Known best as the frontman for '80s arena-rock staple Journey, Steve Perry was the voice of the band, and at the height of their success made a tentative bid for a solo career. The band broke up not long after his solo debut, largely a result of flagging album sales. Perry would attempt to issue a follow-up later in the decade that would be shelved, finally releasing his second solo work a full decade after his first.

Perry was born in Hanford, CA and raised in Lemoore, where he would spend time working on his step-father's turkey ranch. At 18, he was out of the house, heading to Los Angeles to live the dream of a young rocker. He would bounce around the recording industry as a musician and engineer throughout the '60s and '70s until becoming the vocalist for Journey.

Before Journey brought Perry on board, the band was focused on sprawling, epic prog-rock. Afterward, while they maintained their prog influences, the band became increasingly more mainstream and accessible, eventually becoming one of the largest rock acts of the '70s and '80s. Hits like "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Any Way You Want It" would become classics.

In 1984, Perry capitalized on the band's success by releasing a solo album, Street Talk, which went largely ignored but for one song--"Oh Sherrie," a major hit. It would climb to number three on the Billboard 200, and "Foolish Heart," another single, would become a number two on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.

Ten years later, For the Love of Strange Medicine was lost in the shuffle. Perry's trademark ballads were out of step with the times, and though his singles saw some success on the charts--"You Better Wait" became a number six on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart--Perry quickly passed back into musical obscurity.