JEFF SCOTT SOTO Says It 'Hurts' To See JOURNEY Not Acknowled

[tater1977]

JEFF SCOTT SOTO Says It 'Hurts' To See JOURNEY Not Acknowledging His Time With The Band
June 25, 2019

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/jeff-s ... -the-band/

Jeff Scott Soto says it "hurts" to see JOURNEY not acknowledging the time he spent fronting the band.

Soto, who previously sang with Yngwie Malmsteen, joined JOURNEY about a week and half into a six-week summer 2006 tour with DEF LEPPARD, after Steve Augeri began having vocal issues. Soto had earlier worked with JOURNEY guitarist Neal Schon and drummer Deen Castronovo in the short-lived side project SOUL SIRKUS.

"[SOUL SIRKUS is] exactly what got me the JOURNEY gig," Jeff said during a recent appearance on "The Robbcast Podcast" (hear audio below). "There was not an audition. They were in a bind. Steve Augeri, he needed to go home — he needed to rest his voice, and they had an entire tour booked with DEF LEPPARD as a co-headlining bill, and sending everybody home would have cost them millions and it just have would been a big disappointment for the fans. So I only got that gig because they needed somebody to step up, and Neal knew I could step up without a single rehearsal — with a moment's notice, I could just step right in and continue those shows on without even a crack in the system."

Jeff went on to say that performing JOURNEY's classic songs originally sung by Steve Perry was no easy task. "It was difficult — it was really, really difficult to adapt," he admitted. "First of all, my voice was already kind of going through its changes. If I had gotten that JOURNEY gig even five years earlier, I would have destroyed, I would have just killed the range, the intensity of what Perry left behind.

"The biggest problem with adapting to JOURNEY and being their singer was the fact that Steve Perry was alive and well," Jeff continued. "It's a totally different situation when you have, like, say, QUEEN, for instance, and if QUEEN wanna continue, they clearly have to get a different singer. But if their singer is deceased, you know there's no chance of Freddie Mercury coming back. When Steve Perry is just sitting in his backyard sipping on some Kool-Aid, and you're on stage trying to pull his shit off, you've gotta a lot of people… They're gonna bag on you, because, 'We don't want this. We want Perry. Why doesn't Perry come back? This is bullshit. We want Perry.' I had to deal with a lot of that, as I'm sure Augeri had to, and even Arnel [Pineda, current JOURNEY singer] had to. If Perry's alive and well and he's got a voice, why isn't he out there? That's always the big question. So you've gotta battle that, you've gotta make it your own, you've gotta pull it off every night.

"And another thing is, when Perry was on tour back in the heyday of JOURNEY, they would do multiple nights and they would just kill the guy's voice with so many dates," Jeff added. "But Perry wrote that stuff, he created that stuff, so he could skirt around the original melodies, he could skirt around some of the high notes. But when you're somebody replacing Perry, you've gotta do it exactly like Perry or you're gonna get crucified. You've gotta nail every one of those notes the way those people expect to hear it or they're gonna say, 'You suck. Why are you even fronting that band?'

So, yeah, those are big shoes to fill with any band. Even [IRON MAIDEN's] Bruce Dickinson had to go through it, replacing Paul Di'Anno. [AC/DC's] Brian Johnson had to go through it replacing [Bon Scott]. The list goes on and on. But with a band that has a legacy sound like JOURNEY and the band's basically living off that legacy sound, they weren't trying to recreate or trying to reinvent themselves. They were basically just out there to do their catalog. That's a tough gig — that's a tough position to be in for anybody."

Asked if JOURNEY ever made him an official member of the band, Jeff said: "In December of 2006, when the entire DEF LEPPARD run was done for the year, there was an official press release that they inducted me as their permanent singer at that point. And this is the part that kind of pisses me off still to this day, because there's zero mention, there's zero attention brought to the fact that I was even in the band and I did those tours. You look at the JOURNEY web site, I don't exist — my name is not there. It goes from Perry to Augeri to Arnel. It's like it didn't exist. It's kind of strange. How can that not exist when I have… I have photo clippings. I even still have URL sites that show you when I was officially made a member of the band. And then for them to act like it didn't exist or to say that they wanted a signature sound and I was only supposed to be a hired gun and just to get them through the tour, that kind of bums me out, man. 'Cause have at least enough respect to tell the truth or to even sugarcoat it and say, 'Yeah, Jeff was a permanent member of the band, but we realized, as we were going into that, that it was a decision we had to change and that's why we moved on or eventually got Arnel,' or whatever. Because I was in the background listening to Neal doing interviews when we were doing the European tour, saying I was their new singer and that we could finally get past the ghost of Steve Perry and blah blah blah. I was there, and I heard all of that. And to not have that acknowledgement now, it just hurts."

According to Jeff, he never got as far as writing any new music with JOURNEY "except for one song." He explained: "We were hired for… it was kind of a corporate event in Virginia. It was a world polo match, of all things, and it was a celebrating for America. And they asked the band to write a song specifically for the event. So Jonathan Cain [JOURNEY keyboardist] wrote kind of a ballady thing with the lyrics that had to do with the finding of America and how it was Jamestown. It was like a history lesson in the lyrics. But when he sent me the song to demo it up, 'cause he was singing on it — obviously, he wanted to hear what I would do with it — and, man, I 'Perry-ed' the shit out of that. I used all my influence of Steve Perry, of everything that guy has ever brought into my life and I poured it on that song. And even Cain came back to me when he e-mailed me. He goes, 'Man, I love all the Perry-isms that you put in the song. You sound great.' I had that nice, soft, clean tenor voice on the song — it just sounded perfect; it sounded like JOURNEY. So I don't know where that comes from, that 'we needed somebody that had the signature sound.' Because, man, when and if I needed it, I had that signature sound. I didn't wanna be a Perry clone, but I had that in me — growing up with JOURNEY, growing up with that guy as sych a huge influence as a vocalist."

Jeff Scott Soto's career spans over 30 years. He was first introduced to the public as the vocalist for guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen's iconic first two solo albums before going on to front the esteemed hard rock band TALISMAN. He is also one of the vocalists for the wildly popular TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, the lead vocalist for supergroup W.E.T. (featuring JSS alongside members of ECLIPSE and WORK OF ART), creative visionary for the more metal-leaning SOTO, and frontman for the new supergroup, SONS OF APOLLO (which also features Mike Portnoy, Derek Sherinian, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and Billy Sheehan), among many other musical activities he has been and is involved in. He was also one of the vocalists for the officially sanctioned QUEEN tribute QUEEN EXTRAVAGANZA. His voice has led to many invitations to do guest lead or background vocals on a multitude of albums, including, but not limited to, STRYPER, Joel Hoekstra, SAIGON KICK, Fergie Frederiksen, Lita Ford, STEELHEART and many more.

[wednesday's child]

Soto has every right to feel and express himself as he does. I just worry if it's healthy.

Some time back Jeff said he'd found some closure on the blindside termination of his relationship with Journey,
supposedly after a conversation with Deen at some TSO gig. The newfound knowledge facilitating said 'closure'
should've informed him of the extreme LIKELIHOOD that he'd be omitted from some 'official' Journey history.

The same 'closure' should have come with acceptance that it doesn't matter what some 'official' history says or
doesn't say, when the fans know it's a BS history; that really, even the fans don't matter in the end.

A man or woman knows what they've done or failed to do, good and bad, and makes their own peace with it all,
with themselves, and with God ... on their own terms, not someone else's, and certainly not on the terms set
by someone who is their moral inferior.

JM2

[Andrew]

http://melodic-rock.com/Journey-LA2006/JourneyInLA.html

[scarab]

The last time I caught Journey live.
I was so Stoked cause JSS could rock the house down and yet sing amazing ballads.
His rendition of I'll be alright without you is spot on and is one of the few songs that he co-owns with Perry.
The only other is Deen with Mother, Father. Which is my favorite Journey song.

Arnel is great, and I wished I could have traveled overseas to hear some of the Eclipse songs live which they did sometimes 4-5 songs a night in Europe.

But I have no interest in paying to hearing the dirty dozen now.

I just truly sucks that JSS didnt record an album with them.

Love the man, love his voice and the major props he gave out to Perry when he sang in my hometown with the Eels was awesome.

I think the quote was Steve Perry is a god, I hope he comes back. He did, but I just hope he sings.

Still sucks when he did that interview for ABC with Robin Roberts and she asks next time could you sing for us and I was pretty much sure she was gonna say something along the lines of, I just miss (or we) your voice, but he cut her off and said for you I would do that.

[lparn]

Only saw one show with Jeff in 2006
I wasn't a huge fan of the soul sirkus CD
Admittedly had some concerns about writing direction of journey
Not questioning Jeff's talents or music
Have seen arnel with journey twice and continue to support Steve Augeri
Wish they'd do more revelation songs live
I do think and agree some of the ways
Situations were handled were incorrect
Was watching the rock legends segment last pm
And there were a few discrepancies
Thought Neal and Jeff were friends
Very odd and unethical way to handle things

[The_Noble_Cause]

In addition to filling-in last minute, Soto also made a since outreach to fans old and new to move the band forward. His comments here are appreciated because he has many of the same unanswered questions many fans have. There's no doubt about it that the band fucked him.

Also, the article is inaccurate regarding Augeri's vocal issues starting "a week and a half into" the Def co-tour. The band was aware of the issue at the start of the Generations tour. Pure greed.

[lparn]

I love the programming on Axs tv however they need to do more research on some programs
The band historically doesn't handle things well

[Monker]

In addition to filling-in last minute, Soto also made a since outreach to fans old and new to move the band forward. His comments here are appreciated because he has many of the same unanswered questions many fans have. There's no doubt about it that the band fucked him.

Also, the article is inaccurate regarding Augeri's vocal issues starting "a week and a half into" the Def co-tour. The band was aware of the issue at the start of the Generations tour. Pure greed.

That is the thing that many do not want to admit...that Journey has fucked a lot of people. Even Deen eventually admitted that I was right about that. Aynsley could say the same about how he was fired. Fleischman was fired after secretly auditioning Perry. The pre-Perry reunion band was fucked, and that included Herbie, Rolie, and Chalfant. Augeri was fucked by over touring and then laying the entirety of his vocal issues on him alone, and the entirety of the "tape gate". And, I assume they fucked Deen by using him for tapegate and then losing his number after they (Neal) was done with him.

Journey is a ruthless and cut throat business partner. If you get too involved and too close, there is a large chance you are going to get screwed. They NEED Arnel right now...but, if they didn't, he would be cut loose and replaced, too. Loyalty only exists when you can make them money. That is the bottom line truth to Journey.

Yes, JSS came on here to interact with fans. I interacted with him too...him trying to convince me that he was a good replacement - which I never believed. But, it was admirable of him to reach out and put forth the effort. Being angry and hurt and all of this other stuff for things that happened so long ago is a bit old. He should remember that if he were not fired, he would not be in WET...and I would rather listen to any of the WET albums than the last two Journey album...he should be prouder of those than anything he did with Journey, or Neal.

[Hollywood]

In addition to filling-in last minute, Soto also made a since outreach to fans old and new to move the band forward. His comments here are appreciated because he has many of the same unanswered questions many fans have. There's no doubt about it that the band fucked him.

Also, the article is inaccurate regarding Augeri's vocal issues starting "a week and a half into" the Def co-tour. The band was aware of the issue at the start of the Generations tour. Pure greed.

That is the thing that many do not want to admit...that Journey has fucked a lot of people. Even Deen eventually admitted that I was right about that. Aynsley could say the same about how he was fired. Fleischman was fired after secretly auditioning Perry. The pre-Perry reunion band was fucked, and that included Herbie, Rolie, and Chalfant. Augeri was fucked by over touring and then laying the entirety of his vocal issues on him alone, and the entirety of the "tape gate". And, I assume they fucked Deen by using him for tapegate and then losing his number after they (Neal) was done with him.

Journey is a ruthless and cut throat business partner. If you get too involved and too close, there is a large chance you are going to get screwed. They NEED Arnel right now...but, if they didn't, he would be cut loose and replaced, too. Loyalty only exists when you can make them money. That is the bottom line truth to Journey.

Yes, JSS came on here to interact with fans. I interacted with him too...him trying to convince me that he was a good replacement - which I never believed. But, it was admirable of him to reach out and put forth the effort. Being angry and hurt and all of this other stuff for things that happened so long ago is a bit old. He should remember that if he were not fired, he would not be in WET...and I would rather listen to any of the WET albums than the last two Journey album...he should be prouder of those than anything he did with Journey, or Neal.

Aynsley and Deen were fired for cause, but yes they have screwed people over Schon and Perry with Cain being the messenger for the dismissals.

[jestor92]

Wasn’t deen fired because of drugs and the arrest?

[RonaldDupris]

Jeff needs to let it go and move on. Dude was in the band for less than a year. He looks terrible by the way, almost unrecognizable anymore in that picture.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Jeff needs to let it go and move on. Dude was in the band for less than a year. He looks terrible by the way, almost unrecognizable anymore in that picture.

The interviewer is the one who brought JSS's time in Journey. Truthfully answering a reporter's questions doesn't mean someone is stuck living in the past. Soto has released aton of musically interesting projects post-Journey.

[WalrusOct9]

Soto looks and sounds great. Of course he looks different than he did 13 years ago, but he looks and sounds amazing for 53. His new album (under the SOTO moniker) is a great metal record, and Sons Of Apollo have a 2nd studio record coming out this year, hopefully.

Saw him live last year with SOA and he sounded as great as ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQNWomG4j9o

[RonaldDupris]

Jeff needs to let it go and move on. Dude was in the band for less than a year. He looks terrible by the way, almost unrecognizable anymore in that picture.

The interviewer is the one who brought JSS's time in Journey. Truthfully answering a reporter's questions doesn't mean someone is stuck living in the past. Soto has released aton of musically interesting projects post-Journey.

And then he goes off on a tangent everytime and still seems just as hurt today as he was in 2007. He needs to let it go.

No disrespect but I'm starting to think Journey were justified in getting rid of him. From all the interviews I've seen, the guy doesn't appear to be all there mentally.

[The_Noble_Cause]

No disrespect but I'm starting to think Journey were justified in getting rid of him. From all the interviews I've seen, the guy doesn't appear to be all there mentally.

I think you're doing a bad job at rolling. Attacking Jeff on everything from his looks to mental stability? Have you read Neal's social media pages lately? Now there's a guy who sounds like he's completely lost his shit.

[RonaldDupris]

What is rolling?

When I see an individual who's immensely successful, very lucky, and lived out tons of dreams, bitching time after time over the years about his 8-to-10 months that he was in Journey and how they fired him and blah, blah, blah and still not able to move on after 12 years, then YES, I DO question his mental health. It's not healthy to still be that bent on something that happened 12 years ago and ultimately was a very small part of his huge, successful career. If he still can't let it go after 12 years, then yes, I would absolutely suggest therapy and I'm not joking. Move on finally Jeff.

[The_Noble_Cause]

What is rolling?

Meant to say trolling. I quickly posted using my phone.

When I see an individual who's immensely successful, very lucky, and lived out tons of dreams, bitching time after time over the years about his 8-to-10 months that he was in Journey and how they fired him and blah, blah, blah and still not able to move on after 12 years, then YES, I DO question his mental health. It's not healthy to still be that bent on something that happened 12 years ago and ultimately was a very small part of his huge, successful career. If he still can't let it go after 12 years, then yes, I would absolutely suggest therapy and I'm not joking. Move on finally Jeff.

You're making all sorts of assumptions. Just because someone mentions unethical shitty treatment doesn't mean that someone "hasn't moved on." I'm glad Jeff still brings it up when asked. The band has alot to answer for.

[yulog]

What is rolling?

When I see an individual who's immensely successful, very lucky, and lived out tons of dreams, bitching time after time over the years about his 8-to-10 months that he was in Journey and how they fired him and blah, blah, blah and still not able to move on after 12 years, then YES, I DO question his mental health. It's not healthy to still be that bent on something that happened 12 years ago and ultimately was a very small part of his huge, successful career. If he still can't let it go after 12 years, then yes, I would absolutely suggest therapy and I'm not joking. Move on finally Jeff.

How many times have you seen him bitching about it? Are we sure it isn't just interviewers that keep asking the same questions over and over the last 12 years. The fact that he has the Soto project, Wet, Sons of Apollo etc would indicate that he has moved on.

[jestor92]

With all due respect to Jeff he probably would’ve made more money in Journey than all of his projects since being left go. Personally I don’t think his voice would’ve survived the Perry gauntlet. I have enjoyed a lot of the material he’s released since they went their separate ways though and Sons of Apollo have gotten good press and put out a solid debut. I hope the live album is as good as it looks on paper