Even though the prospect of Steve Perry returning to Journey has been ruled out by both Perry himself and Neal Schon, the guitarist can’t stop speculating over what might happen if the pair was to reunite on a musical project.

After Perry announced his comeback album Traces, he said he had many more solo songs he wanted to record, and that Journey’s current singer, Arnel Pineda, was doing a great job. Schon welcomed his former colleague back but asked fans who were speculating on a reunion to “give it a rest.” Those comments didn’t rule out the possibility of Perry and Schon working together on a project outside Journey, who are planning to take a year off once their current tour with Def Leppard is completed next month.

“I’ve always been really clear about how I feel about Steve,” Schon told QFM96 in a new interview. “I’m hoping to meet up for the cup of coffee that he talked about. But I feel we’r in a good place. And after seeing his album cover, which is very trippy … I had to look at it for a couple of days, ‘cause there’s so many hidden messages. … I was like, ‘Wow, this is really deep.’ … I’m just really happy to hear his voice again, to tell you the truth.”

You can listen to the interview below.

Turning to the idea of a collaboration, he said, “I do feel that where I’m at musically, and where he’s at musically, that if we got together, if would be stupendous. I don’t really know what it would sound like, but I have a feeling that it would just be something brand new.”

Despite the bad blood arising from certain situations in Journey before Perry left in 1998, Schon said “we all go through shit. We're grown men now, and it's time, like I said a long time ago, it's time to brush off the shoulders, man, and get the weight off and let's get on with it.”

Traces will be released on Oct. 5. Schon will put out his own new solo album, Universe, in the near future.

 

Steve Perry Through the Years

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