![]() ![]() The guacamole went on my left shoulder and my left arm. Wearing that, I felt like I was finally somebody. It was my satin tour jacket that had “Journey” on the back of it. Just as I was opening the door, a container of guacamole bumped off the mirror to my left and splashed against my most prized possession, being a small town kid from Fresno. Neal may have hung with Eddie, but I didn’t.īut one night, I decided I had to go tell him, “I just love you guys.” I open the door and was about to say, “Hey, guys …” Now, back in these days, guacamole came in a cottage-cheese–like container. They really had a bit of a punk “fuck you” thing going. Kelly Clarkson Faithfully Covers Journey's 'Faithfully' for Latest Kellyokeīut to be honest, I didn’t spend a lot of time with Eddie on that tour. Everything has been neutralized to a playing field called a grid and beats per minute. Nothing moves like it used to because of that. The drummer gets the click track with his headphones, everyone plays with the drummer, and the arrangement is locked because he’s playing with the laptop. Somewhere along the line, as soon as laptops came around and everybody could play with a click trick and enhanced tracks from their albums and extra background vocals, extra guitar parts, and extra ambient, floating things, everything changed. They want to come home victorious against the headliner, no matter who it is. The opener wants to be the winner of the evening. Back in those days, the headliner was always going to be challenged by the opener. Those two teams bring the best out of each other when they play each other. It’s like the San Francisco Giants playing the Dodgers. Following them was a learning experience.īack then, rock was about competition and rivalry. Eddie was a big, big driving force in that band, but that whole band was a force to be reckoned with, believe me. I was so respectful, but at the same time envious at what he had and what he was contributing and what they had together. Alex and Eddie had that.Įddie was just so amazing. It was something they had within each other that was deeper than just musicality. The Everly Brothers had kind of a harmony that the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, in documentaries I’ve seen, admit that they cannot get close to. There is something that cannot be duplicated when you have DNA in your band. I’m a drummer and I was blown away by Eddie and Alex. I would bring Neal and say, “Check this out.” Neal was blown away by Eddie. ![]() They were loaded with what they needed to come out there and do what they did.Įvery fuckin’ night I’d stand on the side of the stage and watch their set. And you had Michael Anthony on bass who had this real high, literally operatic tenor voice. Then you had David Lee Roth who was a real showman and a real fun guy to be entertained by. The DNA was so strong musically between him and his brother Alex that when they played just on their own together, they sounded liked Led Zeppelin meets punk music. That band was so on fire and Eddie Van Halen was the driving, demonstrative force of that group. We had a good eight weeks where we were all together touring, staying in hotels. This went from the beginning of March to the end of April. If my memory serves me, it was Van Halen opening, Ronnie Montrose second, and then Journey. It was about eight weeks of 3,000-seater proscenium-stage gigs. He heard about Van Halen and he got them to open that tour. Our manager, Herbie Herbert, decided to take us to the headliner status at that time and said we needed a good opener. signed them and they made a record with them, the first Van Halen record. In Los Angeles, Van Halen had been playing the Whisky, Gazzarri’s, and Starwood right off the strip. ![]() That was the one with “Lights” and “Wheel in the Sky” and all that. That band was the opener on my first tour as a frontman with Journey, just after we made Infinity. I am convinced that Journey became something we would not have become had we not spent time with Van Halen in 1978. He phoned up Rolling Stone to tell stories from that legendary tour and to reveal that he got a call from Eddie after David Lee Roth left the band in 1985 that could have changed rock history in a profound way. “And so I picked up the phone and said, ‘What’s going on?'” When he heard the tragic news that the guitarist died after a long battle with cancer, Perry’s mind instantly went back to 1978 when Van Halen opened for Journey for eight weeks on the Infinity tour. ![]() “I don’t watch the news anymore,” he says. I can’t believe it.” The former Journey frontman had no idea what he was talking about. On October 6th, Steve Perry got a text from his recording engineer that read, “Oh man, Eddie Van Halen. ![]()
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