Steve Perry, the frontman for the rock group Journey, who lasted for 14 years and whose breakthrough album Escape yielded 3 top 10 singles and sold nine million copies.
Dropped off the face of the earth. After a 10 year hiatus, Steve Perry and Journey reformed in 1996 and created the album Trial By Fire.
Shortly after the album was finished, Perry was hiking in Hawaii in training for the upcoming tour. During this hike, he injured his hip. In summary, the tour never happened. Many inside the band’s circle disagree on whether or not Perry’s injury was actually true however it is just about universally agreed that Perry changed his mind after the reunion started and did not want to tour. Many reasons have been stated but the most prominent being his voice has changed too much from his younger days and he can no longer sing the high octaves he used to. Whether or not the injury was real or made up, most believe he used the hip injury as an excuse to indefinitely postpone the tour.
Perry stated his physicians were recommending a hip replacement and he was unsure what to do so he did nothing. The other band members waited two years (until 1998) for Perry to make a decision. They ultimately got tired of waiting for Perry and reformed the band without him.
Since then, Perry has pretty much dropped off the face of the earth. He enjoys his privacy and goes to great lengths to sustain it. Now and then a snippet may appear from a credible source saying Perry will be back, most believe he never will.
June 2004: Journey is back touring but without Perry. He has been replaced by vocalist Steve Augeri
August 2004: This is belated, but a few people have pointed out that Perry worked on the music soundtrack for the Charlize Theron smash Monster. Theron and filmaker Patty Jenkins mailed Perry asking his permission to use the song Don’t Stop Believing, he ended up meeting them and assisted in re-mixing the soundtrack. (Thanks to Jay for the details).
