{"id":392719,"date":"2026-07-10T00:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/392719\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T00:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:06:14","slug":"journey-star-jonathan-cain-reveals-spiritual-meaning-of-dont-stop-believin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/392719\/","title":{"rendered":"Journey star Jonathan Cain reveals spiritual meaning of ‘Don’t Stop Believin”"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a deeper meaning to \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin’\u201d<\/a> \u2014 one that might not be widely evident to the some of the fans who hear the Journey<\/a> anthem played at sporting events and on classic rock radio.<\/p>\n

The song, which was released on Journey\u2019s<\/a> seventh studio album \u201cEscape\u201d in 1981, is actually a song based on Christian faith and dealing directly with the Holy Spirit, says the song\u2019s co-author Jonathan Cain.<\/p>\n

Cain says that, if one really thinks about it, the song is actually about the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t stop believing,\u201d Cain said in an interview with christianpost.com<\/a>. \u201cWe never do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cain \u2014 who cowrote the \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin’\u201d with fellow Journey<\/a> members Neal Schon<\/a> and Steve Perry (who is no longer in the band) \u2014 says that connection to Christian faith can be heard in one of the song\u2019s best-known lyrics.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when we say \u2018hold on to that feeling,\u2019 that might just be the Holy Spirit,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Neither Schon nor Perry have commented on the matter.<\/p>\n

Cain, who has embarked on a solo career in Christian music and plans to leave Journey after the Bay Area band\u2019s current farewell tour, says that the song was originally inspired by an encouraging talk that he had with his father that addressed God\u2019s \u201cvision\u201d for the songwriter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wrote the song based on what my father had said to me when I was going to quit the music business or come home and regroup,\u201d Cain remembers in the interview with The Christian Post. \u201cI was in L.A. and I said, \u2018Should I stay or should I go?\u2019 He said, \u2018No, you\u2019ve got to stay. Don\u2019t stop believing. God has a vision for you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was referring back to a fire that I was in when I was 8 years old, where 93 children died. And my father prophesized and said, \u2018You were saved for music. I believe the Lord saved you for making music. And I\u2019m going to get behind that. This was 1958 \u2014 dads didn\u2019t do that. They said get a real job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of getting a \u201creal job,\u201d Cain would pursue a career in music and eventually land a gig with Journey in the early \u201980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went straight into the studio with them and created the \u2018Escape\u2019 album in 1981,\u201d Cain said in the interview. It sold 9 million copies. So, my dad\u2019s prophecy came true.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly God can do that. Only the Lord \u2014 the hand of the Lord \u2014 could take an accordion player from Chicago and put him in Steve Perry\u2019s living room to write \u2018Don\u2019t Stop Believin.’\u201d That\u2019s pretty incredible. That\u2019s kind of miracle stuff, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cain and Journey bring their Final Frontier Tour to the Chase Center in San Francisco on Nov. 28. Journey is also playing Sept. 17 at Adventist Health Arena in Stockton. Visit ticketmaster.com<\/a> for tickets and other information.<\/p>\n

The current Journey lineup features Cain (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Schon (lead guitar),\u00a0Arnel Pineda (lead vocals), Deen Castronovo (drums, vocals), Jason Derlatka (keyboards, vocals) and Todd Jensen (bass, vocals).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a deeper meaning to \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin’\u201d \u2014 one that might not be widely evident to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[184,7,2644,181,330,101,103,102,104,106,105,420],"class_list":["post-392719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-concerts","tag-latest-headlines","tag-music","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}