Oh, Perry

Just found out via social media that former Journey lead singer Steve Perry celebrated his 74th birthday yesterday. Considering he and his band were responsible for some of my all-time favorite music, I gotta hope the man had a happy day.

I actually once shared an elevator with Perry, in an office building in Hollywood where I was working. It was him, two of his friends, me, and I think one or two other people. There are four things I remember about the experience. 1) Perry was sporting that dark perma-tan you see on people who spend a lot of time outdoors. 2) He was short, I don't think he was much taller than me. 3) He managed to work a comment about "one of the greatest voices in rock and roll" (he may have said the greatest) into the conversation. I'd recognized him immediately but stayed cool, so maybe he just wanted to make sure we'd all figured it out.

 

The funny thing about the last thing I recall is that it's something that didn't come from Perry, but from one of his friends. This guy was telling a story about a friend of his, who had taken a woman out on a second date to a very expensive restaurant. They had dinner, and only after they'd finished eating did the woman state that she had already decided they weren't working out. We got a chuckle, because who does that? We all agreed that you tell him that before he coughs up big bucks to feed you. So not cool.

Anyway, that's my Steve Perry story.