The Arnel Pineda Story?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 2:14 amI just went over to YouTube and typed in "Arnel Pineda" and found the following comments posted on one of his videos. I don't know if they are accurate or not, so I thought I'd post them here for discussion:
Looks like someone with some inside information may have posted this, but I have no way of knowing who it was or how accurate the information is. Some of it is obviously public knowledge.
Based on the comments I read today on Arnel's YouTube videos, there seems to be a mixed reaction to Journey's decision to hire him. I guess it's no different than the reaction that took place among Journey fans when Augeri was hired. Some people seem to embrace him, and others seem to reject him.
For some unknown reason, Journey decided to fire Jeff Scott Soto (as the story goes, Soto doesn't even know why himself as he was not given a reason and didn't talk to the guys in the band). Prior to Soto's last appearance with the band in Virginia, USA, rumour has it, they contacted Kevin Chalfant to see if he could do the gig. Supposedly, Chalfant had other commitments so they went ahead with Soto.
They (Journey) had become aware of Jeremey Hunsicker (not sure how) prior to that final Soto show and had contacted his management. They went to see Hunsicker perform with his tribute band around that time and extended the invitation for him to audition. Shortly after Soto was informed he was fired.
Management called Hunsicker and told him it was not a "done deal" and the band members were not all in agreement with his hiring. Hunsicker called Neal Schon to ask what the problem was. He then called Cain and, it seems, he got a bit angry and blurted out something to the effect of he might not be the right guy for the job.
If you all of you think Pineda's lack of big-band-long tours you're all pissed off. Pineda has been a professional singer for the last 25 years. He started out performing with a band called Ijos when he was just 15 years old. At Budokan Hall in Tokyo (where Journey played with Perry in the 80's), Pineda and his band entered a World Band Explosion and Pineda won Best Vocalist in 1987 and 1988.
His band then transitioned into AMO, a band that toured the Philippines and played to audiences of 10-15 thousand people. While that size audience is obviously smaller than some of Journey's audiences over the years, it appears to me to be significantly bigger than Hunsicker's audiences for his Journey tribute band. I can't speak for the size of Chalfant's audiences though, as I don't know enough about the concerts he may or may not have performed.
Pineda has been performing 6 nights a week with shows lasting anywhere from 3-6 hours a night since the late 80's. Every song wasn't in the high Journey register. Pineda has also had two record deals with major labels: a solo self-titled album in 1999 with Warner Brothers, and a Zoo album in 2007 with MCA Universal. He's performed plenty of original music, but like ANY actively performing band, when you work the crowds, you find yourself having to do covers that the audience knows, as well as being able to throw in a few originals. Pineda's not a Journey tribute singer. He's just a guy who fronted several bands with original music who had to play covers to please the crowd. Isn't Journey in the same boat? They have to perform their "hits" to please the crowd or everyone goes to the bathroom or beer tent when they perform originals.
In my humble opinion, he has plenty of experience to do the job. He wasn't their "second choice" by any means. They hadn't even heard of him when they auditioned Hunsicker. It was after Hunsicker's call to Cain, that they decided to look for someone else, but they hadn't told Hunsicker a decisive "no" even as Pineda auditioned.
Looks like someone with some inside information may have posted this, but I have no way of knowing who it was or how accurate the information is. Some of it is obviously public knowledge.
Based on the comments I read today on Arnel's YouTube videos, there seems to be a mixed reaction to Journey's decision to hire him. I guess it's no different than the reaction that took place among Journey fans when Augeri was hired. Some people seem to embrace him, and others seem to reject him.
