New Billboard Article : Neal Schon vs. Everyone

[The_Noble_Cause]

https://www.billboard.com/pro/journey-l ... explainer/

Early in Journey’s 2022 arena tour, lead guitarist Neal Schon became convinced people were out to get him. So he stationed two off-duty police officers outside his dressing room, according to sources familiar with the tour. And at a Florida show last spring, Schon and his wife, Michaele, sent an assistant into keyboardist Jonathan Cain’s dressing room to snoop around — to find what, the sources have no idea.

Cain caught the assistant red-handed, and then hired an off-duty officer to guard his own dressing room, the sources say. So for much of the tour — which sold 296,000 tickets and grossed $31.9 million, according to Billboard Boxscore — two of the three musicians who wrote “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” and performed it every night for decades squabbled over whether one guard outranked the other in the event of a dispute between Schon and Cain. “That’s just the level of pettiness and control and conspiracy they came to believe in,” a source says of the Schons.

In February, Journey’s longtime bank, City National, cut ties with the band, according to sources, hampering the group’s ability to easily pay its day-to-day touring expenses. Even Journey’s official webpage abruptly stopped operating for several weeks in early February before it recently reappeared.

This combative back-and-forth might suggest the central tension in Journey is between Schon and Cain, the remaining members of the group’s megastar era. But numerous music sources who have worked with the band over the years say the lead guitarist is obsessed with controlling the band with Michaele, a fan since childhood, who took an interest in Journey’s affairs soon after their 2013 wedding. The actual conflict, they say, isn’t Schon vs. Cain, but rather Schon vs. everyone. “He’s just an impossible human being,” says an industry source, who has worked with the band. “Jonathan, he’s a good guy: ‘I wrote “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” and I’m blessed.’ Neil’s just ‘I’m a superstar.’ ”

After Michaele left Salahi for Schon, the couple began getting Journey’s publicists to work for them. Emails from the time show Neal and Michaele calling and emailing a publicist late at night, to tweak language and order photos for press releases about Michaele’s divorce. When a publicist responded to an 11:30 p.m. email by saying his business hours were 9 to 5, Neal responded, “sorry we didn’t fit into your biz hours. Lol.” At one point, the publicist emailed, “I rarely answer calls from numbers I don’t have saved. Michaele’s 12:28 a.m response: “Are you still up?”

After she married Schon, ​​Michaele gradually became more involved in various aspects of Journey’s business: She asked to be copied on all band-related emails, according to multiple sources, and sometimes responded by CC’ing as many as 15 other addresses, including those of attorneys and other band employees.

Schon and Cain took over as Journey’s co-managers in early 2021, splitting the standard 15% fee. (Cain shared some of his 7.5% with Pineda, according to sources.)

Valory, who is no longer in the band, did not respond to interview requests; reached on his cellphone, Smith said, “No, I won’t do a phone interview on or off the record, and if you don’t mind, I have to go.”)

By early December, Def Leppard manager Mike Kobayashi confirmed Journey had hired him to take over management from Schon and Cain.

By early February, sources say, Kobayashi was no longer manager.

[ebake02]

It looks like Journey has their own Yoko Ono. Good on Jon too for sharing his management cut with Arnel too, he definitely didn’t have to do that.

[Monker]

More articles like this need to come out. Too many people seems to fawn all over Neal Schon as this great protector of Journey when he is really doing more damage than anybody ever has. The full story completely negates that image.

Also, blaming Michaele for all of this isn't right either. She definitely has her part. But, Neal should have the brains and balls to tell her to stay out of it. It seems he has neither.

[timstar78]

The article confirms what anyone with half a brain already surmised. Neal Schon (an undisputed amazing musician) is a pea-brained buffoon and a cancer to the band he "founded." And his bottom-feeding, sycophantic, rose-petal-toting, reality-TV wife is certainly part of the problem.

Of course, some morons want to make this all about politics, but it really has nothing to do with politics. The truth is all spelled out in this article.

Journey is a once-great band with a timeless catalog. But Schon is truly a deranged individual. This just has to implode at some point.

[Abitaman]

I like this part, Perrys still made over 400,000 sitting at home! se below

"Over the years, as happens with many successful rock bands, Journey’s business grew into a jigsaw puzzle of financial deals worked out over decades of negotiation. Perry, who quit for good in 1997, landed a deal in which he still makes 1/41 of the band’s net income from recording royalties and touring, after management fees and other expenses. Which means he pocketed roughly $400,000 in 2022 from Journey’s tour alone, according to sources, while sitting at home making TikToks about how much he loves Harry Styles. The remainder is then split among Schon, Cain and Pineda, a cover band singer from the Philippines, whom Schon discovered on YouTube in 2007."

[JohnH]

Great article . Read in full. Thanks .

[wednesday's child]

What a mess.
Thanks for the link to the article, TNC.

[Gideon]

That was absolutely fucking brutal.

[Onestepper]

It would be interesting to know why their bank cut ties with them. The only reason they would do that is if they were over habitual drafting the account, or basically mismanaging the funds or credit cards that the bank issued. Which sounds entirely possible given some of the other reports.

The security guards part is just laugh out loud paranoia. What an absolute mess.

[Gideon]

https://www.vulture.com/2023/03/journey ... suits.html

A comparable article from Vulture, as well, another high profile outlet.

It would be interesting to know why their bank cut ties with them. The only reason they would do that is if they were over habitual drafting the account, or basically mismanaging the funds or credit cards that the bank issued. Which sounds entirely possible given some of the other reports.

The security guards part is just laugh out loud paranoia. What an absolute mess.

Yeah some of this shit is just bonkers.

I'd forgotten that they'd hired Def Leppard's manager at the end of last year and was even more surprised to be reminded of that fact as well as the fact that he's apparently been dismissed since then.

Neal's gonna go apeshit when he sees this, but this is such a brutal indictment of Neal and Michaele. It says something that even in today's climate, with people rightly despising Trump and religious grifters, that Jon still comes off like the good guy in this story.

[Arkansas]

It would be interesting to know why their bank cut ties with them. The only reason they would do that is if they were over habitual drafting the account, or basically mismanaging the funds or credit cards that the bank issued. Which sounds entirely possible given some of the other reports.

Probably why Cain had to secure an Amex acct with his SSN and have wifey White to co-sign.

later~

[Loneman1]

Finally read the whole thing.......

Just yikes. People say there's no such thing as bad publicity, but damn.

[Gideon]

Lmao Neal's Retweeting a red herring at the Billboard article. One of his simps replied like this:

https://twitter.com/Athena332/status/16 ... 95296?s=20

Athena, Goddess of music love❤️
@Athena332
·
1h
Replying to
@EagleSanAntonio @JourneyOfficial and 3 others
We’ll check this video out,
Why wasn’t Paula’s past covered in this article?
A little biased
@billboard
?
Listen a little ways past her offensive story about “the hood”
#nealschon

Yeah, Billboard, why didn't you cover AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SCANDAL THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MUSIC?

[Loneman1]

Lmao Neal's Retweeting a red herring at the Billboard article. One of his simps replied like this:

https://twitter.com/Athena332/status/16 ... 95296?s=20

Athena, Goddess of music love❤️
@Athena332
·
1h
Replying to
@EagleSanAntonio @JourneyOfficial and 3 others
We’ll check this video out,
Why wasn’t Paula’s past covered in this article?
A little biased
@billboard
?
Listen a little ways past her offensive story about “the hood”
#nealschon

Yeah, Billboard, why didn't you cover AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SCANDAL THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MUSIC?

Hahaha yeah, Paula has her own shitshow going on but not nearly as directly involved in Journey as Michaele is. Who ever would have thought after the last couple of years of things coming to light that Jon and Paula were the lesser of the apparent evils?

[ScarabGator]

Just scathing! What a pile of shit NS is. The one thing that stuck out with me is Cain shared his 7.5% with Pineda. Good for him!

[jrnyman28]

I found it interesting that NO ONE would respond to this article.

[Andrew]

I found it interesting that NO ONE would respond to this article.

LOL...the magic of NDAs!

[ebake02]

Lmao Neal's Retweeting a red herring at the Billboard article. One of his simps replied like this:

https://twitter.com/Athena332/status/16 ... 95296?s=20

Athena, Goddess of music love❤️
@Athena332
·
1h
Replying to
@EagleSanAntonio @JourneyOfficial and 3 others
We’ll check this video out,
Why wasn’t Paula’s past covered in this article?
A little biased
@billboard
?
Listen a little ways past her offensive story about “the hood”
#nealschon

Yeah, Billboard, why didn't you cover AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SCANDAL THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MUSIC?

If Paula was actively involving herself in band business then she should be fair game too but she’s not doing that as far as everyone knows and that’s the difference. It’s the one and only thing that I will give her credit for.

[The_Noble_Cause]

It would be interesting to know why their bank cut ties with them. The only reason they would do that is if they were over habitual drafting the account, or basically mismanaging the funds or credit cards that the bank issued. Which sounds entirely possible given some of the other reports.

Probably why Cain had to secure an Amex acct with his SSN and have wifey White to co-sign.

later~

Did she co-sign the Amex acct? I thought her name is just a co-signer on Jon's trust. Jon said Neal's own lawyer told him to do that! LOL.

Time to call it a day. Hurts me to say that, but there's no future here. We are officially in the toilet bowl.

[The_Noble_Cause]

Lmao Neal's Retweeting a red herring at the Billboard article. One of his simps replied like this:

His account these days is mostly him just re-tweeting the same 3-4 simp accounts.
Alot of fans have fled, been blocked, or just can't support his nutty behavior and choose to stay quiet.

[Onestepper]

Lmao Neal's Retweeting a red herring at the Billboard article. One of his simps replied like this:

His account these days is mostly him just re-tweeting the same 3-4 simp accounts.
Alot of fans have fled, been blocked, or just can't support his nutty behavior and choose to stay quiet.

The social media stuff that is flying by now is just sad. No idea who controls some of those accounts making accusations, but whomever they are, they really don't like Neal. If you've seen some of the hateful stuff posted about Arnel it seems to be getting worse, not better. And him spending all of his time claiming he's not behind those accounts. You just have to shake your head.

As you said, shut it down if this is the way it's going to be.

[Eric]

https://twitter.com/itsclarkpowers/stat ... _62qvrTpfw

[The_Noble_Cause]

https://twitter.com/itsclarkpowers/status/1632484133690810368?s=46&t=hq91m4b4P2eo_62qvrTpfw

Troll accounts didn't force Lady M to use her official account to refer to Arnel as "the other guy."

Troll accounts didn't force Neal's publicity firm, Tag, to attack Cain and Arnel.

Many of the troll accounts I see pushing a narrative are Lady M or are connected to the Schon camp.

Take this one for example.


https://twitter.com/Princes10232918?s=20


One very vocal social media warrior clown, Jeff Elmore, has now been listed in legal documents as Neal's assistant and I see him in band photographs. I really wouldn't be surprised if he's the guy that tried to break into Cain's dressing room.

Stop defending terrible people.

[JourneyHard]

I like how Neal is screaming bloody murder about everything in Journey, but he is 40 years too late. Where was this Neal in 1985 when Journey needed to be protected? Instead, Neal was quiet as Steve Perry turned Journey from a rock band into a pop band with Raised on Radio. Neal didn't care about what Perry did. Neal didn't care what happened to "his band" back then. Neal should have told Perry off back in 1985 and said, "No. We calling the album Freedom. Five tracks are going to be rockers like Escape and Frontiers." But Neal didn't say one peep about any of this and just let Perry have his way with Journey. As far as I know, Perry was under contract to do two more Journey albums. Perhaps Perry wouldn't have toured, but they still would have made two more albums with Perry and they would have rocked the same as previous albums if Neal wasn't so timid back then.

[Andrew]

ROR remains a fan favourite for many, so I think your argument for that doesn't hold up.

[Art Vandelay]

I was young when they were in their heyday, so I don't really remember the vibe of the band back then. I was probably more of a casual fan until Greatest Hits. Were they always looked at and identified as Neal's Band? Was he ever considered the driving factor/selling point of the band? Or did this identity really come to the foreground after Perry left?

Every video, interview and article that I have seen, heard or read from back then paints the picture of a collaborative band with Herbie at the wheel. Perry and Schon are always mentioned as the driving forces, but I don't remember ever seeing anything from this time that really paints it as Neal's band. Was that something that was understood back then?

[Monker]

I was young when they were in their heyday, so I don't really remember the vibe of the band back then. I was probably more of a casual fan until Greatest Hits. Were they always looked at and identified as Neal's Band? Was he ever considered the driving factor/selling point of the band? Or did this identity really come to the foreground after Perry left?

Every video, interview and article that I have seen, heard or read from back then paints the picture of a collaborative band with Herbie at the wheel. Perry and Schon are always mentioned as the driving forces, but I don't remember ever seeing anything from this time that really paints it as Neal's band. Was that something that was understood back then?

No, I would say your assessment is spot on. Herbie was THE business leader, even hiring and firing members. If any one band member was considered the "leader" of Journey, it would be Steve Perry...especially after ROR. For ROR, the band had to agree to let him produce the album...Perry's story is that his mom asked him to do another Journey album rather than do another solo album and that is how he decided. Regardless, Perry had control of the band at that point.

What Neal is doing is rebranding Journey to be 'his' band. it NEVER WAS. If you remember interviews, Herbie wanted Journey to be a "family" sorta band. He compared the Grateful Dead to his vision for Journey. That is what existed until around 1983 and Perry starting to demand more influence and control. Neal AND Jonathan were always in the background...the way Jonathan still is today.

Until the last year or so, the story was that Gregg approached Herbie about hiring Jonathan...it was not Neal's decision. I don't know if Neal claimed he hired Steve Smith but the story was that Herbie was tired of Aynsley's teenage girlfriends and treating the band like a second hand job because he could make more money as a session drummer...so he fired him and hired Steve Smith. And, if you remember, Herbie basically forced Steve Perry on the band with a "he's the new lead singer...get used to it!" attitude. Neal had no power back then, especially over Herbie. He has always wanted Journey to be like Van Halen...the problem is that the band's name is not "Schon" and Journey was never viewed as "Neal's band."

So, now he is trying to reverse that with his lines about him founding the band, being at every concert, etc. He is demanding control over the band...something he legally can't have...but, publicly he wants the fans to see it that way.

[Journey/Survivor]

I was young when they were in their heyday, so I don't really remember the vibe of the band back then. I was probably more of a casual fan until Greatest Hits. Were they always looked at and identified as Neal's Band? Was he ever considered the driving factor/selling point of the band? Or did this identity really come to the foreground after Perry left?

Every video, interview and article that I have seen, heard or read from back then paints the picture of a collaborative band with Herbie at the wheel. Perry and Schon are always mentioned as the driving forces, but I don't remember ever seeing anything from this time that really paints it as Neal's band. Was that something that was understood back then?

The band was built around Schon originally. It was his band to begin with, although Herbie Herbert was also running the band in many ways. As time went by Herbert started being more insistent about certain things like hiring Perry.

I would say that since the band moved on from Perry that Schon has gradually gained more and more control of the band.

[Journey/Survivor]

ROR remains a fan favourite for many, so I think your argument for that doesn't hold up.

At absolute best ROR ranks a very distant third to Escape and Frontiers. I think that Infinity definitely rivals ROR in popularity among most Journey fans too.

[Andrew]

ROR remains a fan favourite for many, so I think your argument for that doesn't hold up.

At absolute best ROR ranks a very distant third to Escape and Frontiers. I think that Infinity definitely rivals ROR in popularity among most Journey fans too.

Third out of how many albums now? I'd consider that a "fan favourite".