Jonathan Cain has long been known as one of the leaders of the legendary rock band, Journey. He has written or co-written many of their classic hit songs including “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Open Arms,” “Faithfully,” “Who’s Crying Now” and “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart).” Impressively, he has been inducted into both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
This year, which is Cain’s 45th year with Journey, is the culmination of his outstanding career with the band. Journey has recently launched their farewell tour, called The Final Frontier 2026 tour. The band (which also includes members Neal Schon, Arnel Pineda, Deen Castronovo, Todd Jensen & Jason Derlatka) will be playing about 60 shows over the next few months.
In addition to his touring with Journey, Cain is a solo artist who writes & records songs that have a Christian theme, that are positive songs about faith, hope and love. He has just released a new EP called Only a Prayer Away, which contains six songs sung and written by Cain. Two of the key tracks are “Amen to the Rescue” (about how the townspeople of Chimney Rock, North Carolina came together after a disastrous flood), and the title song, “Only a Prayer Away.”
We are pleased to this new Q&A interview with Cain. But before we get started, here’s a brief history of Cain’s career with Journey, and the other bands he was a member of.
Cain was born and raised in Chicago, and then he moved to California in the 1970s. He first joined the band The Babys, which featured lead vocalist John Waite. Then he accepted an offer to join Journey in 1980, becoming their keyboard player and one of their main songwriters. Following an initial period of seven years with Journey, Cain joined the band Bad English in 1987 after Journey had broken up at that time. Then in 1996, Cain reunited with Journey, and he has been touring and recording with them ever since.
In his long career, Cain has co-written or written 16 Billboard Top 30 pop hits, including 13 with Journey. Here’s a list of his Journey hits (mostly written with Steve Perry and Neal Schon): “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Open Arms,” “Who’s Crying Now,” “Faithfully,” “Separate Ways/World Apart,” “Only The Young,” “Girl Can’t Help It,” “Be Good To Yourself,” “Still They Ride,” “Send Her My Love,” “I’ll Be Alright Without You,” “After the Fall” and “When You Love a Woman.”
For Bad English, Cain co-wrote the Top 5 hit “Price of Love,” and he also co-wrote their Top 30 single, “Possession.” For The Babys, he co-wrote their single, “Back On My Feet Again.”
Here’s a video of Journey performing their hit, “Don’t
Stop Believin’.”
Cain has also released a number of solo albums over the past two decades. He has also written his memoir, Don’t Stop Believin’.
Here’s our interview with Jonathan Cain:
DK: It’s been about eight years since we last did an interview. Can you talk about your life since then, touring with Journey, your solo music, and other projects?
Jonathan Cain: Well we’ve been enjoying a resurgence, a journey, of being very relevant again in the marketplace. We had “Separate Ways” in the show Stranger Things, and “Don’t Stop Believin’” continues to be strong and “Any Way You Want it.” And we’ve been quietly filling up stadiums and arenas. It’s been good. And Arnel Pineda (lead singer) has been with us almost 18 years now.
We’re celebrating out 50th anniversary, and I’ve been with the band 45 years, since the Escape album came out. And I’ve recently released my sixth Christian release, the Only A Prayer Away EP. So I’ve been making Christian music for almost 10 years. And I received a Grammy nod for the Christmas album (Unsung Noel in 2017), and I made the Christian Spotify list with “Oh Lord,” which is hard to do. So I’ve been quietly chipping away. Also, we were in the Rose Garden at National Day of Prayer, which was an honor. I’ve been singing in the White House for worship sessions. My wife, Paula White-Cain, who is now senior advisor of the faith office for Donald Trump. We’re in Washington DC a lot. So all of that is going on—we have two things. We’re balancing a rock tour and the DC commitment, and Paula celebrated her 60th birthday and she’s out here with me on tour.
DK: Your new tour with Journey is called The Final Frontier Tour, which is your final tour of the U.S. Is this the final tour overall, or will you also be playing some shows overseas?
Cain: Right now we’re debating whether or not to finish up in November, or push it back to next year. Nvertheless, we have about a hundred shows we’re going to do and then I’m going to retire.
DK: When you’ve retired from Journey, are you going to take it easy, or will you fully focus on your solo music?
Here’s the video of Jonathan Cain’s song, “Only A
Prayer Away.”
Cain: I’m going to do a little everything. I want to support Paula’s interest in her stuff as well as my own stuff. I’ll be doing Christian dates here and there—it’s certainly not a career yet. But I’ll continue to write—I’m writing and possibly scoring a movie and doing little things that I haven’t had time to do.
DK: You’ve released your solo EP called Only a Prayer Away. Can you talk about this record?
Cain: Basically, it’s God’s work in action…you would say faith in action. So when I see something, and the Lord taps me and says, “How about writing a song about this?” And on this EP, the first song that started this idea was a disaster relief. It was a date that we made to go to Chimney Rock (North Carolina) after the floods, and the little town Chimney Rock was wiped out. So I went with Paula White Ministries and CityServe to observe and help the morale of these townspeople that lost everything. And I just saw this incredible mind of Christ there, and God gave me a title for the day. I went home and wrote the song. I don’t know how I did it, but it came out really powerful and it’s called “Amen to the Rescue.” We need songs like that, that bring people together.
What I saw was so powerful, that these people had lost everything. But they continued to have a positive mindset and with love, dig each other out and lend a helping hand to each other. So every one of these songs on this EP was a good work of God happening. And Pastor Greg Laurie had an infomercial where he was evangelizing late at night, walking on the beach saying, “It’s only a prayer away.” Then that became a song, too.
DK: I want to ask you about your great songwriting career. Over the years, what has it meant to you as a songwriter, that several of your songs have become classics which are loved by many fans?
Cain: I think…to God goes all the glory. I mean it’s really the Lord, using me in His own way to connect people together, to connect people to positive energy. I guess I have an antenna, and the Lord has blessed me all these years. That’s what I realized. When I wrote “Faithfully,” the Holy Spirit was there in the room with me. I didn’t write that by myself; I couldn’t have written it by myself that quickly. So it’s realizing that those songs are heaven sent, and I’m simply a vessel. Even with “Don’t Stop Believin’,” God was using me and Journey to send that message to the world.
Here’s the audio of Journey’s hit, “Open Arms.”
DK: “Don’t Stop Believin’” has become one of the biggest songs. I hear it at ballgames and in movies and TV. How does it feel to write a song that’s had such a great impact?
Cain: It’s an honor. I’m grateful that people have received it and believed it to be a message in their lives. And it’s able to transcend into everybody’s life and that it brings them happiness and joy. It has that message without being preachy—that we all aren’t stuck where we are. There’s a midnight train going anywhere, for anyone. So it worked out well, and it was God using me and Steve Perry and the band to go to that next level. And when I found myself in Steve Perry’s living room writing that song, I realized that only God could put me there.
DK: Back in 1982 when this song came out, it wasn’t one of Journey’s biggest hits. So was there a certain moment or event later on, which elevated the song to a greater popularity?
Cain: I think The Sopranos closing episode really shined a light on it as a cultural expression, maybe an iconic moment for the song. That was such a big moment in television…the end of Tony Soprano as we know it, and it was an epic series. All of a sudden, this song fades to black, and people remember this Journey song. So I think it stopped being a pop song, and it started being a cultural statement. And when a song becomes a fabric of the culture, it elevates that song to a next level. Steve Perry and I always wanted [to write something very special]. That song has been around for 45 years, which is an extraordinary time for any song to be relevant.
DK: You joined Journey about 45 years ago, and “Don’t Stop Believin’” is about 45 years old. So was it one of the first songs you wrote for Journey? What’s the story behind writing this song?
Cain: Yes, that was right about when I joined Journey. About five years earlier, my father had given me a pep talk. I was getting frustrated in Los Angeles with my solo career. I asked him if I should come home to Chicago and just give it up. He said, “Oh no John, your blessing’s right beyond your battle. Don’t stop believing.” So I wrote it down in a lyric book. Then (a few years later) Steve Perry asked me if I had anything in that lyric book. I said, “Well let me look, and I saw my dad’s advice on the back page. I said to Steve, “This might be a song.” So you know, I think the Holy Spirit descended upon me. I came in the next day with a melody…I don’t know how I even did that. I still can’t believe that I was able to pluck a melody out of the air and come in with it. Then we wrote the song in the next two days.
Here’s the audio of Jonathan Cain’s song, “Amen
to the Rescue.”
The song came from my father’s advice, and I wrote it about Sunset Boulevard…living in L.A. back in the day when I was on the outside looking in. It was the most interesting place for rock & roll at the time, because Sunset was like the melting pot of everything going on at the time. It was culturally exploding. We had Van Halen at Gazzarri’s (rock club), we had Aerosmith at the Starwood, we had Rocky Horror Picture Show, we had Elton John. All of that was going on right down there on Hollywood Boulevard. So when I wasn’t working on Friday nights, my brother and I would go down there and watch what was going on. There was a circus—you’d see all these characters, with people who had glitter on their faces. There was this guy named Rodney Bingenheimer, and the Rocky Horror Show was like the beginning of LGBTQ. This sexual revolution was starting, and it was really a time in the ‘70s. The Eagles had landed, with Hotel California and all that. So it was a magical time, and that was the beginning right there on Sunset Boulevard. And in the musical Rock of Ages, they used “Don’t Stop Believin’” as their closing theme, and it was about Sunset Boulevard.
DK: I also like your songs, “Faithfully” and “Open Arms.” Can you talk about writing those songs?
Cain: Well, piano’s always been my instrument, and it’s an extension of who I am. I think I’m a romantic, soft-spoken guy, and I wanted to use my piano as a signature for these songs. Then “Faithfully” came. I was watching the crew take down the stage and realize that all of us sacrificed something for being on the road and had to be away from their loved ones and families. And what if we had a song we could send home like a postcard? So “Faithfully” came about quite suddenly. I think I wrote it in about an hour. I started it on a bus to Saratoga Springs, New York. I wrote it on a napkin, and then I finished it the next hour. When I played the demo for Steve Perry, he wanted it for his solo album but I wouldn’t let him have it. I said, “It has to be a Journey song.” And our producer had asked me for a ballad.” He said, “John, you have a ballad somewhere, you’re the ballad king.” And I happened to have the song. So Steve sang it as a Journey song and it was amazing.
“Open Arms” was a song I brought to Steve Perry that I had written for my first wedding. It was not complete—I had the chorus done and the verse melody, so it just needed a verse lyric. He asked me if I had a ballad, and I brought my Wurlitzer piano in his house and played it for him. We finished the song that afternoon, and it was the biggest Journey single ever. That’s a song I brought in to Journey before I was in the band.
DK: Thank you Jonathan for doing this interview. Is there anything that we haven’t talked about yet that you’d like to mention for this article?
Cain: I just want to thank the fans for the support and love for all the years. It’s been a ride, and it’s a good closing chapter. I feel like I’ve done what I can do here. I want to explore some new things…try some new ideas that I’ve had. But certainly, Journey will always be near and dear to my heart.
