January 21, 2005: Journey Past & Present Reception

Hollywood, CA
The Highlands Night Club

Every year as part of the Journey Past and Present gathering, we have had a lunch reception for our attendees. In 2001, that meant cramming 15 people into a hotel room and ordering a few pizzas and drinks. In 2005, with 150 attendees coming plus the band plus the band’s guests, we needed a bigger venue.

Using a hotel conference room was one consideration, but we didn’t think it really said Hollywood, much less rock and roll! So we looked in to alternative locations and found The Highlands nightclub right out the door from the hotel we were using, and just a block away from where Journey would be getting their star. Perfect!

On Friday, January 21, the JPP committee was the last of our group to arrive at the star ceremony, which meant the optimal viewing spots were long gone. Leslie White, Leslie Forsythe, and I stood at one end of the street with the hopes of being able to see something. I worked my way up to the barricades, but they stayed back a ways. Once the ceremony started, they decided to head back to the club to set things up – they couldn’t see, they couldn’t hear, so they’d just find out how things went later. (OOPS!)

I stuck around long enough to learn that Steve Perry had surprised us all and was at the ceremony and to hear the speeches by Neal, Ross, and Steve. I was so shocked by Steve Perry’s appearance, I kind of wandered away towards the club in a daze. I needed to recompose myself in order to help get everyone in place and prepare for my welcome speech.

I arrived at the Highlands where the Leslies had been setting things up and had gotten the phone calls about what they’d missed. The club looked fabulous. Tables were set up with white tablecloths and candles, the buffet out on the balcony was ready to go, and the finishing touches were nearly in place. I made a mad dash back to my hotel room to grab Arrival out of the CD player so it could be added to the rotation of Journey, Infinity, Departure, and Greatest Hits Live that would serve as the background music for the day. That’s when Darla called me and told me that Ross was trying to get Perry to come to the luncheon. There went my speech right out of my head again! (Alas, it was not to be.)

The fans started showing up about 12:30 and Leslie White and I directed them up to the club. Cheryl arrived to relieve me, and I dashed back upstairs about 12:45 to help make sure things were running smoothly inside the club and that everything was in place for our guests to arrive. The front 8 tables had been reserved for guests of the band, and a few of them had begun to arrive. Amber and Aja Schon were among the first guests to arrive, and the balloons we had on one side of the stage fascinated Aja. Neal’s daughter wants a balloon? I grabbed one out of the bunch – Neal’s daughter gets a balloon!

Rob was coordinating backstage with Caryn – periodically updating the rest of us on how many members of the band had arrived and how many more were expected. At 1:15 it was time to grab all the committee members and go backstage to get the guys. We headed back, only to be stopped by security! One of them went to get Aaron Dilks who said, yeah, we were okay! (Thanks Aaron!) We got to the room and made sure everyone was ready to go. Once we were ready, I led the committee on stage followed by the band.

This was the part I had been praying to get through in one piece. Addressing 250 people would have been fine if not for the 9 guys standing behind me! I breezed through the first part of my speech – welcoming everyone to our gathering. The second part was the one that had me literally shaking from head to toe.

Prior to our event, Leslie White suggested that the welcome speech was the perfect opportunity to explain why the JPP Committee does what we do. A great idea that kept me up that whole night with a million ideas spinning in my head. I knew I had to keep it short and I wanted to make sure it covered not just my thoughts, not just the committee’s thoughts, but was representative of what all Journey fans feel. A tall order for a 2-minute speech! What I finally came up with was this:

Why do we do this? Well, like any other fan, I could probably talk for hours on that subject – don’t any of you deny it, I’ve talked with many of you and the Journey conversations last a long time! But I found a great quote from Ross while doing research for our program. The quote was in the New York Times and Ross said, “We’re the music a lot of people graduated to, wound up in the back seat of a convertible to, got married to.” Every fan in this room has some specific memory for which a Journey song is the sound track. Each member of Journey has contributed to making music that has touched our lives in some profound way. This is just the best way we know how to say thank you. So, thanks guys – your talents have made a difference in our lives.

I’m not entirely sure that’s exactly how it came out since by the end I was shaking so hard I thought my legs would give out from underneath me, but I know I covered the key points. It’s not every day you get to tell someone thank you for playing an important role in your life!

After my welcome, Leslie White took over the microphone and emceed the presentation of the star awards that we had purchased with donations from our attendees. One of our raffle prizes from the night before was the opportunity to be the prize presenter, and Jenn Bortz, who had thought that it was just to present one prize to one member, was our winner. (Is it our fault that Neal’s trophy happened to be on top and thus the one we used for the display?) Jenn was pretty nervous the night before, but she came through with flying colors.

After all the prizes were presented, each band member took a turn to address the crowd. I wish I could remember what everyone said, but with all that was going on that day, it’s slipped my mind. I do remember Steve Smith commenting about how he’d been out of the rock and roll scene for a long time and being blown away by all the cheers and the crowd.

We finally let the guys off the stage and they all grabbed something to eat before they got mobbed by the fans for pictures and autographs. As I was circulating the room, it was amusing to see lines of people in various parts of the room waiting to talk to one band member or another. I managed to chat with each of them briefly, but my longest conversation was with George Tickner and it was so nice to hear his take on things.

The guys all left about 2:45 and the fans mixed and mingled amongst themselves for another 45 minutes before heading off to get ready for the concert. As always, time flies by much to fast and I didn’t get to visit with as many of our attendees as I would have liked, but it was a wonderful afternoon and heading in to a wonderful night. As things were winding down, “We Will Meet Again” came on the sound system, so I found the staff member in charge of the PA and had him turn it up for the last song of the afternoon.

*August 15, 2014 Post-script: One highlight I realize I left out of this tale is my strongest and favorite memory of the afternoon. We had made a program for our attendees as a bit of memorabilia and in putting it together we had asked a variety of fans for artwork or photos. One of the folks who had sent photos couldn't attend the event, so I promised to send her a copy of the program autographed by the band members who showed up at the luncheon. I spent much of my time going from band member to band member to make sure I got everyone to sign the program. When I got to Jon we chatted a bit when he said to me, in a voice as stunned as any of the fans, "Wasn't it great that Steve [Perry] showed up?" Naturally I agreed, but I'll never forget the tone of his voice or the look of amazement on his face when he said that. We chatted on that for a short bit and the genuine appreciation for what had transpired, both that day and in years past, was quite clear. It made me feel great that for that one moment on that one day all of the tumult of the years was lifted and I was so proud to be part of it.