PRESS RELEASE

[Michael Leigh]

JOURNEY ANNOUNCES DEPARTURE OF JEFF SCOTT SOTO





June 12, 2007 -- Journey has parted ways with their recently named lead singer Jeff Scott Soto. Jeff s first appearance with Journey was July 7, 2006 in Bristow, VA. He had been filling in for Steve Augeri, who had to leave the tour shortly after it began on June 23 due to illness. Jeff s last performance was May 12, 2007 in Leesburg, VA.



According to guitarist Neal Schon, We appreciate all of Jeff s hard work and we can t thank him enough for stepping in when Steve Augeri got sick last year. He did a tremendous job for us and we wish him the best. We ve just decided to go our separate ways, no pun intended. We re plotting our next move now."



Keyboardist Jonathan Cain continues, We were lucky to have a friend who was already a Journey fan step in on a moment s notice during the Def Leppard tour to help us out. Jeff was always the consummate professional and we hope that he remains a friend of the band in the future. We just felt it was time to go in a different direction.



Journey--Neal Schon (guitar), Ross Valory (bass), Jonathan Cain (keyboards) and Deen Castronovo (drums) is taking the rest of 2007 off to spend time with their families, write new songs and map out plans for 2008.



www.journeymusic.com

Fuck 'em!!I'm done. They will not see another cent from me.

We love you Jeff,thanks for the best shows Journey has done this summer since 1986!!
They are a total joke!!

[wildone]

I just threw up in my mouth a little....

me too

I wonder if they at least gave Jeff a big tube of KY-Jelly with that!

and a handful of sand to go with it!!!

[Just_Plain_Eric]

This has got Azoff written all over it

Irv chomping on a big cigar "Get that kid outta there, what we need is another Perry...we can sell 200 more seats a night with a new Perry!"

Schon "Yessir Mr.. Azoff...you manage the Eagles and they are the biggest selling band in the HISTORY OF THE WORLD!" runs away...

[finalfight]

to H...E...C..K... with them... ill show my seperate ways with my wallet! fools..

That is pure comedy gold!

[Spike]

I like the way the Journey site buries this under all the stuff about The Sopranos. They genuinely give the impression that they thought we might not notice. I'm suprised they didn't put the swag ads above it too.

[Journeyman2122]

FUCK JOURNEY

[wildone]

I like the way the Journey site buries this under all the stuff about The Sopranos. They genuinely give the impression that they thought we might not notice. I'm suprised they didn't put the swag ads above it too.

yeah burried under page 5 "cat stuck in tree "!!!lmao

[larryfromnextdoor]

Ill be back,I got to take a Friga

[Henley]

This has got Azoff written all over it

Irv chomping on a big cigar "Get that kid outta there, what we need is another Perry...we can sell 200 more seats a night with a new Perry!"

Schon "Yessir Mr.. Azoff...you manage the Eagles and they are the biggest selling band in the HISTORY OF THE WORLD!" runs away...

This is the brightest statement on the board tonight......the answers lie right there.

[conversationpc]

I am apologizing in advance for this as I've never used the F-bomb on any forum before.

I'm FUCKING pissed over this. The politically correct garbage in the press release is just that...GARBAGE. They just announced him as the newest member of the band a few months ago and now they have decided to "part ways". What a pile of dogshit. There has to have been some bad feelings or something bad went wrong here.

First, the terrible way they handled the whole thing with Augeri and now Soto. Both guys got royally screwed, in my opinion.

[larryfromnextdoor]

I am apologizing in advance for this as I've never used the F-bomb on any forum before.

I'm FUCKING pissed over this. The politically correct garbage in the press release is just that...GARBAGE. They just announced him as the newest member of the band a few months ago and now they have decided to "part ways". What a pile of dogshit. There has to have been some bad feelings or something bad went wrong here.

First, the terrible way they handled the whole thing with Augeri and now Soto. Both guys got royally screwed, in my opinion.

dont forget , neal has been writing very melodic , great songs , for jeff to sing on.. blah!

[frfksakes]

wow you know it before jeff does damn!!

I think Jeff was just being his class act self by letting the band make their b.s. statement. I'm sure he knew.

[Rockindeano]

Does anyone (Andrew, Jeff) want to give the correct statement?

I can tell you right now that statement is 100% BULLSHIT.

Write the real Press Release then for us

Ok.

Fans of Journey and Jeff Scott Soto.

Please disregard our previous statement. That was a teaser. This is what really happened. Last year, we were caught in a bad situation. Our lead singer was vocally injured and needed some vocal assistance in the form of tapes. We agreed and it went so well, we did a complete tour with that, until a few observant fans, who actually gave a shit about us, exposed us via a blog and we made a lead singer change in midstream of a joint tour with Def Leppard. We hired a guy who used to play with Neal and Deen in a band called Soul Sirkus. His name is Jeff Scott Soto. He came in and saved our tour, saved us millions of dollars of lost revenue, saved us from utter embarrassment, and saved us in probable lawsuits. In the words of Jonathan Friga, he "slayed the fans." He was the consummate professional. However, the fans really liked him. They liked his charisma, his personality, his humbleness, and the fact that he is so grounded. The fans love Jeff. However, Neal and Jon didn't like the fact that Jeff was a tremendous talent, had awesome stage presence ala Steve Perry, and was seen as too arrogant. We needed to make the switch to another singer and let Jeff go, because we don't want to record new material; we don't want to climb out of Perry's shadow, and we don't to have to work. We would rather sit on our asses, play the Greatest Hits every Summer and leave it at that. After all, "It is what it is."

So, we ask for your continued blind support and please find a way to get past our blatant lies and deception. We are now officially the biggest joke in music and we simply do not care. It's about the money stupid.

Thank You,

Journey

4 Assholes

[Eric]

[/quote] dont forget , neal has been writing very melodic , great songs , for jeff to sing on.. blah! [/quote]

YEAH.....WHAT THE FUCK!?

[****]

[EightyRock]

Soto always seemed like a real enough dude to me. Unless he's no different from Augeri and signed an agreement to let Journey's p.r. spin this, why doesn't Soto come out and address this? It'll be interesting to see if he's as ballsy as he seemed, or if $$ and confidentiality agreements keep him quiet as a church mouse, too.

[WalrusOct9]

Holy fucking shit.

Man, I'm depressed.

I've waited years for my first Journey experience....either they were a) touring with other bands I didnt' give a shit about for $100 a ticket, or b) touring at a really bad time for me financially or c) playing Pine Knob (DTE) in Detroit while I was still living in MI...worst venue ever.

I was totally floored by the idea of Jeff in Journey, and was planning on hitting at least 2 or 3 shows the next time they toured on their own (i.e. playing longer than a 70-80 minute set due to a co-headlining bill)

This fucking sucks. I feel really bad for Jeff...this may not have been the "chance of a lifetime" in that no way was Journey going to have a Meat Loaf-esque comeback with their new tunes, but it was probably the biggest break he'd had in 20 years in the biz, and singing vocals for one of his favorite bands on top of it....and then just have it stripped before it even really had a chance to get off the ground.

I have a feeling I may never actually get to see Journey live now...this blows.

[finalfight]

After all, "It is what it is."
[/b]

That sounds like something that was actually said. Sad, very sad.

[JrnyScarab]

I don't quite understand. It seems JSS and Neal have hit it off for a long time starting with Soul Sirkus and Neal's comments on how Jeff sang Journey's songs live better than they have been sung in years. He makes comments about how they have writing chemistry like he and Perry did. And now THIS???

There must be more to this story than meets the eye.

Ed (Fucking pissed off right now)

[Moon Beam]

This has got Azoff written all over it

Irv chomping on a big cigar "Get that kid outta there, what we need is another Perry...we can sell 200 more seats a night with a new Perry!"

Schon "Yessir Mr.. Azoff...you manage the Eagles and they are the biggest selling band in the HISTORY OF THE WORLD!" runs away...

I'll get behind this and what Larry and others have said.
I never had much cash but what was gonna be spent on
new Journey music will now be spent on others.
Hope your proud fellas, I'm sure your Mothers ain't.

[finalfight]

I don't quite understand. It seems JSS and Neal have hit it off for a long time starting with Soul Sirkus and Neal's comments on how Jeff sang Journey's songs live better than they have been sung in years. He makes comments about how they have writing chemistry like he and Perry did. And now THIS???

There must be more to this story than meets the eye.

Ed (Fucking pissed off right now)

Too true. I reckon Neal must be partaking in a little chemistry of his own. Its the only viable explaination...OMG the new singer, it's professional user Pete Doherty isn't it!

[Red13JoePa]

I will miss Jeff Scott Soto just like I miss Steve Augeri.

I thought we were ready to go forward with a kickass new Journey album and tour supporting it with JSS fronting the way.

I ain't happy (again).


Given the circumstances with Augeri and now Jeff there is 1 gentleman who can pull this off in SPADES and a lot of us have become friends with him on Andrew's very site. If it is him, he deserves our support just as Jeff does our thanks and regrets for what could have been.

[Moon Beam]

I will miss Jeff Scott Soto just like I miss Steve Augeri.

I thought we were ready to go forward with a kickass new Journey album and tour supporting it with JSS fronting the way.

I ain't happy (again).


Given the circumstances with Augeri and now Jeff there is 1 gentleman who can pull this off in SPADES and a lot of us have become friends with him on Andrew's very site. If it is him, he deserves our support just as Jeff does our thanks and regrets for what could have been.

If that's the case, I think most of us will get behind him JoePa.
I just need to spit fire for a bit though, pardon me please.

[KCfla]

I am apologizing in advance for this as I've never used the F-bomb on any forum before.

I'm FUCKING pissed over this. The politically correct garbage in the press release is just that...GARBAGE. They just announced him as the newest member of the band a few months ago and now they have decided to "part ways". What a pile of dogshit. There has to have been some bad feelings or something bad went wrong here.

First, the terrible way they handled the whole thing with Augeri and now Soto. Both guys got royally screwed, in my opinion.

Dave- don't apologize. I've used a few tonight as well. And I almost never "cuss" on message boards.

This whole situation is just above "normal" in the emotional spectrum.

[jrnysc]

I will miss Jeff Scott Soto just like I miss Steve Augeri.

I thought we were ready to go forward with a kickass new Journey album and tour supporting it with JSS fronting the way.

I ain't happy (again).


Given the circumstances with Augeri and now Jeff there is 1 gentleman who can pull this off in SPADES and a lot of us have become friends with him on Andrew's very site. If it is him, he deserves our support just as Jeff does our thanks and regrets for what could have been.

If that's the case, I think most of us will get behind him JoePa.
I just need to spit fire for a bit though, pardon me please.

I wish I could, but I cannot. This is JOURNEY for God's sake!!

[TRAGChick]

HOLY EFFING SHIT!!!!

Seriously....this is sad....

[ohsherrie]

Given the circumstances with Augeri and now Jeff there is 1 gentleman who can pull this off in SPADES and a lot of us have become friends with him on Andrew's very site. If it is him, he deserves our support just as Jeff does our thanks and regrets for what could have been.

As much as I adore that friend of ours, there comes a time when Jon and Neal have to pay the price for their arrogance. For me, that time is here. I just can't do it any more.

[conversationpc]

Given the circumstances with Augeri and now Jeff there is 1 gentleman who can pull this off in SPADES and a lot of us have become friends with him on Andrew's very site. If it is him, he deserves our support just as Jeff does our thanks and regrets for what could have been.

As much as I adore that friend of ours, there comes a time when Jon and Neal have to pay the price for their arrogance. For me, that time is here. I just can't do it any more.

Perry is the only choice if they are going to continue, unfortunately. And I say "unfortunately", because I was looking forward to seeing what Jeff and Journey could do together. I don't see any chance of them asking Jeremey or any other cover band singer to take the mic for them, especially considering Friga hasn't had good things to say about Journey cover bands in the past.

[StyxCollector]

Look, I'd be happy for Jeremey if they considered him and he got it, but knowing this band's history, would you accept the job?

Anyone walking into the job has to know what he is signing up for. I remember Jeremey saying numerous times he wouldn't want it.

JSS was about as qualified as it gets and he didn't stick around. Shame.

[jrnysc]

Look, I'd be happy for Jeremey if they considered him and he got it, but knowing this band's history, would you accept the job?

Anyone walking into the job has to know what he is signing up for. I remember Jeremey saying numerous times he wouldn't want it.

JSS was about as qualified as it gets and he didn't stick around. Shame.

Exactly. No offense to anyone, but as talented, experienced, and adored in the business as Jeff is, and has been, and he couldn't make them happy. Think about it. Geez!!