Transcript for Steve Perry does first live US interview in over two decades on 'GMA'

That's why I was late getting out here. It is a bittersweet story decades in the making. Steve Perry, paper as you know as the front man for journey before launching a solo career and after stepping away he found true love, experienced heartbreaking loss and that has led to his first album in decades. It's called "Traces" and Steve is here for his first live TV interview in the U.S. For more than 20 years but first a look back at his career and the relationship that brought him back to music. ?????? Reporter: He's the voice behind one of the biggest rock bands ever. Selling over 48 million albums. ??? Don't stop believin' ??? Reporter: Steve Perry, the front man of the super group journey. ??? Someday love will find you ??? Reporter: At the height of their success, the powerhouse vocalist saying he lost his love of music. Perry and journey ultimately deciding to go their separate ways. ??? Faithfully ??? Reporter: Fans faithfully waiting for more than two decades for him to make new music. You are the rock & roll hall of fame. You put us here. Reporter: In 2017, journey briefly reunited on stage as they were inducted into the rock & roll hall of fame. But fans were still hoping for more. And now he's back with a new collection of songs. ??? Erasin' ??? Reporter: Crediting Kelly Nash with his return to music. They met in 2011 as she was battling breast cancer and quickly fell in love. For the next year and a half the couple inseparable but sadly in 2012, Kelly passed away. As Steve continues to heal from the loss, he's turned back to music, much of his new album "Traces" inspired by his love for Kelly. All right. I gave them all money before I came out here. 20 bucks apiece. Do you feel the love. I do now, yes, I do. It is wonderful to see you and we've been looking forward to this opportunity and can't thank you enough. Thank you so much. I've been looking forward to meeting you too. Bless your heart. What was that thought process like, I mean you're at the height of your career and to make that decision to step away as you did. It seems like it was a brilliant thought process but the truth is I had no choice. I was truly burned out. My emotion and my passion that I discovered for music and singing when I was about 6, 7 years old, I couldn't find it anymore. I was still singing good but I wasn't connecting with it and as a result of that, I kept getting more empty and empty in my heart and I was getting really worried. In fact, it was scaring the hell out of me to be honest with you, that coupled with the touring schedule and the fatigue and that experience I just explained was too much. I had to stop. I'm glad that you did that. You had -- But it wasn't popular back then to do this, you know. Taking care of yourself wasn't the thing to do. But you did it. You kept rock till you drop was the thing to do, you know. But you're still here. I'm still here, that's right. And still sounding as wonderful as ever. You weren't even writing during this period of time. No, not at all. I know it's hard to believe. No singing in the shower, nothing. I had to literally just walk away with it and I guess turned my heart off about to half to keep walking because it was too much of a draw to fall back in. It was a dream come true to be in journey. Sure. And to be in front of all these fans that loved our music, it was a dream. So to walk away, I had to turn my heart down. But then your heart got turned back up in 2011, Kelly. So you have a friend who's directing a TV show. Patty Jenkins. Oh, it was Patty? I love her. Patty Jenkins. The one and only. I didn't know it was Patty then you saw Kelly on screen. I saw her on screen Patty was directed called "Five" on the lifetime network. I had her stop real quick, who is that? Is that an actress? No she's a ph.d. Psychologist. Do you have her email? And Patty knows I don't do. Why? I don't know. There's something about her and so we talked a built. She said I'll send an email but I should tell you something first, it came back and she's fighting for her life. It's in her lungs and bones. At that moment I had an opportunity, no harm, no foul. Nobody needs to know nothing. I lost my parents. I'm an only child and walked away from a big career. I don't need in my heart said, bull. Something happened to me when I saw her. So I said, send the email and I waited on pins and needles and finally talked and went to dinner and were inseparable. It was a friendship that blossomed. It was more than love. It was a connection. Something new for me. I never experienced the word connection before or the feeling, you know, honestly. It was new. We hear it in your new music. I want to play a little. Call on me. She's in this. The tail of it. Let's listen. ??? Call on me ??? ??? call on me ??? That's her laughter. That's her laughter in "Call on me." I found it on one of my hard drives and I was messing with it and put on headphones and joking with her and got her laughing. My favorite thing was to get her laughing. If she did she's catching her breath and nothing is coming out and I'm kind of a ham for that. So I couldn't stop, you know. Beautiful. But the record, by the way is full of all sorts of songs. It isn't just about loss. About it's rock 'N' roll and reunions, going to high school reunion, some of you are old enough soon to be in high school. That's what we love about you. Yeah. It's just a mix like that. Yeah. What was the promise that Kelly made you make about returning to music? She was having a hard time and my favorite time was in the evenings when we would turn off the lights and give each other a smooch and talk each other to sleep. She says, honey, I need to ask you to make a promise and I said, what's that. She said I want you to promise if something was to ever happen to me that you won't go back into isolation for I feel it would make this all for naught and, you know, that was the biggest statement, of course, I said I promise but I want to make clear it wasn't like we weren't living our lives and going places. She knew I wasn't singing in the shower. I wasn't writing music. I wasn't doing any music at all. That's what she was talking about. Yeah. So glad you're doing that and could you make a promise next time that you're here you'll sing for us? Sorry to put you on the spot. Okay, okay. For you I'd do that.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.