Journey’s Neal Schon brushes aside talk of Steve Perry reunion: ‘We’re moving forward into the future’

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Discussion of a Steve Perry reunion with Journey has been all the rage again, what with Perry making a long-awaited concert appearance and the band’s current frontman seemingly offering to step aside.

Neal Schon, Journey’s stalwart leader, is batting such talk aside: “People who are in past will forever stay in the past,” the guitarist says, firmly. “We’re moving forward into the future.”

Perry, a member of the group from 1978-98, helped Journey to its 1980s-era commercial peak. But he’s been largely out of the limelight since suddenly retiring just after a long-awaited return in the late 1990s.

More recently, he signed a new music publishing deal, starting talking about songwriting and even joined the Eels on stage to sing old Journey favorites like “Open Arms.” Meanwhile, Arnel Pineda — with the band since 2007 — offered a stunning tweet this week saying that Perry should “take over his righteous place” as Journey’s lead vocalist.

His boss, however, is holding steady. Schon’s new comments echo something he told the Metro West Daily News earlier this month: “People that are into the past, will forever stay in the past. It’s not a healthy thing for me or for anyone else that is here right now. I mean, if you don’t like us for whom we are right now then just don’t bother, you know? Go and find your new love.”

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