The SECRETS is bittersweet for me. Journey is my all-time favorite band. I was hoping for one last song together between Steve and the boys. What a heart breaker. If there ever was a time for it to happen, it was the HOF. Now I know that it will never, ever happen. Kinda sad
I agree that it would be lovely to see him belt out those songs that so many of us (myself included) love. I saw them on their Raised on Radio tour back in 1986 I think, and it remains one of the best shows I've ever seen.
I suspect if Steve Perry could, like another kind of musician, pick up a brand new or newly-tuned and oiled instrument and sing with THAT, he might be more inclined to sing a few songs or even reunite with the band. But his vocal instrument is 68 years old and he may not want to perform if he cannot do it the way he feels it should be done. Anymore so than a musician would be willing to go out and perform with a guitar that hasn't been properly tuned or is simply broken. And what Steve Perry did with his voice in his prime was a miracle -- imagining a 68-year-old voice attempting those same songs might be far more sad than what actually happened with him not performing. He may be wise enough to realize that.
But boy, what a voice that guy had. Thankfully, we can always cue it up, just as it was.
That said, and this is quite a divergent move from Journey and not at all Rock and Roll, but last year Angela Lansbury performed a song from Beauty and the Beast for an Alan Menken retrospective. Her vocal instrument isn't what it used to be - she's 92-years-old after all, there's no getting around it - and yet she is a talented enough to adapt her approach and what her current voice can do to the song and find the an approach that is not at all like it might have once been yet still manages to convey it beautifully. She's that good an actress and singer, I think, and it allows her to make those kinds of choices. I don't know that the songs of Journey and Steve Perry's soaring vocals on them would allow for such adaptation (but I'd be willing to listen if they gave it a try!)