Two years since making his return to music after nearly a quarter-century on hiatus, Steve Perry says his creative spark is burning as brightly as it ever has.
This fall, Perry followed up his long-awaited third solo album, 2018's Traces, with his Alternative Versions & Sketches EP, containing never-before-heard renditions of eight tracks from the prior full-length.
But the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and former Journey frontman is continuing to move forward, working on new material for hours each day. Years after making peace with the possibility that he might never sing or write a song ever again, Perry wonders if he'll be able to fully realize each of his new ideas.
"I was down there this morning and I was down there yesterday morning," he tells Ultimate Classic Rock of his home studio.
Perry goes to work daily, around 9 or 10 a.m. He tells UCR that he'll pull up a session and begin working on it, making edits or rearranging it, "And then, the next thing I know, it's 4:30 or 5 o'clock and I've got to stop — because I just become overly excited about the potential of what I'm trying to say."
The idea that he would have to manage his own eagerness to make music is a refreshing change for a man who once felt entirely drained after 20 years of hitmaking and hard touring.
"I have more music to finish that I probably have time to do so," he says. "I'm excited about it and I feel an urgency to get this next phase of what's showing up now, [which] I did not know was going to show up. But it's showing up now. It's showing up because of where we are in the world."
The singer wouldn't elaborate on his upcoming project. But like everything with Perry, he'll tell us as soon as he's ready.
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