Steve Perry - Rock Video October 1984

"I'm very excited about this. I've been waiting all my life for this," says Steve Perry about his solo album, Street Talk, which has resulted in his huge hit, "Oh Sherrie" (also his girlfriend's first name), and lots of questions as to his future as the lead singer of Journey.
With "Oh Sherrie" on the radio and the songs video-beaming across America by satellite. Perry is more than pleased with what's happening with his career as a solo artist - especially with an album that he wrote in "five or six weeks". "I'm just enjoying this right now," he says, "having a great time. It's like a horse race. I feel like I'm cheering it on. Everyday, waking up, thinking 'How is it doing today?'. It's really like watching a big horse race, this music

business."
Even though Perry has had other high points in his career - like joining Journey - which he semi-seriously says got him off food stamps, it is this solo project that really excites him. He describes the album as being "like a tailor fit suit." It has allowed him to do exactly what he's wanted with his music and now he's even considering doing some more producing of other artists, which he's always wanted to do. But he does point out that his solo work isn't anything he's kept from Journey, nor are the songs "Journey rejects". He feels that with his album he's been able to get the sound of his own band and his own voice into exactly the right combination - something he explains can't be done when you're part of a band rather than having a band work with you knowing it's your album.
"Since I was a young kid I was very very

obsessed with music," Perry admits. "I don't know why either. I was a radio person. I loved listening to the radio when I was younger. It seemed like there was 'the radio star', you know. It was such a mystery of what did these people look like and the way they sounded. It was amazing. Then sometimes when you did see pictures of them in print they didn't fit what you thought".
Now that video is vying with radio as the medium by which rock gets watched (as opposed to just listened to), Perry thinks that some of the mystery he describes may have disappeared. As in earlier days when a photo of the hit singer might not jive with the picture you had in your mind from hearing the hit on the radio, so Perry points out, "Video's done the same thing too."

    Without deciding if this is good or bad, Perry says, "Video is another double edged sword, the world's full of them. A song is like a book and a video is like the movie. The book is almost always better than the movie because it allows every individual just to think of it in different ways and how it touches them.
    "If the video isn't done right it can remove a lot of mystery from it," he concludes. He does feel that he did as much as possible with "Oh Sherrie" to avoid having the video being a let down from the record on the radio, mainly by making a conscious effort in advance to try to keep it from happening.

    As for the future of his solo career and more hits and videos to come, Perry is philosophical. He says, "If you're not afraid to run alone, then I think you've got a pretty strong drive and can get through anything."