# 1948   Journey- I'LL BE ALRIGHT WITHOUT YOU
                                                                                        

                                           Raised on Radio, Columbia Records, 1986                                
            BILLBOARD CHART ACHIEVEMENTS:
            
  Hot 100 singles:   # 14
Adult Contemporary:   # 7
Mainstream Rock:   # 26

top ten hit at MATT RADIO
     
 
Journey's ninth studio album found the group reduced to a trio of guitarist Neal Schon, singer Steve Perry, and keyboard player Jonathan Cain.  Even without their regular rhythm section, the group was able to re-create the accessible pop/rock sound perfected on earlier albums such as Escape and Frontiers.  Schon's guitar still cut through the fat keyboard chords, and Perry's fluid tenor still gave the songs an airy, melodic appeal.  All of that was good for sales of two million copies and five chart singles, four of which made the Top 40 and one of which, "Be Good to Yourself," reached the Top Ten.  That didn't match the seven-million-selling number one Escape, but it confirmed that Journey's music had a large audience right to the (temporary) end of its career.

 source:  William Ruhlmann, allmusic.com  
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         FROM A DECEMBER 1986 INTERVIEW WITH STEVE PERRY
                                         IN THE "JOURNEY FORCE" FAN CLUB NEWSLETTER

I've been in this band a long, long time.  I'm very grateful for the years that we have been together and the things we've accomplished together as a group.  It's a very proud thing to be involved with.  I did a solo album, and it was also a very proud thing to be involved with.  Now, the new Raised On Radio album and tour is one of the proudest things I've been involved in.  Because I finished that album as my mother was passing away, I really put my life into it.  Where everything goes from here is just like Journey is... the word Journey is truly something that you just have to let run for awhile, to see where it goes.  It's worked so far, so don't ask where it's going, because it's going to be okay.  The very nature of the band's name implies change and movement, and you must go with that.  So far, it has proved itself, shown that it's okay to let it run its course and go with it.  That's what the next step is. 

Tonight (Dec 4th) was the eve of the anniversary of my mother's passing away.  I was doing my best to be jovial and entertaining, and I was trying to have a good time like I usually do.  I didn't want to let this subliminal emotion come through - the reality that this was the eve of the death of my mother.  I did the best I could to deal with it, but no one knew.  Internally, I knew.  And I knew that tomorrow was going to be the hardest day of my life. So I was feeling down at the beginning of the concert.  I got out there and things were okay.  I was having a good time because the people were very energetic and nice, but I still was down at times, thinking that everything was being questioned in my life.  I am no different than anyone else, and life takes no prisoners.  I don't care if you are a success or a failure.  It has nothing to do with how strong you are... life is life. Someone wrote that "life is something that happens to you while you're busy making plans."  I believe that.

This is kind of what happened tonight at the show:  I was onstage and I was losing it, I was starting to lose face and to worry because I'm just a normal human being and I have emotions, too.  I couldn't walk onstage and have people think I was believable if I wasn't normal.   That normalcy was being blocked.

And then I saw this little girl.  She must have been around ten, and she was up front with her mother.  She had these thick "Coke bottle" glasses, and there she was with this big smile on her face, and she was waving her arms back and forth, though she could barely move because she was crushed among the other people.  She was the cutest thing I ever saw, and she was smiling at me, and I looked at her and thought, "you're the queen of the entire evening."  I kept looking at her and she got me through the night.  She was just so precious.  This wasn't the first time this had happened.  There was another girl, about four shows ago, and she was about the same age, but she was sitting on her father's shoulders.  And she was so damn cute.  When kids are at that age, up to around twelve years old, they are such beautiful, free souls, waiting for guidance, open for all; they are so special.

source:  steveperryonline.net