How three little words became an iconic song for Jonathan Cain and Journey

Journey’s Jonathan Cain will never forget the advice his father gave to him as a young, struggling musician. The three words still resonate with Cain. They were “Don’t stop believing.”

Cain used the fatherly advice as the basis for a song he wrote with then-Journey singer Steve Perry. It was a No. 1 hit for the band and it has sold millions of copies, both on vinyl and digitally. It was even used as a question on the hit TV game show “Jeopardy.”

“It was about a lot of the things Steve and I had been through in our lives,” Cain said in an interview with the Sun Herald. “We were giving people a little hope. We were both struggling. We were the “singer in the smoky room” in that song. We just wanted to roll the dice one more time — and we won with that one. We’re not always going to win, but hey, it doesn’t hurt to dream. It’s the persistence that keeps you driving forward.”

The song has become an iconic pop culture moment, finding its way into sports stadiums across the nation. Katy Perry once sang along to it on the jumbo screen during the infamous Alabama/Ole Miss game in Oxford and former Mississippi State Coach Dan Mullen had the song played during the third and fourth quarters of games played at Davis Wade Stadium.

He said he’s grateful for the song’s place in history.

“I’m honored to have the song be the song, whether it’s Tony Soprano or winning or losing a sporting event,” Cain said. “I’ve had people that they were going to commit suicide until they heard the song and you go, ‘That is incredible.’ And then it becomes bigger than you. When Neal and I put the band back together in 1998, we realized the music is bigger and more important than both of us. It’s a blessed song and we just did something right that day.”

And while Cain, who saw Journey inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, is still performing “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” in arenas and stadiums across the world, he’s also writing and releasing music based on Christian faith and he’s now a best-selling author.

Cain released “Don’t Stop Believin’: The Man, the Band, and the Song that Inspired Generations” earlier this year. And instead of going the “tell all” route that can be synonymous with rock biographies, Cain approached the book from a songwriter’s voice.

“There are a lot of rock memoirs out there and some are very inspirational and some are not,” he said. “I wanted to make mine very unique from a songwriter’s perspective. I wanted it to be about songs you write with people and I wanted it to encourage anyone that has a dream. I’m living proof of believing in dreams. We all have to find our space and we have to figure out where we are going to be successful.”

Cain has been musically prolific in the past year, releasing a Christian album and a Christmas record, along with touring with Journey, including The Classic shows in New York and Los Angeles with Eagles, The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan. But he said he felt the timing was right for him to tell his story.

“When I was on stage at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. with Steve and Neal Schon and all of the alumni of Journey, it was such a high point and I decided to start the book there,” he said. “It’s part of how Journey got there — they were already very successful before I got there. It’s not an ‘official’ Journey book, but it’s my story of being in an amazing band for 37 years.”

The book inspired Cain to release another solo album. “The Songs You Leave Behind” is the audio companion to his autobiography.

“I was prophetically writing my story all along and I was asking myself ‘who is Johnathon Cain without Journey?’ and that’s what I was looking for,” he said. “When I built my studio, I decided I would do what I feared the most — making a solo album. The last time I did it, I felt rejected. So, I decided to conquer that fear.”

Journey and Def Leppard will be at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans at 7 p.m. on Monday. Tickets start at $37 and are available at Tickemaster.com.