and I realized the superstition about baseball and I went oh my gosh ok I'd love to go but I don't have tickets and he looked at me and said, "Tickets won't be a problem dude." (both laugh) I said oh that's right I'm hanging with the team. So I went.
JB: So there you are. They're celebrating their World Series win.
SP: Yep.
JB: You're in a parade.
SP: Yeah.
JB: You're up on the podium.
SP: Yeah.
JB: There were two things revealed.
SP: What did you get revealed? What are you doin' ...? (Steve laughing)
JB: Number one, baseball players couldn't sing in tune if their lives depended on it.
SP: That helped me out at that point. (both laughing)
JB: Yeah.
JB: And you, on the other hand, were spot on. And there's Steve Perry and a microphone even though it was a giant party ... all this stuff was going on.
SP: In the streets of Chicago ...
JB: You were right there.
SP: I loved it.
JB: You were right there - you had fun.
SP: Oh my gosh, you know they invited me then after they'd won I was goin' to go home again and they said, oh no you're going to ride on the bus in the parade, and I'm going, oh you've got to be kiddin' me? And to ride one of those open air, you know, roof-free buses down through the streets of Chicago with everybody, just ticker-tape and freakin' and it was the loudest thing I had ever heard in my life. It was fantastic.
Song: Don't Stop Believin'
JB: It's your Uncle Joe Benson talking with Steve Perry Off the Record. You've spent a lot of time in the last couple, three years in studios with the re-mastering of the live DVD and ...
SP: Right.
JB: You've also, all the Journey albums now have been re-mastered or ...
SP: Yeah, they have been re-mastered. Yeah.
JB: Everything's been re-mastered. So you've been in studios a lot ...
SP: Last summer, last summer I spent the whole summer just overseeing that with Dave Donnelly who's a great mastering engineer. And uh, that was really an experience from top to bottom, to - oh my goodness it was cathartic. To start in the very beginning and go through every single song and uh try to reach for certain amount of sonics that I knew as a group we always thought they were capable of having; with today's technology you can do that. And I was extremely excited about it, the same time it was, uh, um, difficult because there were moments that I was just so proud of and then it was a painful moment because you know time has past and so has our, our involvement with each other.
JB: Give me something on Any Way You Want It. Where did that come from?
SP: Well you know we were touring for quite some time off and on with a group called Thin Lizzy and Phil was just brilliant ...
JB: Phil Lynott?
SP: Phil Lynott - he was brilliant. And, uh, um, we, I remember we were hanging out a lot and one time in Florida we had a day off and we just sat around and he had certain rhyme schemes little, little things he would work to do his rhyme scheme exercises and I've just always been a fan of what he does. And the main thing was after having him open for us - actually, in the very beginning I must clarify that we opened for them. First time I saw Journey, and sang backstage - to try to get the gig with Journey - was back in the east Los Angeles area I think in San Bernardino and so that's when I first saw him. And then it had flipped and we were headlining and they were opening for us. But the guitar, vocal, guitar, vocal interchange thing that happened between Phil and his lyrics and the guitars and his arrangements inspired ah, the Any Way You Want It sort of give and take thing. It's guitar voice, guitar voice, more guitar, guitar, guitar voice. Voice, voice, voice, and back and forth and that's something that Neal and I think just instinctually picked up by hanging out with and touring with him and from that was born songs like I think Any Way You Want It and I think, um, Stone In Love and stuff like that.
Song: Any Way You Want It
JB: Journey - Any Way You Want It. It was originally recorded mostly live in the studio for the 1980 Departure
album. That's the newly digitally re-mixed and re-mastered version. You're listening to Off the Record.
JB: Former Journey singer Steve Perry is here. We're talking about the new Journey and Steve Perry solo album re-releases. Everything has been digitally re-mixed and re-mastered and all of the respective albums come complete with bonus tracks. Alright now, comin' up next the Journey album that Steve Perry still blasts in his car to this very day and the story behind Sherrie.
SP: Hi I'm Steve Perry welcome back to Journey - Off the Record with Joe Benson!
JB: The Raised on Radio album was recorded during contentious times, it might have been better for everyone to take a break at that point.
SP: Yeah.
JB: But..
SP: But.. I must tell you if you listen to Raised on Radio now, those mixes now that they've been mastered - re-mastered, I mean oh my gosh, the songs just stand up. I, I really believe in that album, I always did and I always loved the way Jonathan and myself and Neal wrote that material. So, I think if you listen to that record now you'll be very surprised, and I sure am it's in my car and I listen to it more than I maybe should you know when I'm driving down the road and I'm cranking it and the windows are down and somebody pulls up next to me I kinda turn it down so they don't think I'm some kind you know, "Oh isn't that him listening to his own music?" (both laugh)
JB: Be Good To Yourself.
SP: Yeah. I heard it the other day, and be good to yourself when nobody else will.. oh be good to yourself you're walking a high-wire caught in a crossfire.. oh be good to yourself, I think that is the lyric. You know it was written at the time, because I was going through a big, big change you know, I uh, I don't know how to put this, but you know you accomplish a certain amount of things you always want to accomplish and and sometimes getting there isn't the fix you thought it would be. And uhh ... not that I'm complaining, it's just that, umm, sometimes you do have to just to take care of yourself and you put your faith in proving to other people, record label execs, or anybody else that your worthy of their love or their support or their promotion or their respect and you dance hard for that, only to find that sometimes it doesn't come. And in the music business, by the way, if you put your soul and heart in that and you dance hard for those things, and it doesn't come, which it usually doesn't, uh, you crash pretty hard.
JB: Uh huh.
SP: Basically you've been putting your approval in the wrong place. When every night after a show you get all the approval you need. But being performers we don't seem to ever get enough of that. (both laugh) But, so, you know so I'm learning you know, uh, where to get that and so I guess you gotta go and be good to yourself at some point.
JB: You had Randy Jackson in the studio working with you and Journey was he commenting on your pitch?
SP: (Laughing) You know he said "Oh Dawg!" You know, no I never heard Randy say the word "dawg" ever until recently. (both laughing)
Song: Be Good To Yourself
JB: Joe Benson talkin' with Steve Perry Off the Record. You had a couple of solo releases throughout your career. Ah, the first one Street Talk - was that downtime in Journey, was this a pressure release from working within the confines of the band? What led up to ...
SP: Well, what led up to was that Neal did a solo album first and I said "You shouldn't do this." you know and I told the manager I said "Herbie, you know, don't do this, it will mess with the group." I said that to the manager and the manager told Neal, Neal wanted to do it, he worked with Jan Hammer once. So then we, he did that, and then we did another record and then he did another one and I said "Ok - now you know you're poking the bear here. (both laugh) I'm gonna to do one and that's when I did Street Talk. Right after the Journey tour was over I went and did a solo album out in Los Angeles.
JB: Your first solo album Street Talk ...
SP: You're killin' me ... (laughs)
JB: There's a great song starts off the album and it was a hit single as well. Oh Sherrie is the name of it. There actually was a Sherrie ...
SP: Yes there was and she's in the video - yeah, that was my girlfriend for almost 6 years and that's her in the Oh Sherrie video.
JB: And I gotta tell ya right off the bat your vocal that opens that is stunning. Was it difficult to figure out how to start the song?
SP: Well, It was a tribute, it was an accidental tribute to be honest with you. I had the idea to start it vocally but Bill Cuomo, who I wrote the song with, came in with that beautiful piece in the front. He and so we decided we tried to tag that in the front. It was originally intended to close with it and but it sounded so beautiful in the front and then fades away and the voice comes in by itself, but the idea of a voice starting by itself was a tribute to one little stick out vocal moment that the 4 Tops when Levi Stubbs screams "Bernadette". I never forgot that the first time I heard it. You know, it was just like "BERNADETTE!!" I went ... What???!!! What was that?? (both laughing) you know. I just thought that was the most coolest cry out of a track and I remember I was in the back of a Chevy on the way to the prom or something I can't remember. But it just killed me, and uh so it was kinda like that, you know that was the idea.
Song: Oh, Sherrie
JB: Oh Sherrie from the newly digitally re-mastered Steve Perry solo album Street Talk. This is your Uncle
Joe Benson and coming up we'll hear a previously unreleased Steve Perry tune, it's one of 4 demo songs that originally landed him
the singing gig with Journey back in 1977. And we'll even debut a brand new song featuring vocal work from Steve - this one was
just recorded and you'll hear it here first, Off the Record.
JB: Joe Benson talkin' with Steve Perry, Off the Record. One of the bonus tracks that you included on the Street Talk CD, the re-mastered Street Talk CD, is Don't Tell Me Why You're Leavin'. Wrote that with Danny Kortchmar.
SP: Yeah..
JB: And Craig Krampf was co-writer on that as well.
SP: Right.
JB: Never occurred to me, which is an embarrassing thing to admit, that a guy who's what, born the same day as Sam Cooke? Aahhh had that kind of background as far as R & B singing. There's a feel to that, I've never heard you sing a song like that.
SP: Yeah, it was kinda a total R & B tribute to the music when I was coming up. It was a blend of Sam Cooke meets Otis Redding. Those two guys completely knocked me for a loop when I first heard them singing and and there was so much feel and honesty in their voices and when I was in my group in high school, The Sullies, we, we used to do a lot of R & B. I was the drummer/singer at the time and that's pretty much all we did. And we were one of the more working groups in the San Joaquin Valley - we had always a lot of work and you know I just wanted a song that paid tribute to that and me and I know that Kortchmar loves R & B so it just happened and it was that concept once again of course, Korchmar and I talked about it; if you're going through a divorce you don't have to tell me why you're leaving just please, just go. But no that's not what happens and another thing, let me tell you what else, let me tell you why else I'm leavin' You're a blah, blah, blah.. you know, ok. (both laugh)
JB: It's my observation ... as we go on in years, if we survive, we gain wisdom ...
SP: Um hum ...
JB: For a guy who started out inspired by the Beatles and a Hard Day's Night like so many of us ...
SP: Um hum ...
JB: for a guy who worked R&B for so long while he was getting the chops together
SP: Mmmmmm ...
JB: ... impressing chicks behind the drums
SP: Tryin' to..
JB: Tryin' to ... for the things you've been through in your career arc ...
SP: Right.
JB: I betcha there's something in your voice these days that you could add to a song like that.
SP: Yeah ...
JB: That isn't there the first time around ...
SP: Yeah, there's a lot in me right now that's starting to come out, writing. There's ... I don't know, I think I'm rediscovering things that mean a lot to me that I thought that I could let go of. Uh, you just you know some people do just keep going and they never stop you know and I personally had to walk away from it all at the time that I did and thought that was it. But I'm not sure now, really realize that I really love music, it can, I just love all kinds of music. There isn't one kind of music that I don't love. I mean there's an incredible composer named Alan Silvestri and he's brilliant and he did the music for, um, many films. I go watch him occasionally because to watch a 160 piece orchestra with his arrangements it sounds like the most huge rock and roll symphony you'd ever want to hear. And it's, he's very rock and roll and so I love all kinds of music.
Song: Don't Tell Me Why You're Leaving
JB: There's bonus tracks on the Street Talk CD - probably not news to you, but there are some killer songs.
SP: Well, My, My, My and Harmony and Makes No Difference are the other three songs, being the fourth one would be If You Need Me Call Me which are the songs that got me the gig in Journey. But the thing is, If You Need Me Call Me has always been on the Greatest Hits as a bonus track - Steve Perry Greatest Hits - but the original My, My, My, Harmony and Makes No Difference have never been released before. So, I went back and grabbed the original tapes and mastered 'em and knowing that it's 1977, I believe ...
JB: Yeah.
SP: ... they sound pretty cool. And it sounds like the singer in Journey which is fantastic you know. (both laugh) Just it sounds, sounds like me and it was a great band. Now this was unfortunately the bass player died in a car wreck just before we were to be signed by a record label.
JB: So My, My, My and Harmony and Makes No Difference were part of the demo that got you into Journey.
SP: They were the demo that Herbie originally heard, those 4 songs If You Need Me Call Me being the fourth and then he heard those songs then picked up the phone and called me and said I want you to go to Denver, Colorado and hang out with the band a little bit.
Song: My, My, My
JB: My, My, My one of the four songs on the original demo that landed Steve Perry the singing gig with Journey. It's
on the just released re-mastered version of Steve Perry's solo album Street Talk. I'm Joe Benson and Steve Perry is here and
when we come back I have a brand new song featuring vocal work and production from the former Journey singer. It's an "Off The Record"
exclusive - be among the first to hear it right after this.
JB: This is your Uncle Joe talkin' with Steve Perry "Off The Record". You mentioned how being involved with the World Series - albeit not necessarily by your choice to begin with…
SP: Right..
JB: Opened you up to different ways to look at things. You've spent a lot of time in studios in the last few years while re-mastering was going on, recording was going on. Possibly spent so much time in the studio you've developed, like, studio Tourette's.
SP: I do have creative Tourette's - how do you ... (Uncle Joe laughs) what is that? Who told you that? You're, like, crazy ...
JB: Well ... (laughs)
SP: I mean, I do ...
JB: Well it happens!
SP: I do, I go hang out with bands in studios and, and I sit back there and am biting my fists. You know, there's teeth marks in my fists and sometimes I just can't help it. I've got creative Tourette's. I, I've had these moments like when I was in the band and I just suggest things and sometimes they take those ideas and run with them and that's fine. I think that uh that's what I was talking about. I, yeah, I'm getting kinda creative about that stuff again.
JB: The band is from Athens, Georgia?
SP: Yep.
JB: Home of REM.
SP: Yeah.
JB: Among many others - their name is Guff; G - U - F - F.
SP: That's right.
JB: As in "not take any".
SP: As in "Do NOT take any guff". (Steve laughs)
JB: You're in the studio a couple of days with them.
SP: Yeah, two days.
JB: And that had to be so much fun.
SP: It was a lot of fun - ah it was with the producer Noah Shane - he produced a group called Orson which were number one in England for weeks.. I think 15 weeks and, uh, now he's back in America and he was doing this punk group. They're great guys, just a bunch of great guys and, uh, their sound is interesting and it reminded me of the kind of musical thing that was in I Can See It In Your Eyes. I told them that that song was going to be a bonus track that had never been released before, that it was a kind of punky Journey song and you guys are a punk band you could take it to the next level, I thought, and give it some contemporary credibility, you know. And uh, in fact, I hope you guys do it with Noah, we'll do it together, we'll produce it together and so we re-tracked it in two days, sang some backgrounds and Ash, the lead singer, uh, he sang his "Ash" off .
JB: Is this the first time you've performed with a band in the studio…
SP: I think so, yeah.
JB: In a while.
SP: I think so, it's the first time I've sat with a group and worked together with them, yeah it was really a lot of fun. It was reminiscent of the old days, it was.
JB: A lot of energy.
SP: A lot of energy - it was really great to be with a band you know. You really feel that you are part of something bigger than yourself. You know, you really do.
JB: Isn't that the..
SP: It has this whole other thing it becomes that it can't be without each other.
Song: I Can See It In Your Eyes by Guff
JB:- The song is called I Can See It In Your Eyes, the band is "Guff" with a little, ah, vocal backing there from Mr. Stephen Perry is my guest on "Off The Record".
SP: Yeah.
JB: Nice Job!
SP: Thanks!
JB: Can't fake those pipes! (both laugh)
SP: You recognize me in there?
JB: You're in there, you're in there.
SP: Oh good, good, good!
JB: The band is really good too.
SP: The band is good, they're rockin'.
JB: It's a myspace..
SP: Myspace/guff.com - I believe is where they are.
JB: OK, a little independent act.
SP: They're independent act on Gocart Records they're trying to get goin' - they're not big but they're going to be and if everybody loves them they will be.
JB: You see these kinds of things and I know for a fact that the draw of being on stage in front of tens if not hundreds of thousands of people - that draw wasn't, hasn't been there so much for you for a while.
SP: No. But..
JB: Pretty powerful getting off stage after performing like that..
SP: Yeah..
JB: You've gotta be rushin' for a while ...
SP: Yeah, it's rough.
JB: That part has not been a draw for you for quite a while..
SP: Well, I can't say that. I… can't ... you ... How honest do you want me to be? (Steve laughs)
JB: Extremely.
SP: OK, it isn't that I don't miss it, I miss it terribly. There's just other things right now - that I can't get into - but vocally there is no way that I can bring certain vocal things out of myself in front of a microphone or a pair of headphones in a studio that I can find when I'm standing in front of people. People bring that out of me - it's their voice - it's not mine cause I can't do it without them there so obviously it belongs to them because without their input at that moment to get me to do things I can't get 'em. I can't go get them. It's very interesting and so what I miss I think is that - what they bring out of me that I can't get without 'em.
JB: Your voice is in incredible condition ... you've been practicing ... you've been singing ...
SP: Will you stop, you ...
JB: You're physically ready to be out on stage any moment ...
SP: laughing
JB: When do you start auditioning band members?
SP: Soon more laughing
JB: We'll watch for the posting.
SP/JB: both laughing
Song: Separate Ways
SP: I told someone the other day that if the arrangement of Hey Jude is the arch of my life. OK ...
JB: Uh huh.
SP: I will admit out loud to you Joe I am in the 'Nah-nahs'.
JB: laughing
SP: Ok? In, in ... but, but Joe it's ok. And I guess if I'm in the 'Nah-nahs' it means you are too.
JB: Yeah, well..
SP: We're not in the third verse, not in the bridge, we're in the 'Nah-nahs', OK? But if we're in the 'Nah-nahs', let's turn those motherf--s… up. OK, turn them up - let's turn them up LOUD.
Used by permission.
With sincere thanks to Uncle Joe Benson for proof-reading our transcript.
