MR

JUST A QUESTION..
BESIDES STEVE AUGERI & KEVIN CHALFANT DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT SINGERS JOURNEY AUDITIONED WHEN REPLACING PERRY?

I KNOW HUGO NEVER AUDITIONED..

Weren't you told to beat it!! the sheriff will be in here any minute....

NAH, I DID THE TIME FOR MY TRADING CRIMES....

Geoff Tate (Queensryche) was the other vocalist considered.

roknroseville wrote:NAH, I DID THE TIME FOR MY TRADING CRIMES....

just messin with ya man...

Andrew wrote:Geoff Tate (Queensryche) was the other vocalist considered.

For real?!-ERIC

Abitaman wrote:

Andrew wrote:Geoff Tate (Queensryche) was the other vocalist considered.

For real?!-ERIC

Dead set.

Quoting Neal (and me):

"Tell me how many people and who you auditioned for the new singer position?
There were only really 2 that we had checked out.
We had played with Kevin Chalfant a long long time ago, and we kind of felt that since Kevin had done The Storm thing, that it wasn't the right thing to do.
We felt that The Storm was a mini Journey band.

Well it was close, with Gregg Rolie and Ross Valory there…
Yeah, and it had Smith at one point and then he quit. I just felt like I wanted to start on fresh grounds. When we met Steve Augeri, he was from Brooklyn New York, I am from the East Coast, and he is Italian. So now we have three of us in the band which is real great!
He just had the right personality, he looks really good on stage, he has his own little vibe. He is not pretentious, he is not a poser type of singer. He just gets up there and does his thing and he really pulls it off.
He is a super guy. The guy definitely has his feet firmly planted in the ground.
He is a well-rounded person. A very classy individual.

John West was also another you looked at…. (I forgot about JW)
John West we tried out. He sounded amazingly like Perry too. We just decided he was not the right guy. Personality wise and I didn't think he fitted as well as Steve did.

How many other suggestions did you get?
We tried out the guy from Queensryche.

So you did do that!
We tried Geoff Tate, yeah. He came out and we actually wrote a pretty cool song with him but he was not the right guy to cover the old material.
When we tried playing the older material it obviously was not the right guy.
But a super nice guy as well."


Full interiew: http://www.melodicrock.com/interviews/nealschon.html (1998 interview)

Thanks-ERIC

ANDREW,

THANKS FOR THE INFO!!
JOHN WEST IS A GOOD SINGER
I CAN'T IMAGINE GEOFF TATE SINGING LOVIN TOUCHIN SQUEEZIN..
QUEENSRYCHE DOESN'T HAVE A LOT OF TOUCHY FEELY SONGS.

I JUST HAD A JOURNEY STORM MOMENT.
I 'M WATCHING A LIVE DVD OF THE STORM IN 1992 PERFORMING JUST THE SAME WAY KEVIN CHALFANT SINGS STEVE PERRYS PART PERECTLY!

GEOFF TATE!

I love Queensryche and would've lost my mayo if he was chosen as a new Journey singer.

What song did he write with Neal and the boys, and is it available anywhere? I need to hear this!

The song has never appeared...and probably won't.

That song wouldn't be "Walking Away From The Edge", would it?

From the 2001 MR Augeri interview:

And the Geoff Tate song was spectacular. Stellar. And it was just brilliant. And it didn't make the record and I swore it would. It had a great ethereal, great moody vibe to it. It was very Pink Floydish. It had that dark thing going on. And I hope perhaps a soundtrack. I think it would be definitely suited for a soundtrack or something like that. "Walking Away From the Edge" it's called.

I still don't believe that is the song and a check of writers credits does not list Tate. I'll have to ask Neal next time I get a chance.

Andrew wrote:John West was also another you looked at…. (I forgot about JW)
John West we tried out. He sounded amazingly like Perry too. We just decided he was not the right guy. Personality wise and I didn't think he fitted as well as Steve did.

I had forgotten about John West. I think he would've worked very well. Regardless, he's now singing with European progressive metal band Royal Hunt and doing a great job at it.

Walking Away WAS the song, I believe. It was SOMETHING off RED13 and I'm 98% sure that was it.
I have a mutual acquaintance who's played with both Geoff and myself. I guess Tate was pissed he didn't get a writing credit on that. I would be too.

If you think about it, for a band like Journey, they sure didn't look at that many different singers.

LONG LIVE STEVE PERRY SOUNDALIKES....
THING OF HOW MANY ROBERT PLANT HAS....

I just asked John West about this - I'll see if he will allow me to post his reply here about what the experience was like for him

Tate would NEVER work for Journey but I remember hearing about that
and always hoped that Neal and Geoff would've done a little side-project together.
Neals riffs and melodies with that voice could be incredible!

While I think Geoff Tate is a strong singer, I doubt he would've fit with the band myself. Just everything I hear about him and hear about the guys in Journey, I don't think they'd quite mesh. Not a slam on either group, but shit, there's plenty of people I don't necessarily like or get along with, but that's not a slam on me or them.

The idea is intriguiging though.

GEOFF TATE..?!?


wow - that would have been... interesting


John -

I was re-listening to a Storm boot the other day (thanks Abitaman) and couldn't help but notice Chalfant fumbling notes. Much like Augeri, when he can't go high enough, he will stop and awkwardly declare where the band is playing ("Hello Wisconsin!").
Still, Chalfant's natural range is much higher than Augeri's and he sounds high-pitched without really reaching for it. On many Augeri boots I have to wince 'cuz it sounds like he's hurting himself.

roknroseville wrote:I JUST HAD A JOURNEY STORM MOMENT.
I 'M WATCHING A LIVE DVD OF THE STORM IN 1992 PERFORMING JUST THE SAME WAY KEVIN CHALFANT SINGS STEVE PERRYS PART PERECTLY!

He was Herbie Herbert's personal choice to succeed Perry.
Herbie picked Perry. Herbie made the band into what it is.
You can't argue with his track record.
Jon Cain needs to let go of the reins and give them back to Herbie.

The_Noble_Cause wrote:Jon Cain needs to let go of the reins and give them back to Herbie.

I could not agree more-ERIC

Abitaman wrote:

The_Noble_Cause wrote:Jon Cain needs to let go of the reins and give them back to Herbie.

I could not agree more-ERIC

I think Neal not Jon is holding on to the reins in question. As far as Herbie goes... I bet he is happy to not be involved in all this bs.

I think HH has already said he wouldn't do it again.

Why do I remember hearing something about Michael Bolton auditioning? Or was that for The Storm or one of the other off shoots? Personally, I can't stand Michael Bolton - he constantly sounds & looks like he is gonna hemorrage any second when singing...def glad he wasn't selected.

silverblue wrote:Why do I remember hearing something about Michael Bolton auditioning? Or was that for The Storm or one of the other off shoots? Personally, I can't stand Michael Bolton - he constantly sounds & looks like he is gonna hemorrage any second when singing...def glad he wasn't selected.

journey joined boltons band for a few tunes on the Hunger album,, well , neal , jon, randy , and ole mugs cain....pretty good drummer!! that was a decent rocker,, but i agree those guys that have veins poping out of their head when singing scare me...

mugs, second from the left..

brianh28 wrote:I think Neal not Jon is holding on to the reins in question.

I think you far ovestimate Neal's power.
He is the guitar player, Jon is the braintrust.

As Herbie said repeatedly about Cain "you can't trust that fork tongued motherfucker" (paraphrase mine).