Jim Spellman/WireImage for Rock and Roll Hall of FameNext week will mark the arrival of Jonathan Cain‘s autobiography, Don’t Stop Believin’. The Journey keyboardist tells Rolling Stone he was encouraged to write his life story by band mate Ross Vallory, after umpteen road trips aboard the band’s tour bus.
“Often I’d just start reminiscing about my life,” Cain says. “I’d talk about growing up…going to Dick Clark shows and listening to Wolfman Jack. I think it was Ross that said to me, ‘You should write a book.'”
The result contains some surprising revelations. For instance, it wasn’t Steve Perry or any other Journey member who came up with the phrase “Don’t Stop Believin'” — it was Cain’s dad, who said it to him in the late ’70s, during a phone call in which Jonathan was frustrated about his career prospects. Cain recorded his father’s words in a notebook and shared them with the band after he joined Journey — and the rest is history.
Cain also talks in-depth about how Steve Perry left the band, and why he hasn’t come back since. Cain says Perry asked the band not to tour without him behind their 1996 album, Trial by Fire. “Call the band something else,” Cain recalls Perry saying. “Don’t fracture the stone. I don’t think I can come back if you break it.”
Cain also had doubts when Neil Schon recruited Arnel Pineda to sing lead, wondering “what our fans in places like Raleigh, North Carolina, and regions in the middle of Texas might think. I feared the twisted mentality that went, ‘That’s no Steve Perry — he’s Asian.'”
Don’t Stop Believin’ also addresses the issue that’s brought drama to Journey of late: his political differences with Neal Schon and the resulting tension.
Don’t Stop Believin’ hits stores and digital outlets on Tuesday, May 1.
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