NEAL SCHON Pays Homage to PRINCE with “Purple Rain” Tribute
NEAL SCHON, JOURNEY Founder, has revealed a first taste of his upcoming, solo LP, Universe, with a Birthday homage to Prince, an inspirational tribute to “Purple Rain.”
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“Prince, pancakes and Journey guitar riffs at 4 am…. late eighties and I am sitting with Prince on the floor in his apartment at Paisley Park. We’ve listened to Joni Mitchell, Peter Gabriel and I notice a worn Journey Escape record in his collection. Surprised I turned to him and said “Never took you for a Journey fan”. He gave me that doe eyed look that always made me uncomfortable and said: “Neal Schon is one of my favorite guitarists on the planet, he is a genius.”
I thought it only fitting that Neal would return the respect by playing a fiery, inspired version of “Purple Rain”. Having worked for Prince for the last few years of his life, Neal’s beautiful interpretation makes the loss of the colossal talent of “P” a little less sad. They are each prodigy’s that have woven themselves into the fabric of our lives and our lives are richer as a result.”
| ▪ | Rick Barron |
Neal Schon founded Journey in 1972 and has been the only consistent member, having participated in every album and tour to date. Schon is a Grammy-nominated guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who is not only the founding member of Journey, but was a member of Santana and has performed with a variety of other acts including Bad English, Jan Hammer, HSAS and has released 10 solo albums including his latest Votex. His guitar style has been described as soulful and melodic, admired by such fellow legends as Eric Clapton and Prince, who reportedly asked for Journey’s blessing to release “Purple Rain”, which echoed a similar sound to Journey’s “Faithfully”.
Journey’s worldwide sales have reached over 100 million records, making them one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time, with a wide selection of chart-topping hits like “Don’t Stop Believin'”, “Open Arms”, “Lights”, “Faithfully”, and “When You Love a Woman”, among others.