60 Fun Facts About Journey

In which city was Journey formed in 1973?

Former Santana manager Herbie Herbert put the group together from ex-members of Santana, the Steve Miller Band and Frumious Bandersnatch.

What was the band originally called before a roadie suggested the name Journey?

The plan was to be a backup group for established Bay Area artists; that idea was dropped after a single performance in Hawaii.

The band's guitarist and keyboardist Gregg Rolie both came to Journey from which band?

Rolie had co-founded Santana and played Woodstock with them; the teenage Schon appeared on Santana III and Caravanserai.

How did the band end up with the name Journey?

Roadie John Villanueva gets the credit. The name-the-band radio contest produced nothing usable.

Where did Journey play its first public show, on New Year's Eve 1973?

About 10,000 people were there; the next day the band flew to Hawaii to play the Diamond Head Crater to more than 100,000.

Which British drummer, fresh from working with David Bowie and Frank Zappa, joined Journey in 1974?

He was chosen after up to 28 auditions, then fired in 1978 for resisting the band's move away from jazz fusion.

On which 1978 album did Journey embrace pop arrangements and redefine its sound?

Columbia had threatened to drop the band; a new frontman and a Queen producer, Roy Thomas Baker, changed its fortunes.

Roy Thomas Baker was hired in 1978 to give Journey a layered sound like that of which band he had produced?

Manager Herbie Herbert wanted the big stacked vocals; the album reached number 21 and launched Journey's first headlining tour, over Van Halen.

Which singer fronted Journey for a few months in 1977 before Steve Perry and co-wrote 'Wheel in the Sky'?

He toured with the band opening for Black Sabbath and ELP, but clashed with manager Herbie Herbert and was out by September.

Steve Perry joined Journey after its manager heard a demo by his previous band. What was it called?

Perry had nearly quit music after that band's bassist died in a car crash; his mother urged him to return the manager's call.

Steve Perry was born in Hanford, California, to parents who came from which islands?

His father Raymond Pereira was a singer and part-owner of a radio station; Perry is an only child.

Which fellow rock star coined Steve Perry's nickname 'The Voice'?

Rolling Stone later ranked Perry 76th among its 100 greatest singers, and Billboard readers voted him their favorite rock singer of all time in 2023.

Hearing which Sam Cooke song on his mother's car radio at age 12 inspired Steve Perry to become a singer?

That same birthday his mother gave him a gold eighth-note pendant, which he still wears for luck.

Which 1979 album gave Journey its first Billboard Hot 100 top-20 single, 'Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin''?

The tour behind it grossed more than $5 million and let the band set up its own lighting and trucking operation.

Which Berklee-trained ex-Montrose drummer joined Journey in 1978?

He later returned to jazz with Vital Information and Steps Ahead, rejoined for the 1990s reunion, and was fired again in 2020.

When Gregg Rolie left in 1980, he recommended a keyboardist from The Babys as his replacement; who?

His synthesizers replaced Rolie's organ, and he immediately co-wrote the hits on Escape.

How is the title of the 1981 album Escape stylized on its cover?

The album went Diamond in 2021 for ten million US sales, second in the catalogue only to the 1988 Greatest Hits.

Where did Escape peak on the US Billboard 200?

It was the fifth-best-selling album of 1981, just behind Stevie Nicks's Bella Donna, and remains the band's only chart-topper.

'Open Arms', the band's biggest Hot 100 hit, sat at what position for six weeks in early 1982?

It was stuck behind the J. Geils Band's 'Centerfold' and Joan Jett's 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll'. VH1 later named it the greatest power ballad ever.

Which singer had an international hit with a cover of 'Open Arms' in 1996?

Her version reached number 4 in the UK, where it is arguably better known than the original.

Which Babys singer turned down the melody that became 'Open Arms', calling it 'sentimental rubbish'?

He later teamed up with Schon and Cain anyway in the supergroup Bad English, which had a number-one hit of its own with 'When I See You Smile'.

The title of 'Don't Stop Believin'' came from advice the keyboardist repeatedly received from whom?

Cain was a struggling musician on Sunset Boulevard, and each despairing phone call home ended with the same encouragement.

'Don't Stop Believin'' was recorded in one take at which studio?

Perry had a cold that day, so the instrumental was cut without him; he did his vocal mostly in one take the following week.

What is structurally unusual about 'Don't Stop Believin''?

Two pre-choruses and three verses go by before the title hook finally lands with about 50 seconds left.

Perry admits the Detroit district he sang about does not exist; what lies directly south of downtown Detroit?

He said he tried north, east and west and none of them sang, then found out later that south of the river is Canada.

Which baseball team adopted 'Don't Stop Believin'' during its 2005 World Series run?

Perry, a Giants fan, was invited along and joined the players on the field in Houston.

The famous 2007 series finale of which HBO drama used 'Don't Stop Believin'' in its final scene?

Perry hesitated before allowing it. Downloads soared, and the boost pushed the band to finally replace its departed singer.

Which TV cast's 2009 cover of 'Don't Stop Believin'' outperformed the original internationally?

They performed it in six different episodes, from the pilot to the second-to-last one.

In 2024, 'Don't Stop Believin'' was certified how many times platinum by the RIAA?

That made it the top-selling digital track in US history; the 1988 Greatest Hits album holds the same 18-times-platinum mark.

'Don't Stop Believin'' closes which 1980s jukebox musical, filmed in 2012 with Tom Cruise?

The show ran on Broadway from 2009 to 2015.

'Don't Stop Believin'' is played during the eighth inning of every home game of which team?

Perry is a season-ticket holder and famously led the crowd in it during the 2014 World Series.

Which 1983 album was Journey's highest-charting in the UK, reaching number six?

It sold over six million copies, reached number two in the US, and produced 'Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)', 'Faithfully' and 'Send Her My Love'.

The 'Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)' video, shot on a wharf in New Orleans, is infamous for what?

One video director later said the man responsible 'should be shot'. Perry's girlfriend also feuded with the model in the video on set.

'Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)' found a new audience through which season of Stranger Things?

It had earlier turned up in Yes Man and Tron: Legacy; in 1983 it spent six weeks at number 8 on the Hot 100.

The keyboardist began writing 'Faithfully' on a paper napkin on a tour bus headed for which city?

He finished it in half an hour the next day. The song is about a 'music man' trying to keep a marriage together on the road.

After recording which song did Prince phone the keyboardist, worried it was too similar to 'Faithfully'?

He was reassured that the two songs shared only the same four chords.

Which hit did Bryan Adams write while opening for Journey in 1983, influenced by 'Faithfully'?

Journey's drummer of the time actually plays on the recording.

According to Steve Perry, 'Any Way You Want It' was heavily influenced by which Irish band?

Perry, Schon and Phil Lynott traded rhyme-scheme exercises in Miami while the bands toured together in 1979.

Which 1978 single was co-written by the band's short-lived 1977 singer, Diane Valory and the guitarist?

Diane Valory is bassist Ross Valory's wife; her words are usually read as a metaphor for life on the road.

Journey's 1988 Greatest Hits spent roughly how many weeks on the Billboard album charts by 2008?

It has sold over 15 million copies and still moves half a million to a million every year.

Which future American Idol judge played bass on the 1986 album Raised on Radio and its tour?

He was brought in after the bassist and drummer were pushed out mid-sessions; Perry produced the album himself.

What condition did Steve Perry set for reuniting with the band in 1995?

Eagles manager Irving Azoff took over. The reunion album Trial by Fire reached number three and earned a Grammy nomination.

Plans to tour behind 1996's Trial by Fire collapsed after Perry discovered what while hiking in Hawaii?

He put off the operation for years, and the band eventually moved on with a new singer.

Steve Augeri's first Journey recording, 'Remember Me', appeared on which 1998 film's soundtrack?

He got the job over candidates including Queensrÿche's Geoff Tate, and stayed until 2006.

Steve Augeri stepped down in 2006 amid accusations that the band was doing what at concerts?

Former manager Herbie Herbert insisted it was true; Augeri said in 2022 he was not legally allowed to say either way.

Which Filipino singer became Journey's lead vocalist in December 2007?

He had spent two years homeless as a teenager in Manila, collecting bottles and scrap to survive.

Neal Schon found singer Arnel Pineda on YouTube fronting a Manila cover band called what?

The clip that sold him was a cover of 'Faithfully'; two days of auditions followed.

In what year was Journey inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Train's Pat Monahan gave the speech at Barclays Center; every inductee spoke, but the current singer sang in place of the band's classic frontman.

Journey played the pregame show of Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 in which city?

Later that year the band recorded Live in Manila before 30,000 fans in the new singer's home city.

Journey recorded 'Only Solutions' and '1990s Theme' for which 1982 Disney film?

Decades later 'Separate Ways' turned up in the sequel, Tron: Legacy.

In the 1983 Bally Midway arcade game Journey, who has stolen the band's instruments?

The game used digitized photos of the members' faces on cartoon bodies, and 'Lights' plays on the selection screen.

Who is the only member to have remained in Journey throughout its entire history?

He says Eric Clapton asked him to join Derek and the Dominos as a teenager, but he chose Carlos's band instead.

How old was the band's lead guitarist when, in 1971, he joined the group he played in before Journey?

He was born on Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma to a big-band musician father.

In 2020, the band fired bassist Ross Valory and its longtime drummer and sued them, alleging what?

The suit sought over $10 million and claimed the pair tried to seize control of the company they wrongly believed owned the Journey name.

Neal Schon sent Journey's keyboardist a cease-and-desist in 2022 after he played 'Don't Stop Believin'' for whom?

The letter said he had no right to use Journey for politics; the two have since traded lawsuits over band credit cards.

What was the title of Journey's 15th studio album, released in July 2022?

Randy Jackson and Narada Michael Walden played on it even though both had left the lineup by release.

What was the title of Steve Perry's 1984 solo debut, which produced the hit 'Oh Sherrie'?

The title came from the original name of his old band Alien Project; the album sold more than two million copies.

Which longtime Eagles manager did Journey hire in October 1995 after Herbie Herbert's exit?

His arrival cleared the way for Steve Perry's return and the Trial by Fire album, produced by Kevin Shirley.

Which singer from Talisman fronted Journey for a few months in 2006-07 between Augeri and Pineda?

He first sang with the band on July 7 in Bristow, on a tour with Def Leppard that was extended to November.

Why did rhythm guitarist George Tickner leave Journey after the 1975 debut album?

The heavy touring behind the debut, which entered the Billboard chart at number 138, drove him out of the music business entirely.