Proving that even rockstars get starstruck, former Journey lead singer Steve Perry has revealed that he turned down a jam session invite from the legendary guitarist Eddie Van Halen.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Perry hinted at the fact that he could have been up for David Lee Roth’s coveted position in Val Halen following his departure from the band in 1985.
“I don’t think anyone knows this, but when David Lee Roth left Van Halen I was living in the Bay Area and not sure what I was or wasn’t going to do anymore. I don’t remember how it went down, but either I called Eddie or Eddie called me. Back in those days, we were both having what you could call “late-night behaviors” on the phone. All I know is we both ended up on the phone that night having some fun talking trash,” he told the publication.
“Eddie said that I should come down sometime and we should jam, have a play. Man, at some level within me I felt so honored because I was in awe of Eddie’s natural talent. He was just born with it. I wanted so badly to do that. We talked about how cool that could be musically. This was before Sammy [Hagar],” he added.
With seven albums under his belt – including Escape which reached no 1 on the Billboard charts – Perry was essentially already killing it in his career. However, he admits the thought of playing with Val Halen and having to fill the huge shoes of David Lee Roth, was too intimidating.
“The next day and in the weeks to come I thought, “I don’t know that I should do that. If it goes creatively to what I know it can go to …” Whatever I could bring to that, I know it would be something I’d really love doing. My only problem I had with it was the thought, “I don’t know that I could be the guy to go out and represent the David Lee Roth years with my voice. I don’t know if I want to be that guy.” And shortly therefor, they got Sammy and he was the perfect version of that guy.
While Perry stresses that the call was simply for a jam session, the timing conveniently points to the potential of a future partnership.
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“I don’t know what Eddie’s intentions were when he called me. He was just saying, “Let’s get together and play.” It wasn’t a promise. It was just, “Why not? Let’s see what this sounds like.”
As I said, I think representing their legacy up to that point would have been something vocally that I don’t think I was really suited to doing. It’s a different kind of singing. David had something vocally that I would say was in kinship with Louis Prima.
Despite not joining forces as a band, Van Halen and Steve Perry have a musical history together. The pair spent eight weeks together when Van Halen opened for Journey on Perry’s first tour as a frontman for the band. Of course, this was the same tour with their infamous guacamole incident that went down.
Unfortunately, Eddie Van Halen passed away on October 6th, 2020 after a battle with cancer, but he has left an undeniable legacy, one that Perry pays tribute to in the same interview.
“Looking back at that 1978 tour with Van Halen, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, we were really blessed to be around that kind of musicality because it changed my life. It changed what I wanted out of myself. It changed what I wanted out of my songwriting. It changed what I appreciated. People should really know that not only did Van Halen truly make Journey a better band, they made a lot of bands a better band.”
Check out Steve Perry performing ‘Don’t Stop Believin” with Journey:
