JOURNEY Guitarist Has 'Ultimate Respect' For STEVE PERRY

JOURNEY guitarist Neal Schon is never far away from questions about his old bandmate Steve Perry. He admits the two haven't spoken since 2005 — though, at the same time, there are no lingering animosities, either."You know what? I say nice things about him, and he says nice things about me," Schon tells Paul Cashmere of Noise11 (see video below). "I think, all in all, I have ultimate respect for the man, and the voice that he has. I wish him the best, but we haven't quite gotten around to speaking since we received the Hollywood Walk Of Fame star."Schon last year said that the only way to see Steve Perry back on stage with JOURNEY would be alongside current vocalist, sound-alike Arnel Pineda. Schon, keyboardist Jonathan Cain, and Pineda spoke to The Huffington Post to publicize the documentary "Don't Stop Believin'': Everyman's Journey", which premiered at New York City's Tribeca Film Festival, and talked candidly about what it would take to have Steve Perry ever rejoin JOURNEY, with Schon saying, "I don't think there's any way not to have Arnel at this point. Who can say never? You can never say it's never going to happen. Maybe ten years from now? Six years? Who knows? But if that situation ever came up, I think it would be the both of them. And I think it would be at the point where it's a farewell tour. . . and we're done. That's the only appropriate way to go about it." He recalled the search to find Pineda after going through two frontmen following Perry's departure. Schon explained, "We needed someone to really nail our catalog. I looked for a couple of days, non-stop on YouTube. It was a different way to go about it, instead of flying people in from all over the world. I looked and looked for like two days, and Arnel popped up at the last minute in a link. I heard the voice and went, 'He's got the high tenor voice.' I realized he was very, very strong and covered a lot of area."Jonathan Cain added that there's a difference between being a straight mimic and doing what Pineda does. "He's not a tribute band singer," Cain said. "The tribute band singers are scary because they are kind of clones, you know? We did have a guy that we looked at, but he was so much like Steve Perry, it was crazy. It was too creepy. But, it was kind of neat to get next to that and see it for a second. A lot of these tribute guys, they can sing the old stuff, but, you try to put a new song in their mouth and they can't do it."Pineda was asked if he's ever met Steve Perry. "No, but I've been wanting to," he said. "I hope I can sing with him, you know, side by side. If he would welcome that. That would be awesome. I think, especially the hardcore fans, they would love it."Steve Perry, who over the years co-wrote such JOURNEY classics with Neal Schon as "Don't Stop Believin'", "Stone In Love", "Lights" and "Any Way You Want It", told The Pulse Of Radio that during the band's heyday, Neal Schon had uncut gems flowing from his fingers. "It was challenging, because Neal Schon is a goldmine of potential ideas and he doesn't know, really, which are the best or not — 'cause they're all interesting to him," he said. "But in come my set of ears and he'd play stuff and I'd hear melodies, I'd say, 'Wait, what was that?!' And (he'd say) 'Oh, I don't know, it's just 'diddle-a doh' over this with a fifth. . .' I'd say, 'I don't care what you call it — what was that?' 'I don't know, it's just an idea I came up with last night.' I'd say, 'Well, why don't you keep playing that for a second while I come up with a melody?'"