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content credibility with Steve Perry having the final cut. How can you put your name in the credits as director?' He got all self-righteously indignant - he says 'I would never have gotten into a project like that!' And I said 'is this for the benefit of the other people here working? Is this for your camera guy; is this for your sound guy? You're talking to me - did I just fall off a turnip truck?' Because of the control that Steve had, plus prohibiting the members of Journey from ever re-recording any songs that were previously recorded with him.
He and his attorney just drafted this unbelievable thing, I told the guys never to sign it, and they did. Sixteen, seventeen years later, Rochester, New York, (they're like) 'Next year, let's do it again!' That was really the end, and that was really the last show. Now, it's 2001, eighteen years after the fact, and now these guys got the bug to go do this, and so powerful is that bug that they gave away the store. I mean, how they'll ever explain this to their children I can't imagine. But anyway, they gave it away completely, and that left them in a pretty impossible position.
And, so Irving Azoff, god bless him, went to Perry, and talked Perry into letting them re-record and shoot the DVD that my company (Nocturne, which Herbie co-owns with Neal Schon) did in Vegas, as it turns out. The minute that was put in the books, I said 'oh my god, Irving made a deal!' I called Irving, and he says 'yup, yup, I made a deal. And, not only is he allowing that, but we're going to support it - the album and tour - with a VH-1 Behind the Music.' I said, 'He's going to cooperate and participate?' and he said 'yeah.' And I said 'Wow. Now don't ruin my night by telling me what you had to give - it will all come out in the wash. We're all gonna see what you had to give to get him to do that.' And it was that ultimate editorial control. And so, when all of these other guys have signed this agreement, and all you can get out of them is this homogenized, pasteurized pulp - nothing with substance, all candy-coated - that is the worst thing you can get them to say. The most damning and incriminating thing is 'By agreement I am not allowed to speak to those issues, or speak about those matters.' And then, off camera, everybody - Neal Schon and Ross Valory are saying 'You really need to talk to Herbie, he didn't sign such an agreement.'
M: That's what gave me the idea to contact you. Neal had suggested it in a post on the band's website.
H: Of course, they did (talk to me). I said this to this guy - maybe 25 times, 'none of this is going to make it. I'm not going to give you anything that you can put in that VH-1 special.' I said, 'I'm going to tell the truth, and you haven't heard this yet. You know, you're not going to get much.' And, eight hours I was on camera - eight hours! Now, if you could add up all my segments to come to 30 seconds I'd be impressed. It probably was much more than that, but Perry went nuts. And, if you saw the very first promos for VH-1 that came out, it showed Steve Perry saying, 'I never really felt like I was a part of the band.' Then it washed to me, where I'm saying, 'Yeah, that's like the Pope saying he never really felt Catholic.'
Do you know how quick that was taken out? Perry launched like an MX missile when he saw that. He went crazy. That promo was eliminated and that little segment was taken out of VH-1. I mean, even ever so slightly disparaging - and that's not disparaging - that's just saying 'that's like the Pope's not really Catholic!' Here he is, the Joe Montana of this team, and he never really felt like he was a part of the team. I'm just commenting on the absurdity of his comment. And, of course, the VH-1 guys wanted it because it was the only thing that gave the viewer (the idea that) 'well maybe there's going to be some meat and potatoes here. Maybe there's going to be some meat on the bone.' False alarm
M: And there would've been had there been more of your interview.
H: More of mine, Pat Morrow (Journey's former tour manager) was on camera, god knows. Six hours. Not one piece of footage of Pat was used. Pat was a huge, huge bone of contention between Perry and I. Pat went on to become a captain of industry with Nocturne, and is now successfully retired. And a lot of the problems that Steve had with Pat Steve was right about. But, with a guy like Steve Perry, everything is a hang-up to him. This guy is the farthest thing from a hippie you could imagine. Zero love. Ya know, zero love.
M: Wow. There are a lot of fans that are going to react to that.
H: Oh, they are? You think that is the truth? Every fan - and this is what I thought I was going to have with you on the phone - another fan that might've even fallen in love with that band in an objective way. (They) fall in love with the songs, fell in love with the music and the passion of the performances that is undeniable, and just read into that that these guys are bigger, better, deeper people than they might really be.
M: So let me ask you, because, what very little did make it into Behind the Music, is that you were actually the one that insisted that Perry join the band.
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