![]() That lineup of Journey ended up becoming one of the biggest bands in the world. And George Tickner in the beginning, who was the guitar player in the band before he left, and in came myself and Jon Cain. But you gotta know that Herbie built that band around Neal, and Gregg Rolie too, and then brought in Aynsley and Ross. We don’t get along, but I love his playing. There’s nobody who plays like Neal Schon, to this day. Herbie built that band around Neal because he’s a star on his own from a guitar standpoint. Schon was like fifteen years old when he joined Santana. ![]() And I think that proving myself was something that went on for quite some time with the band members. Aynsley Dunbar had played with everybody. Ross Valory had played with Steve Miller and people like that, I didn’t have that. I didn’t have years of being in Santana under my belt, like Neal and Gregg. Because they’d had a certain amount of success without me, and they were wondering, once I joined, “Is this the right direction?” I could tell that. And not until it really took off, I think, did that question really get answered.īut along with this, you have to print that I can’t blame them. And what that meant was that there was a period of time where I always felt, from Neal, that I had to prove myself worthy of the position I was trying to occupy in the group. And people didn’t understand what that meant. So- when we did the VH1 thing, I said there was quite some time where I never really felt part of the band. What did you mean when you said, on that VH1 special, that you’d never really felt like part of the band? But I’m sure that if they could have been successful the way they originally set out to be, that would have been fine with them. You think they would have been happier if they’d made it in that prog-rock incarnation? And he was a great vocalist for what they were looking for, but they didn’t want to have a singer out front. They had Gregg Rolie, and that was enough. Look, you’ve got to remember, they didn’t want to make it with a lead singer. And a lot of time spent together can chew on a friendship. He gave me the back bedroom at his place. We lived together when I first joined the band. Of course! The answer is of course there’s differences between us all! It’s called a band! You get in a baseball team and some people like each other and some people hate each other, but they still play together. You’ve gotta print your question and my response, because I think it’s so humorous that such a question is even asked. It’s no different.īut you ended up having creative and personal differences with Jon and Neal, differences that led to you leaving the band-is that a fair assessment of what happened? Whether it’s making a movie or making music. Well, disagreements are part of life! Anything worth anything goes down the path of discussion, disagreement and greatness, I think. You mentioned arguing-was there a lot of that? Called “Patiently.” It began at that point for me, with the band. Neal and I wrote our first song that night in the hotel room, after the show. So I flew out there, hung out with the band. I think it was in Denver, Colorado-they were opening for Emerson, Lake and Palmer at the time. So Don Ellis called me and said Herbie wanted me to fly out and meet Neal. So they thought that I would be a good addition to the band. Because Journey had made a conscious decision, along with Columbia’s-what’s the correct word here- request that they become a little more song-oriented. And I got a phone call from Don Ellis telling me that Herbie had called back and wanted to meet me and talk to me about joining the group. So Don Ellis took the liberty, about two weeks after that, of sending our tapes to Herbie Herbert, who at the time was managing Journey. We were destroyed by that-he was a wonderful singer, a wonderful bass player, and a great guy, and he was part of a real interesting chemistry that Columbia wanted to sign. And our bass player Richard Michaels got killed in a Fourth of July holiday accident on the freeway. We were supposed to talk serious contract papers with him right after 4th of July weekend that year. Don Ellis, who was running the west coast side of Columbia at the time, heard the tape and really liked the group. ![]() What happened was, I was in Los Angeles, trying to get signed, with a band that I was in at the time-it was called the Alien Project, but it was also called Street Talk. GQ: Journey had already made three records by the time you joined the band.
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