John Waite is not a Journey fan....

[Gideon]

Nice post Slucero. Yeah, my use of power was meant to reference amplification. I don't doubt that Perry could have rattled the walls as well as Pineda, but he never did to me on that song. It's an issue of delicacy vs. power and I prefer the latter for OA.

I think SP never sang that way (rattling the walls) intentionally, his way of singing made use of more expression and dynamics.. Nelly more or less just belts it..

..nothing wrong with that.

Sure, but to me it was the wrong choice. Never heard a good take on that song from Perry.

[roycap]

Huge Fan of John Waite, but his comments were unnecessary. He is better than that. My guess is his beef is with Cain and this is how he expressed his anger. Unfortunate.

[steveo777]

Huge Fan of John Waite, but his comments were unnecessary. He is better than that. My guess is his beef is with Cain and this is how he expressed his anger. Unfortunate.

Do you think Cain really gives a shit? I doubt it. Look at the level of success Cain has been able to attain, away from the Baby.

[yulog]

I love that John waite has caused this much agita to MR.com

[Michigan Girl]

I love that John waite has caused this much agita to MR.com

This and the hopes/dream that Perry is somehow jealous of Journey's successes ...

[RSParker]

like anyone really gives a fuck what JOHN WAITE has to say..
And why the hell is METAL SLUDGE giving him an interview?


i guess he didn't complain looking like a Warrant reject band, and singing Diane Warren songs...

poser.

[Arkansas]

Huge Fan of John Waite, but his comments were unnecessary. He is better than that. My guess is his beef is with Cain and this is how he expressed his anger. Unfortunate.

Back when Bad English ceased, JW was quoted as saying that he needed to be leader of the band, and that the others wanted things to be more democratic. And so they butted heads. Now that Journey is fairly big, once again, I'm sure he's more than a little jealous that three of his former bandmates are doing the Journey thing. And of course, it could be simply a Cain thing - "Hey, I brought you into the Babys and now you're bigger than me"...etc, etc. ? Who really gives a s#it. JW is a big boy. His current success is what he's made it. No one else.

I will say that when I saw Bad English in Memphis, they rocked hard & sounded great. And they all, including JW, were reasonably friendly with everyone on Beale Street.


later~

[yulog]

I love that John waite has caused this much agita to MR.com

This and the hopes/dream that Perry is somehow jealous of Journey's successes ...

Yeah, someone please hand me the tums

[Starrider]

I am at Revel in Atlantic City waiting for the Journey concert to start. I found it humorous that they played two Babys songs in a row over the PA. The first was Head First and the second was Midnight Rendezvous. Head First was from the last Babys album before Cain joined the Babys and Midnight Rendezvous was from Cain's first album with them. I didn't know the songs but definitely knew Waite's voice. Had to Google the lyrics.

[steveo777]

I am at Revel in Atlantic City waiting for the Journey concert to start. I found it humorous that they played two Babys songs in a row over the PA. The first was Head First and the second was Midnight Rendezvous. Head First was from the last Babys album before Cain joined the Babys and Midnight Rendezvous was from Cain's first album with them. I didn't know the songs but definitely knew Waite's voice. Had to Google the lyrics.

This is a night with Journey, no Loverboy or Pat Benatar. Should be interesting. Please share the setlist and anything special. Do have a great time!

[joonrock]

I opened for John Waite once when I was in my last band and he was nothing short of a complete arsehole! So his tone in this interview doesn't surprise me.
My personal experience of the guy was; he completely blanked us backstage (never even made eye contact), gave us an agreement to say that we understood they were 'his crowd' and not to steal any thunder from him, and the only contact we finally got was back at the hotel (he was completely drunk - which he had been on stage) when we were finished, saying 'Thanks for coming to the show!'. We'd opened for the guy and he hadn't even taken enough interest to know, and thought we were fans that wanted to stay in the hotel he was in!
I wouldn't mind, but he couldn't even fill a 3rd of a 700 seater venue, which I'd seen a Queen tribute fill out of the door a couple of months before.
Idiot!
His crowd were a really good crowd though. Met some really nice people there.

[Andrew]

He has a horrible reputation....

[Journey/Survivor]

I spoke to John Waite twice. The first time was while he was in Bad English, the second was about 8 to 10 years after Bad English, after one of his solo shows. He was cool with me both times. But the second time I asked him if there was any chance of a Bad English reunion. He smiled and said "No, never." I knew the answer before I asked him, but I just wanted to see what he'd say.

Like I said in another post, I respect him as a singer and songwriter. But as a person, he's an asshole.

[Navarro]

I spoke to John Wait twice. The first time was while he was in Bad English, the second was about 8 to 10 years after Bad English, after one of his solo shows. He was cool with me both times. But the second time I asked him if there was any chance of a Bad English reunion. He smiled and said "No, never." I knew the answer before I asked him, but I just wanted to see what he'd say.

Like I said in another post, I respect him as a singer and songwriter. But as a person, he's an asshole.

The "super white" comment is absolutely ridiculous. He has very little r and b/funk/gospel/African American influence in his songs. I would say even less than Journey. SP vocal style is based off of Sam Cooke and Motown and you hear that influence in his singing. Waite does sound anything other than white and doubt anyone other than middle age white people are listening to him.

[def]

He has a horrible reputation....

Andrew, what a diplomatic way to put it...

I repeat, I never meet him, never talked to him. He just once had to answer a question I mailed from Germany to California to a radio station. I asked what happened to all the songs, he once recorded with Adrian Vandenberg. He answered something like you could put a gun to his head, he wouldn't remember. I still have the live recording of this interview. Well, this hasn't been exactly true, because he has also given interviews talking about looking for a record company releasing his remastered Bad English leftovers and a "big ballad" with Adje Vandenberg.

http://www.rockunited.com/waite.htm

What the heck, I love some of Steve Perry's vocals, but I adore most of JW singings. It is not about octaves, it about the mood in song and to me - only to me, so keep seated, you JOURNEY radicals - he is one of the greatest aor chanteurs of all time.

I believe he is very egocentric - to put it mildly - and I also believe, that he believes to be more of an artist than he is actually is. His gestures in interviews seem to be a little to bored, but also pathetic and sometimes even high-nosed...

But again, what the heck! I do not exspect my most favourable rock singer to be a well-educated, philosophical, urbane person. This singer should be able to be rough and mild, agressive and mellow. An aor-singer has the difficult mission to tell a little story in three and half minutes and sound somehow authentic while doing that...

JW is one of those unique vocalists, who really can deliver. There might not be a lot special about him else personally, but for sure he is brilliant in intonation and big drama in a 3.5 minutes song. You don't find too many of those...

P.S.: Went once to the TEMPLE BAR in NYC but never met him...

[Andrew]

I could talk about my passion and love of John's music all day. I think he is a wonderful singer - an original and emotional vocalist - and I love both his rocking stuff and his more stripped back singer/songwriter stuff too.

I have every album possible and he gets a high rotation with me often.

But I do have to seperate the man from the music. My personal dealings with him have been disappointing to say the least. I originally conducted 2 very good interviews with John, I treasure those. By my last one was that fucking boring I vowed never again. And there's other stuff that's gone on that doesn't need discussing here.

For the record - he had a deal with MTM to release all the classic unreleased AOR stuff he has laying around (a ton of stuff), but then submitted a disc full of singer/songwriter material instead after changing his mind. MTM weren't interested and that deal went bust....and John hasn't had any interest in releasing that music since.

A real shame! But typical of dealings with him.

[Arkansas]

I think it's interesting how most are able to 'compartmentalize' things. Maybe how he was asked a question, or how he answered a question, has nothing to do with how he genuinely felt. In other words, the comments that people make about <whatever> are really dependent on how they feel at the time, or just how they choose to answer a question. Doesn't make it right or wrong, perhaps, it was just an impulse...perhaps, it was calculated.

I mean, especially with celebrities, you absolutely cannot hang truth on what they say. Their business is to keep themselves in the news...whatever avenue of news there is. JW could sincerely hate Journey music, or at least, some of the band on whatever personal level. However, it could be a cry for attention, no? It could have been an attempt to just get news attn or web hits or maybe something deeper, for someone to call him. Because, when a celebrity - or rock star - does this, it generally results in record sales or at least YouTube hits.

I'll admit, that I instantly went to YT and queued-up some Bad English and some of the early MTV stuff. I don't know exactly how that could result in income for him (JW), but I do speculate that there's a potential motive there somehow.

Now then, how this all really extrapolates financially is unknown, but I will say, that three pages+ on a premier music website, including comments from the owner/director himself, must mean something...good or bad...probably mostly good.


later~

[yulog]

I could talk about my passion and love of John's music all day. I think he is a wonderful singer - an original and emotional vocalist - and I love both his rocking stuff and his more stripped back singer/songwriter stuff too.

I have every album possible and he gets a high rotation with me often.

But I do have to seperate the man from the music. My personal dealings with him have been disappointing to say the least. I originally conducted 2 very good interviews with John, I treasure those. By my last one was that fucking boring I vowed never again. And there's other stuff that's gone on that doesn't need discussing here.

For the record - he had a deal with MTM to release all the classic unreleased AOR stuff he has laying around (a ton of stuff), but then submitted a disc full of singer/songwriter material instead after changing his mind. MTM weren't interested and that deal went bust....and John hasn't had any interest in releasing that music since.

A real shame! But typical of dealings with him.

Yeah ,but hasn't he been fucked over many times by record companies? He may be his own worst enemy but possibly for good reason.......and who isn't there own worst enemy.....plenty of that going on here , i know i am