Official word from the Caveman

[Lerxst101]

I let Kevin Shirley know about the latest rumors. He just asked me to post the following:

Tom,
Thanks for the email.
A quick reply from my phone - forgive the brevity.
Feel free to post this if you wish.
Neal and Jon called me and asked me in November to check out a couple of new songs, for an upcoming and possible project with Journey.
I went to San Francisco to assess the new Journey and check out the material. I am so swamped, have a new baby and I did not want to be involved if it wasn't focused and great. I thought I'd be there for 2 days. First, I was stunned at Arnel, who is a monster vocalist. He is the real deal. Just phenomenal. Its true they found him on YouTube. Next I heard the songs. I am always in awe of Jonathan Cain as songwriter/producer and together with Neal, who adds the rock element, they are one of the great songwriting partnerships. Its true they don't always see eye to eye musically, but the combination is magic. We spent a while talking and seeing where they were at. I have been brutally honest with them, and was not interested in being any part of them being a nostalgia/tribute band, which could happen if their focus got lost, which it has been. Some of the songs were lacking direction which I, as an outspoken and brutal outsider, immediately pointed out and set about repairing. So I cut a couple of tracks - and have been school teacher/policeman-producer with them, and with all the shit out of the way, you have to hear them ignore their egos and me, and just play as Journey. All together in the studio. What a privilege to see all 5 of them playing together. They are fantastic. I am always cogniscent of the space Perry and Smith occupy in the sound and legacy, and won't let that be underplayed, and Deen and Arnel are brilliant musicians, and with a little focus the entire band has found their place again. This is stronger than Trial By Fire and sounds like Journey, but state-of-the-art. People always talk up upcoming material, but just wait. Its unbelievable. There's a full album of new material coming, but much more, too. Don't believe all you read - there is no one else but the band in the studio to hear the music (although we do have a Make-A-Wish kid coming in soon).
And that's the dirt from Las Vegas, where I am mixing seven new original songs. I head back to San Francisco after a quick visit to London, to see the Led Zep reunion, to finish off where we began. I can't wait, and you are going to love it!
Merry Xmas,
KS

[m]

thanks, verrry interesting,... and a little surreal

[brywool]

Okay, so it's NEW material. THAT I will listen to. Not rehashed classics.
And yeah, Arnel IS a monster vocalist. Thanks for sharing, though I can't imagine Shirley'd be too happy to now his message is out here.

Good luck!

[ohsherrie]

Nope, I want no part of anything they do.

[fightingilliniJRNY]

Okay, so it's NEW material. THAT I will listen to. Not rehashed classics.

Might be both, but still...new material...I'll give that a listen.

I can't imagine Shirley'd be too happy to now his message is out here.

Unless I'm reading it incorrectly, the poster has the go-ahead from Shirley to post it here.

[Lerxst101]

Okay, so it's NEW material. THAT I will listen to. Not rehashed classics.
And yeah, Arnel IS a monster vocalist. Thanks for sharing, though I can't imagine Shirley'd be too happy to now his message is out here.

Good luck!

I was worried about that, too, so I e-mailed him back to confirm whether he really wanted it posted. He replied, "Yep post away."

[fightingilliniJRNY]

I was worried about that, too, so I e-mailed him back to confirm whether he really wanted it posted. He replied, "Yep post away."

Interesting. Any timetable on anything? Thanks for sharing what you did, by the way.

[conversationpc]

Truthfully, I am interested in hearing any new material but not terribly thrilled with the rehashing of the classic stuff. Still not interested in seeing them live again, either.

[Deb]

Truthfully, I am interested in hearing any new material but not terribly thrilled with the rehashing of the classic stuff. Still not interested in seeing them live again, either.

Same here. Interesting.......must say, my curiosity is a little piqued to just have a quick listen to some new material.

Thanks for sharing your email with us Tom.

[Lerxst101]

I was worried about that, too, so I e-mailed him back to confirm whether he really wanted it posted. He replied, "Yep post away."

Interesting. Any timetable on anything? Thanks for sharing what you did, by the way.

I didn't want to step over the "boundary," so I didn't ask. I, too, have no interest in hearing the classics redone. I wonder if they are recording both old and new (with Kevin involved only with the new material) to release them either separately (of course the rehash issued first) or as a package.

[Matthew]

All sounds good to me. The situation seems so much better than I thought it would be.

[bluejeangirl76]

Okay, so it's NEW material.

"There's a full album of new material coming, but much more, too."

I take that to mean it's probably both. New stuff as well as this other project of fucking up the hits. I mean... re-recording the hits. Note the re-recording issue wasn't addressed specifically. But of course as Andrew said, details are still being hammered out witht he big bad W corp. so no suprise that there's no specific mention to it.

[*Laura]

This is stronger than Trial By Fire and sounds like Journey, but state-of-the-art. People always talk up upcoming material, but just wait. Its unbelievable. There's a full album of new material coming, but much more, too.

Sounds really promising.

Thanks for posting.

[Ratgirl]

Truthfully, I am interested in hearing any new material but not terribly thrilled with the rehashing of the classic stuff. Still not interested in seeing them live again, either.

Same here. Interesting.......must say, my curiosity is a little piqued to just have a quick listen to some new material.

Thanks for sharing your email with us Tom.

Maybe it'll be a box set of new material and re-recordings of the classics.. hmmm, no thanks!
Why re-do perfection? I'll wait for someone to post the CD here.

Thanks for posting Tom!

[BobbyinTN]

Awesome!! New material is the way to go.

[MCC620]

so did anyone expect Kevin Shirley to say he's working on a project with Journey and it sucks? Of course he is going to say it's amazing and awesome. bottom line is many will buy it out of curiosity, just like they did when Arrival came out. and just for the record, the Arrival dvd was released AFTER the pay-per-view free concert, so most knew they weren't getting SP. It will be interesting to see how this all gets marketed to the general public.

[Red13JoePa]

Wait.

One report says not only are the redoing classic songs, but there's a full album of them done and in the can, then Shirly comes to the table with this, no mention of the redos but says he has 7 new Jrny songs with Pinheada to cut???

[fredinator]

I don't know that he would have put that glowing review on his website if he really didn't think it was good... I am really, really looking forward to it.

[Matthew]

so did anyone expect Kevin Shirley to say he's working on a project with Journey and it sucks? Of course he is going to say it's amazing and awesome.

No - but the fact that he clearly expected it to suck and realised that it didn't and THEN choose to sign up for it counts for something, I think.

[fredinator]

This report seems more credible to me especially since it jives with KS' website.

[ohsherrie]

so did anyone expect Kevin Shirley to say he's working on a project with Journey and it sucks? Of course he is going to say it's amazing and awesome. bottom line is many will buy it out of curiosity, just like they did when Arrival came out. and just for the record, the Arrival dvd was released AFTER the pay-per-view free concert, so most knew they weren't getting SP. It will be interesting to see how this all gets marketed to the general public.

Only people who watched it. I didn't even know it was being shown until my niece called me and told me she'd come across it while looking for a movie. I know of several people just within my small sphere of acquaintances who bought Arrival without realizing they weren't getting Perry.

[brywool]

so did anyone expect Kevin Shirley to say he's working on a project with Journey and it sucks?

Actually, he nearly did say that but that the band pulled it together.

Of course he is going to say it's amazing and awesome. bottom line is many will buy it out of curiosity, just like they did when Arrival came out.

Arrival was new music. And it was good.


Shirley can work with anyone he wants these days. It would do him NO GOOD (in fact it might hurt his reputation) to be involved in an inferior project (If they re-record "Infinity" they should call it "Inferior" ). I seriously doubt that if it sucked, he'd be involved. Nor would any other credible producer.

If they had an album of new stuff with one classic re-recorded, that'd be okay. I still don't know if I'd buy it just from the crap this band has pulled. I would think that I wouldn't buy it. Also- Shirley hit it on the head with the "unfocused" comment. Didn't the band produce "red 13"? THAT was unfocused. Listenable, but unfocused just the same.

[STORY_TELLER]

I started a separate thread, but will post here as well. I let Kevin Shirley know about the latest rumors. He just asked me to post the following:

Tom,
Thanks for the email.
A quick reply from my phone - forgive the brevity.
Feel free to post this if you wish.
Neal and Jon called me and asked me in November to check out a couple of new songs, for an upcoming and possible project with Journey.
I went to San Francisco to assess the new Journey and check out the material. I am so swamped, have a new baby and I did not want to be involved if it wasn't focused and great. I thought I'd be there for 2 days. First, I was stunned at Arnel, who is a monster vocalist. He is the real deal. Just phenomenal. Its true they found him on YouTube. Next I heard the songs. I am always in awe of Jonathan Cain as songwriter/producer and together with Neal, who adds the rock element, they are one of the great songwriting partnerships. Its true they don't always see eye to eye musically, but the combination is magic. We spent a while talking and seeing where they were at. I have been brutally honest with them, and was not interested in being any part of them being a nostalgia/tribute band, which could happen if their focus got lost, which it has been. Some of the songs were lacking direction which I, as an outspoken and brutal outsider, immediately pointed out and set about repairing. So I cut a couple of tracks - and have been school teacher/policeman-producer with them, and with all the shit out of the way, you have to hear them ignore their egos and me, and just play as Journey. All together in the studio. What a privilege to see all 5 of them playing together. They are fantastic. I am always cogniscent of the space Perry and Smith occupy in the sound and legacy, and won't let that be underplayed, and Deen and Arnel are brilliant musicians, and with a little focus the entire band has found their place again. This is stronger than Trial By Fire and sounds like Journey, but state-of-the-art. People always talk up upcoming material, but just wait. Its unbelievable. There's a full album of new material coming, but much more, too. Don't believe all you read - there is no one else but the band in the studio to hear the music (although we do have a Make-A-Wish kid coming in soon).
And that's the dirt from Las Vegas, where I am mixing seven new original songs. I head back to San Francisco after a quick visit to London, to see the Led Zep reunion, to finish off where we began. I can't wait, and you are going to love it!
Merry Xmas,
KS

If this is true then it's welcome news. I could support a 'double album' as long as there was new material, but I wouldn't purchase it without hearing samples first. They have to prove to me that Arnel is the man. I'm not forking over money to this band on faith anymore.

All that criteria being satisfied, if I were to buy it, I seriously doubt I'd load the re-recorded GH tracks into my iPod. Would I give it a listen to get a sense of what Arnel would sound like in concert? Sure. Would I continue to play the tracks after that? No. Perry already invented those melodies and those vocal hooks. They belong to him and him alone. Everyone else is just mimicking what he created. Why listen to a copycat when the originals, to this day, hold up so well? Very easy to copy or karaoke what someone else invented. Not so easy to originate that same magic. That's the difference between talent and skill.

[STORY_TELLER]

and just for the record, the Arrival dvd was released AFTER the pay-per-view free concert, so most knew they weren't getting SP. It will be interesting to see how this all gets marketed to the general public.

How the hell do you know how many people even knew about let alone watched the pay per view concert? I didn't. This is the first I'm hearing of it and I own the DVD. Haven't played it since the first time I watched it either. Augeri is a weak vocalist on Journey material.

[larryfromnextdoor]

I let Kevin Shirley know about the latest rumors.

hey there, who are you? you gotta story?

[STORY_TELLER]

I let Kevin Shirley know about the latest rumors.

hey there, who are you? you gotta story?

I was going to bring this up next, but Larry here beat me to the punch. Who the hell is Lerxst101 and how do we know he's on the level?

[MCC620]

so did anyone expect Kevin Shirley to say he's working on a project with Journey and it sucks? Of course he is going to say it's amazing and awesome. bottom line is many will buy it out of curiosity, just like they did when Arrival came out. and just for the record, the Arrival dvd was released AFTER the pay-per-view free concert, so most knew they weren't getting SP. It will be interesting to see how this all gets marketed to the general public.

Only people who watched it. I didn't even know it was being shown until my niece called me and told me she'd come across it while looking for a movie. I know of several people just within my small sphere of acquaintances who bought Arrival without realizing they weren't getting Perry.

you so hate augeri you can't even admit that people saw the direct tv special, enjoyed it, and went out and bought the dvd and the cd and concert tickets because of it. and it was because the whole package worked for many casual fans. and of those casual fans many became die-hard "new" fans because of augeri. just like so many became die-hard "new" fans because of jss.

[ScarabGator]

This is what I referred to on the other thread about the new Journey CD, but from a different source...

[Red13JoePa]

so did anyone expect Kevin Shirley to say he's working on a project with Journey and it sucks? Of course he is going to say it's amazing and awesome. bottom line is many will buy it out of curiosity, just like they did when Arrival came out. and just for the record, the Arrival dvd was released AFTER the pay-per-view free concert, so most knew they weren't getting SP. It will be interesting to see how this all gets marketed to the general public.

Only people who watched it. I didn't even know it was being shown until my niece called me and told me she'd come across it while looking for a movie. I know of several people just within my small sphere of acquaintances who bought Arrival without realizing they weren't getting Perry.

you so hate augeri you can't even admit that people saw the direct tv special, enjoyed it, and went out and bought the dvd and the cd and concert tickets because of it. and it was because the whole package worked for many casual fans. and of those casual fans many became die-hard "new" fans because of augeri. just like so many became die-hard "new" fans because of jss.

Yep.
that's our Sherrie There are people like that (Matto, you're one of them too) who want to attribute just about every single unit shifted that made that dvd platinum to Perry, 3 years after he was bounced. Same with the Arrival album. Images of perry at the helm, 3 years after his departure was reported in every music medium in the world (and despite a sticker on the ablum listing the lineup) was the reason it got to 300K

[ohsherrie]

so did anyone expect Kevin Shirley to say he's working on a project with Journey and it sucks? Of course he is going to say it's amazing and awesome. bottom line is many will buy it out of curiosity, just like they did when Arrival came out. and just for the record, the Arrival dvd was released AFTER the pay-per-view free concert, so most knew they weren't getting SP. It will be interesting to see how this all gets marketed to the general public.

Only people who watched it. I didn't even know it was being shown until my niece called me and told me she'd come across it while looking for a movie. I know of several people just within my small sphere of acquaintances who bought Arrival without realizing they weren't getting Perry.

you so hate augeri you can't even admit that people saw the direct tv special, enjoyed it, and went out and bought the dvd and the cd and concert tickets because of it. and it was because the whole package worked for many casual fans. and of those casual fans many became die-hard "new" fans because of augeri. just like so many became die-hard "new" fans because of jss.

I didn't say nobody bought it because they liked it Maria. I said some people bought it because they didn't know it wasn't Steve Perry.

But since you want to make such an issue of it, I'd be willing to bet that more of those people used the CD for a coaster than bought concert tickets because of it. If many had bought tickets because of Arrival you'd think more of the crowds would have wanted to hear those songs instead of the classics wouldn't you? Hell, there were still people attending the concerts that Jeff was fronting that didn't know Perry was gone let alone know who Augeri was.