Journey’s Guitarist Tried to Kill ‘Open Arms’ — Then Steve Perry Proved Him Wrong

In 1981, "Open Arms" almost never made it onto a Journey record at all. Before it reached them, Jonathan Cain had already offered the melody to The Babys — and frontman John Waite turned it down as too sentimental. Cain shelved it. Then, after joining Journey, he pulled a portable Wurlitzer out of his car and played the unfinished song for Steve Perry. Perry heard it immediately. Getting the rest of the band to hear it was another matter. Neal Schon reportedly wanted the ballad gone, arguing it had no place in a hard rock band. Drummer Steve Smith has recalled Schon comparing its softness to something out of a children's film. Reports describe the song coming close to being left off Escape entirely. And according to Perry's own account on VH1's Behind the Music, the studio sessions became an ordeal — with Schon taunting him and Cain while they worked. Then the band played it live on the Escape tour, and the crowd made the decision for everyone. This is the story of what it cost Steve Perry to protect a song nobody else believed in — the rejection before Journey, the resistance inside it, the album it almost didn't make, and the backstage moment after two encores that Perry has never quite forgiven. "Open Arms" went to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains Journey's biggest hit. Escape went Diamond. Almost nobody wanted it.