Shadowing Practice: Steve Perry Reveals the Truth about Why He Left Journey - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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In 1987, you walk away.
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In 1987, you walk away.
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Yeah.
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Now there's been a lot written about this.
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What can you tell me about walking away that maybe you haven't talked about before?
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Well, it was a combination of the passion for music had left me.
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I could not, you know, find the honest passion for singing.
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and because of that I was stepping into some other dare I say party behaviors to augment my frustrations and
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then I think my voice was also suffering I think everything started to suffer for me and it did not
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help restore my passion for music so eventually the feeling just got very clear to me that I need to just stop and I didn't know where I was going I didn't know what I was going to do or where I was going to go.
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All I knew is that I can't keep doing what I'm doing.
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I need to just stop because this is not going anywhere good.
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Now, were drugs a part of this?
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Women a part of this?
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Certainly drugs and drinking were part of it, of course.
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Yeah.
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I mean, that came with the times, you know.
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It's a funny thing about success.
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When you do get a chance to finally lived that dream that you wanted when you were seven years old, eight, nine, 12 years old, and you get it.
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Now, I'm not complaining, Dan.
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I'm not complaining.
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I'm just telling you in my heart.
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When you finally get that and you're loving it, it's kind of at some point, a little bit of a luster starts to wear off over and over again if you keep touring and keep turning the same wheel over and over again.
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And I think it leaves room for the opportunity for other enhancements, dare I say, to replace some of the lack of luster that it once had.
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So you walk away?
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I walked away.
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Did you ever?
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What did you do?
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I bought a Harley Davidson in Visalia, California, because my hometown was Hanford, California, about 18 miles away.
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And I would drive that Harley in the summertime back then.
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Excuse me, had you been into motorcycles before?
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No.
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I decided that was going to be my new passion, was motorcycles.
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So I bought this Harley, and there was no helmet law back then, and my long hair was flying 20 feet in back of me, you know, and I rediscovered parts of my life that I completely forgot about.
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For instance, the central San Joaquin Valley can get up to 110, 112 degrees every summer.
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But when you're riding a motorcycle by an alfalfa field, the alfalfa fields on both sides of the motorcycle drops at sometimes 10 degrees.
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You feel like you're in an air-conditioned environment.
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And I thought, well, I remember that when I was a kid.
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So I was reconnecting with my childhood and actually reconnecting with the loss of my mother that I'd lost.
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You know, she had died before and went out to visit other departed relatives pretty regular to try to just connect with my life where it is right at that time.
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because when you re-enter the Earth's atmosphere of your life after a ride like that you got to do
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something you got to ground yourself somehow so I did a lot of that well but you were gone you were off for a
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long while you can only ride the motorcycle so often you can only visit with your relatives and right your parents graveside for often what else
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did you do did you develop a hobby did I'll tell you what I did not do is I couldn't go near music because I had this PTSD thing with music still going on.
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It was very, very uncomfortable for me.
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And I was afraid that the passion for music would never come back.
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So because of that, I just left it alone and thought I'd already lived the dream of dreams.
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There's nothing much more to do and in that area and so I'll just leave it alone and
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then time goes on I ran into somebody Patty Jenkins became a friend of mine a
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brilliant director who ended up directing the movie Monster with their Charlize Theron she got a hold of my attorney and wanted
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to use don't stop believing so we all had to agree to the song being used in the movie Monster and we became great friends.
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One time Patty was working on this lifetime special called Five and it was about a cancer survivor
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and I was watching the editing process and everything and there was this woman in this
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moment in the patio of the hospital and there was just the cameras panning across and the narrator's talking about the people who are surviving their cancer and they all look like they're doing fine having lunch in the patio of the hospital.
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And I said, go back to, who is that?
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And she said, well that's Kelly Nash.
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I said, well who's Kelly Nash?
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She said, well she's a PhD psychologist that has friends and I just put real cancer patients because she has had cancer.
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But she's doing okay.
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And I said, well do you have her email?
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She looked at me funny because she knows I don't do that.
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So I said, yeah, do you have her email?
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And she said, why?
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I said, I don't know.
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There's something about her.
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I don't know.
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I'd love to send her an email, take her to lunch or something.
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Is it possible?
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Just tell your friend, Steve, we'd love to take her to lunch.
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So she does that.
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And I wait on pins and needles for two weeks.
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And the next thing I know, I get an email back and I'm over the moon.
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And I took her to dinner one night and we were inseparable after that.
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So there was a lot going on in my life, but nothing like this had happened.
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She was three years fighting breast cancer, but you'd never know it.
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PhD psychologist, psychologist brilliant
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we were inseparable for the time we were together which was a year and a half approximately until she passed
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away six years six years ago there was just this other layer of connection in fact I told her I feel like I've always known you line I used to tell her I loved you before I met you I love you now and I I always will.
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Because that's what it felt like, it was so familiar.
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How did this affect you, having this love affair with her, the likes of which you say you never experienced before or since?
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And what did you learn from that?
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You're good at this, Dan.
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You know that, don't you?
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If somebody hasn't told you that, they should tell you again.
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It has severely affected me because I was pretty much in isolation before I met her.
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And she pulled me out of isolation, and emotional isolation and even physical isolation.
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One night we were together and she said, Honey, I need to ask you something.
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If something was ever to happen to me, will you make me one promise?
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I said, Well, what's that?
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My favorite time is when we'd talk each other to sleep in the dark.
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that was that night's conversation.
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I said, what's that?
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She said, if something was to happen to me, promise me you won't go back into isolation before I think it would make this all for naught.
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And I just thought, that statement was so huge.
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It was like she was looking at her whole life, being diagnosed, her struggle during the struggle of cancer and the possibility of us not being together has to have some kind of meaning, and I made the promise.
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So that's how the last record came about.
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I kept the promise, and I dedicated the record to her, and I'm talking to you now.
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I'm doing everything I can to not fall back into isolation again, because I made a promise.
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Context & Background

In a recent video interview, former Journey lead singer Steve Perry opened up about his decision to leave the band in 1987. He reflected on the challenges he faced during his music career, including a loss of passion for singing and the impact of lifestyle choices on his mental health. Perry shared his journey of rediscovery outside of the music scene, highlighting his experiences with motorcycling and reconnection with his past. This candid conversation offers significant insights into the emotional aspects of pursuing a career in the arts and the struggle to maintain passion over time.

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

  • "I walked away." - An expression of choosing to leave a situation behind.
  • "Reconnecting with my childhood." - This phrase emphasizes the importance of rediscovering one's roots and past joys.
  • "The passion for music had left me." - This highlights feelings of disconnection from one's primary interests.
  • "What else did you do?" - A useful conversational prompt for seeking more information.
  • "I didn’t know where I was going." - A relatable expression indicating uncertainty about the future.

Step-by-step Shadowing Guide

To effectively improve your English skills through this video, follow these step-by-step instructions:

  1. Watch the Video Without Sound: First, try to visualize what Steve Perry is explaining without any audio. Pay attention to his body language and expressions.
  2. Listen for the First Time: Play the video with audio and focus on the key points he makes. Use a notebook to jot down phrases that stand out to you.
  3. Repeat Sentences: Using a shadowing app, practice repeating short segments of his dialogue out loud. This “shadow speech” technique will improve your pronunciation and rhythm.
  4. Change Roles: Listen to one of his answers and repeat it as if you were Perry yourself. This role reversal can deepen your understanding of the language used.
  5. Engage in Discussions: After watching, try discussing the video's content with a friend or language partner. This not only improves your speaking skills but also prepares you for the IELTS speaking practice.

Through this immersive approach, you can effectively learn English with YouTube, enhancing your conversational skills and gaining confidence in your communication abilities.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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