lead singer to journey

Rock Music World

Journey Lead Singers In Order: History and Band Members

In this article, we delve into the captivating history of Journey, an iconic rock band that has left an indelible mark on the music industry. From their humble beginnings to their meteoric rise to fame, Journey has mesmerized audiences worldwide with their unique sound and timeless hits. Join us on a journey through time as we explore the remarkable story of this legendary band.

Formation of the Band

Journey was formed in 1973 in San Francisco, California, bringing together a group of highly talented musicians. The founding members included Neal Schon, Gregg Rolie, Ross Valory, Aynsley Dunbar, and George Tickner. With their combined musical prowess and creative vision, they set out to create something extraordinary.

Early Years and Musical Style

During their early years, Journey experimented with a fusion of rock, jazz, and progressive influences, creating a distinctive sound that set them apart from their contemporaries. Their self-titled debut album, released in 1975, showcased their musical versatility and marked the beginning of their incredible journey.

Evolution and Breakthrough Success

In 1977, Journey underwent a significant change that would forever shape its destiny. Steve Perry joined the band as their lead vocalist, injecting new energy and unparalleled vocal range into their music. This lineup change proved to be a turning point for Journey, leading to a series of chart-topping albums and unforgettable songs.

Chart-topping albums and Hit Singles

Journey’s breakthrough came in 1978 with the release of their album “Infinity,” which became a massive success. The album spawned the hit singles “Wheel in the Sky” and “Lights,” propelling Journey into the mainstream spotlight. They continued their winning streak with subsequent albums, including “Evolution” (1979) and “Departure” (1980), which produced hits like “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin'” and “Any Way You Want It.”

The Iconic Album: “Escape”

In 1981, Journey released their most iconic album to date, “Escape.” This album elevated their status as rock superstars and solidified their place in music history. Featuring the mega-hits “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Open Arms,” and “Who’s Crying Now,” “Escape” became an instant classic, captivating audiences with its emotionally charged lyrics and powerful melodies.

The Power Ballad Era

Journey’s success continued into the mid-1980s, defined by the rise of power ballads that struck a chord with fans worldwide. Songs like “Faithfully,” “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),” and “Send Her My Love” showcased the band’s ability to create heartfelt and anthemic ballads that resonated deeply with listeners.

A Change in Direction

As the 1990s approached, Journey faced challenges and underwent significant lineup changes. Steve Perry departed from the band in 1987, leading to a period of transition as they searched for a new lead vocalist. Despite these challenges, Journey remained resilient and continued to produce music that captivated its loyal fan base.

Journey’s Enduring Legacy

Although the band’s popularity waned in the late 1990s, their music never faded from the hearts of their dedicated fans. Journey’s timeless classics continue to resonate with audiences of all ages, thanks to their emotional depth, infectious melodies, and inspiring lyrics. Their songs have become anthems for perseverance, love, and the power of music itself.

Past Journey band members include the following:

• Steve Perry (1977-1998)
• Aynsley Dunbar (1974-1978)
• Robert Fleischman (1977)
• Steve Smith (1978-1985, 1995-1998)
• Randy Jackson (1985-1987)
• Steve Augeri (1998-2006)

Current Journey band members:

• Neal Schon – Guitar (1973-present)
• Jonathan Cain – Keyboards (1980-present)
• Ross Valory – Bass (1973-1985, 1995-present)
• Arnel Pineda – Vocals (2007-present)
• Deen Castronovo – Drums (1998-present)

Lead Singers of Journey

Van Halen Lead Singers In Order: A Journey Through the Years

Black Sabbath Singers In Order: Ever-Changing Lineup of Black Sabbath

The Original Journey: Gregg Rolie’s Era

Gregg Rolie, a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, served as the original lead singer of Journey. He began his musical career as a co-founder and lead vocalist of Santana before joining forces with Neal Schon to form Journey. Rolie’s soulful voice and exceptional skills as a keyboardist and harmonicist contributed to the band’s early success. He showcased his talent on albums like “Journey,” “Look into the Future,” and “Next.” However, Rolie transitioned to co-lead vocals when Steve Perry joined the band in 1977.

Steve Perry: The Voice of Journey’s Greatest Hits

Steve Perry, widely recognized as the quintessential Journey lead singer, propelled the band to unprecedented heights during their most commercially successful era. Born with a gift for singing, Perry’s powerful and emotive vocals struck a chord with audiences worldwide. With Perry at the helm, Journey released a string of chart-topping albums, including “Infinity,” “Escape,” and “Frontiers.” Iconic songs like “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Open Arms,” and “Faithfully” became anthems for a generation. Perry’s remarkable songwriting abilities and magnetic stage presence contributed to the band’s enduring legacy.

Current Lead Singer: Arnel Pineda

Following Steve Perry’s departure in 1987, Journey experienced a series of lead singer changes. Steve Augeri, known for his vocal range and stage charisma, took over from 1998 to 2006. Jeff Scott Soto briefly joined the band in 2006, leaving his mark with his distinctive style. However, it was Arnel Pineda who breathed new life into Journey as the current lead singer. Pineda’s incredible vocal resemblance to Steve Perry, coupled with his dynamic stage presence, won the hearts of fans worldwide. Since 2008, Pineda has seamlessly integrated into the band, injecting fresh energy and passion into their performances.

Journey’s Enduring Discography: Albums That Defined an Era

Over the past five decades, Journey has released a diverse and extensive discography, showcasing their musical prowess and creativity. Let’s explore some of their most iconic albums:

“ Infinity ” (1978): With Steve Perry as the lead singer, “Infinity” marked a significant turning point for Journey. It featured hit singles like “Wheel in the Sky” and “Lights,” solidifying their place in the rock music landscape.

“ Escape ” (1981): This album became a monumental success, boasting chart-topping hits such as “Don’t Stop Believin'” and “Open Arms.” “Escape” catapulted Journey to international stardom and remains one of their most beloved records.

“ Frontiers ” (1983): Building upon their previous success, “Frontiers” showcased Journey’s evolution with tracks like “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” and “Faithfully.” The album’s polished production and memorable hooks solidified Journey’s status as one of the biggest rock bands of the 1980s.

“ Raised on Radio ” (1986): Released during the band’s final years with Steve Perry, “Raised on Radio” featured a more radio-friendly sound and produced hits like “Be Good to Yourself” and “I’ll Be Alright Without You.” Despite tensions within the band, the album showcased their ability to create catchy, melodic rock tunes.

“ Revelation ” (2008): With Arnel Pineda as the lead singer, “Revelation” marked a new chapter for Journey. The album featured new recordings of their classic hits, reaffirming Pineda’s vocal prowess and rekindling the band’s popularity among longtime fans and a new generation.

“ Eclipse ” (2011): Continuing their musical journey with Pineda, Journey released “Eclipse,” a record that showcased their ability to evolve while staying true to their roots. The album demonstrated their enduring songwriting skills and featured tracks like “City of Hope” and “Edge of the Moment.”

“Escape & Frontiers Live in Japan” (2019): As a testament to their enduring appeal, Journey released a live album featuring their performances of the “Escape” and “Frontiers” albums in their entirety. The release showcased the band’s timeless hits in a live setting, capturing the energy and excitement of their concerts.

Journey’s Impact and Legacy

Journey’s impact on the rock music landscape cannot be overstated. With their infectious melodies, anthemic choruses, and powerful vocals, they carved out a unique sound that resonated with millions of listeners. Their music transcended generations, becoming the soundtrack to countless moments and capturing the hearts of fans worldwide.

Steve Perry’s tenure as the lead singer marked the band’s most successful period, and his distinct voice became synonymous with Journey’s sound. His emotional delivery and ability to connect with audiences elevated their songs to new heights and created an unparalleled legacy.

Arnel Pineda’s addition to the band injected new energy into Journey and allowed them to continue their musical journey. Pineda’s remarkable vocal resemblance to Perry breathed new life into the band’s live performances, earning him a dedicated fanbase and ensuring that Journey’s music lives on.

Journey’s timeless hits continue to be celebrated and embraced today. Songs like “Don’t Stop Believin'” have become cultural touchstones, appearing in films, TV shows, and sporting events, and capturing the imaginations of new generations of listeners.

Journey Band Member’s Ages

Here, is the list of all the Journey member’s ages. It seems like all of the Journey band members are above 50 and below 80.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Feb 9, 2024

MISSISSIPPI COAST COLISEUM

Feb 12, 2024

Sunrise, FL

Amerant bank arena.

Feb 14, 2024

Greenville, SC

Bon secours wellness arena.

Your Email*

Your Message*

Journey Frontman Arnel Pineda on the Band’s New Record, Dreams of a Steve Perry Reunion

• By Andy Greene

Andy Greene

In early 2020, Journey frontman Arnel Pineda flew back to his native Manila after playing a corporate gig in Texas. He was gearing up for a big year in which Journey would cut their first new record since 2011’s Eclipse and play amphitheaters all over North America with the Pretenders.

The pandemic changed all that and he’s been in Manila ever since, but Journey still found a way to work remotely on the record. It’s their first full-length since parting ways with drummer Steve Smith and bassist Ross Valory. They were replaced by bassist Randy Jackson (who briefly toured and recorded with Journey in 1986–87) and drummer Narada Michael Walden, who’s doubling as the album’s producer.

We checked in with Pineda via Zoom to talk about his lockdown life in Manila, the in-progress Journey record, the upcoming biopic about his life, and why he still dreams about a Journey reunion with Steve Perry.

How are things going? Good. I arrived here in Manila last year just a week and a half before the lockdown began. I was lucky. Otherwise, I would have been stuck in America for six months before they let me back.

This must be the longest stretch of time you’ve been home since you joined Journey in 2007. Yeah. This is the longest. I like it because I got to spend a lot of time with family and the kids and more time with myself and my wife. There are other things I would rather do than tour, so I got the chance to be here. In a negative way, it’s quite bad. The survival here is a day-to-day deal. I’m the one that goes out a lot. I’m the one that goes to the market and the grocery to refill our food stocks.

You wonder if you have the virus every day. There’s a lot of paranoia going around. It’s like what is happening in America.

Do you miss playing live? Yeah. I especially miss the energy and the adrenaline of doing it. I’m delivering on the legacy that the Voice [Steve Perry] has left behind. Especially now that he formally passed the torch to me in 2017 [at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction], he made that known and he was very gracious. It was very kind of him. It was so generous of him to say that in public. It was really an honor.

What was it like to finally meet Steve after all these years? I posted on Instagram that I had waited 35 years for that. It was dreamy. I couldn’t believe I met him since he’s very reclusive and he avoids people. He didn’t want to get interviewed, at least until he released his new record [ Traces ] and then suddenly he was out there, going to radio stations and accepting interviews.

Editor’s picks

Every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term, the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history.

I was really surprised that he agreed to meet me. It’s one of the most special things that happened in my life. He’s one of my heroes when it comes to singing. I remember back in the Eighties, I would sleep on the bus with my Walkman on in my ears as his voice sang all these favorite songs from Journey.

I really dug his new record. It was amazing. I’ve been teasing Jonathan [Cain] and Neal [Schon]. “Why don’t you invite Steve Perry over for a tour?” Oh, my God. I never saw them back in the Eighties. I was just a young kid in Manila, just playing around, with no chance of going to the States and seeing their show, but they were one of my favorite bands.

I’ve spoken to Steve a bunch of times in the past few years. We even talked just a few weeks ago. Oh, my God!

Judging by our talks, I’m extremely confident that he’s happy to leave the Journey baton with you. That’s even more pressure I’m getting, hearing this from you. At the same time, I’m truly honored. But I’m not losing [the hope] that one day he’ll join the band for two or three songs. It would be one of the highlights of my life if that happens.

It would almost be on the scale of Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd re-forming at this point. My God. It would be the same thing for me with Led Zeppelin because I haven’t seen them either, or Pink Floyd. I wish they would be complete again. It’s like completing a circle, being back up onstage again.

Do you think this long break has been good for your singing voice? Has it given you time to rest the muscle? I think so. At the same time, I can’t help but sing four or five songs here every day. The problem with the voice is that it changes as you grow older. It’s like athletes. They reach their peak on their 30th birthday. As they approach 31 or 32, it starts to change. It’s the same with my voice. I just want to make sure I can be of use to the band until they decide to throw the towel in.

Those are hard songs to sing for any singer. You guys go out and do 60 straight concerts in the summer and you need to hit the high notes on “Faithfully” every single time. That would be hard for anyone at any age. We’ll do five or six shows a week. I’m just quite amazed with myself a little. Somehow I was able to take it for 13 years. Let’s see what’s going to happen in the coming days. We’re on to finishing the album. We finished six songs so far. There’s talk of going out somewhere first, maybe Las Vegas for a residency. We don’t know yet. We haven’t decided. Just to break the ice between the new members and us.

You have six songs totally done? Yeah. And maybe seven songs to go.

Do Stop Believin': Fake Steve Perry Scams Ohio Woman Out of $122,000

Steve perry signs to new label, contemplates solo tour: 'i miss it terribly'.

Are these ballads? Rockers? For now, we’re doing the rocker songs first, not the ballads. I think the seven songs they’re working on, they’re working on something huge, like how you’ve known Journey doing ballads. It’s between [1981’s ] “Mother, Father” and [1978’s] “Winds of March.” We’re working on that song. We’ll see what happens. I’m waiting for them to send me the demos so that we can record it next week.

Working remotely like this must have been an adjustment. Normally, you’d be in the room together. I know. It’s quite hard right now. I have a few melody ideas that I’m into and want to share with them, but you can’t right now because of what is happening. I just have to listen to it and learn it. We use Zoom to record and I turn on my laptop and go into Logic Pro. They get ahold of it. If there’s something I want to change, I tell them. But it’s all pretty much done and I just record with them.

Are you doing the vocals on your laptop? Yeah. I’ll show you [ turns camera around and shows a microphone plugged into a computer in front of soundproofing foam ]. I share my computer, like mirroring. They can see what’s happening in my laptop. It allows them to hack it for a moment and then they can hear it. It happens in real time.

There’s no lag. I can hear that right now while we talk. It’s like you’re in the next room and you’re actually more than 8,000 miles away. Yeah. Thank God for the technology.

Do you think the album will come out this year? I think so. Neal thinks so. He can’t wait to release it before we do a full-on tour.

How do things sound different now that Randy Jackson and Narada Michael Walden are in the band? It’s somewhat like the sound back in the Eighties when Randy Jackson joined the band for the Raised on Radio album. It’s kind of like that, but it’s also more updated. Narada is producing my vocals and mentoring me on how to do it. He’s telling me to sing it this way and that way. It’s amazing. I’m learning a lot from Narada. It’s truly an honor and I appreciate him for doing so. It’s amazing.

Has the band even been in the same room yet? Have you met Randy and Narada in person? Right now, it’s just been virtual. It’s tough. I wanted to do it. I keep telling Neal, “If only I had been there, we would have done this in two months. Sorry it’s taking so long.” But with all these health protocols where you need to quarantine for two weeks, and then I come back and I’d be quarantined for another two weeks before I can join my family. It’s too much of a hassle, so we decided to do it this way even though Neal isn’t too happy about it. He wants it the old, classic way of making an album.

Moving on here, what’s the status of the movie about your life? It’s going to happen. I think they’re gonna start. Some people from Warner will start coming here. I think maybe with [ Crazy Rich Asians director] Jon Chu and [ Joker and The Fighter screenwriter] Scott Silver. They might come here to audition actors and actresses that will take part in my biopic.

Are you going to take them around town and show them the places you grew up? Yes. That’s the deal, of course. I want to show them where I grew up, where I was born, where everything happened before this whole magical thing.

Do you think the story will start in your childhood and show all your early bands and struggles and focus on the pre-Journey period? I think so, yeah. That’s the plan. I’ve spoken many times with Scott Silver. What’s interesting about my story is that I’ve survived two coup attempts here in the Philippines before I went to Hong Kong for 10 years. I don’t know he if plans to tell what happened to me in Hong Kong, but I had 10 years there. He might focus on my love story with my wife now.

I can see the grand finale in my head. It’ll be you walking onstage in Chile at your first Journey show. You’re nervous and they push you out and you burst into “Separate Ways.” Yeah. I was trying to back out five minutes before. I was like, “Neal, I cannot do this. This is not built for me.” They were like, “No. It’s too late. Get out there and do it.”

It was the turning point of your life. Everything is either before that moment or after that moment. You should tell Scott Silver about this idea. I’ve been implying it to him that we should end everything in Chile. And I remember when my wife decided to join me on tour in 2011. We were playing to a 30,000 crowd that night. I was telling my wife, “Remember Hard Rock Cafe when there were only three tables? Now it’s 30,000 people.” It was just unbelievable. It doesn’t get old to me. It’s still so surreal and bizarre.

I saw you at Citi Field with Fleetwood Mac and Madison Square Garden with Def Leppard. I could tell you were still having a blast. It’s still unbelievable. I’m just so blessed. I can’t thank them enough, especially Neal Schon. He was the one that was really sold that I am the one since 2007. But then again, I still think, “If only they could bring back Steve Perry.” You know what I mean?

I do, but if he came back, that would mean … I know, but I miss them so much together. Every now and then, I watch their videos together. It’s always them with Steve Perry that I watch. I mean, no offense to Adam Lambert. He’s an amazing performer and he has an amazing voice, but I still watch the old [Queen] ones with Freddie Mercury. That’s why when people say things like “No Perry, No Journey,” I understand it. Where I come from, we’re so influenced by Western music. We loved the originals, if you know what I mean.

His return would put you out of a job. That would be OK to me! I’m telling you. That’s how much I adore him and I adore Journey and how much I adore Steve Perry. Back in 2005, I resigned from my job in Hong Kong because I lost my voice due to acid reflux. I was telling my friends back then that my only regret was I lost my voice before I had the chance to sing side-by-side with Steve Perry. I was joking with them, but then a different situation happened. I just wish that one show with him … it would change my life forever. It’s been 30 years now and the band keeps changing my life in ways nobody would ever guess would happen.

Do you miss Ross Valory and Steve Smith now that they’re out of the band? I do, of course. We had a real bond that nobody can deny. [ Sighs ] When the first day came that Steve Smith went back, I could feel that he was trying to feel everything out and observe. When he got the good vibe again, we clicked. Four years with him was very special. And 11 years with Ross was amazing. I cannot ask for anything more. Those friendships I’ll take with me until the end of time.

The group has dealt with a lot of tensions and feuds during your time with them, but you always remain neutral and out of the fray. How do you do that? I try to stay away. It’s like, “Oh, the big boys are fighting.” I’d rather stick to my guns, which is just singing and delivering the legacy with them onstage. When we’re up onstage, I think everyone forgets their differences behind the scenes. That’s my happy place. When they’re having some petty quarrels, I try to stay away. I talk to everybody without having to talk about their differences.

Your White House visit caused a bit of controversy. Do you have any regrets about going there and meeting Trump? I do not. As a Filipino, I am such a big fan of the White House. It’s not about Trump. It’s not about who the president is. It’s the whole history of the White House. I was just amazed. When I went there, I looked at all the pictures of past presidents and how old everything was. And then the table where President Trump was seated was about 100 years old. Who wouldn’t want to see that? Who wouldn’t want to touch that?

His presidential guard was laughing at me because President Trump was talking to the other members [of the band] and I was just mesmerized by the table. I was like, “Wow! This is truly 100 years old?” I’m just a kid from Manila and I was in the White House for the first time, so no regrets. I guess I didn’t even have a chance to apologize to Neal. He must understand. I’m just a kid from Manila that wants to see the White House, in general.

What’s the status of your next solo record? I’m doing it right now. I’m just waiting on a couple of friends that are helping me finish it from the States. Because of the recent banning of some countries from coming in here, we got delayed. I’m expecting them to arrive here at the end of March instead of the end of January. Even my online streaming concert was moved to April 18th. It was supposed to happen in February. To those who want to get a ticket, it’ll be at sanrestreaming.com .

Back to the movie, do you think being on set and watching someone play a younger version of you will be a surreal experience? It will be weird, but it’ll be weirder if I am there portraying myself! [ Laughs ] I will not be able to stand there and look at myself. I don’t really listen to myself singing either. When the documentary Everyman’s Journey came out, I could barely watch it. The premier was in Tribeca. I was like, “Do I really have to watch this and see myself on the big screen?” I was cringing.

Do you think the actor in the movie will actually sing, or will you provide the vocals? I think I’m going to use my voice. Do you remember the Queen movie [ Bohemian Rhapsody ]? Marc Martel did the voice. I think I’m going to do that too.

I can’t wait. Crazy Rich Asians is a great movie. Jon Chu really knows what he’s doing. It’s unbelievable that he took notice of my life and my story and wants to make a movie out of it. It really humbled me.

They should film it in Manila and not somewhere else. It should look authentic. They definitely will. There’s so much to remember, I’m telling you. At one point in my life, I was really on drugs. It quite affected my memory. I need to recover all those things that happened to me when I was young. But I’ve recovered a lot of my childhood memories. Scott Silver is quite happy with what I was able to tell him.

I’m very hopeful that before 2021 ends, you’ll be back onstage with Journey. Me too. I can’t wait to see those smiling faces and that rolling-thunder sound of the audience. It’s quite an adrenaline [rush] when you experience that every night. That’s what keeps you going.

Flavor Flav Has Many Thoughts on Water Polo

• By Jason Newman

Bob Dylan and the Band Announce Massive 27-Disc Box Set Chronicling 1974 Reunion Tour

• Back to the Flood

Mark Lanegan's 'Bubblegum' Reissue to Include Beck Collaboration, Unreleased Hotel Room Demos

• By Kory Grow

Lisa to Perform First Solo Festival Show at Global Citizen 2024

• By Tomás Mier

Shaboozey Celebrates 'A Bar Song' Going Number One: 'Indescribable'

• History: Made

Most Popular

Biden's abc interview was a necessary appointment with the public — and a botched one, clash of the hamptons cultures: "we don't want people wearing shorts", lil durk's 10-year-old son shoots his stepfather in defense of his mother, make the most of summer this prime day with these 49 outdoor finds on amazon, you might also like, joe rogan sets live netflix comedy event, his first special in six years, linda farrow’s ceo simon jablon on sustaining a luxury accessories brand, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, lena dunham is no longer directing the ‘polly pocket’ film: i can’t do it ‘my way’, sporticast 360: nfl teams make $400m+ before tickets, concessions.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

Find anything you save across the site in your account

He Didn't Stop Believin'

arnel pineda, who turns 41 this year, has been performing in bands since he was a teenager, and by now he has mastered virtually every kick-ass lead-singer move known to rock. He can launch his compact body off the drum riser and land without twisting an ankle. He plays excellent microphone-cord air guitar. He knows when to do the reach-out-and-touch with the fans in the front row and when to turn the microphone stand upside down and lift it above his head, as if calling down the lightning. He knows how to do these things because he is a professional lead singer and a good one, which means he is a virtuoso whose instrument is his own charisma. He is also adept at the parts of the lead-singer job that involve singing.

Until recently, the only place you could see Pineda doing any of this stuff was in Manila, where he and his band, the Zoo, appeared regularly at bars and nightclubs, or on the YouTube channel of an industrious Zoo fan named Noel Gomez, who has uploaded more than sixty video clips of the band performing live, usually on stages that resemble discarded sets from early-'90s late-night talk shows. It was thanks to those videos, in which Pineda sings the songs of Deep Purple, the Goo Goo Dolls, Heart, Stryper, Styx, Toto, Aerosmith, Bob Marley, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Simple Minds, Bryan Adams, Men at Work, the Beatles, and REO Speedwagon, that he wound up here at the Planet Hollywood hotel in Las Vegas on a Saturday in early March, playing his first U.S. show as the new lead singer of the legendary '80s rock band Journey.

It's a little after 8 p.m., and we've reached the point in "Any Way You Want It" where lead guitarist Neal Schon, who cofounded Journey in 1973, plays a precise yet impassioned hairspray-torch of a solo. This is Pineda's cue to sidle up to Schon and make your-guitar-playing-is-rocking-me-so-hard faces at him, prompting Schon to make equally ridiculous not-as-hard-as-it's-rocking-me-my-brother faces back. It's the kind of thing singers in arena rock bands have been doing during the guitar break since arenas were invented, and usually it's only entertaining if you know, for example, that the guitarist and the lead singer actually hate each other. But when Pineda does it, it's more than a gesture. He has performed this song live many times before, but he's still getting used to performing it with the band that made it famous, so when he does the grooving-on-the-solo thing, he appears genuinely awed,1 not only by the force of Schon's rocking but by the fact that he, Arnel Pineda, is actually being rocked by Neal Schon. When he turns to the audience—where fans have been waving the Philippine flag and their own homemade banners (arnel for president) in his general direction all night long—the look on his face is equal parts glee and disbelief.

"My life is a fairy tale," Pineda told me earlier. "But I'm awake, and I'm dreaming it."

if you're in a long-running classic-rock band and you find yourself without a lead singer, as Journey did last summer, you have several options, aside from retirement. The minute it's announced that you and your frontman have parted ways, aspirants to the position will begin sending you their CDs, whether or not you have asked for them.

But if you're Journey, at least a few of the innumerable bedroom karaoke-ists, tennis-racket axpersons, and car-dashboard drummers your music has inspired will have gone semipro, forming tribute bands that play your music in a Civil War–reenactment kind of way, which means you've also got a vast pool of ready-on-day-one understudies from which to draw. When Judas Priest made their first album without original lead singer Rob Halford in 1996, they drafted Tim "Ripper" Owens, an Akron office-supply salesman who sang Halford's parts in a Priest tribute band; thanks to the 2001 film Rock Star, in which Mark Wahlberg played an Owens manqué named Chris "Izzy" Cole, this is probably the most famous example of a band calling a singer up from the farm team.

It's a major crossroads, this frontman decision. You can bet on the future by tapping a singer who may have his own thing happening, or you can reinvest in your legacy by recruiting a singer who's been practicing your stuff for years. But when Journey parted ways with frontman Jeff Scott Soto last summer, Neal Schon began to wonder if there was another way to go.

What you need to know here is that the lead-singer slot in Journey has always been a high-turnover position, somewhere between "Mr. Pamela Anderson" and "drummer for Spinal Tap" on the volatility scale. Soto was either the third, fourth, or fifth guy to have the job, depending on whether or not you count keyboardist Gregg Rolie (responsible for some of the vocals on the band's first three albums) or Neal Schon (ditto) or Robert Fleischman (who sang live with the band and cowrote "Wheel in the Sky" but never appeared on a studio album). But as far as Journey's fans are concerned, there is but one true Journey vocalist, and his name is Steve Perry. Before Perry, Journey were a chops-flaunting jazz-rock outfit whose first three albums had sold poorly; when Columbia Records threatened to drop the band, their manager, Herbie Herbert, prevailed upon them to hire Perry, who had a supple tenor, a gawky, earnest stage presence, and one of the worst haircuts in rock. Together, he and Journey began writing new songs that showcased two of these three qualities, and by the turn of the decade they'd become one of the biggest bands on earth.

Sometimes pop songs are poetry, and sometimes they're art, and sometimes they're poetry transformed into art and written in airbrush on acid-washed denim. During the Perry years, Journey sang about dreamers on the run, about summer nights, about the lonely road. They once rhymed "walkin' a high wire" with "caught in a cross fire." They made videos so singularly ill-conceived—like "Separate Ways," which is clearly supposed to take place in the kind of gritty urban environment where one might find oneself caught in a cross fire while walking on a high wire but appears to have actually been filmed in the parking lot of an Ikea—that they now resemble_ Flight of the Conchords_ skits. Pete Townshend once said, "If you steer clear of quality, you're all right," but Journey played everything with an aerobic professionalism that suggested that quality was Job One. Most rock critics despised them; they were frequently lumped in with Styx and Foreigner and characterized as "faceless," an allegation the members of Journey say they neither appreciated nor understood.

They were never cool, and they were never dangerous. Cool, dangerous bands advocated the use of drugs, or at least testified to their allure; Journey signed a then groundbreaking endorsement deal with Budweiser and once arrived at a St. Louis gig in a carriage pulled by the brewer's iconic team of Clydesdales. Cool, dangerous bands lured their fans to the dark side using satanic iconography; Journey tempted their fans into arcades to pump quarters into Bally Midway's Journey video game.2 Cool, dangerous bands made parents nervous; any kid who tried to rebel by cranking the soaring and saccharine sounds of Frontiers or Escape deserved to be laughed at through his or her bedroom door (and sat down by an elder sibling for a stern talking-to about the greatness of Black Sabbath).3

But for about a decade, they could basically do no wrong in the eyes of the record-buying public, who fell hard for future classic-rock radio staples like the shamelessly inspirational "Don't Stop Believin'," the shamelessly sentimental "Faithfully," and the shamelessly self-explanatory "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'." 4 Cool, dangerous bands are rarely accessible; Journey wanted to speak to as many people as possible. It didn't matter what kind of car you drove; if you'd ever wished it were a Trans Am, Journey were singing to you. Between 1978 and 1986, every record they made went platinum.

In 1984, Perry made a solo album, _Street Talk, _which spawned the hit singles "Foolish Heart" and "Oh Sherrie"; Schon says its success put a strain on Perry's relationship with the rest of the band. Perry returned to the Journey fold to make one more record, _Raised on Radio, _before taking an indefinite hiatus in 1987, citing vocal and emotional burnout. Journey didn't play together again until 1995. They made a comeback album, Trial by Fire, and scheduled a reunion tour; then Perry injured his hip on a hike in Hawaii. He needed to replace the hip in order to play live, but put off getting the surgery; Schon says the band waited until they couldn't wait anymore. The next time Journey toured, their singer was Brooklyn-born Steve Augeri. He took flak from hard-core fans for sounding too much like Steve Perry, and then he stepped aside, citing a chronic throat infection, and handed the mike to Jeff Scott Soto, who took flak for not sounding Perryish enough. A subtext was developing: Journey's fans felt that no one other than Steve Perry was fit to sing Journey songs in the shower, let alone onstage.

In conversation, the members of Journey jokingly refer to Steve Perry as "He Who Cannot Be Named," like the evil wizard in the Harry Potter books. Later, I ask Schon about this, after reading an interview with their former manager in which it is alleged that Journey are somehow legally enjoined from speaking on the record about Perry.

"Oh, y'know," Schon says. "There's no legal issue. We just try not to. I mean, I didn't say anything inflammatory. I didn't talk about how he still gets paid like a motherfucker even though he shouldn't be. It's stuff like that I'm not allowed to talk about. He sorta just bitches and moans and whines about everything. And he just assumes that every time we bring up his name, that we're sayin' bad things."

no one in journey was excited about auditioning new singers, and none of the tribute-band Steves they looked at seemed like the answer. "I didn't think they had anything new to offer," Schon says, "other than making us a nostalgia act, and I wasn't interested in that."

Instead, Schon says, "I sat in my house for a couple days, hoping the almighty Internet would bring some relief."

He trawled YouTube, looking at all the live footage of male rock vocalists he could find. "You never know what you're getting on a CD," Schon says. "It can be all doctored in Pro Tools. You never know if somebody can sing unless you're watching something live." He found a few singers with potential—a couple of guys in England, doing "a Justin Timberlake–type thing." And then he stumbled on Noel Gomez's Zoo videos.

There are a few clips on YouTube of Pineda singing Journey songs like "Faithfully." His Steve Perry is almost eerily flawless; he nails both Perry's girlish quaver and the grit and pacing Perry borrowed from soul singers like Sam Cooke, and the fact that you can occasionally hear his accent makes the rest of the performance that much more uncanny. But Schon insists that what grabbed him about Pineda was his range. He slam-dunked Survivor. He tore up Toto. He made something out of "Makin' Love out of Nothing at All," and—spoiler alert—what he made out of it was love .

"The hair stood up on my arms," Schon says. "I got up off the computer and told my girlfriend, 'No way—this guy sounds too good. I don't believe it.' "

He went for a motorcycle ride. Thus are important rock-star decisions made. When he got back, he watched the clips again. Then he started calling his band. "I said, 'I found the singer,' " Schon says. "And they go, 'Where is he' And I'm like, 'He's in Manila!'

"And they go, 'Great—so you found a singer who can't speak English.' "

pineda's english is actually fine.

Right now he is trying to save his voice for tomorrow's show, so he speaks softly, which makes him seem as if he's in a state of perpetual awe (and maybe he is).

Pineda may have the most Dickensian backstory in rock history. His mother died when he was 13; his father took Pineda's siblings to live with relatives, and Pineda struck out on his own. He collected scrap metal, bottles, and old newspapers, usually bringing home the equivalent of thirty cents a day. Sometimes he'd sleep at a friend's house; more often than not, he'd sleep in Manila's Luneta Park, alone or with a group of other homeless kids. They drank from a fountain there and bathed in it, too; most mornings, Pineda would wake up sick from the dew. ("All clogged here," he says, pressing two fingers to his sinuses.)

His friend Monet Cajipe played guitar. Sometimes when Pineda wasn't working, he'd go over to Monet's house and they'd sing songs together. "He would bring me to his family," Pineda says, "and say, 'Come on, give some food to my friend,' because I was starving. They would make me sing, and then they would feed me. They would just bribe me with food."

At 15, Pineda tried out for a group called Ijos Band. He'd never sung with a real band before; during the audition, his voice was strong but his timing was weak. The bandleader saw something in him anyway, and when the other members of Ijos groused about having to split their nightly take with an extra man, one of the bandleader's friends came to the rescue, offering to pay Arnel's salary—thirty-five pesos a night—out of his own pocket. Perks of the job included a tiny room under the guitarist's front stairs, where Pineda could sleep.

He went on to cofound a band called Amo, which evolved into a band called New Age, featuring Cajipe on guitar. Like many Filipino bands, they played a mix of original material and covers of American and British rock and pop. While the U.S. occupation shaped Filipino musical culture during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Philippines truly became a cover-band nation in the '60s, when the islands served as a way station for troops en route to or from the Vietnam War and every nightclub needed bands who could entertain American servicemen with Top 40 rock 'n' roll. To this day, Pineda says, "if you only play original songs, [audiences in the Philippines] will not appreciate you 100 percent. They want to hear you singing other bands' songs that made it to number one. Like Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Journey."

In the early '90s, New Age relocated to Hong Kong, a time-honored path for -Filipino musicians seeking their fortune. It didn't go so well. Playing the same cover tunes every night began to drive Pineda crazy. He was bored, so he drank, took drugs, and generally pursued any and all forms of rock 'n' roll self-destruction available to a boy from Manila adrift on the Hong Kong bar circuit. Before long, he'd wrecked his voice. When he found he could no longer hit the high notes in Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight," he went to a doctor, who told him to retire. He was 27.

"He said, 'You're finished. Your vocal is just done,' " Pineda says. "I did not believe him. I told myself, I can get it back."

He returned to the Philippines, got straight, learned to sing again. He recorded a self-titled solo album in 2000; he and Cajipe started the Zoo. They recorded their first album,_ Zoology_. For a man who'd been told he'd never sing again, it was a happy enough ending. Then, last summer, the phone rang.

When Pineda went to get his visa, the guy who interviewed him at the embassy—"His name is Ben. I can't forget his name," Pineda says—was a fan who'd seen him play with the Zoo a couple of times, so Pineda took a request, and everybody in the office looked up from their desks at the guy singing "Wheel in the Sky."

He flew to San Francisco, spent a day jamming with the band at their rehearsal space. He hadn't slept much on the flight over, so his voice kept cracking, and he assumed he'd blown it, but he almost didn't care. He'd come to America and sung with a band he'd loved since he was 12 years old. He'd shot some home movies of them on his camcorder—a YouTube-able epilogue to his crazy YouTube adventure. He was ready to settle for that. But that jam session led to a long day in the studio, where Pineda sang two new songs and four or five of the Dirty Dozen—nailing most of them in one take—and by the time it was over, he'd passed the audition.

"Arnel cared about getting it right," band member Jonathan Cain says. "There wasn't this arrogance—the Lead Singer Disease that so many guys have when they have fantastic voices."

let us consider the New Guy.

In life, the New Guy gets the office that was once a closet full of printer paper, or maybe still is; the New Guy is told about bogus traditions involving the New Guy picking up the lunch tab; the New Guy spends a lot of time wondering what's so funny.

The New Guy's phone rings, but it's not for him. He disappoints people just by picking it up. _No, I'm sorry—he's not here anymore. Is there something I can help you with _

In rock, being the New Guy is the same, except harder. The jokes you don't know go back to some long, snowy between-concerts bus ride circa 1984. And you're trying to inhabit a stadium-sized myth, not a cubicle. You might win over a few late-to-the-party fans, but your presence alone will always be proof to some people that the band has outlived its awesomeness. A band with a New Guy on vocals is like a late-period Happy Days episode, one of the ones where nobody's left except Ted McGinley and a middle-aged Fonz who can barely zip the leather jacket. And because the only way for a band in this position to shake off the taint of the glue factory is to reunite with its original singer, the New Guy in a rock band is always a dead man rocking.

Tim Owens got seven years with Judas Priest before Rob Halford returned. Anyone not named David Lee Roth who agrees to sing for Van Halen is basically keeping the leather pants warm for Diamond Dave. And however comfortable Pineda's been made to feel during the past few months, he must know on some level that Steve Augeri and Jeff Soto once felt comfortable, too. Toward the end of our interview, as dusk bleaches the color from the desert outside the window, I ask him if he's thought about how long this is going to last.

"Well, of course," he says. "Of course I did. I'm a very realistic person. I like to plan. I like to see the future. If I'm lucky, if I'm still strong, I want to be with them for the next three years. And if they still like me after that, I still want to be with them. And hopefully we will create new Journey music that people will love."

And at some point, I suggest, you'll become essential. People will say Journey without Arnel, who wants that

"I just want to be a part of a band that will be able to reinvent themselves, you know" Pineda says. "And I think they will be able to help me build a future, with my family. They will help me financially. They can help me with that. Because all of us need a good future for our children, for our families."

It's true, we do. The members of Journey talk about Pineda like he's given them their youth back, the way thrice-married men talk about the young wives who've got them doing wheatgrass shots and yoga, listening to the Killers. It's never too late to feel like you're going to live forever. "I think we're reborn, right now, with Arnel," Schon says.

He talks about the band's first show with Pineda in Chile, how Arnel was all over the stage, jumping around, surprising everyone, and making Schon—who's playing a cordless guitar for the first time since the '80s—feel the need to step his game up. "I'm gonna be riding my bicycle a lot, and skating," he says, "and getting myself in tip-top shape so I can keep up with this little guy."

When Journey were off the road last year, during the gap between singers, it gave Schon time to get sober. When we talk, it's been nine months. "I believe I was a functioning alcoholic," he says—he'd stay straight for shows but kill a bottle of vodka on the tour bus afterward, and that went on for years. So this moment is also a rebirth for Schon; he's facing all of it straight for the first time. "I feel like I have 100 percent of myself here," he says, "and I'm really excited about getting out there and being completely in control."

Pineda's arrival lets them zero out the odometer. "Had I known Arnel was around fifteen years ago," Schon says, "singing even better than he is now—Goddammit, I would have called him!"

journey may not want to be thought of as a nostalgia act. But they are clearly totally fine with being an act that benefits from nostalgia. When I ask Cain why people still care about Journey in 2008, his response is basically a definition of the term:

"It's music they grew up to," he says. "Fell in love with. Had sex with. Got married to. Graduated from high school or college with. It's a moment frozen in time, and when they remember those moments, they remember those songs. Y'know, the '70s and '80s were awesome times. There was a lot less trouble in the world. And it's like people wanna go back to that simpler place and time. We see these housewives—they used to come to our shows when they were teenagers, and now it's like The Big Chill. They come back, they get a room, and they come see Journey. And I see 'em in the bars and buy 'em a drink and talk to 'em. Or there'll be a daughter that's bringing her mom to a Journey show as a birthday present, because she didn't get to see us back then. And you're like, 'Oh my God—I'm part of this.' "

How Journey's fan base will respond to the band's new incarnation is another question. Journey's new album, Revelation, will be available in June, exclusively at Wal-Mart. In this regard, they're following in the footsteps of the Eagles, who've sold 2.9 million copies of their album Long Road out of Eden through the big-box retailer since last October.

The album package will consist of a CD featuring eleven new Journey songs with Pineda on vocals, a DVD of the Planet Hollywood show, and a third disc featuring Pineda-sung rerecordings of eleven Journey classics whose original iterations featured you-know-who. Depending on how you look at it, this rewrite of the band's history is either a huge vote of confidence for Pineda or the rock 'n' roll equivalent of trying to prove to yourself that you're over your ex-girlfriend by dating a woman who looks exactly like her. And it's a move guaranteed to piss off more than a few Journey fans—even the album's producer, Kevin Shirley, compares it to "roxing the Holy Grail."5

I get a hint of the backlash that may be on the way when, a week or so before the Vegas show, I post a thread on the Journey message board at Melodicrock.com, an Internet forum for people with strong opinions about power balladry and Night Ranger side projects. I ask people to tell me their Journey stories; I ask people what they think of Pineda. I give out my e-mail address. Within minutes, my in-box fills up with e-mails—angry, passionate e-mails.

I hear from a few thick-and-thin super-fans, from plenty of reasonable people ready to give Arnel a fair shake, and even a few early Pineda converts. But I also hear from people frustrated by the band's -inability to hold on to a lead singer and from people who resent the band for continuing on at all. But mostly, I hear from people who have not stopped believing in Steve Perry. They compare him to Elvis, John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, and God. They describe the post-Perry band as "a second-class rendition of Journey." They send me all-caps e-mails—Steve Perry really brings out the caps-lock in people—that begin "IT HAD BEEN BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION THAT YOU ARE LOOKING TO WRIGHT AN ARTICLE ABOUT WHY JOURNEY IS NO LONGER JOURNEY BUT NOTHING MORE THEN A TRIBUTE BAND TO THE BEST SOFT ROCK BAND EVER." They send me photomosaics of Steve Perry created out of many, many tiny little pictures of Steve Perry.

"You want to know why the 'fascination' with Journey all of a sudden" writes Thomas Cordea of Fort Wayne, Indiana. "With the hiring of a blatant 'sound-alike' singer, the world is 're-awakening' to the fact that THEY MISS STEVE PERRY LIKE MAD.… That is the real 'hidden' storyline of your article, not this latest frontman hire."

Maybe. But this latest frontman hire still seems like the first smart move Journey have made in years. They've got a guy who can sing the Perry material on tour. They're excited about making new music with him. And the fact that they discovered Pineda on YouTube has given them a ready-made PR hook. In a clicky, viral, cell-phone-delivered media moment where even the twice-weekly cult-of-the-amateur hour that is _American Idol _seems like a rusty piece of star-making machinery and Simon Cowell like a snooty gatekeeper, Journey—Journey!—seem like innovators, in touch with the forces shaping the culture. For a band prominently featured in people's memories of the Carter administration, this is pretty impressive.

This doesn't change the fact that they're Journey —emblematic of the way '70s rock betrayed the '60s in the '80s, part of the problem that punk's loogie-hawking historical rebuke supposedly solved. The middleman-eliminating YouTube story line can't make them cool; neither can the existence of a Journey-branded "Virtual Island" in the online nerdiverse Second Life. But coolness accrues in unexpected ways; once-verboten things slip out of cultural jail under cover of irony.

five signs the journey revival is imminent or possibly already here, in descending order of cultural impact:

1. David Chase uses "Don't Stop Believin'" in the last scene of the last episode of The Sopranos. It either is or isn't the last song Tony Soprano ever hears. (A week after the episode airs, Hillary and la famiglia Clinton parody this scene, right down to the onion rings, in a viral-video campaign ad.)

2. Drolly doleful indie rockers—Badly Drawn Boy, Of Montreal—begin slipping ironic-but-maybe-sincere "Don't Stop Believin'" covers into their live sets. Kanye West does, too—at the shows he played in Europe shortly after his mother's death, it often followed "Hey Mama," the one he couldn't get through without crying.

3. Literate classic-rock obsessive Craig Finn and his Brooklyn-via-Minnesota meta–bar band, the Hold Steady, reference Journey in song: My name is Steve Perry, but people call me Circuit City.… My name's Neal Schon, but people call me Nina Simone.

4. Petra Haden, formerly of the late, lamented three-girls-and-a-guy alt-rock band that dog., records an a cappella cover of "Don't Stop Believin'." Haden: "My favorite part is singing that guitar solo. I always end up laughing at the end. I shouldn't, because it's supposed to be so serious. But I always do."

5. Some aspiring George Romero with access to a camcorder and a backyard uploads a no-budget horror short called "Journey of the Dead" to YouTube. Synopsis: "Steve Perry (former lead singer of Journey) saves a Rock and Roll loving couple from an attack by Rock Star Drummer Zombies. After a violent and bloody battle with the zombies, Steve Perry emerges victorious (as always) and then finds himself engaged in a karate showdown with the ultimate evil lead singer mastermind, Freddie Mercury!" Best quote: "Hey, zombie-breath—you picked the wrong day to not be dead! Now you're going to have to face Steve Perry!"

tapping somebody who can do Perry as well as Pineda can may indicate that the band want that uncomplicated approval they got from their audience during the Perry years, as opposed to the problematic tough love they're getting now. Or maybe Neal Schon—who started Journey, spent years building an audience through tireless touring (traveling, in the early days, in four-door station wagons, rolling into the venue just in time to jump onstage and play—who says Journey weren't punk) before having Perry foisted upon him in 1977 for reasons of commercial expediency, and has spent the post-Perry years being accused of sacrilege for daring to continue playing in the band he founded in the first place—wants to prove that it is he and his bandmates who make it Journey.

But when I ask Schon if he's at all tired of Journey being defined by Perry's presence or absence, he answers, "Um, no. I think he contributed so much to the sound of the band. Those songs are gonna be embedded in everybody's heads and hearts forever."

I get a slightly different take from Steve Perry, who calls from his home near San -Diego. Perry, who's finally started working on his first album of new material since leaving Journey, doesn't want to talk about the vocalists who've followed in his footsteps, Pineda included. "I only know that they've been through three guys," he says, "and I've never heard any of them. I stay away from it, because it's really none of my business now. We have children together, which are the songs we wrote, but that's about all."

But he will talk about what it was like when he joined a Journey already in progress in 1977, shedding a little light on what it might feel like to be Pineda now. "You've got to remember, they didn't want to make it with a lead singer," he says. "They wanted to make it without one."

I ask him about the scene in VH1's Journey_ Behind the Music _episode in which Perry declares that he "never really felt like part of the band." Was that because Schon resented having to hire a frontman

"What that meant," Perry says, "was that there was a period of time where I always felt that I had to prove myself. But along with that, you have to print that I can't blame them. It was [Neal's] band. Herbie Herbert built that band around Neal because he's a star on his own, from a guitar standpoint. There's nobody who plays like Neal Schon, to this day. I still miss his playing. We don't get along, but I love his playing.

"They wanted to make it on their own goalposts that they had in mind. There's nothing wrong with that. And I hope you print that, because it's important that people know that. I'm not bitchin'. I'm not whining. I completely understand how they felt and why."

the security people at the Planet Hollywood show—even the women—have the hired-muscle intimidation factor of pit bosses. For all I know, they are pit bosses. But at the end of the Planet Hollywood show, when Journey come back out to redo a couple of songs for the DVD—"We have to do one of the new ones again," Schon says cheerfully, "because we fucked it up!"6—the crowd-control policy is relad and people are allowed to come down the floor-seat aisles and up to the stage to scream and clutch at Pineda, presumably because this will make the show look more exciting on-camera. Someone hands him up a tiny Philippine flag on a wooden stand, the kind a diplomat keeps on his desk, and he stares at it for what counts, in rock-show time, as a long moment, before handing it back.

The do-overs end the night with a sort of anticlimactic thud, but overall it's been a good show, particularly for Pineda. Almost half the crowd—and this is an unscientific estimate based on what the nonwhite people looked like when I turned around—appeared to be Filipino, and from the first note he sang, they were his. And while none of the new Journey songs will make anybody forget "Don't Stop Believin'"—as always, the words "Here's another one from the new album" are the classic-rock-show audience's cue for a bathroom break—some of them are pretty affecting.

Kevin Shirley described "After All These Years" to me as "like 'Faithfully: Part 2'—it's a gem," and it kind of is. Like "Faithfully" (Journey's greatest gift to wedding DJs), it's a soaring, soulful ballad, readable as both a pledge of eternal fealty and a love letter to the fans. But the "all these years" theme adds the weight of long-term commitment to the mix; a song like this is how you tell your audience you'd marry them all over again. And while it's not anywhere near as good as "Faithfully," you can imagine it someday becoming part of the canon. Someday it will be performed by a singer in a smoky room—some Hong Kong piano bar, maybe—and traveling salesmen far from hearth and home will shed a tear or two, and maybe that's all that matters.

Afterward, there's a bottleneck in the lobby of the theater. As everyone shuffles slowly toward the doors that lead to the mezzanine above the casino, someone in the crowd starts singing the Nah nah, na nah nah / Na na na nah nah refrain from "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'," the last song of the night. (It's the one song in Journey's catalog where you can most clearly hear the Sam Cooke mannerisms in Steve Perry's delivery, and Pineda nailed it—an Asian guy imitating a white Californian imitating a black guy from Chicago, on a stage in a Las Vegas hotel with "Hollywood" in the name. The mind reels.)

Then, as if the air-conditioning has started pumping karaoke spores, other people join in and start singing Nah nah, na nah nah / Na na na nah nah, too. It only lasts for a few seconds, but those seconds are maybe the most sincere moment of community I've experienced at a rock show in a long, long time—and they feel like proof that the Pineda-fronted version of Journey has succeeded in giving people the kind of life-affirming Journey experience they were looking for.

Later there's a VIP meet-and-greet in a high-ceilinged Planet Hollywood banquet room. Trickling in like they've timed their entrances, the band pose for pictures and sign T-shirts, albums, ticket stubs. The energy is a little flat until Arnel appears, wearing a shiny long-sleeve T-shirt, his hair pulled back in a ponytail. People immediately crowd around him, waving digital cameras; somebody shouts, "Move back, move back!" He makes it to the other side of the room, still swarmed by fans—many of them Filipino, many of them girls. I try to ask Arnel a couple of questions about the show, which yields a brief interview, reproduced here in its entirety:

Q. How's it going, Arnel A. Hey, man!

Then someone else gets his attention and he's off, posing for another photo. Instead, I interview Patty Zaragoza, who's a flight attendant "representing the Cathay Pacific cabin crew." She doesn't know much about Journey, but she's a fan of Pineda's—she used to see him perform in Hong Kong, at a bar called Grammy's. She gives me a blue Cathay Pacific lanyard, in case the one that came with my Journey backstage pass ceases to function. I turn around to try to get another word or two with Pineda, but he's mobbed. The crowd swallows him. He is, at least for now, a rock star.

the day before the show, I ask Kevin Shirley if he feels Pineda has fully processed everything that's happened to him during the past few months.

"No," Shirley says. "No, I don't think he has. I think the record needs to come out. I think he needs to go on tour. I think he still has a lot of fear about whether he can play this set every night. But he can. I feel very confident. But yeah—once all that settles in, and maybe once he gets his first royalty check. In the meantime, it's like, 'Can you buy me a sandwich I'm the lead singer of Journey!' "

alex pappademas is a GQ staff writer.

Steve Perry

Who Is Steve Perry?

Steve Perry played in several bands before joining Journey in 1977. The band achieved tremendous pop rock success with its 1981 album Escape , which featured the now-classic "Don't Stop Believin'." As the group's lead singer, Perry became one of the era's most famous singers. He also had some hits on his own, including "Oh Sherrie." Perry left Journey in 1987, and except for a brief reunion, he remains a solo artist.

While attending high school in Lemoore, California, Perry played drums in the marching band. He tried college for a while, performing in the choir, but eventually abandoned school for his musical dreams. Hoping to break into the business, he moved to Los Angeles for a time. There, he worked a number of jobs, including singing on commercials and serving as an engineer in a recording studio. All the while, Perry played with a number of different groups as a vocalist and drummer. He seemed to be on the edge of a breakthrough with the group Alien Project, when it suddenly disbanded — tragically, one of its members was killed in a car crash.

Journey: "Oh Sherrie" and "Don't Stop Believin'"

In 1977, Perry caught his big break, landing a gig as the vocalist for Journey, which began performing as a jazz rock group in the early 1970s, in San Francisco. With Perry on board, the band moved more toward mainstream rock, and began to see some chart success with the first album with Perry, 1978's Infinity . The band's ode to San Francisco, "Lights," became a minor hit as did "Wheel in the Sky" and "Anytime."

Journey broken into the Top 20 with "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" on their next album, Evolution (1979). Buoyed by such hits as "Open Arms," "Who's Crying Now" and "Don't Stop Believin'," Escape (1981) became the band's first No. 1 album, selling more than 7 million copies. While the band was hugely popular with music fans, many critics were less than kind.

By the early 1980s, Journey had emerged as one of rock's top acts. Perry proved that while he may have been short in stature, he possessed one of the era's biggest and most versatile voices. He was equally adept at ballads, such as "Open Arms," and at rock anthems, such as "Any Way You Want It." Behind the scenes, Perry helped write these songs and many of the band's other hits. He penned their most enduring song, "Don't Stop Believin'," with guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain.

Journey continued to be one of the era's top-selling acts, with 1983's Frontiers . The album featured such songs as "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" and "Faithfully." To support the recording, the band undertook an extensive world tour. Around that time, Journey also became the first band to license their music and likenesses for a video game.

With 1986's Raised on Radio , Journey enjoyed another wave of success. However, Perry was ready to part ways with his bandmates. Perry left the band in 1987 after the album tour. In a statement to People magazine, Perry explained: "I had a job burnout after 10 years in Journey. I had to let my feet hit the ground, and I had to find a passion for singing again." Perry was also struggling with some personal issues at the time; his mother had become very sick, and he spent much of his time caring for her before her death.

Perry reunited with Journey in 1996, for the reunion album Trial By Fire , which reached as high as the No. 3 on the album charts. But health problems soon sidelined the famous singer—a hip condition, which led to hip replacement surgery—and his bandmates decided to continue on without him.

Solo Projects

While still with Journey, Perry released his first solo album, Street Talk (1984). The recording sold more than 2 million copies, helped along by the hit single, "Oh Sherrie." Burnt out after splitting with Journey, Perry took some time out before working on his next project.

Nearly a decade later, Perry re-emerged on the pop-rock scene with 1994's For the Love of Strange Medicine . While the album was well-received—one ballad, "You Better Wait," was a Top 10 hit—Perry failed to reach the same level of success that he had previously enjoyed. In 1998, he provided two songs for the soundtrack of Quest for Camelot , an animated film. Perry also released Greatest Hits + Five Unreleased that same year.

Recent Years

While he has largely stayed out of the spotlight, Perry continues to be heard in movies and on television. His songs are often chosen for soundtracks, and Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" even played during the closing moments of the hit crime-drama series The Sopranos in 2007. In 2009, a cover version of the song was done for the hit high school musical show Glee , which introduced a new generation to Perry's work.

According to several reports, Perry began working on new material around 2010. He even built a studio in his home, which is located north of San Diego, California. "I'm finishing that room up and I've written a whole bunch of ideas and directions, all over the map, in the last two, three years," Perry told Billboard in 2012.

In 2014, Perry broke from his self-imposed exile from the concert stage. He appeared with the Eels at several of their shows. According to The Hollywood Reporter , Perry explained that "I've done the 20-year hermit thing, and it's overrated." His return to performing "has to do with a lot of changes in my life, including losing my girlfriend a year ago and her wish to hear me sing again" — referring to his romance with Kellie Nash, who died in late 2012 from cancer.

Although Perry and his old bandmates had long since ventured in separate directions, the group did reunite for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2017.

In the meantime, the singer began recording again. On August 15, 2018, he released his first new song in 20 years, the ballad "No Erasin." The track arrived ahead of his new album, Traces , his first full-length studio recording since For the Love of Strange Medicine in 1994.

Regardless of what the future holds, Perry has already earned a place in rock history. Rolling Stone magazine named him one of music's top 100 singers. According to American Idol judge and former Journey bassist, Randy Jackson, Perry's voice is one of kind. "Other than Robert Plant, there's no singer in rock that even came close to Steve Perry," Jackson said. "The power, the range, the tone—he created his own style. He mixed a little Motown, a little Everly Brothers, a little Zeppelin."

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Steve Perry
• Birth Year: 1949
• Birth date: January 22, 1949
• Birth State: California
• Birth City: Hanford
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Steve Perry was the lead singer of pop rock band Journey from 1977 to 1987. He is known for having a wide vocal range, which can be heard on such popular hits as "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Oh Sherrie."
• Astrological Sign: Aquarius

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Steve Perry Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/steve-perry
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: July 23, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

Watch Next .css-16toot1:after{background-color:#262626;color:#fff;margin-left:1.8rem;margin-top:1.25rem;width:1.5rem;height:0.063rem;content:'';display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;}

Famous Musicians

Céline Dion’s Journey with Stiff-Person Syndrome

Taylor Swift

Janelle Monáe

Kelsea Ballerini

Justin Timberlake

How Did Chappell Roan Get Famous?

Cyndi Lauper

Selena Gomez

Johnny Cash

The Truth About How Arnel Pineda Joined Journey

Arnel Pineda's path to Journey is something out of a Hollywood movie, complete with tragedy and triumph.

Pineda, who became the lead singer of the band in 2007, was discovered by lead guitarist Neal Schon on Youtube and the rest was history. According to Pineda's official website biography, Schon saw Pineda singing with his then band The Zoo on Youtube and was impressed by how much he sounded like former Journey lead singer Steve Perry. But his path to stardom was very different.

Pineda grew up in the Philippines, where he began his career from the very bottom. He said in a 2010 interview that he left school early after his mother died and his family had to leave their old apartment. He lived in the streets of Manila for two years, working odd jobs, bathing out of gas station water barrels, and surviving off sardines and rationed biscuits. By the time he was 15, he had joined a band and began making a name for himself.

Over the next decade, he would continue performing to larger audiences, which eventually led to gigs in Hong Kong. A friend of Pineda's uploaded one of these performances to Youtube and a star was born.

The journey to Journey

Pineda told Rolling Stone  that Schon found his friend's email and asked how he could contact the singer. When news reached Pineda that Journey's guitarist was looking for him, he thought it was a joke.

"When my friend forwarded the email to me, I was just laughing," Pineda told Rolling Stone in 2017. "I just told him that this is one of the biggest jokes I have ever received from someone. 'It's a hoax,' I tell him. 'You shouldn't believe it.'"

But Pineda did email Schon back and flew to California to meet with him for a week of intense, nerve-wracking auditions. Finally, in December 2007, Journey announced Pineda as its new lead singer.

Now, Pineda's story may soon be turned into Hollywood film, directed by Crazy Rich Asians director Jon Chu. According to the Philippine news website ABS-CBN , Pineda met with the director and other producers to get the ball rolling, stating in Filipino that he's excited for the movie to happen so that other dreamers like him can find much-needed inspiration, and that it might open more doors for other Filipino and Asian artists.

If it pans out, this won't be the first time Pineda's story was told on film. The 2012 documentary Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey followed the band on one of its tours, including Pineda's homecoming concert in Manila.

• Duran Duran Announces Tour
• Def Leppard & Journey Start Tour
• Bon Jovi Unwanted Chart Record
• Rick Wakeman Adds Tour Dates
• Top 50 American Rock Albums
• Beatlemania in 1964

Who Sang the Most Journey Songs? Lead Vocal Totals

Journey will always be associated most closely with Steve Perry . Over the years, however, they've actually had a total of six frontmen. Four other members, including stalwart Neal Schon , have also taken a turn at the mic.

Gregg Rolie (1973-80) was the group's first singer, though his role quickly diminished when Perry arrived in 1977. Over the next 20 years, Perry would take Journey to unprecedented commercial heights, though it ultimately became an off-and-on relationship: Journey were inactive from 1987-91 and then again until 1995.

A pair of those other lead singers, Robert Fleischman (1977) and Jeff Scott Soto (2006-07), didn't last long enough to do much in the recording studio. Journey also had a second Steve as their singer – Steve Augeri (1998–2006) – before settling in with Arnel Pineda , their longest-tenured frontman, in 2007.

Which one sang the most Journey songs? We dove into their official catalog to find out, focusing on officially released new songs, including B-sides, soundtrack recordings, bonus tracks and a live song that appeared only on 1981's Captured . We stayed away from re-recordings and in-concert versions of earlier songs, as well as the leftover demos that dotted Journey's expansive Time3 box set, since those don't count as original material.

Journey (1975)

Gregg Rolie - 5: "Of a Lifetime," "In the Morning Day," "To Play Some Music," "In My Lonely Feeling/Conversations" and "Mystery Mountain"

Journey debuted with co-founder Gregg Rolie firmly entrenched as their frontman, but this self-titled debut also made room for two lengthy fusion-rock instrumentals – "Kohoutek" and "Topaz." The former, co-written by Rolie and Neal Schon, became an in-concert staple for years. Still, these musical flights of fancy ultimately cut into Rolie's lead-vocal totals, as did Journey's subsequent decision to showcase other singers.

Look Into the Future (1976)

Gregg Rolie - 8: "On a Saturday Nite," "It's All Too Much," "Anyway," "She Makes Me (Feel Alright)," "You're on Your Own," "Look into the Future," "Midnight Dreamer" and "I'm Gonna Leave You"

The best effort from the pre-Perry lineup is also Rolie's most consistent showcase, with a most-ever eight vocals. Look Into the Future found the band in an appropriately forward-thinking mood, as it took a more song-oriented approach. That said, Journey still unleashed an eight-minute title track – the longest song they'd ever recorded – and the titanic closing song , "I'm Gonna Leave You."

Next (1977)

Gregg Rolie - 5: "Spaceman," "People," "Here We Are," "Hustler" and "Next" Neal Schon - 2: "I Would Find You" and "Karma"

Rolie began sharing the mic well before Steve Perry arrived, as guitarist Neal Schon takes over for two of his four career lead vocals. They also returned to instrumentals, including "Nickel and Dime" – which manager Herbie Herbert consistently described as the uncredited inspiration for Rush 's "Tom Sawyer." It was a sign of things to come: Rolie continued with Journey for five more releases, but never had another solo vocal.

Infinity (1978)

Steve Perry - 10: "Lights," "Feeling That Way" (with Rolie), "Anytime (with Rolie), "La Do Da," "Patiently," "Wheel in the Sky," "Somethin' to Hide," "Winds of March," "Can Do" and "Opened the Door" Gregg Rolie - 2: "Feeling That Way" (with Perry) and "Anytime" (with Perry)

The addition of Perry shifted the vocal focus decisively, as Rolie's total makes clear. Within just two albums, the new guy almost eclipsed Rolie for career lead songs. In fact, Journey would release eight more records – including a movie soundtrack and a live project – before anyone not named Steve Perry sang another note. Fans responded by sending Infinity to the edge of the Top 20, a best-ever finish at the time.

Evolution (1979)

Steve Perry - 10: "Too Late," "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'," "City of the Angels," "When You're Alone (It Ain't Easy)," "Sweet and Simple," "Lovin' You Is Easy," "Just the Same Way" (with Rolie), "Do You Recall," "Daydream" and "Lady Luck" Gregg Rolie - 1: "Just the Same Way" (with Perry)

They switched out a member, as former Ronnie Montrose drummer Steve Smith took over for Aynsley Dunbar, but otherwise kept apace with a huge musical shift. This album confirmed Journey's move from hard-rocking jam band to multi-platinum pop stars: "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'" from Evolution became their first Top 20 hit single.

Departure (1980)

Steve Perry - 12: "Any Way You Want It," "Walks Like a Lady," "Someday Soon" (with Rolie), "People and Places" (with Schon), "Precious Time," "Where Were You," "I'm Cryin'," "Line of Fire," "Departure," "Good Morning Girl," "Stay Awhile," "Handmade Love" Gregg Rolie - 1: "Someday Soon" (with Perry) Neal Schon - 1: "People and Places" (with Perry)

Rolie shares the mic one last time on the utterly gorgeous "Someday Soon," but this album's No. 8 finish had everything to do with Perry's turn on the radio favorite "Any Way You Want It." Like both of its predecessors, Departure sold 3 million copies – an impressive figure, but also one that indicated a commercial plateau. Journey issued two place-keeping projects, including a movie soundtrack and a concert recording, while plotting their next move.

Captured (1981)

Steve Perry - 2: "Dixie Highway" and "The Party's Over (Hopelessly in Love)"

This live document celebrating Journey's early years included two previously unreleased songs, both featuring Perry at the mic. Rolie had already exited by the time Captured arrived, so "The Party's Over" – a new studio addition – featured a different keyboardist: Stevie Roseman later worked with Schon and Valory on solo projects.

Escape (1981)

Steve Perry - 10: "Don't Stop Believin'," "Stone in Love," "Who's Crying Now," "Keep On Runnin'," "Still They Ride," "Escape," "Lay It Down," "Dead or Alive," "Mother, Father," "Open Arms"

Keyboardist Jonathan Cain came over from the Babys to give Journey another creative voice, but he didn't possess the vocal chops of his predecessor. Steve Perry continued to dominate every subsequent Journey album he appeared on. Together, however, they found another commercial gear as the career-making Escape sold as many copies in the U.S. as Infinity, Evolution and Departure combined.

Frontiers (1983)

Steve Perry - 10: "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)," "Send Her My Love," "Chain Reaction," "After the Fall," "Faithfully," "Edge of the Blade," "Troubled Child," "Back Talk," "Frontiers," "Rubicon"

Journey entered a period of stops and starts. The next trio of albums all sold very well. In fact, they scored the band's highest-ever chart position in the U.K. with Frontiers . But success can sometimes be a double-edged sword: Their subsequent total of nine platinum awards in the states only equaled what Escape had done all by itself. Under enormous pressure, Journey's most successful lineup fracturing along the way.

Raised on Radio (1986)

Steve Perry - 11: "Girl Can't Help It," "Positive Touch," "Suzanne," "Be Good to Yourself," "Once You Love Somebody," "Happy to Give," "Raised on Radio," "I'll Be Alright Without You," "It Could Have Been You," "The Eyes of a Woman" and "Why Can't This Night Go On Forever"

Now trimmed to a core trio of Jonathan Cain, Steve Perry and Neal Schon, Raised on Radio  featured drummer Steve Smith on only three of its 11 tracks – and didn't include co-founding bassist Ross Valory at all. The project ended up producing four Top 20 singles, becoming the fourth of five consecutive Top 10 Journey albums, but a lengthy split followed.

Trial by Fire (1996)

Steve Perry - 15: "Message of Love," "One More," "When You Love a Woman," "If He Should Break Your Heart," "Forever in Blue," "Castles Burning," "Don't Be Down on Me Baby," "Still She Cries," "Colors of the Spirit," "When I Think of You," "Easy to Fall," "Can't Tame the Lion," "It's Just the Rain," "Trial by Fire," and "Baby I'm a Leavin' You"

Journey reformed a decade later with their Escape / Frontiers -era lineup intact, scoring a No. 12 hit with the Grammy-nominated "When You Love a Woman." Unfortunately, the good times wouldn't last: Perry elected not to take part in a companion tour. Journey decided to move on without him.

Arrival (2000)

Steve Augeri - 15: "Higher Place," "All the Way," "Signs of Life," "All the Things," "Loved by You," "Livin' to Do," "World Gone Wild," "I Got a Reason," "With Your Love," "Lifetime of Dreams," "Live and Breathe," "Nothin' Comes Close," "To Be Alive Again," "Kiss Me Softly" and "We Will Meet Again."

Journey found a new guy who could manage the old songs in concert, and he was even named Steve. At the same time, tracks like "All the Way" showed Augeri could maintain the band's now-signature pop-rock sound. "Higher Place" even recalled some of their proggier early moments. But fans apparently weren't sold, as Arrival became the first Journey album not to at least go gold since 1977's Next .

Red 13 (2002)

Steve Augeri - 4: State of Grace," "The Time," "Walkin' Away From the Edge" and "I Can Breathe"

This is a tour-de-force EP for Augeri, who got to show off his vocal prowess on songs that delve into Journey's career-spanning penchant for jam-band excursions, melodic rock, hard-rocking blues and soaring balladry. ("Walkin' Away From the Edge" was co-written by an uncredited Geoff Tate from  Queensryche .) The only knock is that those four things happen over the course of just four songs.

Generations (2005)

Steve Augeri - 8: "Faith in the Heartland," "The Place in Your Heart," "Butterfly (She Flies Alone)," "Believe," "Knowing That You Love Me," "Out of Harms Way," "Better Together" and "Beyond the Clouds" Neal Schon, 1: "In Self-Defense" Deen Castronovo, 1: "A Better Life" Jonathan Cain - 1: "Every Generation" Ross Valory - 1: "Gone Crazy"

The underrated Augeri ends his time in Journey with an album where everybody – literally everybody , even bassist Ross Valory – gets a turn at the mic. Augeri managed to eke out a minor hit with "Faith in the Heartland," but only drummer Deen Castronovo really stands out among the others on Generations . Adding insult to injury for Augeri: This is Journey's worst-charting U.S. album ever.

Revelation (2008)

Arnel Pineda - 9: "Never Walk Away," "Like a Sunshower," "Change for the Better," "Wildest Dream," "After All These Years," "Where Did I Lose Your Love," "What I Needed," "What It Takes to Win," "Turn Down the World Tonight"

Stuck in a commercial dive, Neal Schon turned to YouTube to find Augeri's replacement. Arnel Pineda, a big-voiced Filipino unknown, ended up becoming Journey's longest-tenured singer. But not before being asked to redo a whopping 12 previously recorded songs on Revelation , including the very-recent "Faith in the Heartland." He fared much better on the originals, finally pushing Journey back to platinum-selling status.

Eclipse (2011)

Arnel Pineda - 11: "City of Hope," "Edge of the Moment," "Chain of Love," "Tantra," "Anything Is Possible," "Resonate," "She's a Mystery," "Human Feel," "Ritual," "To Whom It May Concern" and "Someone"

Eclipse initially rose to No. 13 on the album chart before everybody realized it lacked enough of the signature ballads that pushed Journey to out-sized fame in the '80s. Still, Pineda showed he could go toe-to-toe with a resurgent Schon on a series of songs that recalled the furious energy of Journey's earliest recordings. The album ends, appropriately enough, with an instrumental.

Soundtracks, B-Sides and Bonus Tracks

Steve Perry - 10: "Destiny," "Sand Castles" and "Little Girl" from 1980's 'Dream, After Dream'; "Natural Thing" (b-side, 1981's "Don't Stop Believin'"); "La Raza del Sol" (b-side of 1982's "Still They Ride"); "Only Solutions" from 1982's 'Tron'; "Ask the Lonely" from 1983's 'Two of a Kind'; "Liberty" (bonus track from 1983's 'Frontiers'); and "Only the Young" from 1985's 'Vision Quest'; "I Can See It in Your Eyes" from 1996's 'Trial by Fire' Steve Augeri - 1: "Remember Me" from 1998's 'Armageddon' Deen Castronovo, 1: "Never Too Late" from 2005's 'Generations' Jonathan Cain - 1: "Pride of the Family" from 2005's 'Generations' Arnel Pineda - 1: "Let It Take You Back" from 2008's 'Revelation'

Dream, After Dream was a forgotten, mostly instrumental 1980 soundtrack that included Rolie's final studio work with the group, but the three tucked-away vocals were all reserved for Perry. "Little Girl," the rare moment that tried to connect their updated pop sound , was later included as a bonus track on an expanded reissue of Departure . "Only the Young," "Ask the Lonely and "Only Solution," key songs recorded during sessions for Frontiers , ended up on contemporary soundtracks instead. "I Can See It in Your Eyes" was a Japanese-only bonus track from Perry's finale with Journey. Augeri actually made his Journey debut on the soundtrack for Armageddon . Castronovo and Cain's songs were extras attached to Generations . "Let It Take You Back" was a bonus cut on Pineda's first album.

Journey Solo Albums Ranked

See Neal Schon Among Rock’s Forgotten Supergroups

More From Ultimate Classic Rock

Arnel Pineda: Journey lead singer talks solo tour, meeting Steve Perry

It’s been a decade since Arnel Pineda stepped into a spotlight once held by his hero, Steve Perry.

He'd been recruited by Journey guitarist Neal Schon, who was duly impressed by the young singer's eerily Perry-esque vocals on classic-rock staples by Journey, Survivor and more at the helm of the Zoo in a series of YouTube clips.

This discovery led to an email from Schon, then a phone call, a two-day audition and eventually his first gig – a Chilean music festival, in which they opened the set with a song he'd covered many times, "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)."

As Pineda recalls with a laugh, it was "nerve-wracking," as were his first several years in the band.

“But as soon as you started to sync in with the band and get accustomed with their lifestyle and the way they tour, it’s still not easy but it’s more of getting in the groove with them, the rhythm. You don’t have to worry all the time over what are you gonna do and how are you gonna face a crowd. You have become a part of the band already.”

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

They’ve been “gelling good,” he says, for six or seven years now.

“We don’t have to look at each other and wonder ‘What the hell are we doing?’” says the Philippines-born singer with a laugh. “It’s like we just go out there, hit the crowd, play the legacy and have fun with each other, have fun with the crowd. That’s how it is these days.”

Journey fans are good for self-esteem

Singing with Journey has helped him become a more confident frontman and conquer his fears.

"My self-esteem is just way up there,” he says. “I’m more confident with my songwriting now. It’s like they gave me that , that confidence. And the way I present myself for the crowd now. Six or seven years ago, it was like ‘Oh my god, how do I do this?’ I was always terrified and pinching myself, like 'My God, is this really happening?'”

He’s especially thankful, he says, that the fans were so quick to embrace him when he stepped into that daunting role as Journey’s lead singer.

“I was not expecting that at all,” he says. “It’s just such a huge blessing. I’m still so amazed that they have embraced me like this because, I mean, it’s pretty clear that I’m not Steve Perry. And it won’t happen anytime soon that I will be Steve Perry. But you know, they embraced it. It’s a miracle.”

Steve Perry at Hall of Fame induction

To say he was thrilled to meet Perry last year at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony would be something of an understatement.

“Like I claim on my IG post, I waited 35 years for that,” Pineda says. “And of course, it was one of the most momentous days of my life. It’s like meeting the pope, you know? He’s one of my heroes when it comes to music – one of the few singers that I have adored all these years, along with Robert Plant and Ann Wilson.”

What did he and Perry talk about that day?

Pineda laughs.

“Oh, just some random things, you know,” he says. “We were just talking about the gig – How is it? How do I feel? And he joked to me saying ‘Are the boys treating you nice? If not, I’m gonna call them and straighten them out,’ you know?”

Pineda did not get inducted with his bandmates, but he did get up and join them at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, singing "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Lights."

As Pineda recalls, "For the record, I never really wanted to be there because I respect Mr. Steve Perry so much and I think that Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, that’s for them, you know? It’s for the band and not for me. I was really adamant about not being there"

But Journey's manager John Baruck talked him into it.

"And then it was so gracious for Steve Perry that he doesn’t want to sing and said that it should be me that should be singing with the band," Pineda says. "I said, 'It’s not right. It should be them playing together and singing together. I was kind of shaky. I mean, how would you feel when your hero is watching you singing his legacy?"

Journey hiatus, solo work, 'AP'

Asked how things are in the Journey camp these days, Pineda says, "It’s started to go back to where they really started, where they came from, which is really like brothers in music. It should be that way. I mean, oh my God, the legacy that they have built together."

With Journey taking next year off, Pineda says he plans to do a lot of songwriting and spend time with his family.

He'll also perform the occasional solo gig, like his upcoming concert in Phoenix.

"I like to keep my voice going," he says. "I don’t want it to lose its chops. You know, as you age, it’s easier for you to lose it."

Pineda has released two solo albums, a self-titled effort in 1999 and "AP" in 2016.

"It makes me happy," he says of his solo career. "I hope that it will get noticed by a bigger crowd eventually but I have no expectations. It’s just a part of me that I’m trying to fill up. My own creativity."

He's pretty sure the crowd size at his solo gigs may have a lot to do with him being the singer for Journey. 

"And I’m really grateful," he says. "Because if my solo music came first, before Journey, I don’t think I’d make it this far."

He's especially grateful that his Journey bandmates took a chance on him and welcomed him into the fold.

"These boys, they’ve been really generous to me," he says. "I mean, sharing their legacy with me?! It’s really helped me a lot. It carried me through to where I want to go right now, you know, with my solo career."

Arnel Pineda

When: 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2.

Where: Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix.

Admission: $58-$118.

Details: 602-267-1600,  celebritytheatre.com .

Read more on music: 

• Rolling Stones return to Phoenix area for the first time since 2006
• At age 86, Petula Clark is so much more than 'Downtown'
• Alice Cooper's Christmas Pudding adds Gretchen Wilson 

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Steve Perry Walked Away From Journey. A Promise Finally Ended His Silence.

By Alex Pappademas

• Sept. 5, 2018

MALIBU, Calif. — On the back patio of a Greek restaurant, a white-haired man making his way to the exit paused for a second look at one of his fellow diners, a man with a prominent nose who wore his dark hair in a modest pompadour.

“You look a lot like Steve Perry,” the white-haired man said.

“I used to be Steve Perry,” Steve Perry said.

This is how it goes when you are Steve Perry. Everyone is excited to see you, and no one can quite believe it. Everyone wants to know where you’ve been.

In 1977, an ambitious but middlingly successful San Francisco jazz-rock band called Journey went looking for a new lead singer and found Mr. Perry, then a 28-year-old veteran of many unsigned bands. Mr. Perry and the band’s lead guitarist and co-founder, Neal Schon, began writing concise, uplifting hard rock songs that showcased Mr. Perry’s clean, powerful alto, as operatic an instrument as pop has ever seen. This new incarnation of Journey produced a string of hit singles, released eight multiplatinum albums and toured relentlessly — so relentlessly that in 1987, a road-worn Mr. Perry took a hiatus, effectively dissolving the band he’d helped make famous.

He did not disappear completely — there was a solo album in 1994, followed in 1996 by a Journey reunion album, “Trial by Fire.” But it wasn’t long before Mr. Perry walked away again, from Journey and from the spotlight. With his forthcoming album, “Traces,” due in early October, he’s breaking 20 years of radio silence.

Over the course of a long midafternoon lunch — well-done souvlaki, hold all the starches — Mr. Perry, now 69, explained why he left, and why he’s returned. He spoke of loving, and losing and opening himself to being loved again, including by people he’s never met, who know him only as a voice from the Top 40 past.

And when he detailed the personal tragedy that moved him to make music again, he talked about it in language as earnest and emotional as any Journey song:

“I thought I had a pretty good heart,” he said, “but a heart isn’t really complete until it’s completely broken.”

IN ITS ’80S heyday, Journey was a commercial powerhouse and a critical piñata. With Mr. Perry up front, slinging high notes like Frisbees into the stratosphere, Journey quickly became not just big but huge . When few public figures aside from Pac-Man and Donkey Kong had their own video game, Journey had two. The offices of the group’s management company received 600 pieces of Journey fan mail per day.

The group toured hard for nine years. Gradually, that punishing schedule began to take a toll on Journey’s lead singer.

“I never had any nodules or anything, and I never had polyps,” Mr. Perry said, referring to the state of his vocal cords. He looked around for some wood to knock, then settled for his own skull. The pain, he said, was more spiritual than physical.

[ Never miss a pop music story: Sign up for our weekly newsletter, Louder. ]

As a vocalist, Mr. Perry explained, “your instrument is you. It’s not just your throat, it’s you . If you’re burnt out, if you’re depressed, if you’re feeling weary and lost and paranoid, you’re a mess.”

“Frankly,” Mr. Schon said in a phone interview, “I don’t know how he lasted as long as he did without feeling burned out. He was so good, doing things that nobody else could do.”

On Feb. 1, 1987, Mr. Perry performed one last show with Journey, in Anchorage. Then he went home.

Mr. Perry was born in Hanford, Calif., in the San Joaquin Valley, about 45 minutes south of Fresno. His parents, who were both Portuguese immigrants, divorced when he was 8, and Mr. Perry and his mother moved in next door to her parents’. “I became invisible, emotionally,” Mr. Perry said. “And there were places I used to hide, to feel comfortable, to protect myself.”

Sometimes he’d crawl into a corner of his grandparents’ garage with a blanket and a flashlight. But he also found refuge in music. “I could get lost in these 45s that I had,” Mr. Perry said. “It turned on a passion for music in me that saved my life.”

As a teen, Mr. Perry moved to Lemoore, Calif., where he enjoyed an archetypally idyllic West Coast adolescence: “A lot of my writing, to this day, is based on my emotional attachment to Lemoore High School.”

There he discovered the Beatles and the Beach Boys, went on parked-car dates by the San Joaquin Valley’s many irrigation canals, and experienced a feeling of “freedom and teenage emotion and contact with the world” that he’s never forgotten. Even a song like “No Erasin’,” the buoyant lead single from his new LP has that down-by-the-old-canal spirit, Mr. Perry said.

And after he left Journey, it was Lemoore that Mr. Perry returned to, hoping to rediscover the person he’d been before subsuming his identity within an internationally famous rock band. In the beginning, he couldn’t even bear to listen to music on the radio: “A little PTSD, I think.”

Eventually, in 1994, he made that solo album, “For the Love of Strange Medicine,” and sported a windblown near-mullet and a dazed expression on the cover. The reviews were respectful, and the album wasn’t a flop. With alternative rock at its cultural peak, Mr. Perry was a man without a context — which suited him just fine.

“I was glad,” he said, “that I was just allowed to step back and go, O.K. — this is a good time to go ride my Harley.”

JOURNEY STAYED REUNITED after Mr. Perry left for the second time in 1997. Since December 2007, its frontman has been Arnel Pineda, a former cover-band vocalist from Manila, Philippines, who Mr. Schon discovered via YouTube . When Journey was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last April, Mr. Pineda sang the 1981 anthem “Don’t Stop Believin’,” not Mr. Perry. “I’m not in the band,” he said flatly, adding, “It’s Arnel’s gig — singers have to stick together.”

Around the time Mr. Pineda joined the band, something strange had happened — after being radioactively unhip for decades, Journey had crept back into the zeitgeist. David Chase used “Don’t Stop Believin’” to nerve-racking effect in the last scene of the 2007 series finale of “The Sopranos” ; when Mr. Perry refused to sign off on the show’s use of the song until he was told how it would be used, he briefly became one of the few people in America who knew in advance how the show ended.

“Don’t Stop Believin’” became a kind of pop standard, covered by everyone from the cast of “Glee” to the avant-shred guitarist Marnie Stern . Decades after they’d gone their separate ways, Journey and Mr. Perry found themselves discovering fans they never knew they had.

Mark Oliver Everett, the Los Angeles singer-songwriter who performs with his band Eels under the stage name E, was not one of them, at first.

“When I was young, living in Virginia,” Mr. Everett said, “Journey was always on the radio, and I wasn’t into it.”

So although Mr. Perry became a regular at Eels shows beginning around 2003, it took Mr. Everett five years to invite him backstage. He’d become acquainted with Patty Jenkins, the film director, who’d befriended Mr. Perry after contacting him for permission to use “Don’t Stop Believin’” in her 2003 film “Monster.” (“When he literally showed up on the mixing stage the next day and pulled up a chair next to me, saying, ‘Hey I really love your movie. How can I help you?’ it was the beginning of one of the greatest friendships of my life,” Ms. Jenkins wrote in an email.) Over lunch, Ms. Jenkins lobbied Mr. Everett to meet Mr. Perry.

They hit it off immediately. “At that time,” Mr. Everett said, “we had a very serious Eels croquet game in my backyard every Sunday.” He invited Mr. Perry to attend that week. Before long, Mr. Perry began showing up — uninvited and unannounced, but not unwelcome — at Eels rehearsals.

“They’d always bust my chops,” Mr. Perry said. “Like, ‘Well? Is this the year you come on and sing a couple songs with us?’”

At one point, the Eels guitarist Jeff Lyster managed to bait Mr. Perry into singing Journey’s “Lights” at one of these rehearsals, which Mr. Everett remembers as “this great moment — a guy who’s become like Howard Hughes, and just walked away from it all 25 years ago, and he’s finally doing it again.”

Eventually Mr. Perry decided to sing a few numbers at an Eels show, which would be his first public performance in decades. He made this decision known to the band, Mr. Everett said, not via phone or email but by showing up to tour rehearsals one day carrying his own microphone. “He moves in mysterious ways,” Mr. Everett observed.

For mysterious Steve Perry reasons, Mr. Perry chose to make his long-awaited return to the stage at a 2014 Eels show at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minn. During a surprise encore, he sang three songs, including one of his favorite Eels tunes, whose profane title is rendered on an edited album as “It’s a Monstertrucker.”

“I walked out with no anticipation and they knew me and they responded, and it was really a thrill,” Mr. Perry said. “I missed it so much. I couldn’t believe it’d been so long.”

“It’s a Monstertrucker” is a spare song about struggling to get through a lonely Sunday in someone’s absence. For Mr. Perry, it was not an out-of-nowhere choice.

In 2011, Ms. Jenkins directed one segment of “Five,” a Lifetime anthology film about women and breast cancer. Mr. Perry visited her one day in the cutting room while she was at work on a scene featuring real cancer patients as extras. A woman named Kellie Nash caught Mr. Perry’s eye. Instantly smitten, he asked Ms. Jenkins if she would introduce them by email.

“And she says ‘O.K., I’ll send the email,’ ” Mr. Perry said, “but there’s one thing I should tell you first. She was in remission, but it came back, and it’s in her bones and her lungs. She’s fighting for her life.”

“My head said, ‘I don’t know,’ ” Mr. Perry remembered, “but my heart said, ‘Send the email.’”

“That was extremely unlike Steve, as he is just not that guy,” Ms. Jenkins said. “I have never seen him hit on, or even show interest in anyone before. He was always so conservative about opening up to anyone.”

A few weeks later, Ms. Nash and Mr. Perry connected by phone and ended up talking for nearly five hours. Their friendship soon blossomed into romance. Mr. Perry described Ms. Nash as the greatest thing that ever happened to him.

“I was loved by a lot of people, but I didn’t really feel it as much as I did when Kellie said it,” he said. “Because she’s got better things to do than waste her time with those words.”

They were together for a year and a half. They made each other laugh and talked each other to sleep at night.

In the fall of 2012, Ms. Nash began experiencing headaches. An MRI revealed that the cancer had spread to her brain. One night not long afterward, Ms. Nash asked Mr. Perry to make her a promise.

“She said, ‘If something were to happen to me, promise me you won’t go back into isolation,’ ” Mr. Perry said, “because that would make this all for naught.”

At this point in the story, Mr. Perry asked for a moment and began to cry.

Ms. Nash died on Dec. 14, 2012, at 40. Two years later, Mr. Perry showed up to Eels rehearsal with his own microphone, ready to make good on a promise.

TIME HAS ADDED a husky edge to Mr. Perry’s angelic voice; on “Traces,” he hits some trembling high notes that bring to mind the otherworldly jazz countertenor “Little” Jimmy Scott. The tone suits the songs, which occasionally rock, but mostly feel close to their origins as solo demos Mr. Perry cut with only loops and click tracks backing him up.

The idea that the album might kick-start a comeback for Mr. Perry is one that its maker inevitably has to hem and haw about.

“I don’t even know if ‘coming back’ is a good word,” he said. “I’m in touch with the honest emotion, the love of the music I’ve just made. And all the neurosis that used to come with it, too. All the fears and joys. I had to put my arms around all of it. And walking back into it has been an experience, of all of the above.”

Find the Right Soundtrack for You

Trying to expand your musical horizons take a listen to something new..

Shania Twain  is now a Glastonbury “legend.”

Hear Towa Bird’ s bouncy revenge rock and 10 more new songs.

At 100, the intergalactic jazz hero Marshall Allen  is still on a mission.

Omar Apollo’s new album is a Critic’s Pick. Read the review .

5 minutes that will make you love Wayne Shorter .

Artists - A-H

• & Young
• .38 Special
• Aaron Lewis
• Aaron Neville

Artists - I-P

• Iron Butterfly
• Iron Maiden
• Izzy Stradlin

Artists - Q-Z

• Queens of the Stone Age
• Queensrÿche
• Classic Rock

• Keyboardist Jim Beard, Known for His...
• 12 Rock Legends Who Openly Dislike...
• 10 Rock Stars Who Can’t Stand...

• Legendary Motorhead Frontman, Lemmy, To Be...
• Happy 76th Birthday Tony Iommi: How...
• Metallica Secures Best Metal Performance at...

• Unveiling Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Top 10...
• Album Review: “Two Steps From The...
• The Facts In The Early Life...

Arnel Pineda on JOURNEY’s Potential Reunion with Steve Perry and Career Impact

via GIGS / YouTube

In a chat with Rolling Stone, Arnel Pineda, the frontman of the iconic band Journey, shared his thoughts on the possibility of reuniting with the former lead singer, Steve Perry. Pineda, known for his upbeat personality and powerful vocals, revealed his openness to the idea, sparking excitement among fans.

Dreamy Encounter with an Icon: Arnel Meets Steve Perry

Expressing his amazement at the unexpected encounter with Perry, Pineda shared,

“I posted on Instagram that I had waited 35 years for that. It was dreamy. I couldn’t believe I met him since he’s very reclusive and he avoids people.”

Pineda reflected on the profound influence Perry had on him, stating,

“He’s one of my heroes when it comes to singing. I remember back in the ’80s, I would sleep on the bus with my Walkman on in my ears as his voice sang all these favorite songs from Journey.”

  View this post on Instagram Modafinil 5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;”>   A post shared by Journey (@journeyofficial)

A Career Sacrifice for the Love of Perry and Journey

When asked about the possibility of Perry’s return and the impact on his role in the band, Pineda responded,

“I miss them so much together. Every now and then, I watch their videos together. It’s always them with Steve Perry that I watch.”

Acknowledging the sentiment of fans who proclaim, “No Perry, No Journey,” Pineda sympathized,

“I understand it. Where I come from, we’re so influenced by Western music. We loved the originals, if you know what I mean.”

Addressing the potential impact on his career, Pineda shared a surprising perspective,

“That would be OK to me! I’m telling you. That’s how much I adore him and I adore Journey and how much I adore Steve Perry.”

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Retro and Nostalgia Creator (@70sandbeyond)

Anticipation for the Future: Pineda’s Genuine Enthusiasm

Recounting a personal anecdote, Pineda revealed,

“Back in 2005, I resigned from my job in Hong Kong because I lost my voice due to acid reflux. I was telling my friends back then that my only regret was I lost my voice before I had the chance to sing side-by-side with Steve Perry.”

He continued,

“I just wish that one show with him… it would change my life forever. It’s been 30 years now, and the band keeps changing my life in ways nobody would ever guess would happen.”

Arnel Pineda’s genuine admiration for Steve Perry and his eagerness for a potential reunion add a layer of anticipation to Journey’s future. As fans speculate on what could be, Pineda’s words reflect the profound impact that music and collaboration can have on an artist’s journey, transcending the boundaries of time.

Don’t Miss Out! Sign up for the Latest Updates

• Steve Perry

I Love Classic Rock

Stevie Nicks Pays Tribute To Tom Petty and Christine McVie…

Why The Sequel To “The Blues Brothers” Was…

Eddie Van Halen’s Canada Guitar Set For Auction

Stevie Nicks Forced To Cancel Shows Due To Surgery

8 Worst Classic Rock Albums Comeback Attempts

Noel Gallagher Criticizes Glastonbury Music Festival For…

10 Tragic Deaths in the Classic Rock World That Shocked Fans

Premium partners.

Interested in becoming a partner?

Contact us for more info.

© 2024 Society Of Rock

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy

Journey's Neal Schon says he and Steve Perry are 'in a good place' before band's 50th anniversary

On the cusp of turning 50, the band that etched “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” and “Faithfully” into lighters-up lore is entering “a cleaned-up chapter of Journey.”

That’s according to Neal Schon, the band’s ace guitarist, lone original constant and de facto CEO.

Despite decades of fluctuating lineups and  snarly lawsuits among band members , Journey endures.

On July 8, the band released “Freedom,” its first new album in 11 years that also presents the return of Randy Jackson (as in "American Idol") on bass. The 15-song collection is steeped with vintage-sounding ballads (“Still Believe in Love,” “Live to Love Again”) and soaring melodic rockers (“United We Stand,” “You Got the Best of Me”).

Journey – including longtime keyboardist Jonathan Cain,  peppy singer Arnel Pineda , drummer Deen Castronovo and keyboardist Jason Derlatka, adding bassist Todd Jensen for live shows – will hit Resorts World Las Vegas  this month for shows backed by a symphony orchestra before rolling through more arena dates this summer and in early 2023, the band’s official 50th year.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Journey in pop culture: Quarantined family perfectly re-creates 'Separate Ways' music video at home

Regular road warriors who consistently pack arenas and stadiums – their 27 shows this year grossed $28 million, according to Billboard Boxscore – Journey relies on a solid catalog of mega-hits and a devoted fan base that appreciates the familiarity.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers also received a boost from Netflix’s ’80s-centered “Stranger Things” when the show used “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” in the trailer for the just-ended season, launching the song onto Billboard’s Rock Digital Songs chart. The affable Schon, 68, talked with USA TODAY about the band’s complicated legacy, his relationship with former frontman Steve Perry and plans for Journey's golden anniversary.

Santana recovers: Carlos Santana collapsed on stage from heat, dehydration 

Question: Are you amazed at how the Journey train keeps rolling after almost 50 years?

Neal Schon: It’s quite an accomplishment and I’m very proud of what we’ve done and how we’ve gotten through emotional and personnel changes and survived. It’s pretty mind-boggling but also a lot of hard work.

Q: Does the title “Freedom” refer to anything specifically?

Schon: Our ex-manager Herbie Herbert  wanted to call the (1986) “Raised on Radio” album “Freedom” because he always came up with these one-word titles. Steve (Perry) fought him on that and got his way, so we sat on it for many years. When we got through the lawsuit with the ex-bandmates, we made the new LLC Freedom (JN) and when we were tossing around album titles said, why not just call the whole thing “Freedom?" It's for the times right now.

Q: There’s been a bit of a revolving door in the rhythm section. Deen Castronovo is back for the live shows, but Narada Michael Walden played drums on the album, and Randy Jackson is back in the band, at least on record?

Schon: Deen is singing and playing his butt off. He’s such a musical sponge, this guy. He’s been like my little brother for close to three decades and is such a joy to work with. Randy, he’d been working with me diligently this whole time. He’s so many things beyond being an amazing musician and bass player.

Rock in the rain: Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Poison, Joan Jett combat weather during The Stadium Tour

Q: Will Randy play at any of the upcoming live shows or is Todd Jensen handling those duties?

Schon: Randy is still recovering from some surgery and he stays very busy and Todd fits like a glove. Having said that, I think with our 50th anniversary next year, there’s room for everybody to jump in if they want to participate. We did go through an ugly divorce with (Steve Smith and Ross Valory) with the court proceedings (in 2021, Schon and Cain settled a $10 million trademark lawsuit with the band’s former drummer and bassist). But definitely, if Steve Perry wanted to come on and sing a song, yes. If (original Journey singer) Gregg Rolie wanted to come sing a couple of songs, yes. Randy Jackson (can) come sit in on some of the material – he played on a lot of hits on “Raised on Radio.”

Q: Do you talk much with Steve Perry?

Schon: We are in contact. It’s not about him coming out with us, but we’re speaking on different levels. That’s a start, even if it’s all business. And I’m not having to go through his attorney! We’ve been texting and emailing. He’s a real private guy and he wants to keep it that way. We’re in a good place.

Q: Do you think, after 15 years, that people have accepted Arnel?

Schon: I was diligent in that I wanted to show the massive size of our audience, so I hired photogs to come out every show and shoot the audience and show the size of the crowd to make everybody see, what am I missing? From putting up the different photos every night and the reviews from the fans online, I saw very little of “This is not Journey, man.” I think we just shut everybody up.

• Environment
• Road to Net Zero
• Art & Design
• Film & TV
• Music & On-stage
• Pop Culture
• Fashion & Beauty
• Home & Garden
• Things to do
• Combat Sports
• Horse Racing
• Beyond the Headlines
• Trending Middle East
• Business Extra
• Culture Bites
• Year of Elections
• Pocketful of Dirhams
• Books of My Life
• Iraq: 20 Years On

The incredible journey of Arnel Pineda

A documentary on the unlikely rise of a singer in philippines to frontman of the us band journey finally hits theatres..

Journey in Manila, with Arnel Pineda, centre. Courtesy Emerging Pictures

In between gigs, a young prince of rock 'n' roll sinks into his cushions and sighs.

"I'm living a fairy tale right now."

Truly, Arnel Pineda's life story is the stuff of fairy tales - a poor boy with a golden voice finds his way to become the lead singer of a legendary rock band. It's a modern day, real-life Cinderella story, not to mention a version of the 2001 Mark Wahlberg film Rock Star , which in turn was based on the heavy metal group Judas Priest, who replaced their frontman with one found performing in a tribute band.

Pineda's story unfolds in the documentary Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey , which was an official selection last year at the Tribeca Film Festival and the winner of the Audience Award at the 2013 Palm Springs International Film Festival. The film has just gone on wide release in cinemas in the US.

Brace yourself for a goosebumpy ride. The film goes on the road with Journey, criss-crossing hemispheres and timelines, to chronicle the intersecting destinies of Pineda and the iconic rock band in this age of the internet and social media.

The central story that started it all is itself an internet legend. Back in the summer of 2007, the members of Journey, who got together in 1973 and disbanded several times in the ensuing decades, began searching for a new lead singer. It was a tall order considering the anointed one would be stepping into the very big shoes of departed singer Steve Perry. The group, who hit the height of their popularity in the early 1980s with big, rich rock hits including Open Arms , Faithfully and Don't Stop Believin' , have sold more than 80 million albums worldwide.

After trawling YouTube for possible leads and almost ready to give up, the lead guitarist Neal Schon clicked on one last video. There popped up Pineda onstage in the Philippines, singing Journey cover songs for his band The Zoo. "This is too good to be true," said Schon.

Emails were sent, and soon an incredulous Pineda found himself in San Francisco to audition for the lead role.

Voice for a visa

The film's director Ramona S Diaz recounts how she was first inspired to make the documentary. In 2008, she received an email from a friend in Manila with the title "Best US Embassy Visa Application Story". Written by one of the immigration agents at the American Embassy in Manila, it was about Pineda, who said that the reason he was going to the US was that he was invited by Journey to audition for lead vocals.

"Journey? The rock band Journey?" the dubious agent had asked, and Pineda could only nod meekly, producing some flimsy email correspondence from the band. So Pineda was asked to sing Wheel in the Sky . He belted it out loud enough for the entire waiting room to stop and listen.

"Look sir," said the agent, "there isn't a person in this embassy who would believe that story! So I'm giving you that visa. You're going to try out. And you're going to make it."

And make it he did.

Rags to riches to racism

Pineda, who once had to sing for food, who lost his mother when he was 13 and grew up in a family so poor his father had to send siblings to live with relatives, who quit school and struck out on his own to ease the burden, spending two years on the streets before finding some domestic success as a musician, today performs in front of thousands in sold-out concerts all over the world.

His story was covered in Rolling Stone , he performed at a Super Bowl pregame show and he was a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show . Yet many times he'd still wonder if it was all a dream. In one scene, he says: "Why me? I'm short, I'm so Asian … it was like I was just edited in with Photoshop!"

Since 2007 Pineda has recorded two albums with the rejuvenated band: Revelation in 2008 and 2011's Eclipse . But Everyman is about life on the road, and in it the frontman proves an endearing, soulful character, a nice guy who suffered at an early age and is now reaping a lifetime's worth of good karma.

Says Diaz: "As we've travelled to film festivals the world over, it's apparent that audiences young and old feel a powerful kinship with Arnel. The bursts of applause and the standing ovations have overwhelmed us.

"Audiences truly like Arnel, they root for him because his success affirms that in this crazy world we live in, good things still happen to good people."

Now what fairy tale would be complete without a villain? Or in this story, villains - the haters, critics and downright racists who hurled their insults in cyberspace. If the internet was what got Pineda discovered, it was also where wickedness thrived - where such insults as "garbage," "impersonator" and "monkey" were slung.

"Arnel was very aware of that," says Diaz. "The internet has no gatekeeper. But he chose to ignore it, he knew he couldn't please everyone. He couldn't let that seep into his consciousness. Also, he had no time to focus on that because he was on tour."

It's an issue that Pineda addresses in the film. "There are people out there who want me to fail," he says. "I'm sticking to those people who believe in me."

Those people could translate into a whole country as his backup. As one Filipino fan commented in the film, when Journey chose Pineda for the lead, "they inherited a nation".

Rock 'n' road

So what was it like going on the road with Journey for a year? "It's really not glamorous," says Diaz. "They're working 24/7 for a two-hour act, every minute getting to those two hours on stage is hard work."

She was very impressed, however, describing the group as a "well-oiled machine with many moving parts".

As for the whole "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" cliché? Surprise, surprise - there wasn't even alcohol in the dressing room. "As the band has reached a certain level of maturity, they've passed all that - they were all sober."

Feel-good tale

During a gruelling year on the road, Diaz, of course, had no way of knowing how her film would end. "As a documentary filmmaker, one of the most exciting things about the process is not knowing how it's going to turn out," says Diaz. "Observing life as it unfolds through the camera's lens is a privilege."

Ultimately, Everyman's Journey is a feel-good film with a great soundtrack and a positive message. It shows the soft side of rock, seen in the warmth and enduring faith of the veteran rock stars Neal Schon, Ross Valory, Jon Cain, Deen Castronovo and the band manager John Baruck, in their fellowship of strings.

"No matter how clichéd it seems, it really is a story of never giving up," says Diaz. "Or, at the very least, surrounding yourself with friends who never stop believing in you."

[  [email protected]  ]

[  @LifeNationalUAE  ]

JOURNEY's JONATHAN CAIN: 'We're Very Happy With ARNEL PINEDA'

In a new interview with Steve King of the 105.3 The Bone radio station, JOURNEY keyboardist Jonathan Cain spoke about the band's current working relationship with its longtime vocalist Arnel Pineda . Pineda was a bar and club singer working in Manila, Philippines in 2007 when he got an e-mail from JOURNEY guitarist Neal Schon who had seen videos of Pineda performing on YouTube and asked him to come to San Francisco and audition to become the band's new frontman.

"Yeah, Arnel 's 16 years celebrating — this is his 16th year [with JOURNEY ]," Cain said. "[It's] probably the longest tenure of any lead singer for the band. So, he's been crushing it for us. He's got his kids on the road with him this time, and he seems really content and happy. And we're really proud of everything he's done up to this point. And we see some years left. There's definitely still some gas in the tank. But we're very happy with Arnel . He's amazing."

Classic JOURNEY singer Steve Perry left the band in 1998 and was replaced by Steve Augeri . Jeff Scott Soto replaced Augeri in JOURNEY in December 2006 after Augeri began suffering throat problems on the road. But Soto lasted less than a year, and in December 2007, JOURNEY hired Pineda , who fronts the band to this day.

Back in August 2022, Schon was asked what it had been like to work with Pineda for the prior 15 years. He responded: " Arnel is just a gem. He's more amazing right now than he was when I first found him in Manila 15 years ago, when he was homeless and he was in dire straits. I was searching for the new singer for JOURNEY and I chose YouTube to look all over the world for the singer. When I heard his voice, I knew that he was it — with no other thought. It hit me emotionally in my heart. I went, 'That is the voice. He is the voice. I know he can do it.' And so I stuck to my guns, with a lot of resistance from many — from within the band and from management. They all thought I was crazy. I said, 'I know I'm right. So get him over here.' We got him over. And he proved that I was right again."

Neal continued: "The show we just played the other night, he sounded phenomenal through the whole show. We finally got his in-ears sorted out; we've got a great mixer in front now. It sounds like a record every night. And he's sounding phenomenal every night. And he's very excited about some of the new direction that we took that allows him to show how creative he can be without having to emulate our other albums, which is a requirement for any singer that would come into JOURNEY . It's either that or you throw away all your hits that you ever had. And what do you do? Start from ground zero again? It doesn't make sense.

"So I knew when I found Arnel that I had found a true chameleon like no other singer I've ever heard. He is amazing. I love him. He's a true warrior."

Born in the Philippines, Pineda has been fronting the legendary rockers since 2007. A vocal doppelganger for JOURNEY 's longtime vocalist Steve Perry , Arnel has helped put JOURNEY back in arenas once again. But some fans were not happy about the addition of Pineda , complaining about his ethnicity and dismissing his voice as a "copycat" of Perry .

Pineda and Perry finally crossed paths when JOURNEY and its former singer shared the stage at their induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in April 2017. While accepting the award, Steve spoke warmly about his former bandmates, as well as the man who replaced him. "I must give a shout-out to a man who sings his heart out every night, Arnel Pineda ," Perry said.

Although Pineda did not get inducted with his bandmates, he did get up and join them at the Hall Of Fame induction ceremony, singing "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Lights" .

Six years ago, Perry told SiriusXM that he didn't perform with JOURNEY at the Rock Hall ceremony because he is "not in the band. I haven't been in the band for quite some time," he explained. " Arnel 's been in the band for almost 10 years, I think. He's a sweet kid — he's a wonderful kid. He sings his heart out every night. It's his gig."

As for meeting Pineda before the induction, Perry said: "There was something endearing about the way he looked at me. He was meeting, like, a grandfather. [ Laughs ] He's got the gig. It's his gig. He's doing great."

Pineda has overcome a tremendous number of obstacles throughout his life, including the loss of his mother at a young age, homelessness and borderline starvation, making him an inspiration and providing hope for millions of people around the globe. Blessed with the ability to give back, Pineda mobilized his team to join the battle against poverty and its ensuing havoc on Philippine youth.

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).

Hollywoodtainment

All about Hollywood Entertainment

journey lead singer dies – Steve Perry

TRIDIP BOR BORUAH

Updated on: June 6, 2023

The world of music mourns the demise of a real legend as the news is announced of the death of Steve Perry, the renowned lead singer of the legendary rock group Journey. But this not true, its a fake rumour flowing all over the media. In this piece, we pay homage to Steve Perry and explore the remarkable Journey through his life and music career, beginning with his rise to fame through his Journey to his legacy in the world of rock.

Steve Perry’s Journey with Journey

Table of Contents

The Journey of Steve Perry with Journey began in the group’s initial days. With his impressive vocal range and captivating stage presence Perry quickly became an integral member of Journey’s group. Perry’s contributions to the sound of the band and songwriting were instrumental in bringing Journey to new successes. Together, they created an array of chart-topping songs and anthems, which have become a part of Journey’s name.

If you want to know about DID ELVIS WEAR MAKEUP? UNVEILING THE KING’S ICONIC STYLE

Personal Life and Challenges

Beyond his accomplishments in the field of music, Steve Perry’s personal life has shaped his career in significant ways. Growing up in an upper-middle-class family, Perry’s childhood gave him a solid determination and work ethic. He also had the drive to pursue his love of music. However, he was also confronted with personal difficulties and hurdles in the process. These experiences tested his endurance and ultimately influenced the emotion and depth that defined his music.

Departure from Journey

In a pivotal time for the band as well as Steve Perry, he made the difficult decision of separating from Journey . The reasons for the decision were complex and multifaceted, from artistic differences to personal issues. The news of his departure shocked people around the globe who longed for the powerful voice and heartfelt performances that shaped his role in the group.

Solo Career and Return

After the breakup of Journey, Steve Perry embarked on his own solo career , which showcased his talent and versatility as a musician. He released several critically-acclaimed albums, showing the ability of his music to reach his fans at a personal level. Despite the popularity of his solo projects, the fans were begging for an opportunity to reunite with Journey. After a long absence, Perry made a triumphant return to the scene in the form of a rousing performance, sparking excitement and reviving the magic of his work with Journey.

Legacy and Influence

The legacy of Steve Perry goes far over his years with Journey. Perry’s unbeatable voice, soulful delivery, and lyrical sensitivity created a lasting impression on the rock scene. Perry’s ability to express the rawness and vulnerability of his music was a hit with his fans on an emotional scale, which made Perry an iconic figure in the category. Perry’s influence can be seen through the works of many artists who were influenced by his distinctive style and unwavering enthusiasm.

Discography and Achievements

Journey’s discography speaks to their musical talent and their lead singer’s unquestionable talent. The band’s catalog includes several multi-platinum releases and chart-topping songs that have evolved into rock classics. Their accomplishments include numerous awards, sold-out tours, and loyal fans that span generations.

Solo Projects and Collaborations

Beyond Journey, The lead singer began solo projects and collaborations that demonstrated their plethora of talents as artists. They could experiment with different music styles and test their creative expression. Their work as a duo and in collaboration also helped establish their reputation as a major influence in the world of music.

Impact on Rock Music

The impact of the lead singer’s voice on rock music goes beyond the time of Journey. Their strong vocals, emotional delivery, and captivating stage presence were the norm for rock singers who wanted to become a part of the band. Their ability to communicate emotions and connect with the audience helped create a new style of rock and influenced many musicians who followed the same path.

Is the original lead singer of Journey, Gregg Rolie, still alive?

Yes, Gregg Rolie, the first lead singer of Journey, is alive and well . Gregg was born on the 17th of June 1947 and is now 75. older. He has been a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. He was inducted as a part of Santana in 1998 and an artist of Journey in 2017.

Rolie left Journey when he left Journey in 1987; however, he continues to record and tour with his group, The Gregg Rolie Band. He also played the keyboard and sang backup vocals with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band between 2012 and 2021.

In recent times, Rolie has also been involved in various initiatives with fellow musicians. One of them was an album collaboration with the former Journey guitarist Neal Schon on the album “Space Between” in 2015. The singer also released a self-titled album by himself, “Sonic Ranch,” in 2019.

Rolie is still in the music world and continues to record and tour. He is a well-known artist and musician who made important contributions to the genre of rock and roll.

Did Gregg Rolie leave because of Steve Perry?

The truth is that Gregg Rolie did not leave Journey due to Steve Perry. He stated that he was pleased when Perry joined the group. Due to personal reasons, Rolie quit Journey in 1980, just three months after Perry joined the band. Rolie has stated that he was unhappy about his current situation and determined to have the family. He also claimed he consumed too often and needed to feel more inspired.

It is widely believed that Rolie has left Journey due to discontent with how Perry was treated in the group. This isn’t the case. Perry was a great addition to the band, and Rolie claims he enjoyed working alongside Perry. The reason for Rolie’s departure was personal and unrelated to Perry.

Did any of the Other lead singers of Journey die?

None of the vocalists other from Journey have passed away. The group has had three singers as lead performers: Steve Perry, Steve Augeri, and Arnel Pineda. Perry led the band from 1977 until 1987. Augeri was the singer in charge from 1998 until 2006. Then Pineda was the lead singer from 2007 onwards. Augeri quit Journey at the end of 2006 because of vocal cord issues. Pineda is the main singer for Journey, who has been for the last time since 2007.

Here are a few additional pieces of information on the Journey’s singers Steve Augeri and Arnel Pineda who are the mainstays of Journey:

• Steve Augeri: Augeri was born in New Jersey in 1959. The singer became a part of Journey in 1998 , following Perry quit the group. Augeri made two recordings together with Journey, “Trial by Fire” (1998) and “Arrival” (2001). Augeri was forced to leave Journey at the end of 2006 because of problems with his vocal cords. He’s since released two solo albums, “Covers” (2009) and “Sing for You” (2013).
• Arnel Pineda: Pineda was born in the Philippines in the year 1967. He gained fame in 2007 after he was found through Neal Schon, the guitarist for Journey . Pineda was picked for the position of the new lead vocalist of Journey after Schon watched the video featuring Pineda singing Journey songs on YouTube. Pineda has been the main singer in Journey since 2007 and has released three studio albums for the group, “Revelation” (2008), “Eclipse” (2011)”Eclipse” (2011), as well as “Freedom” (2015). Pineda has been the only Filipino to lead a major rock group.

Steve Perry’s tragic rumour of passing has left a gap in the world of music and in the heart of his fans. His incredible path from his fame-making debut through his Journey through his own solo work and eventually return to the stage is an example of his talents, perseverance, and unflinching dedication to his work. As we commemorate and remember Steve Perry’s legacy and life in music, his songs will remain in the hearts of those who listen and inspire generations to come.

What are some of Journey’s most popular songs featuring Steve Perry?

Some of Journey’s most popular songs featuring Steve Perry include “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),” “Open Arms,” “Faithfully,” and “Wheel in the Sky.” These timeless classics have become anthems of the rock music genre.

Did Steve Perry ever reunite with Journey after his departure?

Yes, Steve Perry reunited with Journey several times after his departure. However, these reunions were sporadic and often temporary. Nonetheless, the moments when Perry joined his former bandmates on stage were highly anticipated and cherished by fans.

How did Steve Perry’s solo career fare compare to his time with Journey?

Steve Perry’s solo career showcased his musical range and creativity. While he enjoyed success with his solo albums, including the critically acclaimed “Street Talk,” his time with Journey remains the pinnacle of his commercial success and recognition.

What is Steve Perry’s lasting impact on rock music?

Steve Perry’s impact on rock music is immeasurable. His distinctive voice, emotional performances, and heartfelt lyrics set a new standard for vocalists in the genre. His ability to connect with audiences on an emotional level continues to inspire and influence musicians across generations.

How can fans honor Steve Perry’s memory?

Fans can honor Steve Perry’s memory by celebrating his music, sharing fond memories and stories, and continuing to appreciate his impact on their lives. Keeping his music alive and passing it on to future generations ensures his legacy will endure.

Get the Inside Scoop

Movies and Web Series

Beyond the headlines: exploring talulah riley movies.

Kendall Toole Movies: Journey Through Her Cinematic Universe

Celebrity Biographies

Deftones band members: past and present.

M. Emmet Walsh Best Movies: His Most Memorable Film Roles

Parker McCollum Bio: Texas Roots to Country Music Stardom

Barkhad Abdi Nominations: From Shopkeeper to Star

Man pretends to be lead singer of Journey, scams $120k via Facebook

An ohio woman sent more than $100,000 to a scammer pretending to be journey's steve perry.

Guys, we’ve gotta do a better job of monitoring our relatives’ Facebook messages. We all know that “fake celebrity asking for money” is the oldest scam of the digital age, but somehow that message still hasn’t made its way to everyone. That’s why Westlake Police Department, who are putting one poor woman’s business on blast in order to raise awareness, lest you one day fork over $122,000 to a faux Steve Perry .

According to Ohio NBC affiliate WKYC , someone posing as the ex-Journey frontman contacted the 75-year-old on Facebook in January, eventually moving their “relationship” over to texting and WhatsApp. She reportedly sent $72,000 via wire transfers to “various persons in various different states, designated by ‘Perry,’ through her bank,” in addition to buying approximately $50,000 in gift cards as encouraged by the scammer. The victim got wise to the scheme only after fake Perry “became more demanding” and asked for such things as pictures of passports and driver’s licenses.

Related Content

In a statement, Westlake police explained that “The fake Mr. Perry had a business opportunity for investment and of course ‘needed a woman in his life.’” How withering, that “of course”! As if mistakenly handing over $100k isn’t humiliating enough, now this lady is Westlake’s poster child for scams.

Listen, scams these days are mutating and multiplying —with the proliferation of artificial intelligence, it’s getting harder to tell what on the Internet is actually real. But if one thing remains true, it’s that aging rock stars (or foreign princes) aren’t going to wander into anybody’s inbox looking for a bunch of pricey gift cards. So please, communicate to your elders that they shouldn’t be sending money to anyone they haven’t met in person. And if you’re a scammer who happens to be reading this, stop taking advantage of little old ladies and their fantasies! Damn!

‘Stop Believing’: Westlake resident fleeced by impostor claiming to be Journey’s Steve Perry

• Updated: Jul. 05, 2024, 5:27 p.m. |
• Published: Jul. 05, 2024, 5:24 p.m.

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 07: 2017 Inductee Steve Perry of Journey speaks onstage at the 32nd Annual Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Barclays Center on April 7, 2017 in New York City. Westlake police say a person claiming to be Perry fleeced a resident out of thousands of dollars. Tribune News Service

• Staff reports

CLEVELAND, Ohio – A Westlake resident told police that she was fleeced out of thousands of dollars by someone claiming to be Steve Perry, the former lead singer of Journey.

The resident, 75, responded to a Facebook message in January from someone claiming to be Perry, the longtime vocalist of the San Francisco rock band known for its megahit, “Don’t Stop Believing.” The person claimed to have a business opportunity and “of course needed a woman in his life,” Westlake police said in a statement Friday.

The person reported the scheme to police last week. Police said the victim “sent thousands of dollars to the person, who continued correspondence through text messaging and WhatsApp.”

Police said that once the person demanded photos of passports and driver’s permits, the victim realized that she had been scammed.

WKYC reported Friday that the scam siphoned more than $120,000 from the victim.

Investigators are looking into the case through electronic leads.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.