5895 people reading this?? REALLY??

Wow....this new blogger thing keeps track of how many people view my blog, and I'm not really feelin' the love...I mean, sure, lots of you are reading this thing, you crazy people...so that's love, right?? But, I was actually better off NOT KNOWING how many people are reading this thing!!  I wish I could figure out how to disable this thing so I can remain happily ignorant of such knowledge in future.

Okay, so there's 5,895 of you now....I really can't ignore a mob like that....so, okay, how the hell are ya'll doin'?  And how can I just write to Steve Perry if you're all peeking in at it?!  Sigh.  I know you all must love him as much as I do too, otherwise you would never have stumbled on this silly blog-o-mine at all.  So, I am wondering if I should try to talk to him about stuff YOU might want to talk to him about, too, or if I should just keep on doing what I have been doing for nearly 2 years now...just write whatever pops into my head and keep it personal, between him and I?  (The guy never reads this crap you know).

Did anybody catch the Facebook "Ultimate Classic Rock" blurb about how "Journey might let Steve Perry back into the band" earlier today?  Wow, how NICE of them, huh.  LET HIM?!  The cahones on that man with the guitar never cease to amaze me.  Neal said "Never say never, but if we DID bring Steve back, we would have to figure out a way to keep Arnel too."

Did anybody else but ME notice that the moron who WROTE the article even spelled Arnel's name wrong in the very first sentence?!  Yeah...it was spelled ARIEL.  DUHHHHHH.  Get a clue, if you can't even get the lead singer's NAME spelled right in the very first SENTENCE, then why should I read such a dumb article at all?! AAAUUUGGHHHH!!!

Yes, I am a self-proclaimed grammar and spelling Nazi on the internet.  Sorry.  Can't help myself.

My thoughts about this farce of an article are this:

Let it die, people. Just let it die.  Stop beating the dead horse.  Steve Perry doesn't WANT to re-join Journey, he's better off WITHOUT them, let him have his LIFE instead of the chaos-----and furthermore, if I were Arnel, I'd be kickin' Neal in the balls for that comment.  Push him to the SIDE to let Steve come BACK, well, that's rather RUDE to say, don't you think?  I don't know if Arnel knows when Neal is being a jerk or not, I really don't, but that just seems like a total DICK thing to say about the miracle guy who kept the band going after it was nearly dead. They even made a damned MOVIE out of Arnel's rags-to-riches story, that I hope to see at some point soon, but WOW, this article really made me cringe.

Stephen, please just ignore those kinds of things...I know you do most of the time, but it's starting to really get past the point of ridiculous.  Neal says maybe in 6 years, or 10 years, you might want to come back, and they might let you.  I would have to pummel you profusely if you ever did go back, you know.  You don't need those guys.  You've proven that again and again, and frankly you're sanity is more important than reuniting with people who treated you so badly. You have much more self-esteem than THAT, I hope.  Live your life doing what you missed out on for so long, and just be a normal, plain old regular dude in the real world, for as long as you want to be.  Don't get suckered into something that would only cause a whole lotta mess in your life again.

I know, I know, most of you readers of this blog are yelling at me, "There IS no Journey without Steve Perry!" and "How could you TELL him such a thing?! We love him! We want him back!"

I tell him that, because if he were sitting here in the same room with me right now, as my friend, I would tell him that to his face. That's why.  That's what this blog is all about.  I would say to him, "Dude, give it up, retire, move on, let it go, just chill, and ignore it."

See, the way I look at it, Steve Perry owes us nothing.  He's given us 25 years of his life, his voice, his emotion, his hard work, his dedication, his love and his music.  That's more than you'll ever get from most of the people in the music business today, or EVER.  Sure, Michael Jackson was around for 50 years, he gave to the point of losing his marbles, living on a carnival farm with kids, and then overdosing on prescription medication at age 50.  Is THAT what you want for Steve Perry too?

That's not what I want for him.  He owes me nothing, he gave me everything he possibly could give me, over the course of most of my life, and that's WAY more than I ever got from my own DAD.  So, he paid his dues, he did his time, he worked his ass off, and now it's time for him to just go and do the things that he never had a chance to do before, when he was busy with touring so much with the band.

If he started dancin' around on a stage again, shakin' that sexy butt of his, he's probably break his other hip.  And that would totally suck.  I would rather see him sitting in a seat at a sporting event, eating a hot dog.  I'd rather see him enjoying a museum someplace.  I'd rather see him doing nothing at all, than to risk losing his marbles, or his other hip, or his integrity.

But hey, I'm weird, what can I tell ya.  I don't piss and moan about stuff that happened a long time ago when it comes to his leaving the band.  It's over and done, long gone, old news, not worth dwelling on. Instead, I embrace Arnel, I am glad they found him, I'm glad he loves doing what he's doing, and I'm glad that the band is still going strong.  I don't LIKE Neal Schon because he's a womanizing putz, but I do love his musical genius on that guitar.  I'm not crazy about Jonathan Cain either, as a person, but that piano is magical underneath his fingertips.  I love Ross, though, he's the smartest one of the bunch.  He shows up for work, does his thing, keeps his mouth shut, nods and smiles, makes a few jokes, and goes home.  He could be a total asshole in person, but we'll never really KNOW, because he is very private. The drummer, however....well...being violent with an ex-girlfriend is a total jackass move.  If he has some anger management issues, then he's not beating those drums hard enough.  I say, bring back Steve SMITH, if they're gonna bring back anybody....but ya know what?? Having MET Smitty, I know he would never go back either.

People, you really can't go back in life, to anything in your past, if you ever want to get on with your life and move into the future.  It just doesn't work.  You can reminisce about it, and yes, Steve Perry can definitely FORGIVE and FORGET all the BS that went on with those guys, and they can do the same thing, kiss and make up even.  But going BACK to something that has so many bad vibes, well, it just wouldn't do any of them any good.  Haven't you seen how that worked in other bands who tried?? Didn't work out very well for most of them AT ALL.

Well, anyway, I'm off to nighty-night land.  Just wanted to say hey to all my readers....gasp....who still freak me the hell out....but okay, I'll give you all a big wet sloppy kiss and welcome you to my crazy world.

Bye for now.  Love you Stephen, more than the sun and the moon, and I hope you---and all these OTHER people, have a good week.

----Rebecca