As a staple of competitive singing programs and every karaoke night ever held, Journey would seem to be a natural fit for a Bohemian Rhapsody-style stage musical or biopic.
They’ve reportedly drawn interest from the creator of TV’s CSI franchise, too. There’s just one problem.
“We’ve been down that road,” Jonathan Cain reveals to Billboard. “I worked with Anthony Zuiker. He’s a huge Journey fan and he had these songs in mind to create a play – and [Steve] Perry shot it down. He didn’t want to know about it.”
READ MORE: Ranking All 52 Journey Songs From the ’80s
Perry holds a decisive vote, despite having left Journey more than 25 years ago, because has retained all rights to his songs. Both Cain and Neal Schon sold their ownership interests to Hipgnosis in June 2019 and February 2020, respectively. “You can’t use his songs without his permission, obviously,” Cain confirms.
Journey is in the midst of a stadium tour with Def Leppard and Steve Miller. Cain has mentioned work on a new stand-alone single, but there are no concrete plans to record a follow-up to 2022’s Freedom.
“I continue to be creative; we all do,” Schon tells Billboard. “We recorded [Freedom and] we recorded way more than what ended up on the album, a lot of great stuff that wasn’t used – so there is some stuff like that. But the business now is really about live performances and about whatever you can do with merchandise.”
Perhaps a Cirque du Soleil-Style Project?
In the meantime, Cain said CSI‘s Zuiker remains interested. He “came back to me again,” Cain added. “He had this Journey-Cirque du Soleil idea, and we were supposed to get something else with Netflix [with] the same producers who did the Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary.”
They’ll still need to get the go-ahead from Journey’s long-departed frontman. “Right now,” Cain says, “I think that’s in the hands of Steve Perry to say yea or nay.”
Legends Who Never Had a No. 1 Single
It’s all the more surprising when you consider the success so many of them had by any other measure.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
See Neal Schon Among Rock’s Forgotten Supergroups