Steve Perry Breaks Down The Grieving Process
Former Journey frontman and legendary musician Steve Perry knows a thing or two about love and loss. Steve recently took part in a keynote panel at Pop Conference 2019 on how music makers and writers confront loss and grief in their personal lives and in their music.
Steve lost his love and partner Kellie Nash to cancer in 2012 and the loss had a profound effect on him, "I sought professional help to really learn how to grieve, because I didn't know how." he said. "The professional I was going to turned to me and said, 'I think you need to cherish the grief.' I said, 'Excuse me, I'm tired of crying. I've been crying so much. It's been going on now, honestly, for months. And he said, 'I know that, but if you cherish the grief that you're in right now, I guarantee you there will come a time where you won't be able to access it as deeply and as clearly and in the moment as you are now. So I think as it starts to come up, and you start to get back to whatever happens once we do face the grief and cherish it, you'll be glad you did.' That's just been my experience. Everybody wants to pull out of it and get back to normal. I wanted just to move on. Now I'm so grateful that I didn't," he said.