Story by Shawn Perry
Journey, the Steve Miller Band and Tower of Power kick off a 2014 summer tour on May 15, 2014, at the Sleep Train Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, California. The tour, produced by Live Nation, will bring the three iconic groups that emerged from San Francisco to more than 30 cities across North America including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto and Detroit.
A week before opening night, Journey’s guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain, along with Steve Miller, got on the line for a press teleconference to talk about the tour and their respective careers. Although they both hail from San Francisco, this is the first time Journey and the Steve Miller Band have played together. Naturally, with two bands of this caliber, they’ll be hitting 10,000 to 20,000 seaters, mostly outdoor sheds.
“We do this almost every year,” Schon said. “It’s the norm for us to play these outside festivals — we call them the BBQ pits and it’s a lot of fun…the weather’s great, the music’s great, audiences come out in droves, and it’s going to be awesome. It’ll be a lot of fun. I think it’s a great line up.”
“I think Journey and Tower of Power and the Steve Miller Band — we’re all part of a core of original groups that came out of the San Francisco music scene,” Miller added. “These bands are an integral part of the music and art and production of a whole new approach to music. Once you start changing the way people attend concerts, what happens at concerts and you’re in an unusual creative environment as San Francisco was for three decades really – the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s – there was just an amazing amount of creativity that came out of there. I think that’s what shaped bands like Journey and us.”
I asked Schon if he had ever jammed with Miller back in the heady days of the Fillmore West. “No, we did not. I pretty much took off with the Santana band in 1970 when I joined Carlos and Gregg (Rolie) and the rest of the guys. I was traveling all over the world,” he said. “I never really saw Steve Miller until later. I knew of his music and (Journey bassist) Ross (Valory) came from the Steve Miller Band. I was doing a tour with Paul Rodgers on the Muddy Waters Blues tour and we were opening up for Steve Miller, so I got to know him a lot better. During that whole tour, we jammed a lot and it was funny listening to stories he had to tell about Les Paul. It should be a lot of fun on this tour to reunite with Steve.”
While politely refraining from speculating in detail on the doings of former Journey vocalist Steve Perry, Schon valiantly championed Journey’s current singer Arnel Pineda without reservation. “He’s been here for six years. I feel like Arnel brings it every night. He gives 120% every night, you know, whatever he’s got. He’s like a saint on tour. I mean, there’s no drinking, there’s no partying, he has to eat correct foods. He has to pretty much live like a saint and he does that out of the respect for the band and wanting to bring his, you know, grade A game to the show.”
Schon mentioned that he was recording and recently released a solo album SO U. Even so, he, Cain and Miller, while all active in the studio, seem to agree making records isn’t as lucrative these days as putting together package tours like this. For younger artists, they believe it’s tougher than ever.
“I don’t really have any instant advice for these kinds of kids except that be true to yourself, suffer for your art and hang on and maybe something will change where you actually have a chance. Right now, I don’t think they have much of a chance,” Cain said. “We’ve kind of hesitated with the new stuff because the CD business is kind of dead and gone and it costs money to go in the studio. So, we’ve kind of held back.”
Miller was a little more direct. “I just recorded ‘One Mint Julep’ for fun. It’s mainly for fun now. There is no record business. You cant’t give it away. You can’t afford to spend $200,000 in the studio and then give it away. It doesn’t work.”
As Schon announced his departure, Miller came on the line and said, “I hope we get some time to jam and have some fun. I’ve got some great new songs I want to drop on you.”
The Journey guitarist replied instantly. “Oh, that’s awesome, man. You’re welcome to come up and jam with us, too. We’ll put out a blues jam and you come up and just grab it bro.”
“Perfect,” the man they call The Joker purred.
There’s little doubt that live music is where it’s at for the bands of San Francisco. If everything falls in place and the conversation continues, we could see some once-in-a-lifetime performances on the road this summer.
