Journey’s Cain never stops believin’
If you’ve been Journey’s keyboardist for the past three decades, Fenway Park is your idea of a cozy little place to play.
“If feels to me like the baseball parks are getting more intimate,” said Jonathan Cain, ahead of the band’s show at Fenway tomorrow. “It’s one of those settings where rock ’n’ roll works — after all, it worked for the Beatles.”
With one exception, Journey is still the same band who found the mega-success in the ’80s. Frontman Arnel Pineda, a singer the band found on YouTube, is a vocal dead ringer for the departed Steve Perry. Guitarist Neal Schon and bassist Ross Valory have been there from the beginning, and ace fusion drummer Steve Smith, a Massachusetts native and Berklee graduate, rejoined last year. This week’s show, a triple bill with Def Leppard and Cheap Trick, promises to be a flashback to the hitmaking days.
“You know all the songs, and you can sing along to all this stuff. And we’re carrying $10 million worth of video and audio gear. People are going to be surprised at how much fun they’re going to have.”
Cain recently published an autobiography, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” that reveals a few interesting tidbits. For one thing, he recalls getting a call from Prince in 1983: The star had just written a new song called “Purple Rain” and was worried that its chords were too similar to “Faithfully,” a ballad Cain wrote for Journey.
“Prince had a reputation for being difficult, but it shows his heart that he contacted me directly instead of going through management. I was overwhelmed by that, and to be honest, I didn’t see that much resemblance in the two songs. Maybe a little in the background vocals. I told him, ‘You are going to have a major hit with this, and rock on.’ ”
Cain’s book ends as an unusual love story, on a plane flight where he met his future wife, Paula White. She didn’t realize he was a rock star, and he didn’t know she was the personal minister to Donald Trump.
“I was wearing a fairly conservative outfit, and I only found out she was a televangelist when I looked her up online. On the plane, I just knew she was a pastor, and what I wanted to talk about at 30,000 feet was how I could have a relationship with God again. So I wound up getting God and the girl.”
The Trump connection, however, hasn’t always played well with Cain’s band mates — notably Schon, who unleashed on Twitter after Cain took some of the band to the White House, even hinting that they might break up over it.
For his part, Cain swears he’s not political: “I’m a music guy, I stand on the sidelines and let my wife do her work of bringing the Kingdom into the White House.”
As for his relationship with Schon, he said, “We’ve buried the hatchet and hit reset. I’ll admit that I was holding my breath this year when I walked into rehearsal. But we’re been totally cool with each other.” Journey, with Def Leppard and Cheap Trick, at Fenway Park, tomorrow. Tickets: $110-$395; ticketmaster.com.