Watch: JOURNEY's NEAL SCHON Performs 'Don't Stop Believin'' On 'America's Got Talent'

August 25, 2022

JOURNEY guitarist Neal Schon joined pianist and singer Kodi Lee and singer Teddy Swims to perform the band's classic song "Don't Stop Believin'" on "America's Got Talent" Wednesday night (August 24). Video of his appearance can be seen below.

Earlier this week, Swims released his official cover of "Don't Stop Believin'", three months after his performance of the track went viral on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

The 29-year-old vocalist, who hails from Conyers, Georgia, embarked on a career in soul music after listening to Al Green. Swims also went to beauty school and played in hair-metal cover bands. Now he's got upwards of 440 million views on YouTube and millions of followers.

More than a year ago, "Don't Stop Believin'" reached 1 billion listens on Spotify.

In a 2009 interview with CBC's "Q" cultural affairs show, former JOURNEY singer Perry said he always thought "Don't Stop Believing" — which is also the top-selling digital download of a track not originally released in this century, according to Nielsen SoundScan — had potential as a single. It was always a hit with live audiences, though it didn't get great radio play at the time it was issued, he said.

"When we were doing the song in 1981, I knew something was happening, but honestly, when I saw it in the film 'Monster' with Patty Jenkins, I started think, 'Oh my goodness there's really something.'"

He added: "The lyric is a strong lyric about not giving up, but it's also about being young, it's also about hanging out, not giving up and looking for that emotion hiding somewhere in the dark that we're all looking for. It's about having hope and not quitting when things get tough, because I'm telling you things get tough for everybody."

Current JOURNEY singer Arnel Pineda, who has been fronting the band for 15 years, told CBS News in 2012, "Even before I discovered 'Don't Stop Believin'', it has been my motto — you know, to never stop believing in myself. The life that I've gone through, all those hardships, I never stopped believing that someday there is something magical that will happen in my life."

In 2020, at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, "Don't Stop Believin'" had become a rallying call for patients recovering from COVID-19 at two hospitals in New York and Michigan. The 1981 hit was being played at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan and the New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital during celebrations for patients prevailing over the coronavirus.

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