Creativity Quote by Neal Schon

Neal Schon’s “I’m just getting older and better” is the kind of line rock veterans use to reclaim a narrative the culture loves to steal from them. Aging, in the pop imagination, is supposed to mean decline: softer edges, smaller tours, nostalgia circuits. Schon flips that script with a musician’s pragmatism. Better isn’t a motivational poster here; it’s a craft claim. He’s implying that years onstage aren’t just mileage, they’re reps. The fingers don’t merely survive time - they metabolize it.

The intent is quietly defiant. Schon came up in an era when guitar heroism was measured in flash, volume, and speed. Journey’s longevity, and his own career that stretches from Santana-adjacent prodigy to arena mainstay, puts him in a different frame: endurance as a form of virtuosity. The subtext is also protective: if the industry reduces you to “classic rock,” you answer by insisting you’re still in progress. Not preserved; developing.

There’s an ego in it, sure, but it’s the functional kind artists need to keep showing up. “Just” does a lot of work: he’s brushing off the cultural panic around getting older, treating it like weather. It’s also a subtle message to fans: don’t come to hear a reenactment. Come to hear a player who believes experience can sharpen tone, phrasing, and judgment - the less photogenic skills that actually make music hit.