“I thought it was a teenybopper show”: Journey were worried about Don’t Stop Believin’ being used in Glee
If you like guitar music, chances are you’ll know of a little song called Don’t Stop Believin’. Some of you may have discovered it way back when it first landed in 1981, and some of you may have found it through a little TV show called Glee.
The show catapulted the song into a new realm of popularity, particularly with a younger crowd, but it turns out that Journey themselves weren’t too sure on the track being used in the show to begin with.
READ MORE: The one piece of advice Neal Schon would give young guitar players: “It took a long time to learn all that”
The song was performed in the show’s pilot episode, which aired in 2009 and centres around a glee club at a fictional high school. Speaking to The Guardian, guitarist Neal Schon reveals he was rather sceptical about its use in the series.
“When I first heard the finished song I knew it was special, but it took years to get to the place where it’s a worldwide anthem,” he says. “First, there was the movie Monster, with Charlize Theron. Then came The Sopranos – I remember my phone blowing up and all my friends saying: ‘Man, did you see the final scene?’
“Then Glee happened. I was terrified by that because I thought it was a teenybopper show, not so cool for us,” he adds. “Little did I know that it would open up a younger generation to our music. I’m a rocker and a blues guy, and we always joke that if I think something is too schmaltzy, it’s usually gonna be big!”
Schon also formerly revealed that they were originally told to cut the song down over fears it would not receive radio play, but they refused. Schon knew it would go on to be special: “I don’t know why, I just had a gut instinct, and to have it happen this many years later and just continue to get bigger and now become like, the biggest song in the world, ever, in the history of music, I’m like ‘Oh, this is insane’,” he told Lyndsey Parker in an interview.
Journey are currently touring, you can view their full list of tour dates now.
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