Why Is Gregg Rolie Always Disrespected?

It seems like greater fame and respect from the masses and the record companies always eludes Gregg Rolie. And I don't understand why. Who got all the fame in Santana? Santana, but it was Gregg Rolie's idea to record "Black Magic Woman" and it's him singing the song- yet everyone acts like he doesn't exist. Who got all the fame in Journey? Steve Perry, but Gregg left of his own free will, provided his own replacement, only to find out that lightning (starting an iconic band) may strike twice, but it's unlikely to strike thrice.
Here's his own words on how Journey got it's record contract.
“I was up in Seattle with a restaurant with my Dad and I really quit the music business and we were running this restaurant and thank God somebody called. Herbie (Herbert) and Neal (Schon) called me up and said, “What are you doing, we’re starting a band up.” And I said, “I’m not doing anything.” And so I thought I’d give it a shot. What I was told is that we were going to be The Golden Gate Rhythm Section and it was going to be a band for people that came through town or whatever. And within a week we were writing our own material. Which would have been normal for all of us and doing our own songs. And it was a band and then it took off.
Santana was a phenomena and everything kind of fell in place for us, it was amazing. And Journey was a work of art; it was a lot of work. We had to build it. We ended up signing to Columbia because they wouldn’t let me off my contract through Santana.”
So what happened next after you left Journey?
“I hadn’t played for a couple of years just noodled around in the house and stuff, I had no plans and then I did the solo album. And then I realized how hard that was. It was an interesting turn of events.”
Here he talks about how he was disrespected by Columbia.
Your first solo effort Gregg Rolie (1985) had some great artists performing on it- Carlos Santana, Peter Wolf (The J.Geils Band), ex bandmate Neil Schon and Craig Chaquico(The Jefferson Starship).
“In fact they did a trade of solos on a song called “Fire at Night” that’s still stunning. That song was about 7 or 8 minutes long and was getting airplay in the Midwest, St Louis I believe… and heavy airplay. But Columbia pulled the plug on it. The reason why and I understand this from the business aspect, why would they want to make me compete with Santana and Journey when they already had them. Why would they spend the money to further my career when they’ve got two bands that are doing that? And even though Neal and Carlos were on there… to my way of thinking it would have furthered their career as well and kept that whole thing going. But that’s not the way they see that and I understand that. They showed them and I was lucky to get the jackets printed. But that’s the record company you know?”
Gregg Rolie with Neal Schon & Carlos Santana "Fire At Night".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_ac_Gdrpfc
http://www.examiner.com/article/santana-and-journey-original-lead-singer-gregg-rolie-speaks-with-ray-shasho
Columbia Records didn't want to corner the market on Santana/Journey since they already had it. And they must not have thought he was worth the investment and that if he went somewhere else that he wouldn't be able to compete with either one of them. Which is what happened with The Storm. What I'm wondering is during his first 2 solo albums- did Gregg ever make an music videos?
I did not know that Rolie's first band William Penn & His Pals ever recorded anything.
But here's "Far & Away".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=388P8RJcR6U
And "Swami".
http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/07/william-penn-and-his-pals-william-penn.html
Here's someone else wondering why Gregg Rolie's so obscure. How can you be in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame and still be unfamous?
http://www.coneysrockmachine.com/greggroliecorner.htm

Here's his own words on how Journey got it's record contract.
“I was up in Seattle with a restaurant with my Dad and I really quit the music business and we were running this restaurant and thank God somebody called. Herbie (Herbert) and Neal (Schon) called me up and said, “What are you doing, we’re starting a band up.” And I said, “I’m not doing anything.” And so I thought I’d give it a shot. What I was told is that we were going to be The Golden Gate Rhythm Section and it was going to be a band for people that came through town or whatever. And within a week we were writing our own material. Which would have been normal for all of us and doing our own songs. And it was a band and then it took off.
Santana was a phenomena and everything kind of fell in place for us, it was amazing. And Journey was a work of art; it was a lot of work. We had to build it. We ended up signing to Columbia because they wouldn’t let me off my contract through Santana.”
So what happened next after you left Journey?
“I hadn’t played for a couple of years just noodled around in the house and stuff, I had no plans and then I did the solo album. And then I realized how hard that was. It was an interesting turn of events.”
Here he talks about how he was disrespected by Columbia.
Your first solo effort Gregg Rolie (1985) had some great artists performing on it- Carlos Santana, Peter Wolf (The J.Geils Band), ex bandmate Neil Schon and Craig Chaquico(The Jefferson Starship).
“In fact they did a trade of solos on a song called “Fire at Night” that’s still stunning. That song was about 7 or 8 minutes long and was getting airplay in the Midwest, St Louis I believe… and heavy airplay. But Columbia pulled the plug on it. The reason why and I understand this from the business aspect, why would they want to make me compete with Santana and Journey when they already had them. Why would they spend the money to further my career when they’ve got two bands that are doing that? And even though Neal and Carlos were on there… to my way of thinking it would have furthered their career as well and kept that whole thing going. But that’s not the way they see that and I understand that. They showed them and I was lucky to get the jackets printed. But that’s the record company you know?”
Gregg Rolie with Neal Schon & Carlos Santana "Fire At Night".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_ac_Gdrpfc
http://www.examiner.com/article/santana-and-journey-original-lead-singer-gregg-rolie-speaks-with-ray-shasho
Columbia Records didn't want to corner the market on Santana/Journey since they already had it. And they must not have thought he was worth the investment and that if he went somewhere else that he wouldn't be able to compete with either one of them. Which is what happened with The Storm. What I'm wondering is during his first 2 solo albums- did Gregg ever make an music videos?
I did not know that Rolie's first band William Penn & His Pals ever recorded anything.
But here's "Far & Away".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=388P8RJcR6U
And "Swami".
http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/07/william-penn-and-his-pals-william-penn.html
Here's someone else wondering why Gregg Rolie's so obscure. How can you be in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame and still be unfamous?
http://www.coneysrockmachine.com/greggroliecorner.htm