Jim Peterik’s Rolodex could double as a Rock Hall ballot. As co-founder of Survivor, the Ides of March, and the guy who gave the world “Eye of the Tiger,” he’s earned the right to call just about anyone in classic rock and get a “yes.” For Winds of Change, the latest from Jim Peterik & World Stage, he did exactly that — Dennis DeYoung, Mike Reno, 38 Special, and even the late Jimi Jamison all show up for one big, sentimental blowout.
“It only took me twenty years to make another World Stage record,” Peterik joked. “But all these artists have careers — they’re touring, they’re busy. The logistics are staggering.” Still, every person he called agreed to join in. The secret? “I only work with people I love,” he said. “People who play well with others. We check our egos at the door.”
Peterik wanted the album to feel like a reunion of old friends — not a digital patchwork. “A lot of these songs were written with the artist in the same room,” he said. “That’s what makes it real. No shuffling files across the internet. Just guitars, stories, and maybe a few cups of coffee.”
That warmth extends to the album’s most emotional track, featuring the late Survivor singer Jimi Jamison. “We’d cut a country album back in 2008,” Peterik recalled. “It never came out, but one song — ‘Love You All Over the World’ — kept haunting me. So I called Jimi’s family and asked if I could rebuild the track around his old vocal. They gave me their blessing.”
The first time Peterik heard that isolated voice again, he said, “We all had tears in our eyes. That pristine tenor — hearing it again in the control room — it was like he was right there with us.” The finished song became one of the record’s anchors, a posthumous reminder of Jamison’s range and the friendship that defined their years together.
That same energy now fuels a new collaboration with Dennis DeYoung of Styx — one Peterik had to talk his old neighbor into. “Dennis told me, ‘Records aren’t selling. Why bother?’ And I said, ‘When you were fifteen, you didn’t have a marketing plan! You did it because you loved it.’” The pep talk worked. The two co-wrote “Proof of Heaven,” the first spark of DeYoung’s next album. “I was kind of his Mike Ditka on that one,” Peterik laughed.
Winds of Change will hit the road — though like any rock supergroup, the lineup will shift from city to city. “It’ll depend who’s available,” he said, “but there will be a tour. These songs deserve a stage.”
That’s the spirit behind the whole thing: gratitude, friendship, and a little defiance against time. “Everybody on this record has lived a life,” Peterik said. “We’ve all been through the storm — and we’re still here."
Listen to the interview above and then check out the videos below.
