wikipedia on Journey's lead singer change
Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 11:01 amIn July, 2006, Steve Augeri began experiencing problems with his voice and was forced to step down. He announced he was temporarily leaving the tour due to a throat infection which required that he rest his vocal cords.[7] The band hired Jeff Scott Soto, of Talisman, to fill in for him. In addition, Deen Castronovo, who had long been supplying background vocals and even backing up Augeri on lead, performed the lead vocals during power ballads like "Faithfully" and "Open Arms". On December 19, 2006, the band issued a statement on their official website naming Soto their new permanent lead singer. [1] Then, in an about-face, on June 12, 2007, Journey announced that Soto is no longer the lead singer, and said that they were looking to move in a new direction. [2]
The brief tenure of Jeff Scott Soto as lead singer resembled the equally brief tenure of Robert Fleischman in that position in 1977, out of which came the decision to hire Steve Perry. Fan speculation hinted that the band was seeking the same formula thirty years later.
As of November, 2007, a new lead singer had yet to be named. Longtime friend of the band and former Storm frontman, Kevin Chalfant, had been considered a strong candidate for the position. The band briefly gave serious consideration to 36-year-old Jeremey Hunsicker of Roanoke, Virginia, the frontman for the Journey tribute band Frontiers, but Hunsicker soon turned down the position.[3] Other conjectures included Hugo Valenti, the frontman for the New York-based Journey tribute band Evolution. In September, a picture surfaced of the band with little-known Filipino singer Arnel Pineda, from the former cover band Zoo (now performing original material).[4] Accompanying articles stated that Pineda had been invited to the United States to audition for the position of lead singer, and that MelodicRock.com's Andrew McNiece, who had been the first to accurately predict the departures of Steve Perry and Jeff Scott Soto, was now predicting Pineda's having been hired by the band.[5] (As reality sometimes mirrors fiction, the possible hiring of tribute-band lead vocalists is the plot of the 2001 film Rock Star starring Mark Wahlberg, coincidentally a film in which Jeff Scott Soto provided vocals for the original vocalist in the fictional band Steel Dragon.)
Steve Perry himself could not be ruled out for the position. Although Perry had stated numerous times that he would not return, he had been quoted repeatedly saying "never say never" in regards to returning to the band.[6][7] This possibility seemed highly unlikely after June 21, 2007, when Steve posted a message on Fanasylum.com squashing these rumors, saying that he had "no such plans whatsoever to do that."
Pulled from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_%28band%29
Looked up to see what they said was going on-ERIC
The brief tenure of Jeff Scott Soto as lead singer resembled the equally brief tenure of Robert Fleischman in that position in 1977, out of which came the decision to hire Steve Perry. Fan speculation hinted that the band was seeking the same formula thirty years later.
As of November, 2007, a new lead singer had yet to be named. Longtime friend of the band and former Storm frontman, Kevin Chalfant, had been considered a strong candidate for the position. The band briefly gave serious consideration to 36-year-old Jeremey Hunsicker of Roanoke, Virginia, the frontman for the Journey tribute band Frontiers, but Hunsicker soon turned down the position.[3] Other conjectures included Hugo Valenti, the frontman for the New York-based Journey tribute band Evolution. In September, a picture surfaced of the band with little-known Filipino singer Arnel Pineda, from the former cover band Zoo (now performing original material).[4] Accompanying articles stated that Pineda had been invited to the United States to audition for the position of lead singer, and that MelodicRock.com's Andrew McNiece, who had been the first to accurately predict the departures of Steve Perry and Jeff Scott Soto, was now predicting Pineda's having been hired by the band.[5] (As reality sometimes mirrors fiction, the possible hiring of tribute-band lead vocalists is the plot of the 2001 film Rock Star starring Mark Wahlberg, coincidentally a film in which Jeff Scott Soto provided vocals for the original vocalist in the fictional band Steel Dragon.)
Steve Perry himself could not be ruled out for the position. Although Perry had stated numerous times that he would not return, he had been quoted repeatedly saying "never say never" in regards to returning to the band.[6][7] This possibility seemed highly unlikely after June 21, 2007, when Steve posted a message on Fanasylum.com squashing these rumors, saying that he had "no such plans whatsoever to do that."
Pulled from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_%28band%29
Looked up to see what they said was going on-ERIC
