One night, she called me about 6:30 that night. So then I sat on pins and needles for two weeks.ĬHANG: But why do you think you reached out knowing you were probably setting yourself up for something painful? So I had this moment when my heart said, send the email. I said, what's that? She said, well, she was in remission, but it's come back, and now it's in her bones and in her lungs. She says, well, I will, but there's something I need to tell you. But, Steve - and she looked at me 'cause she knows I don't do this.ĬHANG: Wait so you weren't someone you would ordinarily reach out to a woman by email, or you wouldn't.ĬHANG. And I said, well, do you have her email? And she says, I do. There was just something incredibly genuine and incredibly beautiful. And there was just something about her smile. And I said to Patty, oh, can you freeze it right there? Who's that? Well, that's Kellie Nash. PERRY: And the camera was panning across this hospital scene where everybody's just having lunch. PERRY: Well, I was sitting with Patty Jenkins, who's a really close friend of mine. She was actually a real cancer patient who was on the set.
The night is calling again.ĬHANG: I know you give a lot of credit to someone you fell in love with as the impetus for the entire new album - Kellie, Kellie Nash.ĬHANG: I understand that you met her when you were visiting the production of a TV series about breast cancer. And I think I just needed to connect again and retouch the ground from where the dreams started. I drove it out in the country roads like Coyote Road where there's nothing but fenceposts and wind in my hair. PERRY: (Singing) Another night, another town, walking my heart around.Īnd so what I did is I went back to my hometown of Hanford. I knew what I had to do was just simply stop. But that feeling I had when I was 6, 7 years old, that passion for music I discovered in Hanford, Calif., listening to 45s on my phonograph player was gone. But after years of touring, he says he started to feel burnt around the edges. Perry said he was living a dream come true. Hold on to that feeling.ĬHANG: Starting in 1977, Perry fronted the rock band Journey. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T STOP BELIEVIN'") And even if his name isn't familiar, you probably know his voice. It's his first solo album in more than 20 years. When I walked out there and the crowd responded, I just don't know what to take except it felt like, wow, where have I been all these (laughter) years, you know?ĬHANG: After decades away from music - away from making music, performing music, even listening to music at times - Steve Perry is back.
PERRY: (Singing) And I won't ever be the same. On May 25, 2014, Steve Perry did something he hadn't done in some 20 years.ĬHANG: He got on stage in a packed room, and he sang.