So now you're a DJ?!! What tha...?!

Stephen, Stephen, Stephen...

What in the WORLD are you doing??  So now you think you're a DJ??!  (Rolling my eyeballs).   Okay, okay, I cannot deny you...I mean, I love you man!!  So I say, if that's what you have always wanted to try, then HALELUYAH, go for it, and give it your best shot.  I will do my best to try and listen on Sunday, but at the moment I have no clue what time to tune in.  I hope to hear from Lora about that before then, though.

I'm sure you've heard the "he's got a face for radio" joke.......but YOUR face does NOT belong behind a microphone...oh, wait...HA!!  I mean, behind a....radio....yeah....don'tcha be hidin' your sexy self behind a radio...how do you manage to cram in the DJ stuff when you're supposed to be finishing that NEW ALBUM of yours, hmmmm???  Do tell.  (Lifting an eyebrow at you).

Are you done playin' around now?? Are ya??  (Hell, I hope that you're never too old to play around)!!!  But seriously...sitting in a radio station and playing DJ for a day is cool if you get the chance to do it, that's true...and I'm looking forward to hearing it....but come on my love, you can reach in deeper and get back to the real Steve Perry---the one we all know and love---and SING some NEW SONGS that lie in your soul. They are all in there, we all know it, you know it, everybody knows it....you cannot deny that's the truth. Those songs NEED to come out, to be sung by you, they are bustin' to get out there, to dazzle the world as you always have....

Now, I'm gonna totally diss on Madonna here, (sorry, I've never been a fan of hers)....I mean, DID YOU SEE HER PERFORM during the Super Bowl?!   I gotta tell ya, the whole thing seemed rather sad to me, actually.  Some people are sayin' she's amazing and gorgeous and can do no wrong....but I say, it seems like she was saying directly to Lady Gaga, "Honey, I'm more YOU than you'll ever be anything like ME."  But why would she even give a shit??  She's ALWAYS been gimmick, hype, and overkill.  She's always been more fluff than substance.  Lady Gaga is just a mirror image.  A regurgitation. I mean, come on, she's WAYYYYYY too beyond doing any lame-ass cheerleader shit, isn't she???  Waving pom-pom's around like she's 16?? Really?? REALLY??---and the lip synching was ATROCIOUS...I don't know if performers are required to do that during the half time show or what, but she is NOT very good at it.  My point is:  SHE TRIED TOO HARD, but she didn't HAVE TO.

Now, I liked Cee Lo....he was cool....(even though his song "Fuck You" kinda makes me cringe), and the marching band segment was cool....I've always loved marching bands.  Even the overhead projection of stuff onto the field around the dancers was cool.  But, Madonna went WAYYYY too over the top, trying way TOO hard, and it seemed SAD to me.  She really doesn't HAVE to try THAT HARD to be popular....somebody SOMEWHERE likes her MUCH more than I like her, and they pay her bazillions of dollars for some ungodly reason....so why the hell did she go so overboard??

Sure, you might answer that our society today is conditioned to expect that kind of stupid fluff.  And you would be right.  But, those of us who prefer SUBSTANCE over FLUFF---and there are STILL a few of us left ya know----actually wished that somebody would stand up there and sing MISTY BLUE, like Tony Bennett, or Josh Groban, or (WAIT FOR IT), how about Mr. Stephen Ray Perry even.  Yeah, YOU.  Now THAT I would die to see, just once in my life---GOOD GOD MAN, I would be thrilled to the bone to hear that from you.  I love that song.  Somebody who has SUBSTANCE would be really great to add some class to that Super Bowl-beer-athon of sports fanatic idiots everywhere.

Stephen, you do NOT have to try too hard to be loved by millions of fans in this world.

Let me repeat that, just for dramatic effect....

You do NOT have to try too hard to be loved by millions of fans in this world.

You really don't. You do NOT have to go overboard, you do NOT have to administer overkill and hype and gimmicks for people to enjoy your true and pure talent within.  In a world full of fluff and garbage music everywhere, you need to know that you and your voice are REFRESHING, simply BECAUSE you are REAL, and you are SO MUCH BETTER when you're understated.  In fact, most EVERYTHING is better when it's understated.

Should I SHOUT THAT AT YA?!! (so much for ME being understated).  But I don't count.

Just stand there, close those gorgeous eyes of yours, feel the groove, and let those songs come out.  Don't wave cheerleader pom-pom's around and jump around in an Egyptian-like costume singing "Vogue" like you're tryin' to get your youth back...(she failed miserably, I might add)....Madonna just needs to retire and forget about it.  I never liked her in her heyday either.  She did it just for money.  You do it because that is what your life's PURPOSE is.  There's a huge difference.

But YOU....YOU need to get back to what your heart says you need to do.  She's just doing it for the attention-whoring spotlight that she misses so much, to put her kid through college.  YOU need to get back to singing because that is what your HEART says you need to do, that is the purpose GOD gave you, and that is PURE and WONDERFUL, and nobody on this earth can mess with that.  Nobody can TAKE it from you, nobody can mess with it, and nobody can deny it.  It's the purest of truths.

I mean, hey, I had fun watching you dance around a red tuxedo jacket above you on the stage, talkin' to it like it was a friend of yours....sure, that was kinda kitschy, and we all got a kick out of it.  But if you HADN'T done that, we would have still been ECSTATIC to see the FTLOSM tour.  If you simply sat on a stool and played more intimate venues, (insert clip of Elvis 1968 in black leather....MMMMMM GAWD), we would ALL go APE-SHIT CRAZY over that.  Seriously.  PROMISE ME that you won't come marching out on a football field with 3,000 scantily-clad people who look like Egyptians, all pulling some huge cart.....that was just bizarre and unnecessary of Madonna to do all that crap.

I like real.  I like intimate.  I like what the heart says.  I like what God says is your life's purpose.  The pure Steve Perry experience is something I have truly loved and adored more than I've ever liked ANY other performer in my entire LIFE.  Hey, Sade was awesome in concert, sure, I love her....and her music is amazing....her concert theatrics were mind-blowing too-----but again, she wouldn't have to do all that extra stuff either, to make me happy.

Maybe I am easily pleased, I don't know.  I just know that I prefer substance over fluff.  Maybe I am a dying breed of people, who knows, it's just my opinion for what it's worth.

Be yourself.  Your voice has deepened with age, sure, WHO CARES?!!  We love you!!  You might be a little more "raspy" too---again, WHO CARES?!!  It is REAL, it is honest, it is pure.  It is awesome.  You could sound like friggin' SATCHMO for all we care.  (Hey, he was awesome ya know, raspy voice and all).  So---and hey, you CANNOT EVER BE AS BAD as Tiny Tim.  Right???   Right.

Sit behind that radio if you must, but I know that deep down in the core of your being, you will have to come back to that new album and get it done.  It's a given.  It's gotta happen.  You know it, and I know it.  So, you shouldn't deny that voice of yours, you shouldn't deny God's gift, or your inner soul....

I love you.

Bye for now.

love, Rebecca