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So, all that jumping from the Gregg Rolie thing. He wanted to bail, and he picked Jon Cain. I went through all the personal (things). I said 'Wow, this is big shoes to fill, will this guy be able to do it?' I had met with Jon Cain several times. He didn't want to bail on John Waite. Waite had just broken his leg, (and) had decided the Babys had been a long-term situation that hadn't panned out. I said, 'Jon, if you don't feel comfortable, then say no. But if you do, and you're gonna go forward and you're gonna tell John Waite that you want to leave him and join Journey, fine. You'll be very close to a full member - very very close. We'll just give a little override back to Gregg on Escape and Frontiers, and then you're a full member.' He was a full member in terms of live appearances and everything else from the get, and we really did want to exploit his songwriting.
He had finally agreed, and we go through all of the machinations. (I've) got the band at their rehearsal facility in east Oakland, and I'm picking up Jon at the Oakland airport. I had my 928 Porsche at the time, my 1980 928, and I popped the hatch in the back, and I put his keyboard in. The doors aren't even closed - I haven't closed my driver door, he hasn't closed the passenger door - he hands me a tape, and says 'this is a tape of my wife, Tané. Now, here's the deal - you manage her, you get her a label deal, you make her career happen, or take my keyboard out of the back, I'm out, I'm going right back to LA, no Journey.'
M: Oh man.
H: I go, 'Hey we had an agreement, and you had committed to me. And you're touching upon the single biggest problem I have with all people who pick up an instrument and decide that they're entertainers and performers and players. It's at the expense of any sense of commitment. And you were committed on other terms and conditions, and you want to change the deal right now. And that is jive.' And he said, 'Well, than call me jive. Do I get out of the car, or do I stay in?' And, so I said, 'Well, I will get her a label deal. I'm sure it won't be because she deserves it.' And he said, 'Let's listen to the tape.' and I said, 'No, let's not. Just shut the door.' And so, I gotta tell you, in no uncertain terms, I knew what Jon Cain was like day one. Day fucking one.
Anyway, Jon Cain's come-uppance came very quick. We go, we write that Escape record. We record the thing (and) it's magnificent. I sequence it, entitle it, and package it, as I always would. We're ready to hit a home run. We had this big party at Fantasy records in Berkeley, with all the press, media and radio there to hear this new masterpiece. Something goes wrong, and Perry's in there with Jon Cain, and somebody suggests 'Wow, this is so great, Jon Cain sure did bring a lot as a songwriter!' And he did! You said it yourself. You know, I agree. Whether I like these people as individuals doesn't have anything to do with my total respect for Perry's talent, for Jon's talent, for all of their talents. But, boy - Perry bristled so much at the notion that Jon Cain had contributed much of anything to that, that he just proceeded to dismiss and diminish Jon Cain's contributions and involvement to the point where Jon Cain had to leave the room and was out in the parking lot, I mean bawling like a fucking baby. Bawling like a baby. So I went out in the parking lot, and I said, 'Now you see what happens when you run into even a bigger asshole than yourself? This is what it feels like. Now if you think that you can go tit for tat with that prick, and be as much more a bigger prick than he is, I got news for you. You have met your fucking match. You know why? Cause everybody sees you coming, Jon Cain. You advertise what a prick you're going to be. Perry - he's got the bulk of the world fooled. And he had you fooled until tonight.' That was it. That was the beginning of the realization for Jon Cain. I betcha right then and there he said 'I wonder a little bit less why Gregg Rolie walked away from such and incredible enterprise, at such an incredible point in their history.' It was just a no-brainer. Stadium act. How do you walk away? I'll tell you how you walk away. If you were drowning in the ocean, and Steve Perry came along in his luxury liner, he would offer you a life raft in such a manner that you would decline it. I'm not just talking about you; I'm talking about anybody. The terms and conditions would be such that you would pass.
M: After Frontiers, there was a hiatus for the band. What would you say were the reasons for the break at that time?
H: What happened after Frontiers was that - nobody planned the hiatus, everybody disappeared. I kept phoning Ross. Now you have to understand - Ross Valory I brought into this band, and let me tell you a story. In 1980, when Gregg Rolie announced that he was gonna retire, and we were on the day of our last show ever with Gregg Rolie at the Sun Plaza in Tokyo. A video of that performance would knock your dick dead in the dirt - cause you never saw the band play at their peak - with Gregg Rolie. (He) was such a strong vocalist, he was an organist more than a pianist, and a singer more than - I mean, Jon Cain has struggled to sing as well as he sings today. Today he sings better than he has ever sung, and it's barely, barely adequate. It sounds good because there's a computer singing along with him. It's not natural. They're playing to a click-track at all times in the Journey performances now. But this was back in the day, before any of that happy horseshit.
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