Train's Pat Monahan on the band's career and the new single and live album – San Diego Union-Tribune

Mike PalmTHE TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Pat Monahan, lead singer of the Grammy-winning pop-rock band Train, is on tour this summer with REO Speedwagon and Yacht Rock Revue.

The tour took the Pacific Northwest-based artist back to his native Pennsylvania in July and is now visiting California, where he moved at age 19 and later helped form the band Train in San Francisco in 1993.

Known for songs such as “Hey, Soul Sister,” “Drops of Jupiter,” and “Drive By,” Train has enjoyed success for more than 30 years, winning three Grammys and having one song streamed over a billion times on Spotify.

“I never knew if I was going to make a big impact in the music world, but I always thought I'd stick around for a while,” Monahan said. “I've always been a runner, but I'm not a sprinter, but I can run long distances. And I just thought my life was very parallel to that.”

As for his songwriting, Monahan said he feels like he expresses himself better than he did earlier in his career, but added a caveat.

“Sometimes it is, but songwriting is like golf. You go out and you're so good and then you play 12 (shitty) rounds of golf and you're like, 'What happened?'” he said. “And that's what songwriting is like. Every now and then you just think, man, it all worked out. And most of the time it doesn't. I would say songwriting is one of 10 things I work on that is really worth listening to, but you just have to work through it to get to the finish line.”

To support this tour, Train released a new single in April: “Long Yellow Dress”.

“It was a song about a dream I had where I was trying to find a woman in a yellow dress that I could never reach. So it turned into a song that sounds like a pretty fun summer song,” he said. “…I hope we'll see a whole lot of long yellow dresses this summer.”

The track is not intended for an album, but Monahan said he will head to Nashville after this tour to finish an album, possibly in the fall or winter.

In the meantime, fans can listen to a new release. In April, Train played at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the concert was recorded for both a streaming video and a live album, both of which were released on July 26 under the title “Live at Royal Albert Hall.”

“The live album was important because of the venue. We were just in the UK and Europe and we got to play the Royal Albert Hall in London and it's such an iconic venue that we decided the live album should be there,” he said. “I've seen it and listened to it and it's really special, man.

This place is so cool. It sounds incredible. The crowd was incredible. This venue alone is worth visiting.”

Train is also celebrating the 15th anniversary of their 2009 album “Save Me, San Francisco,” which features “Hey, Soul Sister.”

“It's really weird,” Monahan said of the song's significance. “If it becomes part of the fabric of society, I think it can outlast a lot of things, whether it's just the words 'Hey Soul Sister' or whatever the relatable part of it is. It just stays relevant to younger people because young people dominate the music world and always have.”

Train & REO Speedwagon: Summer Road Trip 2024

When: 18:25, September 10

Where: North Island Credit Union Amphitheater, 2050 Entertainment Circle, Chula Vista

Tickets: $35 to $235

On-line: concerts.livenation.com