Last week, Lefsetz showed this clip of Steve Perry at the World Series. I’m pretty certain that the clip got more viewers than the actual ballgame, but that’s not the point here. Ultimately, it’s all about how bizarrely excited people got at seeing Steve “sing” a classic Journey tune and how thrilled he was to be in that moment.
The entire Journey story is one of egos, arguments, and huge music. Alongside insane success, there were rotating band members, hired/fired managers, and over 75 million albums sold. In fact, Journey’s Greatest Hits album still sells over 1,000,000 copies per year. For a band that’s been in everything from Caddyshack to The Sopranos, and still moves a lot of units …. that’s amazing! Here’s a nifty chart of the chronology of Journey band members and managers.
So why hasn’t the band put it all back together, hit the road, and capitalized on the adulation? And why has Steve Perry remained suspiciously out of the limelight for so long? It makes a cynical marketing mind wonder how “planned” the spontaneous appearance at the Word Series truly was. Perhaps it was a test to see if people were interested in him … if they’d be excited to see him … if there’s a market for Steve Perry in 2010.
Or maybe it was just about a guy who likes baseball. But in the music industry, most spontaneous acts are carefully planned down to the last detail. So maybe that Journey reunion tour will happen after all.
If it does, you heard it here first.
