ZondervanJourney‘s Jonathan Cain has just published his memoir, aptly titled Don’t Stop Believin’. In the book, Cain discusses his spiritual beliefs, and shares the dramatic story of how, after a childhood tragedy, he worked for years to become a successful musician.
“This is a book that I wrote to inspire and to encourage anybody who had a dream, that I’m proof that it’s possible,” the 68-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer tells ABC Radio.
As Cain explains in the book, when he was eight years old, the Catholic school he attended burned down, killing 92 of his classmates. Jonathan says that after the tragedy, his father encouraged him to embrace his budding musical talent.
“He said, ‘God saved you. You’re special. You’ve been set apart…And I think there’s greatness for you to achieve [in music],'” Jonathan recalls. “And all of a sudden I started thinking about, ‘I have a desire to make that come true.'”
Cain struggled for years to make it as a musician, and he remembers that at one low point during the late 1970s, a phone conversation his dad inspired him to persevere. It also gave him the title of the most famous song he’d ever have a hand in writing.
“He said, ‘John, don’t stop believing…You remember I prophesized over you after the fire?…Don’t stop believing,” Cain explains to ABC Radio. “I went, ‘O.K., dad.’ So I wrote this down in a manuscript book that I wrote my lyrics in.”
Not long after that, Cain was hired by The Babys, and then became Journey’s keyboardist in 1980. Upon joining Journey, Jonathan began writing songs with Steve Perry and Neal Schon, one of which was “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
For more on the book, visit JonathanCainMusic.com.
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