Neil Schon

Beyond the Thunder is the closest I’ve recorded to an acoustic thing.

In a lot of aspects it’s cooler that we don’t have a lot of really overly famous people in the band.

I’ve got the recording process down, and I can knock it out very quickly.

The best part was watching Journey grow into this monster. The band was huge, playing these enormous gigs.

I am not a pop musician; I don’t want to play bubble-gummy pop stuff.

During the 1970s and 1980s Gibson did use my likeness, but we never signed anything. This new Signature model is the first time we struck a formal written deal for a guitar with my name on it.

You learn at a certain point that you have to focus on the business side of music. After getting ripped off a couple of times, you figure out that you need to get a grip on it.

We are taking close to $10 a CD the way we are doing it, and I think that is a fair amount to split up between five guys. Each of us makes like two bucks a record.

When I go out with Journey, it is a complete cakewalk. I can afford my own bus.

The heavy guitars are the ones that sound good. They are not that comfortable, but they do sound great.

I’m just getting older and better.

I’ve never done a solo tour. I feel like getting out there and doing that.

I haven’t stopped playing. If you play all the time, then your chops are up and you tend to grow.

I’m not a guy to go in the studio and spend months, let alone years, like some people do. I cannot even be in the studio for a month, it will drive me nuts.

Nobody’s perfect. Everyone slides here and there, and they have their ups and downs. When they are down, that is not the time to step all over them.

I met the Santana band when I was 14. By the time I was 15, I was a member of the band.

We are doing what Prince did. Everyone that comes to a show billed as An Evening with Journey will get our new CD. We figured that is our best store because they are our biggest fans.

I never got into sports at all until I was in my early 20s, after my music career got going.

World Play is very ’70s arena rock, very raw and in your face, and that’s what we wanted. We recorded it in a very off-the-cuff manner and didn’t really plan out how we were going to play. My solos are first takes.

I keep on calling them records because they will always be records to me.

There has been the biggest black cloud following me around. People believe it’s all my fault that Steve is not here. He has always had an open door, and he doesn’t choose to do this any more.

What I have is a bunch of really hungry, amazingly talented guys that can kick anybody’s rear end.

The world now knows that Steve Perry is welcome to come and sing with us anytime he wants.