Reached at home in San Diego, former Journey frontman Steve Perry admitted for the first time that he totally made up the geographic locale of "South Detroit."



The world's all-time most-downloaded mp3 has inspired confusion in the hearts of Detroiters since being released in 1981.

Any woman, myself included, could be and has been that "small-town girl, living in a lonely world." But who was her partner beneath the streetlights -- "just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit?" Was he from Wyandotte or Lincoln Park? Is South Detroit a rebranding strategy for the greater Downtown area? Could Steve Perry be talking about some dude from WINDSOR, for crying out loud?



Perry also explained the origins of "Don't Stop Believin'" to New York, which noted, "And, on further thought, why did a bunch of Bay Area rockers with no ties to Detroit choose it as the fulcrum point for a ballad of hope and perseverance in the first place?" Clearly, the writer, Peter Hyman, hasn't lived here -- obviously he'd know we eat ballads of hope and perseverance with our breakfast cereal. The journalist's other missteps include calling the Downriver towns of 1981 a "primarily rural" setting and claiming Eminem grew up in East Detroit. Eastpointe? Nah. Just say the East Side.



(Update: I talked to Peter Hyman, who's actually a Metro Detroit native now living in the Big Apple. He's updated his still-excellent post to reflect these changes.)



Perry says the song came to him during a sleepless night in Detroit during the band's five-night stand supporting their 1980 Departure tour.





Perry's midnight ramblings have inspired an unabated Detroit devotion for the tune. There's a certain ritual to hearing "Don't Stop Believin'" at a sports game, on the radio, in a bar, that's different here, compared to anywhere else. First, that split-second of silence when that piano part begins, where the audience confirms, 'Yes, this is Journey, not Adele.' That's because most grown men don't sing to Adele.



Detroiters, as a rule, belt the first verse -- it's like the Chicago-style hot dog for karaoke. Locals who are too cool to listen to Journey still mutter that one line. Drunk people sing the entire song, loudly. Sports fans scream "South Detroit!" during Red Wings games. There are emotions involved.



Knowing that there is no South Detroit undoubtedly won't change anything about the vaguely holy light people have created around "Don't Stop Believin'." And that's the way it should be. Geographically errant, it may be -- but Perry's creation, as the mag notes, just goes on and on and on and on ...

Related: Steve Perry of Journey was right... there is a South Detroit after all.