Steve Perry

Smooth, bold, and powerful but pretty—the voice of Journey frontman Steve Perry is one of arena rock's signature sounds. A struggling singer from California’s Central Valley who had all but given up on music before taking a call in 1977 from Journey manager Walter Herbert, Perry helped redirect the band’s jazz-influenced progressive rock toward the mainstream. Journey's new sound—a blend of hard-rock muscle and pop-ballad sensitivity—made them one of the 1980s’ hugest successes and a touchpoint for bands from Bon Jovi to Foo Fighters. Just revisit Perry’s first appearance with the band, “Lights,” which imagined ’60s soul on a blockbuster scale, or the era-defining “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which took the uplift of Bruce Springsteen to stratospheric heights. Speaking to an interviewer in 2008, Perry described the feeling of being at a club and seeing a new generation sing along to “Don’t Stop Believin’” on the stereo: “There’s something reverent about that to me,” he said. “And I only wish to protect it, because it means something to them like it means something to me.”