Jonathan Cain


Jonathan Leonard Friga, known professionally as Jonathan Cain, is an American musician, singer, and songwriter best known as the keyboardist for Journey. He has also worked with The Babys and Bad English. Cain was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Journey on April 7, 2017.

Early life

Cain was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Leonard and Nancy Friga. At the age of eight, Cain began accordion lessons, and by the time he was in his teens, he was playing accordion and piano at parties and in clubs. He also plays guitar, bass, and harmonica. Cain was a survivor of the Our Lady of the Angels school fire of 1958, in which 92 students and 3 nuns died. In 1968 Cain graduated from East Leyden High School in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park, Illinois and later attended the Chicago Conservatory of Music.

Career

In 1976, Cain released his first record as the Jonathan Cain Band, Windy City Breakdown, on Bearsville Records. In 1979, he joined the Babys, appearing on their albums Union Jacks and On the Edge. In 1980, Cain left The Babys to join the rock band Journey, taking Gregg Rolie's place on keyboards. Cain aided Journey's rise to the top of the charts with his first collaborations on the album Escape, composing and playing the piano on songs such as "Don't Stop Believin'", described by AllMusic as "one of the best opening keyboard riffs in rock". Perhaps his most notable contribution was as sole author of the Journey ballad "Faithfully", a song about life on the road while in a band. Cain would go on to appear on at least 13 other Journey albums and compilations.
The song "Working Class Man" sung by Jimmy Barnes is one of Cain's compositions and is considered to be Barnes' signature song.
Cain reunited with former Babys bandmates John Waite and Ricky Phillips, fellow Journey bandmate Neal Schon, and future Journey drummer Deen Castronovo to form the band Bad English. The band released two albums before disbanding in the early 1990s.
In 1996, the Journey lineup from the album Escape was reunited. They reformed and recorded the album Trial by Fire. Steve Perry then left the band again in 1998, after suffering a hip injury, while hiking in Hawaii, that required surgery. Journey has continued on with three subsequent lead singers, Steve Augeri from 1998 to 2006, Jeff Scott Soto from 2006 to 2007, and Arnel Pineda from 2007 to the present.
Cain is known to perform a piano solo at every Journey concert, usually right before the band performs "Open Arms." He started this tradition when he first joined the band in 1980.
In addition to his work with Journey, Cain has released eight solo albums and contributed to solo albums by fellow Journey member Neal Schon.

Personal life

Cain has married three times. His first wife was singer Tané McClure for whom he wrote the 1983 hit song "Faithfully".
In 1989, he married his second wife, Elizabeth Yvette Fullerton, with whom he has three children: Madison and twins Liza and Weston. He and Elizabeth divorced at the end of 2014.
In April 2015, he married minister Paula White. This is the third marriage for both. They reside in Apopka, Florida.
Jonathan has two younger brothers, Thomas and Harold.
Cain and David Kalmusky designed and built a recording studio called Addiction Sound in Nashville.

Solo discography

He has received two BMI songwriter awards, both for songs co-written with Steve Perry, "Open Arms" and "Who's Crying Now". The Journey song, "When You Love a Woman", which he co-wrote with Perry and Schon, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1997.