Kevin Shirley - The MelodicRock Interview

[sniper16]

journey can be journey as long as neal is in the band and the singer sounds like perry, most people dont know steve perry isnt there anymore, they just go to hang out, the same could be said if perry was touring as journey without anyone else, 50% of the people dont know,dont care, and about 80% dont buy new music, dont read magazines, or websites, so they dont know whos in the band when they buy a ticket

Don't fool yourself!!

perry played theatres 20 years ago, so much for the big time
journey plays to 10,000 plus a night over the last 10 years or so.
people have shown up thru 3 singers
they come to drink have fun and enjoy the songs as long as it says journey on the marque.

how is that fooling my self

And you're saying these idiots don't know they aren't seeing/hearing
Steve Perry?!?! Don't insult me ...or them!!

im not saying thier idiots, i saying, they dont follow music, so they dont necessarly know whos in the band when they buy thier ticket, yes they are goig to hear song neal,steve,jon,gregg and the others made famous, but ive toured, and work many shows in the past, and ive winessed it, with more than journey, people dont know its not ace frehley on stage wearing the make up, or thats not dennis playing keyboard for styx, and if you believe steve perry is the messiah, and he ll have a #1 record, and will play stadiums because 35000 an night will care, your kidding yourself

[Michigan Girl]

im not saying thier idiots, i saying, they dont follow music, so they dont necessarly know whos in the band when they buy thier ticket, yes they are goig to hear song neal,steve,jon,gregg and the others made famous, but ive toured, and work many shows in the past, and ive winessed it, with more than journey, people dont know its not ace frehley on stage wearing the make up, or thats not dennis playing keyboard for styx, and if you believe steve perry is the messiah, and he ll have a #1 record, and will play stadiums because 35000 an night will care, your kidding yourself

LOL...now you're making implications when I bolded your exact words!! I still believe you're wrong
I'm giving people the benefit of the doubt ...MOST of them know they are not being enamored
by the illustrious, enthralling, emotive and soulful Steve Perry ... you can quote me!!

Perhaps when they purchased their tickets they thought they might see SP!!
But once there ...they're like ...WTF?!?!
So it sounds like you're crediting SP w/a very large amount of ticket sales ...OK

[Arkansas]

Interesting, there don't seem to be as many people suggesting that they give Arnel the boot lately.

There are three stages that something new goes through:

1.Vehement rejection (oh, hell no!)
2. Criticism
3. Embraced

Nope.
1. Rejection
2. Criticism
3. Prolonged criticism
4. Apathy/Acceptance

Embrace is for all the touchy feely saps. AP will probably only get that crap from his home town.
Acceptance isn't too far from apathy, as in, "I don't really care, but yeah, it works."


later~

[Don]

Pineda is like Budweiser.
Not exactly the best suds around, but you can get by drinking it if you have to.

[Deb]

Most of all, I just don't understand why it was absolutely necessary to cut the album in 10 days.

Sounds like that was all the time they had, in between Journey. Taken from the EM interview downstairs......

"That´s how Kevin is. He had a little time because the Journey guys wanted to take a little vacation and they´ve got the luxury. I think he had like two or three weeks and he goes “Yeah, I´d like to do the Mr Big record!” and let me tell you! I´m sure he took a pay cut. He wanted to do the band.

Our manager came to us and said that we were gonna have a conference call and all of a sudden this voice is on the other end. This South African/Australian English kind of voice came on, which I can´t even do. (laughs). Every time I think I can talk somebody else´s language, people are taking the piss out of me. I really got along with him great. I had like a really great report with him. Look, I made him laugh and that´s a huge fuel to my fire. I love that! We hit it off great and he´s not a push over. Back in the day I used to sway our producer. Everybody did! It was so funny back in the 90´s. Whoever was talking to the producer longer than anybody else, it was assumed “Oh, he wants to be turned up!”. This didn´t happen, but I can totally see Kevin Shirley with a flyswatter, smacking hands on the faders, you know."

I stayed there maybe because of the hopes that he could send me in and I could fix some shit on my vocals, but not a chance man. I was there for a week. I got to do a couple of overdubs and the band didn´t even know this, but because I sang background vocals on some stuff and on the background vocal track I added a couple of licks on the lead vocal and I look at Kevin Shirley and he goes “No, you´re not getting that in!” and I was like “C´mon!” and he was “No man, you´re back to your old tricks! I don´t want any bells or whistles, violins or tricks on this record! I want a raw rock and roll record from Mr Big and that´s what the fans want. They don´t want to hear this slick shit!” and I go “Well, what do you mean?”. Kevin says “You´ve already done it! You´ve done the slick rock record. After so many years you owe the fans something different instead of the same old same old.”. So there you go.


Funny guy, story of how he missed out on fronting Van Halen, Sammy got the gig.


".....because he tells me he´s calling back on Friday night and I´m talking to him and he goes “Hey dude, I really like your voice and I want you to come audition for the band!” and I´m like “Oh my God, this is amazing! I can´t believe it!”. Later on I listen to the tape and here´s Eddie Van Halen in a dark voice and here´s me “Oh my God!” (in a high pitched voice). So I was going down to LA. Me and Neal Schon were going. We did a movie soundtrack and we were going down to see the movie premiere. We´re in the airport and guess who´s in the airport? Sammy Hagar! This is a fucking true story! I´ll even send you the picture because somebody snapped a picture. Sammy goes “Where are you guys going?” and Neal says “Well, we´re doing this premiere and Eric´s gonna go talk to Eddie Van Halen!” and I go “Yeah, I don´t know what´s going on.”. First of all, I´m talking but I´m stuttering and stammering. Even though I´m friends with Neal Schon, I´m still starstruck and Sammy Hagar is a friend and even to this day I´m a friend, but I get intimidated easily by rock stars. Anyway, Sammy goes “Man, I just got back from talking to that dude and I got the gig! I got the gig!” and I go “Did you audition?” and he goes “Fuck that audition! I don´t need to audition! I got the gig! I´ve known the Van Halen guys for a long time.”. I used to read Creem Magazine and I go “Man, didn´t you guys use to fight?” and Sammy goes “We never fought! We would say bad shit, but…”. It´s like Sammy and David always badmouthing each other in a magazine and he goes “No, I never had a problem with Edward!” and I went “Oh, he´s got the gig! He´s already calling him Edward.” (laughs). . So I go down to LA and we go to the premiere and we have a good time. It´s raining and I don´t know what it was… I´m talking to Eddie Van Halen on the phone and he goes “Go up Coldwater Canyon blah blah blah.” And I also my friend Zeke Clark, who worked for me for years, got his big break and went off to be Eddie Van Halen´s guitar tech. I thought “My God, everything´s perfect!”. Anyway, Eddie says “I´m gonna give you Zeke and he´ll give you directions.”. I go “Hey man, what´s going on? Is he in a good mood?” and he goes “Yeah man, he´s kind of scattered right now, but come down!”. It was weird. The way he talked on the phone. Let me tell you man, for weeks before I went down to LA, I was like “Oh my God! I might be in Van Halen. And David Lee Roth? I can´t do that on stage!” and I´m totally freaking myself out. I bragged about it to my girlfriend and my friends and I´m going “ I might be the Van Halen singer! Oh my God!” and then when I actually go down to LA, I´m pissing myself. So I chickened out. I completely chickened out."

[Ritchie]

Pineda is like Budweiser.
Not exactly the best suds around, but you can get by drinking it if you have to.

I saw Pineda compared to McDonald`s,Burger King and diet Coke, Budweiser is new to me.
Next time when I listen to Revelation I will eat my Big mac with a diet coke and than probably finish it with a six pack Budweiser.

[jestor92]

I'm not an Pineda fan, but the dude can sing well. If the band can put some good songs/lyrics behind him to sing it's a win win situation. If the band brings out songs/lyrics that suck he'll be the one shouldering some of the blame due to his inabilities to write lyrics.

I notice someone mentioned bringing in Jack Blades to take over for Valory. That would be a great idea because Blades is a great song writer and would help out the band tremendously. I mean since Perry left the band Blades co-writes are some of the best matierial they've done (Higher Place, World Gone Wild).

[Deb]

im not saying thier idiots, i saying, they dont follow music, so they dont necessarly know whos in the band when they buy thier ticket, yes they are goig to hear song neal,steve,jon,gregg and the others made famous, but ive toured, and work many shows in the past, and ive winessed it, with more than journey, people dont know its not ace frehley on stage wearing the make up, or thats not dennis playing keyboard for styx, and if you believe steve perry is the messiah, and he ll have a #1 record, and will play stadiums because 35000 an night will care, your kidding yourself

I've always found that so unbelievable, especially with tix prices nowadays. I don't know who would buy concert tix and not know who is fronting said band. Even if it's not one of the few I'm a major fan of, I'm still going to check out who is fronting. Say for example, Tesla, Foreigner, or Nazareth were playing here. I would sure as heck have googled to see who was fronting the band now before I put any money down. If it's not the original I would have checked it out who the new one is. Saying that, I would go see all 3 of those even though one of them doesn't have the original, but that is from checking out that Kelly has his own style and definitely does the music justice. I would think when it comes to singer/frontman, most people are going to check it out first.

[kgdjpubs]

im not saying thier idiots, i saying, they dont follow music, so they dont necessarly know whos in the band when they buy thier ticket, yes they are goig to hear song neal,steve,jon,gregg and the others made famous, but ive toured, and work many shows in the past, and ive winessed it, with more than journey, people dont know its not ace frehley on stage wearing the make up, or thats not dennis playing keyboard for styx, and if you believe steve perry is the messiah, and he ll have a #1 record, and will play stadiums because 35000 an night will care, your kidding yourself

I've always found that so unbelievable, especially with tix prices nowadays. I don't know who would buy concert tix and not know who is fronting said band. Even if it's not one of the few I'm a major fan of, I'm still going to check out who is fronting. Say for example, Tesla, Foreigner, or Nazareth were playing here. I would sure as heck have googled to see who was fronting the band now before I put any money down. If it's not the original I would have checked it out who the new one is. Saying that, I would go see all 3 of those even though one of them doesn't have the original, but that is from checking out that Kelly has his own style and definitely does the music justice. I would think when it comes to singer/frontman, most people are going to check it out first.

Most will, but a lot of people are mainly there to drink beer, and get away from life from a few hours. The hardcore fans will find out who is playing....the average person that doesn't know anything other than the hits may not care.

[tater1977]

Pretty good article from KS in his diary...


http://www.cavemanproductions.com/cavediary.htm


...."David Kalmusky and Neal Schon did a terrific job of mixing the Journey record, and I did a few mixes for them as guidlines, and they took their time doing it and sent them to me and it was a great collaborative effort. Look for that next summer.."

[annie89509]

Great EM interview, Deb. I remember, in that ROR MTV Docu (CBS Late Night SPecial), Neal spoke about working with Eric.
So, I guess it happened during that time period in mid-80s.

[Deb]

Great EM interview, Deb. I remember, in that ROR MTV Docu (CBS Late Night SPecial), Neal spoke about working with Eric.
So, I guess it happened during that time period in mid-80s.

Yep, the premiere he's talking about in my post above, that he and Neal went to, would have probably been the movie 'Teachers' premiere. Can't Stop The Fire they wrote together for the soundtrack. EM-vocals, NS-guitar, Randy Jackson-bass, Steve Smith-drums. Neal killer guitar solo! Probably the closest we'll ever hear to an EM fronted Journey.

Can't Stop The Fire ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wUHmAcGZuQ

A couple others they colaborated on............

Just One Night ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fW-az12PhQ (Triumph had a hit with a cover of this one)

No Turning Back ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmV_DbQKnI4


Can't Stop the Fire and No Turning Back are the demo versions.

[NoMoreTails]

Pretty good article from KS in his diary...


http://www.cavemanproductions.com/cavediary.htm


...."David Kalmusky and Neal Schon did a terrific job of mixing the Journey record, and I did a few mixes for them as guidlines, and they took their time doing it and sent them to me and it was a great collaborative effort. Look for that next summer.."

And this from earlier in the same paragraph:
"...and as we decided to have someone else mix the new Journey record I'd produced."

[annie89509]

Great EM interview, Deb. I remember, in that ROR MTV Docu (CBS Late Night SPecial), Neal spoke about working with Eric.
So, I guess it happened during that time period in mid-80s.

Yep, the premiere he's talking about in my post above, that he and Neal went to, would have probably been the movie 'Teachers' premiere. Can't Stop The Fire they wrote together for the soundtrack. EM-vocals, NS-guitar, Randy Jackson-bass, Steve Smith-drums. Neal killer guitar solo! Probably the closest we'll ever hear to an EM fronted Journey.

Can't Stop The Fire ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wUHmAcGZuQ

A couple others they colaborated on............

Just One Night ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fW-az12PhQ (Triumph had a hit with a cover of this one)

No Turning Back ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmV_DbQKnI4


Can't Stop the Fire and No Turning Back are the demo versions.

Interesting, Deb....Didn't know what those 2 collaborated on. .. I like it!
Seems Neal always had to keep busy. This happened with the lull after the Frontiers tour...when SP went to LA and made ST...Neal did HSAS and worked with EM (HH must have introduced them...was this before or after Mr. Big?)?

[Deb]

Interesting, Deb....Didn't know what those 2 collaborated on. .. I like it!
Seems Neal always had to keep busy. This happened with the lull after the Frontiers tour...when SP went to LA and made ST...Neal did HSAS and worked with EM (HH must have introduced them...was this before or after Mr. Big?)?

Before. Neal and Eric worked together around '84. Mr Big didn't form until '88/'89. HH (along with Sandy Einstein) was managing both Journey and Eric Martin Band (EMB) at the time, was also Mr Big's manager once they formed later too. LOL, say what you will about HH, he knew talent when he heard/saw it.

After bass player Billy Sheehan left David Lee Roth in 1988, he began piecing together a new band with the help of Mike Varney from Shrapnel Records, he recruited Eric Martin, of the rock-oriented Eric Martin Band and also soul-leaning solo artist, and soon thereafter added guitarist Gilbert and drummer Torpey.

[Andrew]

Part 2 next week...

[Saint John]

Can't Stop The Fire ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wUHmAcGZuQ

Wow ... he's a dead ringer for Jeff Keith from Tesla.

[Andrew]

Part 2 coming right up

Arnel is great. We did have one issue on the making of this new album where he’d just come in from a long stint in the Philippines and his English was a little broken. I was very vocal about him being unprepared for it and I was later told by management, that that he had been ready to leave the band if they wanted and they could get a new singer in as he didn’t want to embarrass the band.

[Peartree12249]

Looking forward to it.

[JRNYFan]

Part 2 coming right up

Arnel is great. We did have one issue on the making of this new album where he’d just come in from a long stint in the Philippines and his English was a little broken. I was very vocal about him being unprepared for it and I was later told by management, that that he had been ready to leave the band if they wanted and they could get a new singer in as he didn’t want to embarrass the band.

[RedWingFan]

Part 2 coming right up

Arnel is great. We did have one issue on the making of this new album where he’d just come in from a long stint in the Philippines and his English was a little broken. I was very vocal about him being unprepared for it and I was later told by management, that that he had been ready to leave the band if they wanted and they could get a new singer in as he didn’t want to embarrass the band.

Wow. Even little ole Arnel is ready to tell Neil to get bent and where he can stick his band.

I'm starting to respect the little guy!

[Michigan Girl]

Part 2 coming right up

Arnel is great. We did have one issue on the making of this new album where he’d just come in from a long stint in the Philippines and his English was a little broken. I was very vocal about him being unprepared for it and [i]I was later told by management, that that he had been ready to leave the band if they wanted and they could get a new singer in as he didn’t want to embarrass the band. [/i]

There's a happy ending to this, of course!! I just don't see how his English could be any worse now, after being home for
a year, than it was prior to joining the band to begin with?!?

It'll be interesing to find out how they fixed the problem!!

[Rip Rokken]

Part 2 coming right up

Arnel is great. We did have one issue on the making of this new album where he’d just come in from a long stint in the Philippines and his English was a little broken. I was very vocal about him being unprepared for it and [i]I was later told by management, that that he had been ready to leave the band if they wanted and they could get a new singer in as he didn’t want to embarrass the band. [/i]

There's a happy ending to this, of course!! I just don't see how his English could be any worse now, after being home for
a year, than it was prior to joining the band to begin with?!?

It'll be interesing to find out how they fixed the problem!!

He came back and worked extremely hard. It will be interesting to hear more about the album process from Kevin's viewpoint -- I'm surprised he kept talking about it.

[Andrew]

Is there a more... How do I put this... Is there a more dysfunctional band than Journey?
I don’t wanna do this. (laughs)

Ok…
(laughing) We’ve got a new record coming out and it’s a good record. It was a difficult record to make. You have difficult records to make—it doesn’t make them less valid and it doesn’t make them less exciting to listen to.

[Rip Rokken]

Is there a more... How do I put this... Is there a more dysfunctional band than Journey?
I don’t wanna do this. (laughs)

Ok…
(laughing) We’ve got a new record coming out and it’s a good record. It was a difficult record to make. You have difficult records to make—it doesn’t make them less valid and it doesn’t make them less exciting to listen to.

I have to give you credit for continuing to press the issue! I saw him in the sound booth before the concert in Manila, and he was very cool and came down to talk when I got his attention.

[brandonx76]

Part 2 coming right up

Arnel is great. We did have one issue on the making of this new album where he’d just come in from a long stint in the Philippines and his English was a little broken. I was very vocal about him being unprepared for it and I was later told by management, that that he had been ready to leave the band if they wanted and they could get a new singer in as he didn’t want to embarrass the band.

Wow. Even little ole Arnel is ready to tell Neil to get bent and where he can stick his band.

I'm starting to respect the little guy!

hahaha...man, you think being a founding member of Journey you'd get some respect - not so - remember, this ain't 1982 and you aren't one of the biggest music acts around....still, Arnel has eome cojones ...I guess when it comes down to principle, it's good to hang onto your ideals, sometimes

[steveo777]

So Arnel was ready to tell the band to fuck off....but politely. Good on him. He's growing. At least we know he's not just a puppet or a yes man.
With all that tension and chaos this album will probably be good.

[Maui Tom]

don't think Arnel has a lot of FU in him....bet he just said basically.."if you need someone else...go for it...."

[Rip Rokken]

So Arnel was ready to tell the band to fuck off....but politely. Good on him. He's growing. At least we know he's not just a puppet or a yes man.

Nah, AP's a team player, and just wanted what was right for the band. But I think he has learned to speak up for himself when needed, certainly.

[StElmoQn]

Like SA, Arnel sounds like a doormat unfortunately. While it's honorable of him to offer his resignation, it was Neal's decision to hire a guy with diction issues in the first place.

Funny, my take is just the opposite. Neal & Co. gave him the big "break", and now that he has garnered some publicity, he's ready to drop "them" rather than the other way around if they don't play pretty... Having the "voice" gives you lots of options that the guys who are strictly musicians don't have.

And I'm not even a AP fan - in my book, No Perry/No Journey...