That sensibility caught the attention of Journey's management in San Francisco. In 1977, the band — then known primarily as a jazz-rock fusion outfit with three albums and little commercial traction to show for it — was under pressure from its label to find a more radio-friendly identity. Manager Herbie Herbert brought Fleischman in as the band's first true frontman, and the shift paid off almost immediately: working alongside Neal Schon, Gregg Rolie, and the rest of the group, Fleischman co-wrote "Wheel in the Sky," "Anytime," and "Winds of March," songs that would help push Journey toward the arena-rock sound that defined the rest of its career. He performed with the band to crowds numbering in the tens of thousands during this stretch.
 

His tenure, however, was short. Creative and management friction led to his departure by late 1977, before he had the chance to record a studio album with the band — the songs he'd helped shape ended up appearing on Journey's breakthrough record, Infinity, sung by his successor, Steve Perry. Despite the abrupt exit, the band never erased his contribution: when Journey was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005, Fleischman was invited as part of the ceremony.
 

Fleischman didn't stay out of the spotlight long. He signed to Arista Records and, working with producer Jimmy Iovine, released his solo debut, Perfect Stranger, in 1979 — an album that included his former Journey bandmate Neal Schon. A national tour followed, with Fleischman opening for acts like Van Halen, Eddie Money, Boston, and Sammy Hagar.

In the early 1980s he formed the melodic rock band Channel, and later in the decade he joined forces with guitarist Vinnie Vincent, formerly of KISS, in Vinnie Vincent Invasion. Around the same period, from 1985 to 1986, he was briefly connected to the British rock band Asia — introduced through Carl Palmer and Geffen Records executive John Kalodner as a possible replacement lead singer. After working through new material with the group, Fleischman and the band mutually agreed that vocalist John Wetton was the better fit for the songs, and he returned to the U.S. on good terms.
 

Fleischman eventually settled into a quieter but steady chapter of his career, relocating and forming the "retro modern British rock and roll" band The Sky, with whom he continued to write and perform. He also returned to solo recording later in life, releasing Dreaming in Tongues in 2004 and Look at the Dream in 2007, followed by Emotional Atlas in 2024 — a body of work that reflects the same pop-rock songwriting instincts that first got him noticed decades earlier in Torrance.
 

Though his time with Journey lasted less than a year, Robert Fleischman's fingerprints remain on some of the band's most enduring songs, and his decades-long career as a singer-songwriter has continued well beyond that brief, pivotal chapter.
 

Today, Fleischman continues to balance two creative lives at once. He remains active in music with his band The Sky, and in 2016 saw Journey — and by extension his own early contributions — further recognized with the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Alongside his recording career, Fleischman has built a serious second act as a visual artist, working across collage, painting, and mixed media in a style rooted in abstract expressionism. His interest in visual art actually predates his music career — he began making surrealist collages as a teenager, cutting images from books and magazines, with the artwork on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's album among his early influences. He later moved that same collage practice onto a tablet, building compositions digitally before working with a printer to finalize them at scale. His paintings, often combining oil and collage elements, have been described as bold, colorful, and Fauvist in character.
 

His work has been shown in gallery exhibitions around the country — including a solo show that drew fellow musicians and collectors alike — and his pieces, spanning collage, oil painting, digital art, and sculpture, are now held in private collections around the world. For Fleischman, the two disciplines feel like natural counterparts rather than competing pursuits: where music is collaborative and loud, he's described his visual art as a quieter, more solitary outlet — "silent music," in his words — that lets him keep creating even when he steps off the stage.