When I think Of You

Album: Trial by Fire (1996)
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Songfacts®:

  • Journey lead singer Steve Perry wrote this song with keyboard player Jonathan Cain for Trial by Fire, which was Perry's last album with the band. It's one of the lesser-known Journey songs, but one that is very important to Perry, which is why it was included on their Greatest Hits 2 compilation in 2011.

    Perry's mother died while he was working on the sessions for their 1986 album Raised on Radio. The band went on hiatus after that tour, and when they returned to record Trial by Fire, Perry was thinking about his mother. "I had a dream that Mom had a gift shop and that she was so happy and doing fine and looking amazing," he said in an online Q&A. "She had been sick for so long that this was what I needed to know even if it was a dream. I later went to Jon Cain's and told him I wanted to write a song about this experience and started singing a melody and we finished it together. The song is very special to me because it's about Mom and all that she gave me to survive and when I miss her, all I have to know is... She's right here... When I think of her."

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