Still believin’, Journey hits Vegas with a new line-up

Tamara Conniff

Friday, July 30, 1999 | 10:08 a.m.

What: Journey, with Foreigner.

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Tickets: $15, $25, $30, $45.

Information: Call 632-7580.

LOS ANGELES -- Guitarist Neal Schon's voice rings with excitement as he speaks over the phone from his Bay Area home. After a 12-year touring hiatus, the band he formed in 1973 is back where it belongs -- on tour. With a new lead singer and a new CD in the works, Journey is continuing on it's hard-pop path.

"Journey is like that infinity sign that we've had on our album covers forever, it just moves on," Schon says. "That's why I think the band does have new life now."

New life is exactly what the band, which performs Saturday with Foreigner at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, needed.

After the 1996 release of "Trial By Fire" former lead singer Steve Perry was incapable of touring due to health reasons. Schon still gets frustrated when he speaks of the period following "Trial By Fire." "Not to go on tour at that point was just driving me nuts. I really wanted to go out and play."

Not only was the platinum selling album a No. 3 hit, the single "When You Love A Woman" earned the band its first Grammy nomination for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal.

"Trial By Fire" was also the first release that included the 1980 lineup of Perry, Schon, co-writer/keyboardist Jonathan Cain, bassist Ross Valory, and drummer Steve Smith since "Frontiers" in 1983 (Schon, Perry and Cain had recorded "Raised on Radio" with a different rhythm section in 1986). The album's success proved that Journey still had what it took.

"There was so many years involved in Journey -- half my lifetime actually," the guitarist says. "Not to be doing something with it, with all the work we had already laid, it was ludicrous to me."

The band waited for a year to see if Perry's health would improve. Finally, after discussing the situation, they decided it was time to move on.

"I had to look back at all of the hours that I put in -- the four years prior to Perry, before he was in the band -- of grueling touring that I did," Schon says. "You look back at all those dues that you paid and you know, sometimes you're just not willing to give that all up."

But would fans accept a new lead singer? Perry, who joined the band in 1977, in many ways "made" Journey. The band started as a predominantly instrumental progressive rock group. Its first three albums received critical acclaim and, although the band was a "cult" favorite, they were only nominally successful. Understanding the need for a powerhouse lead singer and lyricist, the band welcomed Perry into the fold, and Journey took a musical turn toward mainstream rock. With the release of "Infinity" in 1978, which spurned the now classic tunes "Wheel in the Sky" and "Lights," Journey emerged as a top hard-pop band. Subsequent top charting hits included "Anyway You Want It" (1980), "Open Arms" (1981), "Faithfully" (1981) and "Suzanne" (1986).

The success rate of bands that take on new lead singers is minimal, but for Journey fans it seems the music comes first and the front man second. New vocalist Steve Augeri, formerly in Tall Stories, proved he could carry a tune when Journey recorded "Remember Me" in 1998 for the "Armageddon" soundtrack. Audiences are embracing him as well. The new Journey had its first concert in Tokyo recently and Schon says, "From the first verse of 'Separate Ways,' the audience stood up, they went nuts. ... We got better reviews than I can ever remember getting before, from critics and fans."

The glue to Journey has always been Schon. Born in San Mateo, Calif., Schon started playing guitar when he was 10 years old.

"It's been a while," Schon, 45, says of his playing. "But you know, I keep working at it, trying to get better. I think I'm doing it."

This is an understatement coming from the man who, at 15, turned down Eric Clapton to join Santana.

"It's funny. I look at myself, and at that time I thought I was really old," Schon recalls. "I split from school and I was in one of the biggest bands in the world and I was feeling like just one of the guys." He adds that when he sees video clips of himself playing with Santana he can't help but laugh. "I just looked like a total little baby, a skinny little runt. I think the hair on my head weighed more than anything."

Schon and Santana co-founder vocalist/keyboardist Gregg Rolie left Santana shortly after the release of "Caravanserai" in 1972. "The whole band was falling apart," Schon says. "Everybody was having a difference of opinion of where the wanted to go, so everybody started just getting up and walking or being fired. It was just sort of a mess. It got a little ugly."

Schon went on to play in ex-Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham's new band Graham Central Station. Although Schon loved the experience, the band didn't offer him enough space to "stretch out" on his guitar. "He'd cut me off like about eight bars into a solo, and the audience was just starting to get going into it," Schon says. "I needed more space."

So he decided to form his own band with Rolie and ex-Steve Miller bassist Valory. Originally called the Golden Gate Rhythm Section, the story goes that the name Journey was selected through a radio contest on San Francisco station KSAN-FM. "It turned out nobody came up with the actual name we ended up using anyway," an amused Schon says. "We lied and said that somebody listening to the radio had called in with it, but actually it was somebody on the inside that was working with us."

Journey's three-month U.S. tour with Foreigner kicked off June 2. Schon says that with the new line-up -- which includes Schon, Augeri, Cain, Valory and ex-Bad English drummer Deen Castronovo -- fans can expect Journey to be "rockin' a little harder." Schon adds, "That's exactly where I've been wanting to go for a long time. As things were getting softer with the old-line-up I was getting more bored. I've always come from the other side. I like playing the ballads, but I also really like to rock when I get on stage."