Steve Perry confirms that he’s signed with a new label and he’s now hinting at a return to concert stages. He hasn’t mounted a solo tour in 30 years – and last performed a full-length concert with Journey in 1987.
“It’s something that I’m absolutely missing terribly,” Perry tells Rolling Stone. “I can’t even tell you how much, but there’s been a big soulful reclaiming of this original feeling that I had about singing that I needed to get back to. I didn’t want to go out and just turn the wheel or turn the crank.”
Perry returned to solo work after a couple of decades away with 2018’s Traces, but a hoped-for tour failed to materialize. Instead, he released a stripped-down version of the album that used arrangements he’d originally worked out for shows that never happened.
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Asked why, Perry says “it’s a long story. Uncle Steve is up in age, and everybody at this age has some aches and pains and things like that. But it’s a really good question that I’ve been asking myself too.”
At least some credit for this change of heart about the road goes to Trev Lukather, with whom Perry worked on the Effect’s recent remake of Journey’s “It Could Have Been You.” “Trev’s been busting my balls about it for a long time, to be honest with you,” Perry admits.
Perry’s most recent solo project was a holiday-themed album, 2021’s The Season. He didn’t reveal which imprint he’s signed with but said he’ll have the freedom to follow his muse. “These new label people are so supportive,” Perry adds. “They said, ‘We don’t care what you do; we just want to do it with you.'”
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Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
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