By Ralph Greco, Jr.
One could say that Jim Peterik has survived the topsy-turvy world of rock and roll better than most. As a member of the band Survivor, he co-wrote the hit “The Eye Of The Tiger,” plus “The Search Is Over” and “High On You.” He’s co-written hits like .38 Specials’ “Hold On Loosely” and “Caught Up In You,” and been part of bands like The Ides of March and Pride of Lions.
For Winds Of Change, the long-awaited follow-up to Jim Peterik’s World Stage album, Peterick called in a bunch of heavyweight collaborators to help out. Kelly Keagy (Night Ranger), Mike Reno (Loverboy), Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon), and Dennis DeYoung (formerly of Styx), who appears on the album’s single, “Proof Of Heaven,” all pitched in and did their part. Peterick spoke to VintageRock.com about the fine art of collaboration and his post-Survivor successes in the wacky world of modern music making.
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How do you corral all these amazing artists together to get so many great songs written?
With great difficulty (laughs). Keeping my career together while involved with many projects and collaborating with others is all about scheduling tours, recording, and writing with friends, who have their own busy agendas with their own recording, touring, and writing. With this last most recent bit of recording it was hard to say no to an angry Italian (Serafino Perugino of Frontier Records) when he called and told me he wanted new music from me. (laughs). I called in the many friends I have, amazing people one and all, and got to it.
Guys like Kelly Keagy of Night Ranger, Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, Mike Reno of Loverboy and many more greats are on this record.
Yes, all fantastic musicians and great friends. Take Mike Reno, for instance. I asked him to stay over in Chicago for four to five days, write a great song with me, sing it and record it, and he did with “Without A Bullet Being Fired.” I said, “Let’s take that spirit from 1981 when you still fit into your red leather pants, the girls were hotter than shit, get into that attitude and make it happen.”
You also collaborated with Dennis DeYoung for the first single, “Proof Of Heaven.” What was it like writing with him?
One really can’t forget how huge Styx was in the mid 80s with lots of the songs Dennis wrote and sang. So you’d think a guy with the success he has had would be an asshole…but Dennis is anything but. He is the funniest human being, lacks ego, is the nicest guy you’ll ever want to meet.
With him as with lots of these people I write with I am like the ultimate cheerleader so I said to Dennis, “Let’s reclaim that sound, that pompous anthemic sound that made you famous. Let’s not shirk that at all for this tune.” And we went full steam ahead in that way.
I know you also collaborate with newer, non-vintage guys. For instance, I know you co-wrote a tune with a ‘newer’ band called The Last Bees for their new EP.
Yes, in that case I was shown a riff, looked through my notebook, which I am forever adding to for a few interesting phrases, and we were off and running.
So, in the end, more mature rockers or newer guys and girls, what makes for a good collaboration?
It’s working with people with an open personality who can check their ego at the door, and pretty much be very giving with their ideas. There are no wrong answers to this, you have to be unafraid to throw out ideas, even if they end up not working. Getting the bad ideas out of the way so you can be forever finding new ones is how this works best.
Switching gears on the present and delving into your past, I was wondering if you could take us through the Survivor years and specifically what it was like taking the tiger by the tail of that big success.
Nice pun, but you are right, it was certainly a tiger by the tail kind of a ride. For us, the rise really began with a fateful phone call from Sylvester Stallone looking to pick a band to write him an anthem (“Eye of the Tiger”) for this new movie (Rocky III).
And at that point Survivor weren’t really all that well known, right?
Not really, no. We had released two records and weren’t really doing all that big business. I really have to credit to the two Scotti brothers for believing in us. Other labels would have dropped us like a hot potato by then. But they really believed in us. And when Stallone met Tony Scotti and said, “I’m looking for a record that kids might like,” Tony played him our second album Premonition and Stallone liked the first song “Poor Man’s Son” and he wanted us to write the song for the movie.
The rest, as they say, is history.
When it’s all happening, you never really have any idea that that kind of a thing will be that successful, historic. I thought the song sounded good when we recorded it. When we listened back to it, we all had goose bumps in the studio. But you can never predict, or in this case, imagine the longevity of a song like that.
In 2019, we are still talking to you about “Eye of the Tiger,” a whole catalog of your hits, that is certainly something to be proud of.
A good song can be rearranged in a million different ways, from rock to reggae. When it comes to “Eye Of The Tiger” especially, I can’t keep it together in my head the many different versions of that song I have heard.
So, to the future, what are your immediate plans for working the new record?
I’m hoping to get out the video for “Without A Bullet Being Fired,” on the heels of “Proof Of Heaven” doing as well as it is. Keeping up interviews, building the brand, playing live, doing all I can do.
Is it safe to say you are safely surfing the choppy waters of a drastically changing music business landscape?
Well, it’s still about making your music and getting your music out to the people. Pretty much I maintain a tunnel vision why am I doing this, getting out in front of an audience and seeing the emotional response to my music gets me up in the morning to go and write the next great song.
