Journey's Steve Perry Explains Why He Almost Nixed The Sopranos From Using 'Don't Stop Believin'' In Finale

The series finale of The Sopranos is one of the more memorable ones in TV history, and a big part of that comes from the show's ambiguous ending (whoops, spoiler alert) set to Journey's 1981 hit "Don't Stop Believin'."

The song is playing through the scene and famously cuts to black.

However, ex-Journey frontman Steve Perry, who was one of the song's co-writers, said he held out until the point that the song didn't appear in the show.

He said that while co-writers Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain were fine with the song being used in The Sopranos, he wasn't feeling it. 

At least not at first.

"(Schon and Cain) had both agreed that it was fine with them, sight unseen if they want to use it," Perry told Katie Couric (remember Katie Couric?). 

"And I kind of held out," Perry continued, while dressed like a background extra on The Sopranos. "The reason I held out was I really didn't want to see a Scorsese moment where everybody gets whacked with his song playing."

What?! Steve, that's film and TV's highest honor! Having your song play while people get whacked is huge. 

Although, yes, sometimes that backfires and it's hard to separate the song from what was shown on screen. Try hearing the song "Goodbye Horses" without thinking of Jame Gumb dancing with his genitals tucked between his legs in The Silence of the Lambs. Unfortunately, you can't.

*Shudders*

READ: MORGAN WALLEN FLIPS OUT AFTER UNRELEASED MUSIC BECOMES PUBLIC 

Steve Perry said he was the holdout when it came to allowing Journey's hit song "Don't Stop Believin'" in the series finale of <i>The Sopranos.</i> (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/WireImage for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

Perry Agreed To Allow the Song In After Some More Info About The Finale… Except For One Key Thing

Perry said that without a little more information about the finale, he held out until the Thursday before the episode aired. He then got a call at 4:30 that afternoon California time and was given more info about how the song would be used.

"They did not tell me it goes to black. They didn't tell me that," Perry said that's okay. "At least nobody got whacked."

Perry said in the end, he is a fan of how the song was used. Especially when Tony Soprano flips past a Heart song and a Tony Bennett song to play some Journey.

"What it says is, ‘Oh my god, he loves journey!’ He just passed on Tony Bennett!"