Steve Perry ( former Journey) spoke to Rolling Stone about his invitation to join Eddie Van Halen for a jam session back in 1985, after David Lee Roth departure.
Here’s what Steve said:
“Man, at some level within me I felt so honored because I was in awe of Eddie‘s natural talent. He was just born with it. I wanted so badly to do that. We talked about how cool that could be musically. This was before Sammy [Hagar].
“The next day, and in the weeks to come, I thought, ‘I don’t know that I should do that. If it goes creatively to what I know it can go to…’ Whatever I could bring to that, I know it would be something I’d really love doing.”
He added more:
”My only problem I had with it was the thought, ‘I don’t know that I could be the guy to go out and represent the David Lee Roth years with my voice. I don’t know if I want to be that guy.’ I think representing their legacy up to that point would have been something vocally that I don’t think I was really suited to doing. It’s a different kind of singing. David had something vocally that I would say was in kinship with Louis Prima. Later on, he did ‘Just A G*golo’ and sounded more like Louis Prima. He was a real character.”