Detroit still has open arms for Journey as band arrives with Def Leppard

Brian McCollum | Detroit Free Press

As Journey sets its sights on its biggest Detroit show in ages, guitarist Neal Schon is in a reminiscing mood.

This was the town, after all, that helped break the band in the late '70s — an early adopter of songs such as “Lights” and “Feeling That Way” as the San Francisco group reached for mainstream success with new singer Steve Perry.

“Things started going crazy on the radio there, which filtered over to Chicago and then everywhere else,” Schon says, reflecting on the 1978 album “Infinity.” “At that point, Detroit was the major rock ‘n’ roll capital. As it still remains. Everybody follows what’s going on there. Detroit was very responsible for busting us wide open.”

No doubt some of those longest-serving fans will be on hand Friday night when Journey lands at Comerica Park with co-headliner Def Leppard, a powerhouse pairing from two of the biggest rock hit-makers of the '80s. The two hit the road together in 2006 — which included a stop at DTE Energy Music Theatre — but this summer’s affair is scaled up. They're playing stadiums in several markets.

More: Detroit's global sports anthem: The White Stripes' 'Seven Nation Army'

More: 100s of musicians sought for mass 'Seven Nation Army' on Belle Isle

Schon is the lone original member remaining in a band that has rarely sat still since blowing up the airwaves with soaring songs such as “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Open Arms,” “Faithfully” and “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart).”

Journey will arrive at the Tigers’ ballpark sporting its most stable lineup since Perry’s 1998 departure: Schon will be joined by bassist Ross Valory, keyboardist Jonathan Cain, drummer Steve Smith and vocalist Arnel Pineda — the Philippine singer famously discovered by Schon on YouTube in 2007.

With an avid meat-and-potatoes rock audience and three big-time rock stations — WWWW-FM, WRIF-FM and WABX-FM — Detroit was primed for a group like Journey in the late '70s. It was the right sound, right place, right time.

“You had all three stations pounding away on that record,” recalls longtime Detroit radio figure Doug Podell, then with W4. “For whatever reason, the chemistry of the music and band really connected. … Back then, music was basically Top 40, or kind of hard. These guys came right down the middle of what you’d call album rock.”

Schon says the band’s Detroit reception probably wasn’t far from Perry’s mind when the singer crafted the lyrics to 1981’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” — the power ballad with the beloved if geographically dubious “south Detroit” reference.

“Steve always knew, phonetically, what he wanted to sing and how he wanted it to sound,” says Schon. “And so (‘north,’ ‘east’ or ‘west’) didn’t ring right. So he said, ‘That’s OK. We’ll make up a new area in Detroit.”

This summer’s outing with Def Leppard may be Journey’s most high-profile run in years, but it came together during one of the most fractious points in band history — a roiling public feud between Schon and Cain.

It all started last summer when Cain, Valory and Pineda met with President Donald Trump at the White House — an event portrayed by some news media as a Journey visit. (Cain is married to minister Paula White, a spiritual adviser to Trump, and has spoken about being a born-again Christian.)

Schon erupted on social media, venting for several days about the White House visit.

“I was very ticked off at the time,” he tells the Free Press. “And since then, we’ve gone around and around.”

In Schon’s eyes, Cain, Valory and Pineda violated a longstanding Journey policy.

“It was something we all had agreed for years — that we would never, never mix politics and religion with the music,” Schon says. “People have tried to twist what I said every which way, but you know, I’m not taking faith away from anybody. Everybody can believe in what they believe in. … But the fact is that for decades and decades, we always decided we were not going to ever bring up any one religion or anything politically, like if you’re a Democrat or Republican. Because you’ll lose fans.”

Both sides say they’ve patched things up to some extent: Cain has told reporters that they’ve “hit reset,” and Schon tells the Free Press, “Like anything, you have to kind of get over it and move on."

“It made things a little better for us right now. And so far, so good,” he says. “I’m getting along a lot better with Jonathan and the rest of the guys, and have just sort of pushed it aside for right now for the sake of the tour, the fans and my own head, too.”

Schon says he has no regrets about airing his concerns publicly.

“I don’t. Because you know what? I wasn’t able to get peace any other way,” he says. “I did find out that I have a lot of very, very true fans. And they were 110% on my side of the situation.”

The focus for now is this summer’s show, where Journey is running through a tried-and-true set list of old hits. The guitarist says he improvises just enough to keep the material invigorating for himself night to night, but that the real energy comes from audiences just as engaged with the music as they were when the songs were released.

“We’re there for the audience. That’s what keeps it fresh — the mere fact that they’re there again,” says Schon. “I can’t even count how many times we’ve played this stuff, and if the audiences weren’t there, it would probably feel like we’ve played it that many times. But they’re always there, and you don’t think about it.”

Journey’s tour with Def Leppard will roll through October, and Schon expects to stay busy. He has put together his latest solo album — this one with Kalamazoo-born musician-producer Narada Michael Walden — and would still like to coax his Journey bandmates to record a follow-up to 2011’s “Eclipse.”

But only if they’re willing to do it the old-fashioned way: organic and together, not via computer and Dropbox files.

“All of us in the band have been very integral in making Journey sound the way it sounds. When Jonathan brought in ‘Faithfully’ (in 1982), we’d never heard it before, and it was written more like a country tune,” Schon says. “I added these classical parts to it, and I think we all brought something to the table that makes it sound like Journey.

“If they want to sit in a room and kick stuff around like we used to in the early days, I’m more than willing to do that. That’s where I feel our best music has come from.”

And there's another album project the guitarist wouldn't mind sinking his teeth into: a collaboration with Steve Perry. Schon — who honed his melodic, expressive style as an aficionado of blues and soul — thinks his old band mate would be an ideal partner for an R&B-style project.

"I think Steve has an amazing, soulful voice, and I know he loves R&B," says Schon.

The two had what Schon calls "a very good chat" ahead of last year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony: "I could tell that we both missed each other, and that there was a lot more left there."

"Life is short. So sure — I'd love to do an R&B record with Steve," says Schon. "I don't think he'd ever want to do a Journey record again. It's just too hard. (The notes are) way, way up there, and last time I heard him sing, his voice was a lot lower. But it was still very soulful. You can sing R&B and soul music and not need five octaves in your voice. (With Journey), he set the bar so high for himself and for anyone else."

As Schon and his bandmates wind across North America this summer, they continue to ride high on the mainstream rebound Journey has enjoyed during the past decade. Amid pop-culture flashpoints such as “The Sopranos” — whose final episode closed with “Don’t Stop Believin’” — the band’s music has been embraced by fans who came of age well after the 1980s: “I think a lot of people want to relive musical eras they never got to see themselves,” Schon says.

“I had no clue that anyone would even still be listening to Journey at this point,” he says. “If someone had asked me that three decades ago, I’d have go, ‘No, probably not.’ But here we are. It’s prominent. It’s out there. And it’s definitely etched in stone at this point.”

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

Journey and Def Leppard

6 p.m. Fri.

Comerica Park

2100 Woodward, Detroit

313-962-4000

$46 and up