After 20 years of being retired from singing, Steve Perry, former lead vocalist of the rock band Journey, performed with alternative-rock band Eels for a surprise encore. He came out with a band, singing the Eels’ song “It’s A Motherf—er.”
After performing “It’s A Motherf—er,” Steve explained to the crowd, “I love that song. Tonight was the first time I ever sang it.” Well Steve, you killed it!
Then he wondered aloud why the Eels haven’t done any of his songs.
Answer: They were waiting for him.
With that, Perry and the band launched into two Journey classics, “Open Arms” followed by “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” — and if Perry’s voice has suffered at all over the years, it’s certainly not apparent in the video.
Why St. Paul? “You’d have to ask (Perry),” Everett says. “Even then I thought, ‘It isn’t gonna happen, but it’d be fun if it did.’ It wasn’t until the moment he walked on stage and started singing that I finally accepted it was going to happen. And it was such a beautiful moment to see my friend out there, in his element, doing what he’s made to be doing. He had a great time, and you have to respect that he did it for all the right reasons. He could’ve mounted a huge, zillion-dollar comeback tour, which maybe he’ll do at some point and have every right to do. But he came because he wanted to have fun and he wanted to sing those songs again, ’cause he’s so good at it.”
“I don’t try to press Steve on anything,” he says. “Our relationship is Steve does what Steve does. I would love to do more and I hope he will, but that’s all up to him. This may be enough for him, and if this is the only time it ever happens, I’m just glad it happened.
“And in the meantime, I’m going to not stop believing.”
Enjoy the performance below, Journey/Steve Perry fans … because who knows when (or even if) we’ll see something like this again.
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