PBS doc looks at Journey's lead singer search

[tater1977]

PBS doc looks at Journey's lead singer search

By BETH HARRIS
— Aug. 6

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/pbs-doc- ... ger-search

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — The resurgence of Journey through the band's discovery of a new lead singer via the Internet gets a close-up look on a new PBS documentary.

"Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey" airs on Sept. 30 as part of the network's Independent Lens series.

It's the story of how Journey guitarist Neal Schon found a replacement for front man Steve Perry by searching YouTube videos, and the band's eventual integration of Arnel Pineda into its lineup.

It wasn't easy.

Some longtime Journey fans were reluctant to accept the presence of Pineda, a 45-year-old Filipino singer, into an American band that had been dominated by Perry's presence and soaring vocals.

"We still have fans of our music showing up in the last year that don't know Steve Perry isn't in the band," keyboardist Jonathan Cain told the Television Critics Association on Tuesday.

Perry was replaced for the first time in 1998.

Cain recalled doing a concert in a U.S. city that he declined to name after Pineda joined Journey in December 2007.

"It took them 30 minutes to finally wrap their heads around the fact that this guy could sing his butt off," he said. "At the end of the show, they were all applauding Arnel's efforts."

Pineda perfected his English by reading English-language newspapers and using a dictionary to look up words he didn't understand. He wasn't troubled by hardcore Perry fans that compared the two singers.

"I never had a slight feeling of intimidation," he said. "I'm not even trying to compete with Mr. Perry. I'm just trying to help out. It didn't affect me at all."

Pineda was initially found by Schon singing Journey covers in YouTube videos. The band brought him to San Francisco to audition.

"I found some good guys, but I didn't feel they had the strength and the power in their pipes to carry themselves over the power of our music," Schon said. "Arnel, I said, 'This guy is the real deal.'"

Cain credited Pineda for stoking new interest in the group famous for such hits as "Don't Stop Believin'," ''Faithfully" and "Open Arms."

"He has his own style that he's developed," he said. "I watched this guy come from Manila as a club singer and become a rock star. We have a whole new fan base. Filipino nation is showing up at our shows."

Journey's older music continues to find new life on Broadway, television, movies and at sporting events.

"We're finding young school kids singing these songs and they weren't raised with these songs," Schon said. "We still obviously love doing it. To rebuild this band from nothing 10 years ago was quite a feat."

Schon and Pineda teamed to perform "Stay Awhile" as bassist Ross Valory and manager John Baruck looked on during the TCA session. Drummer Deen Castronovo didn't attend because of a scheduling conflict.

The band resumes its current tour on Aug. 15 in Kinder, La., and will play two sold-out dates in Chicago later this month.

[Jeremey]

"I found some good guys, but I didn't feel they had the strength and the power in their pipes to carry themselves over the power of our music," Schon said. "Arnel, I said, 'This guy is the real deal.'"

Geez, what an insult. A few years back it was "oh, this guy sounded TOO much like Perry, almost like an exact clone..." And so it evolves to "aww...this guy just didn't have enough power to be heard over the music."

It'd all be a lot easier to follow if he was just honest to begin with, but that wouldn't have made a very interesting story.

What about this scenario?

Jon Cain finds a singer in a tribute band.

He's amazed at how much the guy "feels" the music and wants Schon to hear him.

Schon and Cain go to great lengths to travel 3,000 miles to hear him and Cain was right. Schon is convinced. He claims he'll "bang his shoe on Azoff's desk" insisting that they hire this guy.

In fact they feel so good about this they up and fire their current sub singer without a second thought. Even tell the sub singer the name of this guy, so within hours it's leaked on the Internet that the guy (who has a real job and a baby on the way) is actually the new singer of Journey. Dude is vilified online and called a liar and all in all general piece of shit by hardcore fan base.

They bring this singer and his wife out and spend a week with him. Playing music 4-5 hours every day. Rehearsing and performing for everyone in their organization, from their merch guys to their all powerful management team.

Everyone is happy. Job offers are made. Writing begins immediately for the next record. 2 songs in the can in 2 days.

Plans are made to return soon to finish the record and plan the tour.

The consensus is - he did it. Jon Cain seemed crazy a few months ago but by god the sonofabitch pulled it off.

Everyone agrees ... Jon Cain is a hero.

Meanwhile, very quickly, you got another guy who is the "founding member" of the band. He's the boss, for all intents and purposes. And suddenly he may realize, hey ... I'm the guy who makes the rules around here ... How come IM not the hero? Where's MY guy at? And maybe there's a lot of drinking going on. And there's girlfriends who have their own agenda whispering things in their ears and bringing up ridiculous assumptions that have no basis in reality whatsoever.

So then, on his own accord, this member decides to put his foot down. Doesn't matter that offers were made, songs were written, lives were altered ... He wants HIS say ... His guy ...

Never mind that there was no such guy at the time.

So everyone's pretty surprised when he pulls this zero hour power play and calls the singer and says he wants "more time."

"You know," he tells the guy, "When I'm in the studio with Steve Perry or Sammy Hagar or Paul Rodgers, there's just this flow that I want ... And I'm not sure I am feeling that just yet."

"Tell ya what then....leave me out of it," says the singer.

So now this member has engineered a power play and he's got no backup. He fired the original sub singer and burned that bridge. He has no one else in the wings ... And suddenly "Don't Stop Believin" had become the biggest song in the country overnight thanks to David Chase and Tony Soprano.

So he's in a tight spot. Luckily there's a amazing Filipino singer who's manager has tagged and commented on every one of the other singer's YouTube videos. It's a long shot. "You're crazy," says his bandmates, his management team ... But he's the boss.

So the amazing Filipino dude gets flown over and gets his audition.

His week with the band wasn't (from insider accounts) exactly awesome. But there's potential there. And The Boss isn't going to back down.

"This is the guy. Period. If we don't take him, I am packing up my guitar and there won't be anymore Journey."

So it's an amazing story - and an incredibly talented guy and great human being gets the chance of a lifetime.

The "tribute band" story gets adapted and molded for the new singer.

The search becomes a drawn out "I didn't know what we were going to do" story.

As for the guy who started the whole thing?

First he was too much of a "clone." Then he didn't have the power. Then it really didn't matter anymore.

But if a real story would ever be made about the REAL Internet search for the new Journey singer, there'd be a lot more to it than the sanitized sound bites given out year after year.

Crazy.

[steveo777]

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/ ... tion=false

On Billboard now.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Love hearing the behind the scenes stories, Jeremey. Why would Neal think there would be immediate chemistry when he had just met you? Was there really immediate chemistry with him and Augeri? I doubt it...

[Eric]

Jeremey:

I thought I remember you saying at the time that you and the wife had personality conflicts with Schon?

All this time I was under the assumption that you not being in the band was more of a mutual decision..that you chose your life over the gig as much as anything else?

And I thought you were surprised that Revelation would feature more than a couple of new songs? I thought your take at the time was they were looking for a hired hand to sing the hits and not so much make new music?

Please correct me where I'm wrong - appreciate it.

Thanks,
Eric

[Jeremey]

Jeremey:

I thought I remember you saying at the time that you and the wife had personality conflicts with Schon?

All this time I was under the assumption that you not being in the band was more of a mutual decision..that you chose your life over the gig as much as anything else?

And I thought you were surprised that Revelation would feature more than a couple of new songs? I thought your take at the time was they were looking for a hired hand to sing the hits and not so much make new music?

Please correct me where I'm wrong - appreciate it.

Thanks,
Eric

Hey Eric,

I'm not sure how anything I said above contradicts what you are saying here ... can you give me some more context or point out where what I said in my post is in conflict with what you were thinking above? Just because I didn't spell all of these details out in extensive detail in this particular post doesn't mean they haven't been covered before. I was making a post here because I was pretty tired of reading in the national press that my voice just "wasn't strong enough" or "I was too much of a clone" or whatever, dismissing what it was that I brought to the table at that time.

Thanks!

[Eric]

Jeremey,

With what you said in your original post it makes it seem like Schon replaced you......and like I said......I always thought it was as much you initiating things. When I've summarized the situation to people I always said it sounded like you chose your life over the gig. And now it sounds like if Schon hadn't done the 180 you referenced - you would have stayed on? Sorry if I'm off-base.

Also, I probably didn't pay attention carefully before but I didn't realize they had a new album on their mind at that point. I didn't realize your time with them focused that much on new music (recording 2 new songs in 2 days). I always thought they had decided at that point to focus on their legacy and then when Arnel came on that sparked them to do new music. They said they were going to their legacy sound but were very creative in 2007-2009 before focusing on their hits too much, unfortunately, recently.

Thanks,
Eric

[Jeremey]

Love hearing the behind the scenes stories, Jeremey. Why would Neal think there would be immediate chemistry when he had just met you? Was there really immediate chemistry with him and Augeri? I doubt it...

This was just the excuse that Neal was using to buy more time to find his guy. Just like the excuses that my wife would be another "Sherrie" and destroy the band, or that I would want to load my newborn son on a bus and travel around the country with the band. They were excuses while Neal and his girlfriend at the time sat themselves out of the process that was unfolding around them until he could find a way to put a "stop" to the process.

Eric mentioned that this somehow contradicts my earlier statements that I turned down Journey to "be with my family" which was a popular thing thrown around by many people here, but I've always been consistent on the above story.

The point of my post was ... no, it's not cool to go in the national media and make up bullshit and have ever evolving stories about why these other guys weren't good enough, etc.

I realize a certain amount of "hollywood magic" has to go into creating the backstory of Arnel's discovery but it's frustrating to me, as the guy he's talking about, to know that my singing talent or ability had pretty much NOTHING to do with why I didn't end up with the band.

[Jeremey]

Jeremey,

With what you said in your original post it makes it seem like Schon replaced you......and like I said......I always thought it was as much you initiating things. When I've summarized the situation to people I always said it sounded like you chose your life over the gig. And now it sounds like if Schon hadn't done the 180 you referenced - you would have stayed on? Sorry if I'm off-base.

Had Schon not pulled the "woah, let's wait here" move, I would have been with Journey. I had already been offered and accepted the job at that point. That's why the final red flag that put a hold/stop on the entire process, with no regard to my personal situation, job, new baby, or anything I had just put myself through over the prior two months was the breaking point. That's when I realized that even if I DID stay with this band, I was in for a long history of getting fucked around and played games with. And with my first baby being due, and my 10 year career in jeopardy, that's when I said, "Okay, go find someone else then." And I think that's how people put the "Jeremey chose his family over Journey" thing together.

Also, I probably didn't pay attention carefully before but I didn't realize they had a new album on their mind at that point. I didn't realize your time with them focused that much on new music (recording 2 new songs in 2 days). I always thought they had decided at that point to focus on their legacy and then when Arnel came on that sparked them to do new music. They said they were going to their legacy sound but were very creative in 2007-2009 before focusing on their hits too much, unfortunately, recently.

Thanks,
Eric

The new album ... well, basically it was already decided that we would re-record the old songs for the WalMart deal, and Neal wanted to write a whole new album to go along with it. We (the whole band) did the writing on "Never Walk Away" and "Where Did I Lose Your Love" in the studio all day Friday June 22, 2007, and then for most of the morning Saturday, Neal, Jonathan and myself were in the studio hashing out a demo vocal for those 2 tracks. I had mentioned in the past that I was surprised that Never Walk Away ended up on Revelation, because I assumed we would be working on a bunch of songs, and NWA being our first "crack" would probably not measure up to the newer stuff we'd be potentially writing. But it turns out Jon and Neal just finished the rest of the CD and included NWA on the CD as well. So that was a pretty cool thing.

Hope that explains things more!

[Eric]

Thanks Jeremey - it's very much appreciated.

[FamilyMan]

One of the better, more interesting threads we've had here in some time. The most intriguing part for me, Jeremey, is about the power struggle between Jon and Neal. For my part, I never sense that Jon was entirely on board with the Arnel idea. Something about the way he spoke about it made me feel like he just wasn't drinking the cool aid. You're theory would explain why. It would also lend itself to the reasons why Jon's picked up and moved to Nashville and seemingly ready to embrace a professional life beyond the band.

As for why Neal decided to diss you and make comments like "we never found a guy with the strength," he doesn't have much choice. It's not good PR for the guys who sing songs like "Mother Father" and "Faithfully" to reject a man who puts his family first. You can't say "this is the guy, but we don't like his chick."

[Jeremey]

One of the better, more interesting threads we've had here in some time. The most intriguing part for me, Jeremey, is about the power struggle between Jon and Neal. For my part, I never sense that Jon was entirely on board with the Arnel idea. Something about the way he spoke about it made me feel like he just wasn't drinking the cool aid. You're theory would explain why. It would also lend itself to the reasons why Jon's picked up and moved to Nashville and seemingly ready to embrace a professional life beyond the band.

Well, I know what happened took Jonathan and everyone else pretty much by surprise. I felt bad for him when I thought about how happy everyone seemed to be about the situation and how easily everything was going to come together, then to just have it kind of fall apart with a few quick swipes. But it's his deal, he's a big guy and he's been at the top of this game for a long time, so I'm sure he was able to get over it and get on board, especially with the success the band had in the wake of what happened.

As for why Neal decided to diss you and make comments like "we never found a guy with the strength," he doesn't have much choice. It's not good PR for the guys who sing songs like "Mother Father" and "Faithfully" to reject a man who puts his family first. You can't say "this is the guy, but we don't like his chick."

Yeah, I get that ... I know whatever really happened would never be a part of the "history" of that band. It's caused me some grief over the years, it's made me look like a liar and a hypocrite at times, but what can you do besides rise above and move beyond it.

The one thing I realized last year was this - in the aftermath of this whole situation I made a lot of bad decisions for a lot of wrong reasons. I felt like I had to "prove" that the things that were said about me were wrong ... Overbearing wife who would demand to go on tour with the band and pick out their costumes? Bullshit ... To prove it, I'll go out and tour on my own and leave my family at home and then everyone will be able to see how bullshit that was. Didn't have a strong enough voice? Couldn't perform? Fuck that, I'll perform 4, 5 nights in a row, 52 weeks a year. I'll drive my own truck and load my own gear, and that will show 'em.

The reality is, nobody cared about those things but me. And all it did was make me miserable. And by the time I looked around and realized how WRONG I was, it was too late ... I was trapped in a vicious cycle, and I couldn't find a way out. It took my injury and losing my voice to provide me with an escape route from all that bullshit, and now I've built a whole new career outside of the music industry, I realize how short-sighted and stupid I was.

The funny thing was ... the reality of what happened with Journey and Arnel would be much closer to what Neal "feared" about me. And he ended up bringing his wife and family on the road with him anyway. And they ended up scaling back their performances and tuning down.

So the hardships I forced on myself to "prove" myself were stupid, stupid, stupid. Nobody cared. And it shouldn't have mattered to me. But I DO remain proud of getting that kind of recognition at some point in my career ... and occasionally it gets dismissed and shit upon whenever Arnel's "origin" story comes out. But that's the music business, right kids?

[jestor92]

Jeremey,

I have a couple questions about your time with the band.

After Schon decided he "wanted more time" and you decided that you didn't want to wait around for him to make up his choice did you have to sign anything to say that you wouldn't really go in depth with what went down with the band during that time?

What happened to the demo's the music that you recorded with Journey? Is there any chance that those demo's might at some point see the light of day?

Have you ever had any kind of contact with JSS after he was left go from the band and have you ever met Arnel?

[tater1977]

Jeremey,

I have a couple questions about your time with the band.

After Schon decided he "wanted more time" and you decided that you didn't want to wait around for him to make up his choice did you have to sign anything to say that you wouldn't really go in depth with what went down with the band during that time?

What happened to the demo's the music that you recorded with Journey? Is there any chance that those demo's might at some point see the light of day?

Have you ever had any kind of contact with JSS after he was left go from the band and have you ever met Arnel?

Jestor, I think Jeremey posted 2 demos not to long ago of the 2 he did.....
Never Walk Away & Where Did I lose Your Love...
I've got them on my desktop & they sound great...

[Eric]

Jeremey,

I have a couple questions about your time with the band.

After Schon decided he "wanted more time" and you decided that you didn't want to wait around for him to make up his choice did you have to sign anything to say that you wouldn't really go in depth with what went down with the band during that time?

What happened to the demo's the music that you recorded with Journey? Is there any chance that those demo's might at some point see the light of day?

Have you ever had any kind of contact with JSS after he was left go from the band and have you ever met Arnel?

Jestor, I think Jeremey posted 2 demos not to long ago of the 2 he did.....
Never Walk Away & Where Did I lose Your Love...
I've got them on my desktop & they sound great...

Winds of Freedom, too.

[RedWingFan]

All the "blah, blah, blah" of this thread can be summed up with 3 words.

Neil's a douche!!! lol

[slucero]

All the "blah, blah, blah" of this thread can be summed up with 3 words.

Neil's a douche!!! lol

[Jeremey]

Jeremey,

I have a couple questions about your time with the band.

After Schon decided he "wanted more time" and you decided that you didn't want to wait around for him to make up his choice did you have to sign anything to say that you wouldn't really go in depth with what went down with the band during that time?

What happened to the demo's the music that you recorded with Journey? Is there any chance that those demo's might at some point see the light of day?

Have you ever had any kind of contact with JSS after he was left go from the band and have you ever met Arnel?

Never Walk Away:
https://soundcloud.com/bigbangagency/ne ... way#t=0:00

From the SoundCloud page:
This is the writing demo of "Never Walk Away," recorded in June 2007 with the band Journey at Jon Cain's home studio. We had been rehearsing all week and Neal had the music pretty well mapped out for this one. I scat sang a melody and brought in a notebook page full of lyrics into the studio the next morning for Jon to go over. He took literally 20 minutes and was able to edit and refine them into what appeared on the record. One change we went back to - that is evident from this demo - is that my original lyric was "don't give up, never walk away," and Jon changed it to "you're never sure, never walk away." After we recorded the demo he, Neal and I were sitting at his console and agreed that we should go back to the "Don't give up" lyric.

Where Did I Lose Your Love:
https://soundcloud.com/bigbangagency/wh ... -your-love

From the SoundCloud page:
This is the writing demo of "Where Did I Lose Your Love," recorded with Journey at Jon Cain's home studio in Novato, CA, June 2007. This originally was a demo leftover from the Arrival sessions, and we changed some structure and lyrics to that old demo ... my lyrical changes did not apparently reach the level of writing credit for the song, though they were carried over into the official cut of the tune released on the "Revelation" CD. This, and the demo of "Never Walk Away" would be the only souvenirs I took home from that experience, as I had been told I'd be returning to finish writing the record in just a few weeks, and I didn't want to seem like a tourist. After 6 years, I see nothing wrong with sharing the tracks here.

The recording of "Winds of Freedom" was about 4 hard drives ago ... I don't know where I would go to find that, but maybe someone has a copy around here you could track down.

No, I didn't sign any kind of non-disclosure agreement with the band. There was no money that changed hands ... obviously they paid for my expenses in California and reimbursed my vacation time from work that I had spent, believing that I'd be working for Journey by the time my baby was born. But there was nothing involved that would have required any sort of NDA.

I have talked to Jeff probably 6 or 7 times since 2007, always been an extremely cool dude.

[FamilyMan]

Jeremey,

I have a couple questions about your time with the band.

After Schon decided he "wanted more time" and you decided that you didn't want to wait around for him to make up his choice did you have to sign anything to say that you wouldn't really go in depth with what went down with the band during that time?

What happened to the demo's the music that you recorded with Journey? Is there any chance that those demo's might at some point see the light of day?

Have you ever had any kind of contact with JSS after he was left go from the band and have you ever met Arnel?

Never Walk Away:
https://soundcloud.com/bigbangagency/ne ... way#t=0:00

From the SoundCloud page:
This is the writing demo of "Never Walk Away," recorded in June 2007 with the band Journey at Jon Cain's home studio. We had been rehearsing all week and Neal had the music pretty well mapped out for this one. I scat sang a melody and brought in a notebook page full of lyrics into the studio the next morning for Jon to go over. He took literally 20 minutes and was able to edit and refine them into what appeared on the record. One change we went back to - that is evident from this demo - is that my original lyric was "don't give up, never walk away," and Jon changed it to "you're never sure, never walk away." After we recorded the demo he, Neal and I were sitting at his console and agreed that we should go back to the "Don't give up" lyric.

Where Did I Lose Your Love:
https://soundcloud.com/bigbangagency/wh ... -your-love

From the SoundCloud page:
This is the writing demo of "Where Did I Lose Your Love," recorded with Journey at Jon Cain's home studio in Novato, CA, June 2007. This originally was a demo leftover from the Arrival sessions, and we changed some structure and lyrics to that old demo ... my lyrical changes did not apparently reach the level of writing credit for the song, though they were carried over into the official cut of the tune released on the "Revelation" CD. This, and the demo of "Never Walk Away" would be the only souvenirs I took home from that experience, as I had been told I'd be returning to finish writing the record in just a few weeks, and I didn't want to seem like a tourist. After 6 years, I see nothing wrong with sharing the tracks here.

The recording of "Winds of Freedom" was about 4 hard drives ago ... I don't know where I would go to find that, but maybe someone has a copy around here you could track down.

No, I didn't sign any kind of non-disclosure agreement with the band. There was no money that changed hands ... obviously they paid for my expenses in California and reimbursed my vacation time from work that I had spent, believing that I'd be working for Journey by the time my baby was born. But there was nothing involved that would have required any sort of NDA.

I have talked to Jeff probably 6 or 7 times since 2007, always been an extremely cool dude.

Damn, man. You sound so f'ing good with the band.

[Navarro]

Jeremey,

I have a couple questions about your time with the band.

After Schon decided he "wanted more time" and you decided that you didn't want to wait around for him to make up his choice did you have to sign anything to say that you wouldn't really go in depth with what went down with the band during that time?

What happened to the demo's the music that you recorded with Journey? Is there any chance that those demo's might at some point see the light of day?

Have you ever had any kind of contact with JSS after he was left go from the band and have you ever met Arnel?

Never Walk Away:
https://soundcloud.com/bigbangagency/ne ... way#t=0:00

From the SoundCloud page:
This is the writing demo of "Never Walk Away," recorded in June 2007 with the band Journey at Jon Cain's home studio. We had been rehearsing all week and Neal had the music pretty well mapped out for this one. I scat sang a melody and brought in a notebook page full of lyrics into the studio the next morning for Jon to go over. He took literally 20 minutes and was able to edit and refine them into what appeared on the record. One change we went back to - that is evident from this demo - is that my original lyric was "don't give up, never walk away," and Jon changed it to "you're never sure, never walk away." After we recorded the demo he, Neal and I were sitting at his console and agreed that we should go back to the "Don't give up" lyric.

Where Did I Lose Your Love:
https://soundcloud.com/bigbangagency/wh ... -your-love

From the SoundCloud page:
This is the writing demo of "Where Did I Lose Your Love," recorded with Journey at Jon Cain's home studio in Novato, CA, June 2007. This originally was a demo leftover from the Arrival sessions, and we changed some structure and lyrics to that old demo ... my lyrical changes did not apparently reach the level of writing credit for the song, though they were carried over into the official cut of the tune released on the "Revelation" CD. This, and the demo of "Never Walk Away" would be the only souvenirs I took home from that experience, as I had been told I'd be returning to finish writing the record in just a few weeks, and I didn't want to seem like a tourist. After 6 years, I see nothing wrong with sharing the tracks here.

The recording of "Winds of Freedom" was about 4 hard drives ago ... I don't know where I would go to find that, but maybe someone has a copy around here you could track down.

No, I didn't sign any kind of non-disclosure agreement with the band. There was no money that changed hands ... obviously they paid for my expenses in California and reimbursed my vacation time from work that I had spent, believing that I'd be working for Journey by the time my baby was born. But there was nothing involved that would have required any sort of NDA.

I have talked to Jeff probably 6 or 7 times since 2007, always been an extremely cool dude.

WOW! Thanks so much for sharing these! I haven't heard them. Jaw dropping. Even in these demos, you sound so much better than the CD. I can only image the places you could have taken this band musically. Their loss! And ours!!

[tater1977]

Arnel Pineda’s journey to becoming Journey frontman goes through YouTube
by Katy St. Clair

August 08, 2013

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/ ... id=2539099

The PBS show “Independent Lens” is creating a documentary about the odd way that legendary Bay Area band Journey found a singer to replace Steve Perry, according to Fox.

Get this: Guitarist Neal Schon actually went on YouTube and watched people singing his songs, which means he probably had to sit through a lot of crap, not to mention copyright violations, to find the man he chose, Arnel Pineda of the Philippines.

The guy looked good and sounded good, but he didn’t speak fluent English. Journey flew him to San Francisco to audition anyway, and now he’s been the frontman since 2007.

The funny thing is, if you squint your eyes he sort of looks like Perry.

-

Read this, shook my head & now can't quit laughin...Really? Really? Really? Really?
Wonder what was in his Kool-Aid...
Everyone have a great weekend & on that one.. Gone Fishing....

[The_Noble_Cause]

Nice cover...yet Arnel sounds tired or really not giving it his all, if that makes sense.

[steveo777]

Nice cover...yet Arnel sounds tired or really not giving it his all, if that makes sense.

Which one are you referring to? A couple of those links are Jeremey's demos.

[PianoMan1986]

Without trying to light any powder kegs or strike any nerves, do I understand that:

Everyone (band and management) was on-board to work with Jeremey and move forward and (as we are well aware) clicked and wrote some material in the studio, but because (for whatever reason) Neal didn't feel the same and wanted his own guy, he delayed committing and found Arnel instead?

For what it's worth, I'm an all-era Journey fan and like each iteration for it's own reasons. There are always those what ifs though -- wondering what an album would be like with Jeff, an album or albums with Jeremey. I've enjoyed Arnel as well and admired his tenure, although I can't wrap my head (or should I say ears) around his recent movement on certain vocal phrasings. On a tangent, I do hope they consider and push to return to Evening With shows in the near future, or cut back to double bill shows instead.

Another side-note question for Jeremey, if you don't mind:
If the incident with the fog machine hadn't happened, would you have continued doing the Frontiers gig, or would you have continued in the direction you are now?

[steveo777]

Without trying to light any powder kegs or strike any nerves, do I understand that:

Everyone (band and management) was on-board to work with Jeremey and move forward and (as we are well aware) clicked and wrote some material in the studio, but because (for whatever reason) Neal didn't feel the same and wanted his own guy, he delayed committing and found Arnel instead?

For what it's worth, I'm an all-era Journey fan and like each iteration for it's own reasons. There are always those what ifs though -- wondering what an album would be like with Jeff, an album or albums with Jeremey. I've enjoyed Arnel as well and admired his tenure, although I can't wrap my head (or should I say ears) around his recent movement on certain vocal phrasings. On a tangent, I do hope they consider and push to return to Evening With shows in the near future, or cut back to double bill shows instead.

Another side-note question for Jeremey, if you don't mind:
If the incident with the fog machine hadn't happened, would you have continued doing the Frontiers gig, or would you have continued in the direction you are now?

Do you have Jeremey's album - Every Little Thing? I believe that was pre fog incident and those would be his vocals prior. BTW, I own the album...an autographed album cover...and I love it! J definitely has some song writing chops.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Nice cover...yet Arnel sounds tired or really not giving it his all, if that makes sense.

Which one are you referring to? A couple of those links are Jeremey's demos.

My bad. In another thread, there was a link of Arnel and Neal doing Stay Awhile at a PBS convention to promote the doc.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Nice cover...yet Arnel sounds tired or really not giving it his all, if that makes sense.

Which one are you referring to? A couple of those links are Jeremey's demos.

My bad. In another thread, there was a link of Arnel and Neal doing Stay Awhile at a PBS convention to promote the doc.

[Jeremey]

Another side-note question for Jeremey, if you don't mind:
If the incident with the fog machine hadn't happened, would you have continued doing the Frontiers gig, or would you have continued in the direction you are now?

The fog incident thing was great for me in one respect - it allowed me to get out of a management contract that was sucking every bit of profit out of my business and keeping me on the road for 200 shows a year ... the bad thing was, I felt "obligated" to continue singing through the multiple gigs we had on the books still, as bad as it was ... and caused multiple hemorrhages during that time, all which resulted in the permanent sulcus on my vocal cord that changed my voice.

So to answer - I needed something, the business was killing me and I was miserable. But if I had the foresight to stop what I was doing and rest for 6 months I could have made it into something more manageable and enjoyable.

But geez, you can't stay on the road forever. So I look at it as a blessing in disguise.

[Jeremey]

Do you have Jeremey's album - Every Little Thing? I believe that was pre fog incident and those would be his vocals prior. BTW, I own the album...an autographed album cover...and I love it! J definitely has some song writing chops.

Thanks so much, Steve ... the vocals on that CD that were recorded before the fog incident were "This Is Your Life," "What Can I Do," and "Can't You See He's Gone." Everything else was done in the 5 months between the fog incident in July and the surgery I had at the end of December 2011. I held off on the release of that CD until after the surgery so it could be properly mixed and because I thought if the surgery worked, I may have wanted to add or finish a couple other songs ... but I knew when I went in for surgery that I may never get the chance to record again and so I wanted to have as much material completed as possible if that were to happen.

[Gideon]

Do you have Jeremey's album - Every Little Thing? I believe that was pre fog incident and those would be his vocals prior. BTW, I own the album...an autographed album cover...and I love it! J definitely has some song writing chops.

Thanks so much, Steve ... the vocals on that CD that were recorded before the fog incident were "This Is Your Life," "What Can I Do," and "Can't You See He's Gone." Everything else was done in the 5 months between the fog incident in July and the surgery I had at the end of December 2011. I held off on the release of that CD until after the surgery so it could be properly mixed and because I thought if the surgery worked, I may have wanted to add or finish a couple other songs ... but I knew when I went in for surgery that I may never get the chance to record again and so I wanted to have as much material completed as possible if that were to happen.

"Stay" and "Can't You See He's Gone" are in frequent rotation on my iPod. Your vocals are solid, but I actually think your strongest asset is as a writer. The latter track especially; it communicates a great story. It's like a 4 minute movie w/ Julia Roberts lol.

It's a nice eclectic album that showcases your strengths. The next album needs to flat-out rock.