Fire99 wrote:Apologies if im repeating something already said (the thread is getting rather looooong) but the voice issue regarding JSS does quite frankly smell something dodgy..
They worked together previously on Soul Sirkus so Neal and Dean would be both very aware of what Jeff's vocal range sounded like and his style etc..
Not to mention Jeff's 20 odd year history with other projects..
Come on these guys are professionals. you can't ignore Jeff's back catalog, Soul Sirkus plus a good number of live Journey shows and then listen to a couple of Demo's and say.. "oooooo Jeff's voice isn't right for us"
I don't know the facts (as most of us don't) but that just doesn't add up one bit..
That's what strikes me a little odd. You can say a lot of things about JSS, but you can't say he doesn't have enough of a catalogue of recorded works for you to know what you will be getting if you hire him. Call it good, call it bad, but you can't expect him to sound like a totally different singer when you send him a Journey song to sing. He's going to sound pretty much the way he always has. They knew what he sounded like going in, and certainly knew after playing live with him for about 6 months. It doesn't matter though. Journey got someone they are happy with, and are selling a bunch of albums, and are headlining a very profitable tour.
In the end, it's obvious they considered JSS a stop-gap replacement to finish the tour...and then the tour started going really well. They start getting a lot of good reviews, and praise for JSS. Band reconsiders, and then decides maybe we should keep the guy. At some point, things change and they decide they are going to move a different direction.
Now, everything went down after the Virginia show, and probably leading up to, if not into, the Talisman tour--at least the legal stuff. All works well until someone not in the band tells JSS. Now everyone here tries to strangle the band members for being cheap, inconsiderate, etc. A phone call from management simply stating "Thank you for your time, but your services are no longer required. Journey has decided to move in a different direction" would have worked fine. Of course, if you factor in the time to make any decision legal, it's very possible that the Talisman tour had started by the time the paperwork was cleared. The "nice" thing to do is to not ruin the guy's tour, so you simply plan to notify him once the tour ends, and he gets back home. Then, the loose lips event happens. What do you do? If you say anything, you open yourself for a lawsuit. So, under legal advice, you stay silent before it blows up into the general media. Sure, the hardcore fanbase hears about it on the internet--but if band member A sneezes in Acapulco, you hear about it on the internet. You control what you can, and try and keep the bloodbath from reaching CNN, CBS, etc. From that standpoint, it worked. Nobody outside of the diehards knew, or cared. Compared to the Augeri debacle, this was kept under wraps very well. I'm not saying this is what happened, but it is a possible theory that would explain the actions.
