Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer Reveals How Marrying Paula White Was a 'Game Changer' for Him
Keyboardist and songwriter Jonathan Cain of the rock 'n' roll band Journey recently released his memoir, Don't Stop Believin': The Man, the Band, and the Song That Inspired Generations, and explains why his marriage to Pastor Paula White took his life to the next level.
In the book, Cain shares his remarkable 36-year career with one of America's favorite rock bands as well as his upbringing and his life with White.
"Standing on the stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the band alumni [it] felt like that was the catalyst for me to actually put the right pieces together," Cain told The Christian Post about the event that would encourage him to write his new book, Don't Stop Believin' named after the iconic Journey song.
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Cain had been writing the book for almost eight years, but it wasn't until that moment that he would find the structure for the memoir.
"All of a sudden it was crystal clear how it should all come together. It took that moment to really put the pieces into play for me," he said.
The book centers around much of the rock star's life leading up to his newfound purpose in Jesus Christ.
Cain recalled having an "outer body experience" after his first communion at age 7. He was fascinated by the priests of the Catholic Church and looked to them as his idols.
"I used to say mass with my father's golf trophy. He had this trophy that looked like a chalice and my mother would catch me on my knees speaking in Latin with this chalice, and a blanket wrapped around my neck, which was my robe, of course," he laughed.
Cain said his parents teased him as a child, telling him he'd become a priest one day. However, Cain became disillusioned with the Church after he survived a tragic school fire that claimed the lives of 92 of his classmates. He just couldn't understand why God would allow that to happen to a school that was in the same vicinity as the church. Despite his having an affinity for God and Catholicism, it was that event that put him on another path.
"I was in trauma, all of us kids were. But my father declared [something] over me the next day, he said, 'You've been saved for greatness. I know you consider yourself lucky to be alive but God has a purpose and I'm going to place a passion in you and I'm going to give you music,'" he recalled.
"My dad kept me in prayer and covered me when I was offline [with God]. You know, I didn't know what to believe. I knew that I loved Jesus, but where was He that day and when I was 8 years old? We didn't have grief counseling, we didn't know who the enemy was. They didn't teach us about the enemy," Cain continued.
"When I look back on it [now], I don't blame anybody. I just think it was an evil person looking to do something, just like God needs someone to do something. It was just a chaotic moment that happened."
His dad later enrolled him in music school, which placed him on a new path that would go on to change the course of his life.
"He took me out of the terror of the flames. The Bible says, 'Out of pain something new is born.' And I just gained a true desire to move past it all and it gave me a supernatural acceleration to pursue my father's prophecy over me,'" Cain added.
The musician would go on to become the innovative keyboardist of the band Journey in the world of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and it wasn't until his children were born that he returned to church.
"I wanted to lead them to the Lord and show them who God was, and through that process the healing began. And I began to get closer and closer and get more centered in my faith and worship," he said.
Although his heart re-opened to God then, it wasn't until he met Paula White, one of President Donald Trump's spiritual advisers, on a plane that his faith journey really took off.
"Meeting Paula was a game changer. I wanted to go to the next level and she had a word for me, 'You don't have to run anymore, just receive the Lord," he recalled. After getting to know each other better, the minister further invested in his growth. "She took me to Africa and surrounded me in prayer, and the next thing you know we got married in a prayer mountain in Ghana."
"It was just family, but we wanted to come back and tell the congregation we were legit," Cain said about his wedding to White. "You can't date a pastor too long, especially when you're a rock star, you cannot. We wanted to be right in the spirit."
Cain and White, both of whom have been previously married, would go on to have a second wedding ceremony in the U.S. on April 26, 2015.
"We just celebrated our third wedding anniversary and she is the love of my life," Cain gushed. "She has a lot of layers. She is a leader and is a purposeful woman that's driven with a vision for the Kingdom and she's doing great work. I'm proud to be her husband."
He went on to speak about his experience in going deeper with God and how much his trips to Africa with White have changed his life.
"It was just so amazing to go to Africa and worship there, it's so different. The level of surrender there is phenomenal. It's like deep diving there. The level of prayer there is intense," the hall of famer illustrated.
When asked where his hit song "Don't Stop Believin" from Journey's seventh album Escape (1981) was birthed from, Cain went back to the influence his earthly father had on encouraging his Christianity. He remembered being so moved after his first marriage in the '80s that he sought advice from his dad again.
"My dad gave me the title, I was starving in Hollywood and wanted to come home to Chicago and he said, 'I had a prophetic vision over you when you were 8, it's still there. Don't stop believing,'" he said, adding that when it came time to write the final song on the Escape album, he looked down on his notes and that phrase was there.
"I wrote the chorus very innocently and we brought it into rehearsal, then the rest is history," Cain said.
Cain said the song lyric "hold onto that feeling" was speaking of the supernatural aspect of faith.
"That's like me saying, 'hold onto the Holy Spirit.' I really feel there's a double entendre there — that feeling is God and I needed that as my anchor. It feels good to be anchored again."
Cain went on to offer advice for others on how to avoid distractions of life as someone who is following Jesus.
"Life's distractions get in the way. I think true surrender is allowing yourself to be true in the spirit. In other words, you don't expect things. The Bible says not to be anxious. I think our God knows when we've emptied out, then you will be fulfilled," Cain said. "You get to the point that you don't know what you need, then He comes. When I met Paula I was ready to empty out. I had made a mess of things and I wanted to start over again and that's the time the Lord comes to you."
"I want everybody to know that life happens to everybody at any time and for every blessing, the enemy wants to enjoy the flesh. And until you have a true relationship with Jesus Christ, you are open game, he can come and get you and that's what prayer in the Lord and worshiping is all about. It's a spiritual covering because people don't understand spiritual warfare," Cain maintained.
The 68-year-old insisted that spiritual warfare is what we are witnessing in this day and age in the world.
"The enemy is making a mockery of peace with this violence and outburst and chaos that's ruining our society," he insisted. "We just have to be vigilant and patient that the Lord is going to change things and change us. We just saw a big change in North Korea, a huge something just shifted. That supernatural [thing], only God can do that. In the darkest hours is when He does His best work."
The memoir, Don't Stop Believin' co-written by Travis Thrasher, coincides with the kick-off of Journey's 58-city summer tour with Def Leppard. When asked how Cain will incorporate his tour with his ministry as a pastor's husband, he said he will be using it to his advantage.
"You minister on your time off, save souls, you get to lay hands on people," Cain said. "We do some charity work with Make A Wish and I get to visit some pastors and break bread with them.
He said that his wife having so many ministry friends all across the country is a great encouragement to him when he's on the road.
"It's great to meet the husbands and wives of the ministry, they are just fantastic people," Cain said.
Following the book's release and the tour, Cain said he's working on a new worship album. His last worship record, What God Wants to Hear (2016) was his first, and he says this one will be a step up from there.
"I'll continue to praise His name and take my Jesus with me on stage," Cain concluded. "I hope that this book inspires and encourages those dreamers and believers out there that it's never too late to come back to the Lord!"
Don't Stop Believin': The Man, the Band, and the Song that Inspired Generations can be purchased here.
