The Steve Perry You Never Knew

Steve Perry is famous for his long stint with the rock band Journey, which gave him his start in 1977. We remember Perry with the tight jeans, the long hair and the voice that could ring through the rafters. We remember falling in love and slow dancing to Perry singing “Faithfully” and “Open Arms.”

But Perry seemed to fall off the map for many years. And Journey found a replacement for their front man in Arnel Pineda. It has only been within the last week that Steve Perry is making headlines again. Breaking his silence, Steve Perry performed on stage for the first time in over twenty years with the rock band Eels per CBS News.

Only this time, there is more meaning behind Steve’s performance. At 65, Perry has a new perspective on life. The lyrics, “I’ll never be the same…” roll off his lips and put a bittersweet mood in the room for the audience during his second performance with the Eels in Washington, D.C., according to Stereogum.com.

Why does Steve Perry seem so different? In a matter of two years, Perry found the love of his life, and then lost her forever. CBS Local tells how Steve Perry was in an editing room with his friend Patty Jenkins as she was working on the closing segment of the Lifetime Channel breast cancer special Five. As the camera panned across one beautiful girl, her smile captured Steve Perry immediately.

Perry asked who she was. Steve was told her name is Kellie Nash, a PHD psychologist. Patty continued to tell Steve that Kellie is battling breast cancer, had a double mastectomy, and agreed to do be in the special, as reported by CBS Local. Perry had to meet her, so he asked Patty to set it up for them to have coffee or lunch.

Before Patty would agree, she told Perry that Kellie’s cancer had come back and that she is in stage 4 and fighting for her very life. After a moment of shock, Steve thought just for a moment that maybe he shouldn’t contact Kellie, but Perry knew he had to meet her.

Yahoo News reports that when Steve Perry and Kellie Nash met, it was love at first sight. Perry describes it as, “I was a little boy who had finally found his girl. I had never felt like this before,” Perry continues. “I had finally found her… she was real and she was right in front of me.”

Perry said they began to date, and that they both knew they were meant for each other. As their love grew stronger, after a few months, Kellie discovered that her cancer had spread to her brain. She asked Steve if he would be angry if she stopped all treatment. Steve tells CBS Local that he was scared of what would happen, but Perry told Kellie, “Never, to my very last breath would I ever be angry with her and that I loved her…”

Kellie ended up trying a new treatment which helped her get better for a short time. But after what Perry describes as the “most magical summer of our lives together” Kellie’s cancer came back with a vengeance and Steve Perry lost the love of his life in December of 2012.

Steve Perry tells CBS Local, “My life was forever changed… all because of my Kellie.”

Perry admits that he has been attempting to grieve and not run from this loss. Steve says he does this by “recalling everything being in love with Kellie taught me. I love and miss her terribly.”

Although there is no news of Steve Perry reuniting with his former band Journey as they start their tour this summer, Perry’s fans are cheering him on from the sidelines. Perry is no longer the rocker boy from the 80s, but a man whose life was turned around by the love of one woman, Kellie Nash.

Steve Perry leaves us with a love story that breaks our hearts, but helps us to see a tender side to him that has never been revealed. Perry wants his fans to know the depth of love he has for Kellie, and tells CBS Local, “Though Kellie and I were only together one and a half years, it was a lifetime of love packed into every moment.”

We hope to see more of Steve Perry on stage in the near future and wish him all the best.