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The Not Old - Better Show

#13 Band Interview: Trial By Fire

The Not Old - Better Show

Paul Vogelzang

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.7106 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2016

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Trial By Fire...Tribute to Journey Interview

On June 4th, 2016, Trial By Fire, the Journey Tribute Band is appearing at the Tally Ho Theatre, Leesburg, Virginia, 8:30 PM.  This is a wonderful interview with Ernie Shepherd, lead singer, Trial By Fire, and a wonderful family, all ages, G-rated event!

Amazing at it seems today, but in 1996, arena rock superstars Journey put the band back together to record their tenth studio album, Trial by Fire. Shortly after the release of this reunion album lead singer and signature voice, Steve Perry injured himself while training for what was to be a high energy road show. With Steve Perry unable to perform, the Trial by Fire tour became "the tour that never happened".   Imagine if Steve Perry had never injured himself on that fateful day. What would the Trial by Fire tour look like?

Flash forward to the present. TRIAL BY FIRE is born out of the hearts of five seasoned North Carolina - based musicians who have decided to answer that question. It is their vision to bring that 1996 tour to Journey fans across the country… to embrace the sound and visuals of the Steve Perry era of Journey.

Prepare to let TRIAL BY FIRE take you back to an earlier day when lighters were held high, and you couldn't help but sing along to such powerful choruses as "Don't Stop Believin'", "Wheel in the Sky",  "Lights", "Separate Ways" and "Faithfully"

Join me for the excellent story of the band, and wonderful interview with lead singer, Ernie Shepherd!

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Transcript

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0:00.0

and Well, I'd like to welcome Ernie Shepard.

0:20.0

Ernie is the lead vocalist for a band known as Trial By Fire.

0:25.0

Ernie, welcome to the program.

0:27.0

Thanks so much for joining us.

0:29.0

And I got to tell you, again, I love this name, Trial By Fire.

0:32.0

I think it's just such a great story. I'm a long time

0:34.3

fan of the original band, but I'm going to let you kind of break the story for us all and

0:39.0

tell us a little bit about its history and what brought you to this fantastic name.

0:43.4

Oh man, well thanks first off for having me and it's an honor to be on your show.

0:47.4

The name trial by fire is actually the last studio record that Steve Perry, the original vocalist for Journey, is on. It was his very last

0:56.0

appearance as a member of Journey. And when I started the band, I wanted to honor that version of Journey, the classic rock 80s, 70s and 80s journey that was the most popular.

1:08.0

So I thought a good way to do that would be to use the name of their last studio album. And also there's another thing about that is that's the only studio album

1:17.8

Journey's ever released where there wasn't a tour that went with it. So I like to think that our tour is the tour that never happened.

1:27.0

We're getting a chance to do the trial by fire tour.

1:30.0

It just makes it special for me because it gives me that connection

1:32.0

to that time and place

1:34.0

when Journey was so big in my life. Yeah I have to say Journey was big in my life too I

1:38.9

grew up in Northern California so I remember you know all that time very well and certainly Lights is one of my favorite songs.

1:47.0

But you guys are performing here in the Northern Virginia area at the Tallahoe Theater,

1:51.6

and the show actually is Saturday June 4th so coming up at 830. Yep. Yep and you're gonna you're gonna sing all these songs. I don't know how long of the show that they want us to do, but typically we do anywhere between 90 minutes and a little

2:06.0

bit over two hours. It really does depend on the audience and how much they want to go, but I can

2:12.0

guarantee you if it was a journey staple a journey hit you're going to hear it Saturday night.

...

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