Neal Schon didn’t mean to go off script at last year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. He had a speech prepared and everything.

But reconnecting with the voice behind the hits that paved the way for Journey’s overdue induction to the rock hall had him so choked up he found it hard to speak.

Steve Perry hasn’t sung with Journey since they went their separate ways in 1998. And they’ve had very little contact in the intervening years.

“I had written him a couple times and successfully got an email to him through his attorney,” Schon recalls. “He wrote me back a couple times and that was it.”

As Perry’s gracious speech at the induction ceremony, in which he praised "the magic fingers of Neal Schon’s guitar," would suggest, it was a different vibe that night.

“We met backstage for quite a while and had a great one-on-one talk in the back," Schon says. "We were hugging and I could tell there was a lot of love still there. I could tell we missed each other, you know?”

Hall of Fame crowd 'went nuts'

Then, when they went on stage, as Schon recalls, “I was about to go and make my speech and he came up and put his arm around me and the place went nuts, you know? I just completely lost my composure. The teleprompter is going by with the speech I worked on for a couple days and I’m like ‘(Expletive) the speech, man, this is what I think.”

A 'once-in-a-lifetime' singer

Schon’s admiration for his former bandmate couldn’t be more obvious, from his nightly dedication of “Lights” to Perry on the latest Journey tour to the enthusiasm with which he’s publicly responded to the news of Perry returning to music with “Traces,” his first solo album in 24 years.

“I’m as happy as everybody else to hear his voice again,” Schon says. “And I’m glad to see that he’s found the passion again that he once had for music because everyone has clearly missed him. I know I have. Steve and Aretha Franklin have always been my favorite singers. There’s a lot of other great singers in their own right. But once in a lifetime, I think, that you find someone that’s able to do things like Aretha and Steve. So I’m glad to see him back and I’m hoping he stays with it as he sounds really excited about his career again.”

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As to whether he could see himself working with Perry again, Schon doesn’t hesitate.

“I’ve made it really, really clear that I could,” he says. “I’m not gonna press the issue anymore because I think ultimately it’s gonna be up to him. But I will say that I know my fans and Journey fans around the world are writing me, privately and openly, and just praying for that, because we definitely have a chemistry together that’s undeniable. Will he have another chemistry with another guitar player? Sure. But we already have a legacy and a chemistry that’s existing in everyone’s hearts and souls. So hopefully, he’ll think about that for a second.”

Journey in the Hall of Fame

He was proud of himself, Schon says, that he held out to have former members Gregg Rolie and Aynsley Dunbar inducted with them.

"Originally," Schon says, "that was not the plan. And I thought, ‘You know what? These are the guys that got us to the next plateau to where it kept growing.' I felt like you have to pay tribute to the history, the sweat and blood that people put into this. Even if it was only for three years or four years. And with Gregg Rolie, much longer. I believe we did what, nine records altogether with Gregg? A lot of people don’t think about that, but true fans do know.”

Schon says he had “kind of had forgotten” all about the Hall of Fame after “many, many years went by” without Journey getting the call.

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“I said to myself, the most important thing to me is my fans," he says. "They’re my Hall of Fame. I’ve felt this way my whole life. I have boxes and boxes of platinum and gold records. They’re all in my attic because I don’t want to look at them in my house. Not because I’m not proud of what we’ve done. I have it in my heart. I walk with that pride and that happiness of knowing that we succeeded in what we set out to do. I don’t need to look at it every day because I also feel like you’re only as good as your last concert.”

Being voted into the Hall by the fans only made it more special for Schon.

“I think if they didn’t make it a fan vote that we still would not be in there,” he says, with a laugh. “But if they’d made it a fan vote 20 years ago or 10 years ago, we would’ve been in that long ago. So I believe that that’s the way it should be for every band that’s not in there now. It should always have been a fan vote.”

Solo plans

Schon is nearing the end of Journey’s latest tour with Arnel Pineda, a dynamic young singer discovered on YouTube who’s been fronting the band since 2007.

“It’s been going great,” Schon says. “We’re winding down, though. We have 18 more shows and that’s what I’m looking at right now, man. I think it’s ready for a little break here. To regroup.”

They’re taking a year off when the tour is done – “which I think is a good idea right now,” he says, “so everyone can try to figure out what they want to do, where they want to be. There’s a lot of question marks, you know? I don’t have a lot of question marks in front of myself. I know what I want to do and like everything that I’ve ever gone after, I think I will attain it.”

Schon has no intentions on relaxing. First, he has an album coming out. He recorded the disc “Universe” with Narada Michael Walden.

“He produced it and wrote everything on the record except for the cover tunes,” Schon says. “It’s bluesy, orchestral, classical, R&B and some fusion mixed in. But it’s really kind of set up for a theater or somewhere that you would go to see a symphony. I wouldn’t say it’s a rock setting. Not that it wouldn’t come off in a place like that. But it’s more coming from like if I went to see a symphony and they were covering some things I wanted to see in a different way.”

The covers include his instrumental takes on Journey's “Lights,” a song by Mahavishnu Orchestsra, a Jimi Hendrix medley that goes from “Voodoo Chile” to “Third Stone From the Sun” and Prince’s “Purple Rain.”

The other songs, he says, are originals. “It’s a packed record. There’s a lot of music on there and it goes by really quick. It’s a beautiful record, actually.”

On Journey: 'The band is amazing'

Asked if he still enjoys playing in Journey, Schon says, "You know what? I think the band is amazing. We have a chemistry when we play together that is undeniable. And I think the band is on 10 every night. We’re very, very consistent. We sound great together. We’re not trying to reinvent anything. You know, we’re out here playing greatest hits."

He used to struggle with the "greatest hits" thing.

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"It felt like 'Why do we have to play the same stuff all the time?,'" he says. "And I finally just resigned myself to the fact of what it really is and what this formation is about is more nostalgia for the history and the greatest hits. And that is what we are doing. And for what it is, I’m gonna give myself an A-plus, man, every night, and everybody else. You know, Arnel, he’s got big shoes to fill every night."

As for he future?

"I’m very excited and optimistic for the future," he says, "to move forward."

Journey and Def Leppard

When: 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 7.

Where: Talking Stick Resort Arena, Second and Jefferson streets, Phoenix.

Admission: $79 and up.

Details: 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com.