Journey fans got the comeback they were clamoring for in 1996 with the release of Trial by Fire, the band’s first studio album in 10 years.
The classic early-1980s lineup was back, with lead singer Steve Perry, guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain joining bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith, who were fired during the recording of 1986’s Raised on Radio.
“The real challenge was, I don’t think any of us were used to rehearsing as much as we did,” Schon said in Nick DeRiso’s book “Journey: Worlds Apart” as quoted by DeRiso for Ultimate Classic Rock. “But it turned out to be a good thing. We rehearsed for a good six weeks. That’s a long time. We basically rehearsed everything like we were going to play a brand-new record live, with no overdubs.”
Released Oct. 22, 1996, Trial by Fire debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and achieved platinum status. The first single, “When You Love a Woman,” hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned Journey its first Grammy nomination.
“You start to recognize that some of the things you didn’t even know you had as a group in the music are still there and you’ve been looking for them for a long time,” Perry told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “All you had to do was put your guns down and get back together again.”
Journey planned to take the reunion on the road, and Schon predicted the band would fill stadiums and arenas as it had during its 1980s heyday.
“Once we get out here and the fire gets rolling, I think it’ll just snowball,” he told the newspaper.
That never happened.
Perry injured his hip while hiking in Hawaii and was diagnosed with a degenerative bone disease. While Perry contemplated whether he wanted to have surgery, Journey was unable to further promote or tour behind Trial by Fire. Perry did agree to film a video for “When You Love a Woman” but the reunion never reached the stage.
Schon and Cain decided to move on without Perry and replaced him with Steve Augeri in 1998. Augeri left Journey in 2006 after suffering vocal problems.
After a brief stint with Jeff Scott Soto, Journey hired Arnel Pineda in 2007.
Perry withdrew from the spotlight but joined his former bandmates in 2017 when Journey was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He didn’t perform with them.
He released his first solo album in 24 years, Traces, in 2018.
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