NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) — In a new interview, former Journey frontman Steve Perry offered some insight into his decision to exit the iconic rock band Journey in 1998.
While it’s well known that Perry was suffering from hip problems at the time, leading to delayed tours for the band, he revealed in an interview with Tracy Smith on CBS This Morning that his decision was driven more by his disenchantment with music.
“It was really your heart, not your hip,” Smith says during the interview.
“It was really my heart,” Perry responds.
Perry provided vocals for nine different Journey albums and fronted the band during their most successful period but when he left the band in 1998, he says he stepped away from music.
“I stopped singing,” Perry told Smith during the interview. “Completely, Tracy, I swear.”
During this period, Perry says he became romantically involved with psychologist Kellie Nash, through mutual friends.
However, Nash was at the same time, battling late-stage breast cancer, which would eventually lead to her passing in 2012. It was her death that prompted Perry to return to music and re-launch a solo career, he said.
While Perry has once again picked up the microphone, he cautioned listeners that they should not expect him to reunite with his former bandmates in Journey. Instead, he said that he plans to move forward with a solo career.
“I can only answer that question with the truth: that I love going forward. I love going to the edge of what’s next,” he told Smith in the interview.
Perry’s new solo album “Traces” is available now in the usual places.
