Journey is an Arena rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco, California.
The band has gone through several phases, including one dominated by former members of Santana. The band's greatest commercial success came in the early 1980s with a series of power ballads and soaring classics such as " Don't Stop Believin'", " Any Way You Want It," " Open Arms", " Separate Ways", " Wheel in the Sky" and " Faithfully". Many credit the group's success to Steve Perry's powerful vocals and Neal Schon's complex guitar work.
See Santana for additional background of the people who would become Journey.
In December 1971, Gregg Rolie, the organist and vocalist and co-founding member of Santana, decided that it was time to leave the band, due to longstanding disagreements with Carlos Santana about the musical direction of the group. He went home to Seattle, opening a restaurant with his father.
While all this was going on, there was another face on the scene; the road manager for Santana, Walter "Herbie" Herbert. After an abortive South American tour, Herbert was on Carlos’s bad side. Herbie and Santana guitarist Neal Schon had become good friends on the tour. Herbie had the idea to take Schon and form a new band around his guitar-playing talents. After Schon parted ways with a Larry Graham side project that would eventually become Graham Central Station, he agreed. Herbert was able to get George Tickner (guitar) and Ross Valory (former bassist for the Steve Miller Band) who were at the time playing in Frumious Bandersnatch (another band that Herbie managed) to join Schon and form a new band. Prairie Prince (drums), who was already with The Tubes, was recruited to join the new effort.