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Sullivan initially planned a quick
24-hour trip to Nashville to have a
firsthand listen to the vocal hotshot, but
he ended up staying four more days,
somewhat floored by the talents of the
then 20-year-old. Seemingly putting
him through the wringer in terms of
the Survivor songbook, Sullivan was
satisfied.
It was time for Survivor to begin a
whole new chapter.
“He can sing the phone book,”
Sullivan said in a recent interview with
Ravinia
Magazine. “Our songs are hard
songs to sing, and [former lead vocalist]
Jimi [Jamison] had been doing it for so
long. He would have loved Cameron.”
Sullivan pauses for a moment and
takes a deep breath, audible through
the telephone. A rather talkative fellow,
Sullivan is seemingly still stopped in his
tracks by the sheer thought of Jami-
son, who passed back in September
2014. “Jimi had such a twisted sense of
humor,” Sullivan continued. “We used
to joke about how hard it would be for
a new singer to come in and take over,
but Cameron has just come in and has
been singing the crap out of our songs.
It’s hard to teach a singer these songs,
but he picked it up rather quickly. He
can sing our catalogue without dropping
a key.”
Indeed, one of rock and roll’s preem-
inent bands, Survivor has songs that lie
among some of the best in the history
of music. After releasing their self-titled
first album, which included their first
single, “Somewhere in America,” in 1980
and following it up with
Premonition
,
which included their first top-40 single,
“Poor Man’s Son,” the next year, Survi-
vor hit it big with a song that changed
everything—“Eye of the Tiger.” The
song, which was famously featured as
the theme to
Rocky III
, would go on
to win a Grammy, a People’s Choice
Award, and even an Academy Award
nomination.
From there, the band would begin
touring extensively for a slew of new
fans who couldn’t seem to get enough of
their unique and hearty sound. At the
same time, they were about to experi-
ence one of the many big changes in
the lineup of the band. Dave Bickler,
who had served as a lead vocalist since
1978, decided to leave the band and was
replaced by Jamison in 1984. Despite
the change, that same year
Vital Signs
would be released with the new voice
and Survivor would rack up the new fan
favorites “I Can’t Hold Back,” “High on
You,” and “The Search Is Over.”
“Even when you work your butt off,
you still need a lot of luck and a little bit
of talent,” remarks Sullivan about those
glory days. “We were really successful
during what I think were some of the best
12 to 15 years in recorded music history.
It was a time of the greatest frontmen in
the world, from Freddie Mercury to Tom
Petty. I mean, you couldn’t Auto-Tune a
voice back then.”
Survivor would receive some more
Rocky
magic in 1985 when they were once
again given a chance to contribute a song
to the series’ soundtrack with “Burning
Heart” featured in
Rocky IV
. The song
went to number two on the
Billboard
Hot
100 charts, leading the soundtrack album
on its rise to multiplatinum status. And
in 1987, Survivor would finally find the
time to stop and make another record.
When Seconds Count
contained yet an-
other hit, “Is This Love,” which counted
out several weeks in the top 10.
But then everything changed again.
“When radio changed and things
went from analog to digital, every-
thing was different,” said Sullivan, who
watched his fellow band members
disperse to pursue solo opportunities.
He, too, spent time away in the studio,
writing and recording with many differ-
ent artists, including Eddie Money for
the 1999 release
Ready Eddie
, on which
Sullivan produced as well as wrote and
performed.
But even though no new songs
appeared on the trade journal charts
and the band found itself in somewhat
constant upheaval, the fans remained.
And those fans are set to pack Ravinia
as Survivor takes the stage with fellow
hitmakers Loverboy on June 3.
“We played a lot of dates with one
another in the past, and we figured we
would just keep going since the shows
were so successful,” says Sullivan, who
plans to have many of his Chicago
friends and family in attendance at the
show. “The fans just continue come
out. I think that our fans like when we
make changes for good reasons. If you
give them your sound and you work
hard, they will come to your concerts.
Our fans are really educated fans, and
educated fans don’t appreciate it when
you play the same things over and over
again, even if you sound good. (
Laughs
)
They have way too many choices to
spend their money on these days, so
we know what it means for them to be
here.”
And for this Chicagoan, getting the
chance to play Ravinia is always a bless-
ing. “Ravinia is a great place to play—I
mean, it breaks the mold,” Sullivan says.
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