The song that keeps on giving.

Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain tells the story of the tune’s genesis in his new memoir, Don’t Stop Believin’: The Man, the Band and the Song That Inspired Generations.

In the 1970s, Cain ― then an aspiring musician ― left his hometown of Chicago for Los Angeles in hopes of landing his big break. When things didn’t go as planned, he phoned his father for some help. It turned out to be a fateful call.

“My dog got hit by a car, and I was in Hollywood, and I had to pay the vet bill. And luckily they saved her life,” Cain told HuffPost at Build Series. “I had called him for some money, for another loan. And I hated calling my dad for a loan. I said, ‘Dad, should I just give up on this thing and come home? It seems like I might be pushing it back to Chicago.’ ‘No, no, don’t come home. Stick to your guns. Don’t stop believin’. I went, ‘OK.’ Everything he would say to me somehow I would just doodle in my little notebook that I wrote songs in. That’s basically what happened. He had said to me, ‘Don’t stop believin’,’ and I took it to heart. He sent me the money, and great things started to happen.” Read more via huffingtonpost.com.

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