When it comes to modern day arena rock, the smooth, sultry voice of Steve Perry wrote the book. The raven haired former lead singer of Journey manned their melodically rocking ship for nine monster albums throughout the '80s and early '90s -- with his elusive mix of sex appeal and that incomparable voice -- before leaving the band permanently and pursuing a solo career.

Journey would continue on with many different replacement singers, but none would ever come close to creating the true magic that Perry’s chops brought to the band. Whether through his dynamic range, songwriting contributions or charming stage presence, he was simply irreplaceable.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a warm-blooded American who hasn’t looked in their rear-view mirror while belting out the opening lyrics to the Journey ballad ‘Faithfully' - "Highway run into the midnight sun / Wheels go round and round/ You're on my mind" - It’s become a part of our culture like apple pie and baseball.

Oh and speaking of baseball, even though Perry has kept a pretty low profile over the last few years, he did come out of hiding to lead 40,000+ San Francisco Giants fans in a sing-a-long rendition of ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ to power his beloved team through Game 5 of the 2010 National League Championship series. The Giants would go on to win the World Series that year.

So while it doesn’t look like Perry will be returning to Journey any time soon, if you can get him into your ball park, you might just have a chance to sing with him and take home the pennant.

While Perry has consistently declined invites to perform with Journey, he did say in a 2010 interview that he had been writing again, and had about 50 new songs in the works, calling them a mix of familiar and contemporary sounds. He wouldn’t commit to a timeline or any details on possible recordings but did say that he could feel a solo project in his future, giving fans hope. So, like he crooned it best, ‘Don’t Stop Believin!'

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