Steve Perry's musical journey continues with his new solo album, “Traces,” which arrives today

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Fantasy RecordsBelieve it or not, ex-Journey frontman Steve Perry is back with his first new music in more than 20 years, as his hotly anticipated solo album Traces hits stores today.

In a new video about the making of the album, Perry explains that after leaving Journey in the late 1990s, he “honestly had no intentions of coming back to music.” However, during the last several years, the singer says, “Music showed up again…My love for it started to come back.”

As previously reported, Traces was partly inspired by Perry’s romance with a woman named Kellie Nash, who died of cancer in 2012.

“I think the reason this record happened is because a heart is not complete until it’s really broken,” he explains in the video. “From the broken heart came this record.”

Steve also reveals that it was Nash who encouraged his return to music.

“[S]he told me one night [that] if something was to ever happen to her, promise that I would not go back into isolation. Because when I met her, I was pretty much in isolation,” he says. “So I think so much of the emotional commitment comes from losing somebody like that, and making a promise, and keeping the promise.”

Perry also discusses his decision to walk away from Journey, which he says “was the hardest thing I ever did,” while noting that he did so because he wanted to avoid being a casualty of the music business.

You can check out videos for three songs from Traces — “No Erasin’,” “No More Cryin'” and “We’re Still Here” — on Perry’s official YouTube channel. The album also features a cover of the George Harrison-penned Beatles song “I Need You.”

Meanwhile, Perry will discuss Traces during an appearance this weekend on CBS Sunday Morning.

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