neil perry journey

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Most Joyous and Romantic of Journey, According to Neal Schon

The shadow of “ Don’t Stop Believin ’” looms large, quite literally, over the “funky little office” in Neal Schon’s home. We’re just starting our video call in the lead-up to Freedom, Journey ’s newest album in more than a decade , but there are two pieces of wall paraphernalia that require further explanation (for this writer’s fuzzy eyes, anyway): There’s a framed Escape record to commemorate its diamond status and … is that a floating green orb? Spotify’s logo? Ah, yes, it’s a poster for the billion streams “Don’t Stop Believin’” has commanded over the years, and it looks mighty fantastic floating over Schon’s head. “I usually don’t put anything up on my walls in the house that represent my accomplishments because I look at my career like you’re only as good as your last day, so that way you can keep moving forward and not rest on your laurels,” he explains. “But this is my office, and I realized it was kind of bland, so I put those behind me.”

Freedom, out July 8, encapsulates the scorching spirit that listeners have always loved about Journey, whose wheels keep churning out stadium-ready anthems and ballads after nearly five decades together. Sure, there might be a sonic Ship of Theseus comparison to make — Schon, on lead guitar, is the sole member who has remained since the band’s formation in 1973 — but we got the likes of “Any Way You Want It,” “Faithfully,” “Separate Ways,” and the song about streetlights, peopleeeEEEeeeeEEEE, over that time period, so let’s call it even. Steve Perry’s vocal range should probably be studied for scientific reasons; so should Jonathan Cain’s fingers, for how nimbly they go between keyboards and rhythm guitar. (To give you a sense of the ship’s size, that trio, as well as bassist Ross Valery, drummer Aynsley Dunbar, vocalist Gregg Rolie, and drummer Steve Smith were all inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame for their Journey tenures. Yeah, two drummers!)

Despite Schon’s forward-looking mentality, he was happy to be our latest Superlatives subject; we talked for well over an hour about Journey’s evolution, melodies, and the cringeworthy spectacle of one music video.

That’s a tough question. I’d probably go with a song that has more of a sentimental feel to me because I wrote it with my father. “Mother, Father” is very orchestral and very musical compared to our more pop-oriented rock songs. With “Mother, Father,” I had these classical chord changes that I came up with, and I wrote the whole song musically. And then my father, while he was living, wrote really interesting notes for it on the piano. I showed him the chord changes, and he came up with the interlude that the guitar and piano play. It pulled the whole song together. I like the sentiment of what Steve and Jonathan wrote lyrically about the song. I usually don’t come from that area. There’s a few songs that I’ve written choruses on, but I don’t really consider myself a lyricist. So I felt that, where they came from — about family in general, disjointed families, and how they fight to stay together — it’s something real that everybody deals with. I thought it fit perfectly for the music. I also like our deeper musical cuts that are a bit more involved musically. I tend to like the more orchestral songs like “Still They Ride,” “Mother, Father,” or “Winds of March.”

Heaviest song

“You’re on Your Own.” That’s heavy. Or songs like “Of a Lifetime” and “Kohoutek.” That early material was very much more progressive and heavier, in a sense. I feel people are misled by our albums a lot — like, they haven’t seen us live. Our band tends to be heavier live than the albums are. So “Separate Ways” is heavy in another way. It sounds like Motown or like it could be a Four Tops song, for Christ’s sake. But then you put the electricity of the guitar and the blues mixed with the melody, and it becomes a lot heavier. I don’t think we have anything that’s heavy, heavy, like metal. We’ve never tapped into that type of music.

When Jonathan came into the band, there was immediately a push to go bigger in an organic way. This goes back to my point of people maybe not being familiar with us live or the heavier side of the band: If you only listen to AM radio, you’re going to consider us soft rock. I don’t consider us soft rock. We have a broad spectrum. We show our dexterity and diversity on all of our albums. We’ve traveled the spectrum musically from A to Z . There’s still a lot of territory we can go in, but I think we made a very good album with Freedom, which helps keep us relevant and up to speed, yet also influencing the younger audience to come with us.

There are kids that come to see us who look like 16 or 17 at most. They know all the songs and are completely open-minded to the most outside things we’re going to lay on them. It reminds me of when I would go see my favorite bands as a kid. I would go and see Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Who, or Jeff Beck with Rod Stewart. They were all up the wall compared to what was on the radio. The entire audience loved all that music, but they would sit down at concerts in that era! So I would sit on the floor and observe and listen. Then at the end of the night, we would all get up and go nuts. I believe that the musical statement you make, people don’t have to go nuts after every song per se. It’s an overall experience and how you take people on it. I think the more you lay on them, the better.

Song you experience the most joy performing live

It wasn’t something that was a huge single: “Lights.” A simple, bluesy stroll song. The second song I ever wrote with Steve Perry was “Lights.” It’s become a freakin’ anthem. More people in the audience light up and sing that song louder than anything else. It used to be lighters, but now it’s cell phones. It wasn’t pushed out there by the label; it just happened in an organic way. It had a different feel to it when Steve first showed it to me. It was more old-school blues, but when I put that rolling rhythm around it — a Curtis Mayfield– or Jimi Hendrix–type thing — it took on a whole different perspective than what Steve started with. He had the melody; he had the bass. I was like, “What if we did this?” Then I wrote the bridge. A lot of nights, I can’t even hear the band onstage because of the audience.

Song that’s always evolving, even in 2022

A song that we continually jam on, open up, and switch up a bit is “Wheel in the Sky.” It’s an early song that I wrote with Robert Fleischman. The lyrical content came from a poem that Ross Valory’s ex-wife wrote and handed me on a napkin years ago. She had written down, “Wheels are turning on my mind.” In one of our long station-wagon hikes we did when we were traveling as a band — like nine guys in a station wagon in those days — at one point, everybody had to take a restroom break, and the driver needed a candy bar to wake up. I pulled out the acoustic guitar, sat on the hood of the car, and I banged out that song. I came up with the chorus. Her napkin poem sat in my mind and I came up with “Wheel in the sky keeps on turning, I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow.” I’ve since ripped that song apart and put it back together. I keep reinventing “Wheels,” and it ends up being a big and powerful highlight in our shows. That’s another song that wasn’t a huge hit single but has since become an organic hit within our Journey audience.

Most romantic ballad

It depends on what era you want to go in. There’s a lot of romance. It depends on what type of romance you’re talking about. I think the ones that are obvious picks are “Faithfully” and “Open Arms.” They probably get played more at weddings than any song ever. “Send Her My Love” is very romantic in a different way. I love that song. It has such a great melody and I love that it’s not too radio-friendly. It’s coming from a deeper place. “Faithfully,” though, is a beautiful song. Jonathan hit it out of the park with that one. We were in the studio and Mike Stone, our producer at the time, said, “I think you guys are missing a really big power ballad.” We were doing a lot of experimenting for that album — trying to get a bit heavier and do some things that we hadn’t done before.

With “Faithfully,” it started off more off the wall. It was like a Police song twisted up sideways. It had an interesting drum beat. Jonathan came in the next day and he played this song for us and it didn’t sound anything like what we made it sound like. It sounded like a beautiful country ballad. I couldn’t quite imagine what it would sound like with us playing it. I couldn’t imagine “Open Arms,” either. I fought hard on “Open Arms.” At the time I was not getting it and didn’t want to get it. Now I enjoy it. [ Laughs .] But when he showed us “Faithfully,” I wrote out a little chart because I don’t really read music. We ran through the song once, and I just free-formed my way through it. Steve was not singing. At the time, there was no singing and we were just trying to get the basic track done. In those days, I pretty much would play off the cuff — the first thing I’m hearing in my head, this is what I’m hearing, whether it’s wrong or right. I played one guitar through the whole song, that’s it. What you hear on that track is the second take we did.

I came up with a line that sounds like a French horn. It’s like me singing the Who with John Entwistle playing the French horn. I like the sound of that instrument. I had attuned my ear to symphonic music and classical music when I was younger. I played oboe in school. It was a great way to pass the time because I was not into school at all. I liked music and I liked art. I was always in the art room or playing something. So that kind of came out and I improvised my “Faithfully” parts through the end, not knowing what the vocals were going to do. I couldn’t decipher how someone like Steve would interpret it. So it was interesting how it came about when we cut the song. We all did it together. No fixing. What I do recall is that Steve wanted everybody to leave the studio — he wanted to have his time with the song to experiment with it and put himself in it. Jonathan wanted to be in the studio and Steve refused. He said, “No, you got to leave.” So coming back into the studio and hearing what Steve did, I was like, “Oh my God! Amazing.”

Guitar work that’s your melodic masterpiece

I try to make most of my solos, especially with the more radio-oriented songs. They’re extensions of the vocals. If there’s a guitar solo, it needs to convey a strong melody. You learned to love melody. I mean, the Beatles taught us all about that a long time ago. I still hear the sound that Roy Thomas Baker got when he mic’d up my old Marshall with a Fender Stratocaster on “Lights.” He had me set up in a closet and the amp was cranked to ten, and the mic was sitting in the back of the very echoey room. So “Lights” would be a masterpiece. “Who’s Crying Now,” probably another.

Funny enough, I absolutely hated my “Who’s Crying Now” guitar work when I did it at first. It was true frustration with that song because it didn’t come out immediately. It was another new type of song that Jonathan had brought in and I didn’t know what to do with it. I was trying to be more demanding with myself. We’d get off to a good start, and then I’d have nowhere to go. It was just kind of plotting along and doing this pop thing. So the producers and the whole band were getting frustrated with me because I wasn’t giving up. I probably did about, I don’t know, 15 takes, and it was going nowhere slow. Usually the best stuff comes out of me on the first or second take and then it goes downhill. When I’m not thinking, it comes out. When I start thinking, it never comes out. So out of pure frustration, I played the simplest thing, just kind of being like a smart-ass. I was in the studio and I thought, Oh, this will shut them up . And I played it, and I went, “There you go. That’s what you want.” And they go, “It’s fucking perfect.” [ Laughs .] Now, the audience loves singing it.

“Don’t Stop Believin’” is also important to me. The chorus is such a crazy arrangement when you think about it. The fact that it’s become this massive hit, this many years later, nobody in the band ever pictured that happening. It didn’t soar that high on the radio when we released it. I remember when I heard it during the final mixes, I told the guys, “I think this song is going to be massive.” The way it’s structured is unusual — it’s not your usual verse, chorus, verse, chorus. It really is so cliché, what they considered a format for radio. The song never got to the fucking chorus until the end! I came up with the “strangers waiting” lyrics and how the arrangement went back to another verse, except the verse doesn’t happen. It does a little symphonic instead. It sounded to me like something that would happen in an orchestra. I sped up the arpeggio and started playing around and realized, Oh, that’s cool. We’re going to leave that and write lyrics around that. That’s how they came up with “She took the midnight train going anywhere.” Because it actually sounded like a train! So it came together like that, and then it came time for a little guitar solo. Nobody had heard the chorus yet, so the obvious thing to do was to play the melody in the chorus. I was going to implant it in their heads before it was even sung.

Guitar solo that doubles as the greatest endurance test

I have no signs of tendinitis. [ Laughs .] I play almost every day, even when I’m at home. I play because that’s how things don’t freeze up on you. It’s a muscle; you have to use it. I really don’t practice scales. I don’t know scales; I never wanted to. I play all by ear. What I practice at home is just following the flow of whatever vibe I’m in. There’s a lot of guitar players who watch my social-media videos and they like the fact that they have nothing to do with a song — it’s off the cuff every day. And then you have guitarists who are kind of jazz bros. I love jazz. Some jazz cats can be really snooty though. Someone will be like, “Dude, what are you doing? You’re playing the same chord in every song. Every day you sound the same.” And I go, “B.B. King did the same, ever heard of him?

I fell into that a long time ago. My former manager said to me, “Why are you worried about sounding different on every song and pressing yourself so hard to sound like somebody different? You’re just going to confuse people. People know what you sound like, don’t be afraid of sounding the same every time.” Now I have this style that’s stuck with me, and he was correct. That’s a hard thing to do and I don’t see a lot of younger guitarists doing it. I don’t see a lot of personality. I had B.B., Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, Albert King, and Michael Bloomfield to look up to. Then I had all of the electric guitars from overseas, like Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton. I listened. You don’t see that kind of voice coming out of people anymore.

That’s where I come from — it’s a natural place and more of an organic blues background. While we were down in this pandemic, I spent time experimenting a lot as a guitarist. I consider myself a real musician. I’m always going to strive to get better and learn more because you never learn everything about any instrument. You never reach the peak, and when you reach the peak, it’s over, man, you’re done. You might as well just go and never try to create any new stuff. I know I can emulate myself. I can play exactly what I did back in 1973. I won in that regard. It’s just embedded in me. So I strive to move to new places all the time because that’s what motivates me with music.

Most endearing Steve Perry memory

We were very, very tight. We’re talking and getting to know each other again — though not trying to get together musically again, but he’s learning who I am now, through a portion of our business that I’m kind of controlling now. I’m talking about a Journey trademark that I’ve obtained, as we’ve never owned our own trademark. All these years, many people lied to us. My wife and I finally got to the bottom of it after investigating for years. We were fought hard by everybody, but we managed to obtain the trademark. So we’re talking about that and figuring out the future of that, but we’re talking.

I have great memories of when Steve and I first met. We hung out all the time, man. We were like brothers. We were crazy. We spent a lot of nights out way too late doing things we shouldn’t be doing. Drinking and whatnot. We overindulged in a lot of stuff. But bottom line, we had a really good time for many, many years. Lots of enduring moments onstage and offstage. He was a really funny guy. I saw a fraction of a moment of it when we got together before the Rock Hall of Fame induction . I managed to get into his room, which was locked down like Fort Knox. We had a good hang in there. I felt like I still knew this guy and we were still really great friends.

I felt good about what was going to partake on the stage. He was always invited to come and perform at the ceremony, but he declined to do anything besides a speech. I understood why. During that induction, when certain individuals went up and took a really long time with their speeches, there are a few pictures that you can find where I’m talking into Steve’s ears and he’s laughing like hell. Some people like to feel like they’re more important because they have to talk longer. Or they feel like they don’t get the attention they need so they want to talk longer. So, that’s my long way of saying that I hope that we can become even better friends in the future.

Rating the “Separate Ways” video from 1 to 10 on the cringe scale

Oh my God! You know what a lot of people don’t understand? This was the very beginning of MTV. Nobody was making $200,000 videos or $500,000 videos or $3 million videos. Some people were paying a million and a half for a music video because they had a movie producer backing them financially. What a freakin’ rip-off. I mean, that’s what it became. But back when we did this, our manager came to us and said, “Look, we need to get a music video. Who should we use?” I suggested the director Wayne Isham. He came in and put together the storyboard. It was going to be in New Orleans, on a pier. Is it terrible? The air guitar and keyboards are cheesy as hell. I give it a 10 on the cringe scale. It’s so silly, man. Journey was not a band that did well with videos that had story lines. “ After the Fall ” was terrible. “ Chain Reaction ” was a little more fun. Steve and I were pushing each other around for that one, and I’m in his face. I think the only videos that really worked for Journey were when live concert footage was used. It was like a live performance — showing the audience, showing us onstage.

How The Sopranos ’ use of “Don’t Stop Believin’” changed the meaning of the song for you

Well, I don’t think it changed the meaning of what the song is about, which is just to have faith in yourself. That’s the message it’s conveying — it’s an uplifter for people who may be second-guessing themselves in their lives. I absolutely watched The Sopranos during its run. I loved it. I remember getting an email about using the song about six or so months before it aired. They were thinking about using it but didn’t give any context. I honestly didn’t think anything of it. I went, “Oh, that’s nice, whatever. If they use it, great.” I could have never imagined it was going to be the blackout scene in the last episode. It just rocketed the tune to a whole different spectrum. I mean, how could you ever even imagine that? I thought the final scene was amazing. I received a lot of phone calls that week, that’s for sure.

You know what? I kind of interpreted the ending … weirdly, it goes back a long way to a memory I have of Steve and I sitting in a pizza parlor. We were on tour and hadn’t had a song on the radio yet. I remember Steve went back and looked through the jukebox and I’m sitting at the table waiting for a Coke and pizza. He went back and dropped a couple quarters in there and played a couple tunes, and on came “Wheel in the Sky.” We looked at each other and laughed like hell. I remember saying, “I can’t believe this.” We were both jumping up and down. So I looked at that Sopranos scene with that memory in mind because they were sitting at a diner table and had the little diner jukebox there, and Tony Soprano presses it, and the song comes on. I don’t know if Steve had talked to the show’s team about that experience we shared together, but it was very similar to what actually happened with him and me. How beautiful is that?

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Journey’s Neal Schon on ‘Emotional’ Steve Perry Reunion, Rock Hall Induction

By Andy Greene

Andy Greene

It was a vision that Journey fans have been fantasizing about for years: Steve Perry and Neal Schon standing side-by-side on an arena stage holding their hands up high in the air together and hugging like old friends. It took the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to make this happen, but even that wasn’t enough to get Perry to actually sing with Journey again. Still, Schon says the important thing was getting the friendship back on track. We spoke to the guitarist about the big night, what happened with Steve Perry backstage and where this could all go in the future.

It’s been four days. Are you still buzzing? Yeah, man. It’s really kind of surreal. The whole event was amazing. I really loved seeing Steve Perry, who I haven’t seen in a long time, since we did the Hollywood Walk of Fame [in 2005]. I went in his room backstage. I think it was one of the reasons I was so highly emotional. I hadn’t seen him in a long time and I realized how tight we always were. Looking at the old pictures and listening to the music we made together, I got emotional. Probably had I not been in his room before so I wouldn’t have been as emotional, but who knows? Steve and I were very, very tight for so many years.

At the end of Journey, around Trial By Fire [in 1996] or even Raised on Radio [in 1986] we were having a falling out as far as the direction of the band. It was more or less like that. There were a lot of other issues going on that were kind of stupid looking back. I’d hoped we’d put everything aside and get back to our great friendship that we always had, the admiration and respect we had for one another. I felt like that was definitely there. Some of his friends were in the room with my wife and I, and they snapped some photos. People can genuinely see that he was very happy and so was I. Every picture tells a story.

Did you have contact with him in the days leading up to the ceremony? No, I had no contact at all. I had no idea what was going on. TMZ was waiting for me outside of the London Hotel in New York and I was like, “I have a big zero for you guys. I have nothing.” I knew he was supposed to show up. That was the bottom line for me.

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How did you feel at the start of the ceremony? At first I was told that we were going on the first thing of the evening, so I was kind of looking forward to that. There was a lot of nerves seeing everybody together onstage for the first time in many, many years. A little tension. But it turned out that we were in the middle, so as the evening progressed and I listened to all the great bands I started to feel more nervous. By the time I went on, I was supposed to be the first one to speak. I had a whole speech written out. It wasn’t on the long side, but definitely from the heart. When I walked up to the mic and Steve met me and he gave me this big hug I just couldn’t get it together to read, so I didn’t read. Whenever I do anything like this I just kind of speak from my heart and sometimes I go, “Oh, shit. I forgot to say this and that.” But I think I hit on some of the vital points I wanted to make.

What did you and Steve talk about when you were in his room? I looked at him and said, “Hey man, I really miss you.” There was very good eye contact. It was real. It wasn’t just things being said because of the ceremony and to keep things cool. He said, “Coffee is way overdue for us.” I went, “Let’s do it. Please.”

I saw photos of him meeting Arnel [Pineda], who just looked euphoric to meet the guy after all these years. He was meeting one of his all-time idols. I told Steve that when I met him in the room. I thought that was very gracious of Steve to do, and him giving him props too for keeping the band going, someone that I found. Arnel is very grateful and I was happy to see that.

Did they meet prior to the speeches and performances or after? I believe it was before.

TMZ reported that morning you were going to perform with Steve, which obviously didn’t happen. Were you aware of all the reports flying around that day? I couldn’t help it. My phone was blowing up. I was on the phone with management. I was talking to them and they were kind of puzzled too since they hadn’t heard anything from his manager, and his manager didn’t know anything about it. After that they just made a statement saying he was just showing up to accept the award. Knowing everything else and how he was feeling – he was very emotional too – it’s understandable to me that he wouldn’t want to sing. It was just highly emotional.

Were you hoping he’d change his mind? I wasn’t even thinking like that. To me, the main thing with Steve is that we were always great friends and music was kind of always there, but right now we haven’t seen each other in so long. I’m just looking forward to getting reacquainted with the guy and be his friend. That’s where I’m at.

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I thought Arnel sounded amazing, especially with the pressure of knowing Steve was in the house. Especially with the induction happening in front. Had it been the other way around I think he wouldn’t have been as nervous, but I could tell after doing many, many years with Arnel now – this is his 10th year – that he was very nervous. I know with the monitors it was very difficult to hear. It was very difficult for me to hear. He said he couldn’t hear anything. Who knows what we got there? I thought we played well. The band is always top notch, I think. He is always as good as he can hear.

How was it to have Gregg Rolie and Aynsley Dunbar back for one song? I loved it. It was something I’ve been trying to make happen for some time. Without Gregg finding me at a little club in Palo Alto and coming in to see me play with a local Bay Area band, since he heard about me with Michael Shrieve, I never would have been introduced to Santana, and who knows where I’d be right now? I owe it all to those guys for taking me under their wing when I was so young. Without Santana, there would be no Journey.

How did the all-star jam on “Rockin’ in the Free World” come together? It was really funny. That was my first time meeting those guys, definitely my first time meeting Eddie [Vedder]. They couldn’t have been nicer, all of them. All very, very cool, super-great guys. I had to go two days in a row for soundcheck before the event. The first day was for Journey and the second day was for the jam. We head over there from downtown New York. I get there just in time for soundcheck and there’s a zillion people on the stage, as you saw, all the Rush guys and everybody else, Trevor [Rabin]. I was putting some settings on a new amp company I’m working with called Revv, we’re working on a Schon model. The amp sounded very good and I was cranking it up because they play really loud.

We went through Neil Young’s song “Rockin’ in the Free World” one time, and that was it. Eddie comes over to me and goes, “You play the first solo and we’ll hand it off to the other side of the stage and then Alex [Lifeson] can play and Trevor and everyone else.” It was like that fast. I’d never played the song before, but obviously I’d heard it on the radio. Once I found it was in E minor I was like, “Oh, this is pretty easy.” I managed to play some cool parts that night playing it for the second time.

It was a lot of fun to watch. Nowhere else would you see you guys playing with Pearl Jam, Yes and Rush. Yeah. I loved that. I hope in the future … I’m very adaptable as a guitar player; I’m kind of like a chameleon, so I’d love to be involved with any other jams from here out. There’s so many artists that I appreciate and enjoy and would love to play with, but never had an opportunity to. I’m hopeful this will open up some opportunities.

Tell me some other highlights of the night for you. Honestly, I thought everyone was so good. I thought that Yes was very good. They had a great performance. They sounded very tight, Steve Howe, Trevor. Everything sounded great. Alicia Keys kicked my ass. If I had a choice of playing with one other person besides Pearl Jam it would have been her since I have huge blues and R&B roots that some people know, but not a lot. I could have definitely ripped that stuff up in a different way.

Did you watch most of the show from your table? I did. I watched everything until we played, but then we went back to do interviews. I was bummed I didn’t get to see Lenny [Kravitz] since I was busy in the back doing interviews. I missed pretty much the rest of the show, but I managed to go out onstage about 10 minutes before I went on. I saw Pearl Jam from the back. I could hear it. They sounded amazing, by the way. I love the feel of the band and I’ve always liked them from when they first came out. I remember I was in the studio and this A&R guy came in with their first record. I was like, “Wow, this sounds really fresh.” I liked the drumming on the record and the writing. Their drummer is very strong and I enjoyed playing with him too.

For so many fans, the moment of you and Steve holding your hands up in the air was something they’d wanted to see for years. Like I said, every picture tells a story. I saw him for the first time in many, many years. We hung out in his room for 10, 15 minutes. None of that stuff was planned, the hug, none of it. It was all real. When I looked at it and said, “Look at how unified we are still, to this day” … Everything is very genuine between us. I feel great gratitude and respect when I look at it.

He said backstage he’s finished a solo album. I’m excited to hear it.

How would you feel if he toured by himself and played Journey songs? Well, you know what, I’d feel great. We’ve been doing it forever, and he actually did it before we did it with his own solo tour. He owns the songs as much as we do. He helped build them, wrote them, sang them, cemented them in cement in everyone’s hearts and minds and souls. He’s very overdue to be able to do that. I have nothing but respect for him. I can also tell you after we get together some more and get our friendship even more solidified, I almost feel like we’re back where we started. We have some talking to do, but I’d love to work with him on something on the side, not necessarily Journey, something more bluesy more R&B-ish, soul.

The fantasy of so many fans is to see some sort of reunion. He was telling me about his record, and I was telling him about my new record I’m working on with Narada Michael Walden and his eyes got big because he knows who Narada is. I approached Narada to do a solo record with me and he wrote everything, produced everything and he’s playing on it, playing his ass off. If I get together with Steve in the Bay Area before we go on tour again in the next week or so, I’d love to go get coffee with him and bring him over there and have him listen to this record since I think he’d enjoy it.

I think a lot of people were presuming he didn’t sing at the Hall of Fame since his voice isn’t what it used to be and he didn’t want to live up to what it sounded like 30 years ago . Seriously, we can play in any key he wanted to play. I was aware, like everyone else was, that he went out a couple of years ago and played with the Eels. I noticed that the keys were lower, but there’s nothing wrong with that. It still sounded like him, very soulful. He’s got a very recognizable voice. Even when he was talking I was like, “That’s the voice.”

Why do you think he didn’t sing then? He was just overwhelmed by emotion? I think so. He was tearing up. I was definitely tearing up. I had tears running down my eyes. I was trying to keep my composure on the stage for that event, but it was something that was too strong.

A couple days after the ceremony I was reading that Myles Garrett, this 21-year-old college football recruit, is a huge Journey fan . He was saying his favorite album is Escape . It just seems like this music gets more and more popular as the years go by. I’ve noticed that too. I would have never imagined that, but I do understand why. It’s really soulful. With Steve singing on top of it, it’s not only rocking like a motherfucker, but it’s really soulful since his roots are soul and R&B and blues: Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, all those guys. When you mix that on top of the music that we all wrote it’s a unique experience to listen to. Back in the day when we would get lumped in with every band that was successful at that time from the 1980s I would think to myself, “You know what, I disagree. We have something really unique.” When you look at a lot of our early records like Infinity , it was so brand new and fresh and organic.

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A 21-year-old fan has no sense of the critical reaction at the time. They just know the songs. Right. Also, all they have to compare it to is what’s been on the radio and what people are pushing since they’ve been born, so there’s not a whole lot out there unless you know exactly where to look and find it.

One of the coolest things about all this is you’re known forever known as Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Neal Schon. I guess so! It does feel really great. I know I’ve said in the past that I didn’t really care about it since we were never up for induction, 17 years later than we were, but at least we won, we got it. I really feel like we owe a lot of it to the fans. Without our fans voting the way they did, relentlessly, fighting the way they did, this wouldn’t have happened.

You didn’t used to care, but I’m sure you do now. I do now that we’re in! I probably lied before when I said we didn’t.

Watch questions we still have about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction 2017.

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Steve Perry On Journey’s Neal Schon: ‘We Probably Don’t Like Each Other Very Much’

Steve Perry has been called a lot of things throughout his historical career with Journey , but being branded as the “Howard Hughes of rock and roll” really gave him a good chuckle.

Steve Spears of the ‘St. Petersburg Times’ had an energetic conversation with the former Journey lead singer in which he took Perry to task in a good natured way for his extended absence from music and made the Howard Hughes comparison. Laughing, Perry said “I've been called a lot of things, but that's a first.”

Journey had a reputation as one of the hardest working bands in the business during the ‘80s, but it wasn’t until they released ‘Escape’ that they were actually able to afford rooms “in a nice hotel.” Prior to that, Perry remembers that it was a lot of hard work mixed with the hope that it would all eventually pay off.

“We never stopped. A day off wasn't a day off; it was a travel day. That's how you did it back then. It was like running for public office," Perry says. "We'd live on the bus and get a day room so that everyone could take a shower. And there wasn't enough towels to go around, so we'd have to use damp towels."

Working on the recent vinyl releases for Journey’s ‘Greatest Hits Vol. 2’ and their original ‘Greatest Hits,’ Perry allows that there will probably always be tension between him and Journey guitarist Neal Schon, but there will also be an eternal connection:

"Neal and I have had our problems over the years. We probably don't like each other very much, because we had a lot of time together. But I know we love each other. When I listen to those tracks, I get all messed up about it. We don't have to work together. It's in the tracks. It's in the grooves. There was something magical about that band."

After years of musical inactivity, Perry is taking steps to record music once again and recently began working on material for a possible new solo record.

Neal Schon Says Journey Will Play Stadiums for 50th Anniversary, Doesn’t Rule Out Steve Perry Return

The year 2023 will be a big one for Journey , who will celebrate their 50th anniversary as a band and in a rather significant way — guitarist Neal Schon has suggested the group will play stadiums next year in what is still quite a secretive operation. And he didn't rule out the return of two classic members either.

His comments came in an interview with Entertainment Tonight , which also touched on Journey's new album Freedom and their Las Vegas residency shows which feature a symphony orchestra. Schon even laughed a bit when he was asked how many times Journey rehearsed with the orchestra before opening night and replied, "One day."

The interview then put the focus on the future and what lies ahead beyond the Vegas gigs as Journey prepare to celebrate 50 years as a band. "We're going back into stadiums with someone I can't really talk about right now," commented Schon, playing things close to the vest while managing to tease what appears to be quite a massive forthcoming announcement.

The guitarist was also asked about the likelihood of singer Steve Perry and keyboardist Gregg Rolie, who split with the group in 1998 and 1980, respectively. "You know, I think that those two guys were a big part of the band and I think if [it] permits - the city permits - the fans would overall love it," says Schon, though it's uncertain exactly what he meant in regards to the city permits — perhaps securing stadium locations and complying with local noise ordinances, but that remains unconfirmed.

Schon didn't rule out the return of either member and those comments follow recent remarks where the guitarist claimed he and Perry are "talking and getting to know each other again" but cautioned that they "are not trying to get together musically again."

Earlier this year, in May, the lone remaining Journey founder told UCR , "We’re going to celebrate the 50th anniversary and then celebrate it again in ‘24,” Schon tells UCR. “It’s my 50th year with Journey and I’m the only original member left there. You know, Jon [Jonathan Cain] is 40 years with us. Deen [Castronovo] has a good two decades and Arnel [Pineda] is now 15 years, the longest run of any singer [with Journey]."

He even has his eyes on sharing the bill with Carlos Santana and revealed in that same conversation, "I talked to Carlos and I talked to his manager about it the other day. He says Carlos definitely wants to do some stuff. I said, what about the latter part of ‘23? We could possibly go from big arenas in Europe to stadiums and finish out ‘23 in the stadiums, in South America and all of that."

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The odd couple: the brotherly battles at the heart of Journey's Freedom

Given the years of mud slinging, threats, power grabs, lawsuits and general animosity, it looked like Journey’s 2011 album Eclipse might have been their last. But then Freedom arrived

Journey backstage at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Festival

It was Bruce Springsteen who finally got Journey into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. The hard-rock giants had been eligible for inclusion since the year 2000, and had the record sales (gold, platinum and diamond discs up the wazoo) and the all-pervading cultural influence (you’ve heard of Don’t Stop Believin’ , right?) to back it up. But year after year the HOF gatekeepers said no. Enter The Boss.

“The rumour has it that Springsteen, who’s a big deal for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, sang Don’t Stop Believin’ at a benefit with Elton John and Lady Gaga one night,” says Journey keyboard player Jonathan Cain. “He said: ‘That’s a killer tune, yeah. Journey, we should give them a shot.’ So he started championing us with the Hall Of Fame. They put us in the ballot, and the fans who voted us number one did the rest.”

And so it was that several current and past members of Journey gathered on stage at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on April 7, 2017 for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony. Co-founding guitarist Neal Schon was there, along with second-longest tenured member Cain. So too were original keyboard player Gregg Rolie and drummer Aynsley Dunbar, bassist Ross Valory, drummer Steve Smith and, most surprisingly of all, vocalist Steve Perry, who had seemingly turned his back on both Journey and the music industry in the late 90s.

It was, as they say, emotional. It was also Journey, a band whose graceful power and perfectly poised music is in inverse proportion to their capacity for squabbling, in-fighting and shit-talking. The HOF induction marked the beginning of an almost comically turbulent period in which Schon and Cain had a very public falling out in 2017 over a trip to the White House. They patched things up, only to fire two long-standing band members over an ill-fated ‘coup’, instigating a potentially ruinous lawsuit.

Oh, and somewhere in between they ditched their longtime managers for good measure. That Journey are still here after 40-odd years of that kind of behaviour is remarkable. But not as remarkable as the fact that they’ve just delivered their first new album in 11 years, Freedom . It’s a record that draws on the Journey of the past and updates it for today. It’s no Escape or Frontiers , but it certainly doesn’t disgrace itself in their company.

“I’m always in creative mode,” says Neal Schon. “My work is never done. But I never lost hope that we’d do another Journey album. Not at all."

Even speaking separately, it’s clear that Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain have little in common other than being members of Journey. The guitarist is fast-talking and passionate, wearing his zero-tolerance approach to music industry bullshit proudly. “I said: ‘How about I wrap the fucking guitar around your neck?’” is the conclusion to one anecdote about once working with a producer who rubbed him up the wrong way. You’d imagine being in a band with him would be eventful.

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By contrast, Cain is measured and calm, answering questions about the band’s turbulent recent history and his relationship with Schon thoughtfully. “There’s always going to be bumps in the road,” he says of the dynamic between them. “No forty-year relationship is ever not going to have them.”

Even before those bumps in the road appeared, Schon was putting the responsibility for the lack of a follow-up to Journey’s last album, 2011’s Eclipse , squarely at Cain’s door. He claimed Cain had no interest in recording a new album. Cain doesn’t dispute that, although he says he always intended to make another Journey record – it just had to be at the right time.

“The amount of money it takes for us to make an album in the studio is extraordinary,” says Cain. “You’re talking six or seven hundred grand. The Eclipse album had been extraordinarily expensive and I didn’t think anybody had any fun making it. It was the worst seller of everything we’ve ever done. It left a bad taste in my mouth.”

He says it was the pandemic that shifted his attitude to new Journey music. “Covid made this album happen, a hundred per cent. I wrote a thing about a guy and girl not sure why they broke up and missing each other. It had parallels with the separation so many couples had to endure.”

Those lyrics, hitched to “a bluesy, pissed-off loop” that Schon had come up with became the starting point for the new album and its first single, the soaring The Way We Used To Be .

Cain puts his resurgence of interest in a new Journey album down to something much higher: call it divine intervention. In the mid-2010s he became a devout born-again Christian after meeting his current wife, the conservative pastor Paula White.

“Singing music for the Lord seems to have helped my creativity,” he says. “I gave my gift to God and it spilled over into the Journey thing. The lyrics kept flowing out of me.”

It was Cain’s faith that indirectly caused the rift between him and Schon. Cain’s wife has been a friend of Donald Trump for two decades, and when the mogul was elected president he appointed White the chair of his evangelical advisory board – effectively his spiritual advisor. Cain says he likes Trump, a fellow golfer. “This guy is not who they say. They paint him as a villain, but it’s far from it.”

When the then President Trump invited Cain and the rest of Journey – with the pointed exception of Schon – for a tour of the White House, he jumped at the chance.

“I’ve never put any politics into Journey’s music,” says Cain. “I’m not going to run on stage in a ‘MAGA’ hat. It was just a tour of the White House, that was supposed to go down pretty unnoticed. Unfortunately it got noticed.”

It certainly did, not least by Schon. What followed was a one-man Twitterstorm in which the guitarist took a flamethrower to Cain , his wife and the entity that was Journey at the time. The gist of it – and we’re paraphrasing here – was: ‘Journey isn’t and has never been a political or religious band, and by the way, Journey is my band.’

An unfortunate series of events went down,” Cain says evenly. “They chose to come against me and my wife and take it public, and it was a mistake. I stayed clear of it.”

Cain thinks that part of the problem, and also the solution, was his memoir, Don’t Stop Believin’ , published in 2018. “I think he thought I was going to throw him under the bus in the book. But I was respectful and grateful for everything that he had been part of. It came out, he read it, go figure. Everybody has bumps in the road.”

Except that wasn’t the last bump in the road that Journey would face. By the end of the 2010s, the line-up included original bassist Ross Valory and former drummer Steve Smith, both of whom had previously done time in the band in the 70s and 80s. In March 2020, Schon and Cain fired the pair , alleging they had launched a “coup d’état” to seize control of Journey.

Lawsuits flew both ways, sparking a full year of tiresome and costly litigation that would eventually result in an “amicable settlement”, a phrase that conjures images of gritted teeth and fingers crossed behind backs.

“It came out of the blue,” Cain says now. “They tried to drum me and Neal out. It was unbelievable what they did. Really, really disappointing. Many, many millions were spent battling it.”

Cain has seen his former bandmates once since the lawsuit was settled. Amusingly, he ended up in one of their Zoom meetings by mistake. “I just said: ‘Hey guys, hope you have a good life, we’ll see you down the road.’ What else can you say to someone who tried to come after you? ‘What a pain in the ass you guys were’?”

Despite their differences, the argy-bargy with their former bandmates seems to have brought Schon and Cain closer, at least professionally.

“In the end, he needs me as much as I need him,” says Cain. “You don’t like me or you don’t like my religion or my politics, fine. But in the end we come together to play music. That’s what it’s about.”

One of the few things that Schon and Cain seem to agree on is the nature of their relationship. “I have to look at the positive aspects of it,”says Schon. “Our relationship is more of a musical one. Jon and I have a great chemistry musically. When we get together we always come up with something that’s happening.”

Schon is at home in Marin County, north of San Francisco. A few awards for record sales are on the wall behind him. It’s not vanity, he says of the discs, more to make his computer room look a little more lively on Zoom calls.

“This is the only room with that stuff, all the rest is in my attic,” he says. “I don’t need to look at that every day to feel good about myself and what I’ve accomplished. I know what I’ve accomplished.”

Like Cain, Schon hasn’t stopped making music since Journey released their last album, Eclipse , in 2011. In that time he’s released four solo albums, reunited with his old mentor Carlos Santana for 2015’s Santana IV album, and guested with the likes of Jimmy Barnes, Jason Becker and Sammy Hagar , his old bandmate in one-and-done supergroup HSAS. Schon is as open as Cain about the tensions of a few years ago, although blunter.

“I was very vocal about it publicly,” he says. “Everybody hated that. But, you know, I’m like, I’m gonna put it out there, because I want the fans to either back me or say: ‘Man, you should shut up and go behind the doors with this.’ And there was an overabundance of people that came forward and said we support you a thousand per cent.”

He sighs. “Bands… you get married to these guys. And like in a marriage, people can go in different directions. Bands can be difficult and challenging, but removing certain individuals…”

Ah, ‘certain individuals’. The legal entanglement with Ross Valory and Steve Smith was, he says, “an ugly thing to go through”, but indirectly it gave Schon the impetus to make a new Journey album. When he and Cain were fishing around for a new drummer to replace Smith, the guitarist suggested Narada Michael Walden.

A respected journeyman who has played with and/or produced a list of artists that includes Santana, Jeff Beck and Diana Ross, Walden produced Schon’s last solo album, 2020’s Universe, and the two had hit it off in the studio. Schon liked the idea of making a new Journey album with him.

Marco Mendoza, Jonathan Cain and Neil Schon onstage

“Nobody was really into having new music, except for myself and, I think, Arnel [Pineda, Jouney’s vocalist since 2007],” says Schon. “Having that support [from Walden] where it wasn’t there before, there was none of this, ‘Well, I don’t know if I want to make a record.’ It was, like, ‘Let’s go, man, let’s go now!’”

As the title suggests, Freedom covers a lot of ground musically, from the solid-gold hard rock of Together We Run to the un-Journey-like etherealness of After Glow (sung by recently returned drummer Deen Castronovo). But there’s another, deeper significance to the title. In 2020, Journey parted company with their longtime manager, industry powerhouse Irving Azoff, who took over from original handler Herbie Herbert when the band reunited in 1995.

As Schon puts it: “I managed to get out of the clenches of the old management we were with.” He’s cautious about going into too much depth – “I’m trying to think of an easy way of putting it that you’re not going to twist” – then proceeds to go into quite a lot of depth anyway.

It’s complicated and business heavy, but the gist of it is that Schon feels he wasn’t being given the full picture when it came to tickets and merchandise. Such was his suspicion, he started consulting car park attendants at Journey shows to get a sense of just how many people had come to that night’s gigs, and whether it tallied with what he was being told. There was a fight to be had and, Schon being Schon, he was up for it. “

I fought so hard with everybody: management and accountants and lawyers,” he says. “I was being threatened by every attorney – even my own at some times. I was gonna be sued by everybody, just to back off. They really tried scare tactics. I went: ‘Fucking bring it, man. I’ve got the goods. Just try to fuck with me.’”

The upshot was that Journey parted company with Irving Azoff in 2020. Talking about the whole episode, Schon sounds exasperated but defiant. “I love music, I love playing guitar, I’m a real musician,” he says. “But at the same time, this is going to be my fiftieth year in this band next year. The only founding member still here. I felt it was my duty to start paying attention and watch what was going on, to watch over the mothership. If someone’s gonna make billions of dollars off us, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be us.”

The past few years haven’t just been a series of soul-sapping arguments and lawsuits. There was Journey’s induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2017 – a long-overdue night of reunions, rapprochements and general celebration. At least that was what it was supposed to be. In reality there were a lot of what Schon calls “dynamics” going on in the build-up.

“I refused to go without Gregg [Rolie, original Journey keyboard player], because he was there in the beginning with me, and they didn’t want him,” he says. “Two days before we were actually due to go to the event, I said I’m not showing unless Gregg comes. I stood my ground and they fucking hated me for it.”

There was weirdness on the night too, although talking to Schon it’s not entirely clear how or what. “If you notice, certain people were in maroon suits,” he says conspiratorially. “Our manager had a maroon tie, Ross [Valory] had a maroon suit, Jon had a maroon jacket…”

Colour-coded strangeness aside, the event provided one genuinely emotional moment for Schon, and for Journey fans too, when they were joined for their acceptance speech by Steve Perry – the first time Schon had spoken to Journey’s former singer since 2005.

“The best part of the evening was speaking with Steve Perry in his room before we went on stage,” says Schon. “We hadn’t seen each other for many years. That was the most moving part of the evening to me. We really had a connection, and a love for one another. It was emotional, I think for both of us."

Perry‘s appearance inevitably sparked rumours ahead of the night that he might rejoin Journey for their performance at the ceremony. But it never happened, and Schon still sounds disappointed.

“I was ready if he wanted to do it at the last second, to do Lights or something like that. I thought he would do it on the night. And he declined. You know, it is what it is.”

And the Hall Of Fame themselves? Schon says he gave them “a bunch of guitars” to put on the walls, but they never did it. “You know what?” he says triumphantly. “I don’t really care.”

And so here Journey are, in 2022, armed with one of the best albums they’ve made since their 80s' heyday, yet still finely balanced between tiptoeing around each other and wanting to shout: “To hell with it” and stamp on each other’s feet.

Schon says he’s ready to do another album as soon as he can. He came up with 2,500 ideas for Freedom, all of which are stored on his iPhone.

“Are we going to wait another eleven years to do another album? I don’t think so. Do I want to do another one? Absolutely. And I’m sure we’re going to do another one after that. As long as I’m here, we’re gonna keep creating.”

Cain is more pragmatic about another Journey album after Freedom.

“Yeah,” he says cautiously. “I could do it if I had to. If it was put on me. It would have to warrant it. If this album is not a success, why do another one?”

Of course, no one knows what the future holds for Journey, not even the odd couple at the centre of it all. Spats? Maybe. Bust-ups? Possibly. But smooth sailing? That would be too easy – which wouldn’t be very Journey at all.

Freedom is out now via Frontiers .

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock , Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw , not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo , the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill . He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.

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

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Journey’s latest legal clash it’s over the band’s amex card.

From the outside, Journey’s business might seem easy — perform hits like “Wheel in the Sky,” “Any Way You Want It” and “Who’s Crying Now” in arenas and watch the money roll in. Most of those guitar-piano-and-whoa-oh-oh classics are from the ’80s, when Journey dominated rock radio and MTV, scoring eight multiplatinum albums and six top 10 Billboard Hot 100 singles, and becoming a bridge between ’70s regular-guy bands like Boston , Styx and Kansas and the more dangerous-looking Bon Jovis and Mötley Crües of subsequent years.

Journey has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide, according to a recent lawsuit involving the band, and Billboard Boxscore reports a career gross of more than $352.5 million on sales of 7.6 million tickets. Journey has also cleaned up on synch licensing for decades — the iconic final scene of The Sopranos in 2007 famously used “Don’t Stop Believin,’ ” and the band’s songs have appeared in Caddyshack (“Any Way You Want It”), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (“Faithfully”) and last year’s season of Stranger Things (“Separate Ways [Worlds Apart]”). And the group’s 2022 tour was one of its biggest ever, nearly doubling the pace of its previous standalone tour in 2017, which took 67 shows to gross $31.7 million.

Recently, though, simmering, passive-aggressive, behind-the-scenes tension between Schon and Cain has blown up into dueling lawsuits and cease-and-desist letters, including one over Cain’s performance at Mar-a-Lago. Journey is hardly the only group to tour and make albums amid acrimony between band members; examples include Sam & Dave , The Kinks and Van Halen . But Journey’s personality conflicts have spread to its business far more than most, and sources say the Schons have run off business and road managers, accountants and longtime band members. In February, Journey’s longtime bank, City National, cut ties with the band, according to sources, hampering the group’s ability to easily pay its day-to-day touring expenses. Even Journey’s official webpage abruptly stopped operating for several weeks in early February before it recently reappeared.

At the Jan. 27 opening show of Journey’s 2023 arena tour, which runs through April, Cain and Schon stood at least 20 yards apart at all times, on opposite sides of the stage at the Choctaw Grand Theatre in Durant, Okla. The 3,000 fans singing along to hit after hit clearly energized the band, especially frontman Arnel Pineda , who sprinted and twirled around the stage. But Cain and Schon barely looked at each other, even when Cain sang these lines from “Faithfully,” the 1983 hit he wrote: “Circus life under the big-top world/ We all need the clowns to make us smile/ Through space and time, always another show.” Another show: Check. Circus life: Check. Shared smiles: Absent.

____________________

Neal Schon has been litigious for years. In 2007, he sued his ex-wife’s mother-in-law for blogging that he didn’t pay child support. The mother-in-law, who has since died, said she didn’t say that and the case was eventually dismissed. (After the publication of this story, Schon texted to point out that he had sued The Daily Mail for running a story based on the blog that referred to Schon as a “deadbeat dad,” which led to a settlement with terms that included a public apology from the British tabloid. “It was all false and damaging,” Schon said by text.) In 2019, he sued Live Nation, then-promoter for the band. And in 2020, along with Cain, he sued then-Journey drummer Steve Smith and bassist Ross Valory .

That lawsuit settled in April 2021 , for undisclosed terms, and Smith and Valory soon left the band, leaving Schon and Cain to publicly turn on each other in the months that followed. In October, Schon sued Cain in Superior Court in Contra Costa County, Calif., for “improperly” refusing him access to a corporate American Express account representing “millions in Journey funds.” In Cain’s Jan. 13 response, he accused Schon of “completely out-of-control” spending, charging the band’s American Express card for what Cain said were $1 million in personal expenses, including — in a single month last spring — $104,000 for jewelry and clothes, $31,000 to the Bergdorf Goodman department store and $54,000 toward his insurance premiums.

The dispute between Schon and Cain even involves Trump. Cain is married to the ex-president’s spiritual advisor, Paula White-Cain , and he performed “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” at Mar-a-Lago. He also appeared at a Las Vegas “Evangelicals for Trump” event three months before the 2020 presidential election. In December, Schon sent a cease-and-desist letter that called Cain’s Mar-a-Lago performance “deleterious to the Journey brand as it polarizes the band’s fans and outreach.” (Cain declined to comment and Pineda did not respond to interview requests.)

Journey Band Members Agree to Settle $10 Million Lawsuit and Go ‘Separate Ways’

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

The source refers to a 2018 Tampa Bay Times concert review in which critic Jay Cridlin praised the band’s onstage tribute to the late Aretha Franklin . Schon directly emailed Cridlin afterwards, demanding he change the review — it was Schon who orchestrated the Franklin tribute, not the entire band, as Cridlin had reported. In a Times story he published later about his exchange with Schon, Cridlin wrote, “It seemed odd that Schon would go out of his way to make sure readers knew his bandmates had nothing to do with it.”

The son of a professional singer and a jazz saxophonist and composer, Schon was a teenage guitar hotshot in the early ’70s, when Eric Clapton invited him to jam with Derek and the Dominos onstage at Berkeley Community Theatre, near his home in the Bay Area. Word got around, and both Clapton and Carlos Santana made offers to Schon to join their bands. At 17, Schon picked Santana, then in its post-Woodstock prime, before forming Journey in 1973.

Four years later, frontman Steve Perry ushered Journey into its FM-radio golden age. Perry became the face of the band as Cain underpinned the songwriting with Broadway-style piano and melancholy verses, and Schon electrified the earworms, matching every catchy chorus and Perry high note with a melodic guitar solo.

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

In the early 2010s, according to sources, Schon became more litigious and started spending more money, when he became serious with the former Michaele Ann Holt, whose Oakton, Va., high school friends in the ’80s called her Rock Chic Miss, according to Washingtonian . A Journey superfan and once a Real Housewives of D.C. cast member, Michaele first became famous with her ex-husband, Tareq Salahi , as the White House gate-crashers who joined former President Barack Obama’s 2009 state dinner without an invitation. Two years after that, Salahi reported his wife missing to the police and appeared on TV, begging for her return. “I swear to God, I’m missing my wife,” he said through tears. “This is not a joke.”

It came out later, in Salahi’s divorce filings, that when he made that plea, he neglected to mention that he had already received a call about his wife’s whereabouts. It came from Neal Schon. As Washingtonian reported, Schon told Salahi, “This is Neal. I am fucking your wife.”

In 2013, Neal married Michaele, in a pay-per-view wedding that cost viewers $14.95. One of the three dresses Michaele wore was by Oscar de la Renta. Neal wore a long black coat without a tie. Sammy Hagar and Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir attended. So did Omarosa Manigault , the Apprentice villain who later worked in — and still later turned against — the Trump Administration. The San Francisco wedding, held in a white tent, had a winter-wonderland theme, with 36 crystal chandeliers and a four-foot-tall, berry-and-custard white cake. Paying customers could watch for up to 12 hours — more than six times the length of a typical Journey concert. Journey performed, of course, and a portion of the pay-per-view gross went to typhoon relief, a cause Pineda favored. The wedding cost between $1 million and $3 million, according to music-industry sources familiar with the band’s finances.

Journey Takes a Break From Feuding, Returns for Harmonious Concert at Oklahoma Casino

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

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

In early 2021, after Smith and Valory settled their lawsuits and left the band, Schon became Journey’s manager.

By the time Schon started managing Journey, he and Michaele had spent six years scrutinizing trademarks and merchandise and ticket sales. And they came to one conclusion: Journey was getting screwed. That meant everyone had to go, so Schon fired or sued managers, accountants, bandmates and promoters, some of whom had worked with the group for decades. John Baruck , who managed the band for 20 years and oversaw its 2017 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the hiring of Pineda as lead singer and the band’s post- Sopranos renaissance? Gone. Peter Mensch , also one of Metallica ’s managers at Q Prime? Gone. Smith and Valory? Gone, when Schon and Cain jointly sued them for $10 million, claiming the two “launched a coup” to take control of the Journey name and “set themselves up for retirement.”

“I took the bull by the horns and started cleaning things up,” says Schon, 68, with matter-of-fact rock star charm on Zoom audio last summer, throwing in a “ha!” or two to illustrate the absurdity of the music business. “It was a mess, I have to tell you, business-wise. It was set up to be chaotic, so you would never be able to have a clue of how messed up it was.”

Schon and Cain took over as Journey’s co-managers in early 2021, splitting the standard 15% fee. (Cain shared some of his 7.5% with Pineda, according to sources.) The idea was to bring order to the business chaos. “I believe the government calls it ‘chaos merchants,’ ” Schon says, in a charming non sequitur, with a soft-spoken laugh. But Schon also created chaos of his own, sources say.

In 2019, the Schons filed a lawsuit against Live Nation, which promoted Journey’s tours, after Michaele alleged that a security employee at the band’s show at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind., “violently assaulted” her and threw her into a PA system while she was taking photos near the stage. ( Video on YouTube that seems to show the incident includes no evidence of violence, but it’s blurry, distant and missing several crucial seconds of the alleged confrontation.)

The Schons fired three different law firms that represented them in that case, including one that cited an “irretrievable breakdown of the attorney-client relationship.” They also stopped responding to discovery requests and court orders, prompting an Allen County Superior Court judge to mandate a court appearance. When they didn’t show up, the judge held the Schons in contempt and dismissed the suit last March.

In early 2020, Schon and Cain filed their California Superior Court lawsuit against Valory and Smith, claiming the duo’s “coup” to take over one of the band’s business entities, Nightmare Productions Inc., “placed their own greed before the interests of the band, sowing discontent and discord, jeopardizing the future of Journey.” In a counter-complaint, Valory said Schon and Cain were “deceptive, misleading and false,” and that he and Smith tried to protect Journey from their bandmates’ attempts to trademark logos and song titles to use on merchandise for Schon’s side project, Neal Schon Journey Through Time, which toured briefly in 2019. (Valory, who is no longer in the band, did not respond to interview requests; reached on his cellphone, Smith said, “No, I won’t do a phone interview on or off the record, and if you don’t mind, I have to go.”)

Journey Hires Def Leppard Manager Amid Inter-Band Turmoil

After Schon’s enthusiastic Zoom interview last summer, he declined all further requests to comment. Skip Miller , his attorney, responded to an email list of questions by saying, “Please be advised that your email, and the questions and matters therein, are largely incorrect.” He would not specify which parts were incorrect, but said: “As the band’s founder and leader, Mr. Schon puts Journey above all else. Unlike another band member, he doesn’t think Journey should be involved in politics on any side, red, blue or whatever.” Later, he added, “For Neal Schon, it’s all about making great music for Journey’s fans.”

Journey’s blockbuster 2022 ended with Schon suing Cain, his final remaining bandmate from the “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” years. Schon v. Cain , the legal dispute over the band’s American Express account, is pending in California Superior Court, and representatives for both sides would not comment. By early December, Def Leppard manager Mike Kobayashi confirmed Journey had hired him to take over management from Schon and Cain.

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

Over Zoom last summer, Schon says he became suspicious of the people handling Journey’s affairs before he started doing it himself. At one point — he won’t give the date or context — he asked band accountants how many fans attended each amphitheater show he played. “You did OK,” came the response, according to Schon. “You didn’t do as well as two years ago, when you had 19,000. You had 18,500, or 17,000.” His conclusion: The band’s representatives were lowballing him.

So, Schon says, “I would pay guys in the parking lot and say, ‘How many cars are here tonight?’ And they’d say ‘Dude, they’re plus-five miles out’ — that means about 23,000. With a band like Journey, that has hits like Journey has, you can’t just try to squash them down in a box and make them believe that they’re no longer big.”

During Journey’s business purge of the last few years, one of the managers Schon fired was Irving Azoff , the uber-manager who represents the Eagles , John Mayer , Jon Bon Jovi , Gwen Stefani and others. Azoff wouldn’t comment for this story, but in his lawsuit against Live Nation, Schon says he developed a “medical condition” and criticizes Azoff for nixing “continued off-duty law enforcement protection” for the Schons during the band’s tour. In exchange for forgoing personal security, Azoff agreed to provide the Schons with private-jet transportation, according to the lawsuit. (Neither Azoff nor Baruck — Azoff’s former college roommate, who worked at his management company for years — would comment.)

Azoff’s team, Schon says on Zoom, “ended up doing some great things,” but frustratingly kept the band in amphitheaters when he insisted to managers for years that Journey should be headlining arenas. “What I did was follow my gut instinct, and it was just time to move on,” he says. “We tried Q Prime for a second, and it seemed like it was going to be alright, but, you know, politics come into play.” (A rep for Q Prime declined to discuss Journey.)

By then, Schon thought, “We don’t need these guys, man,” as he remembers telling Cain. “I swear to God, I’m mostly doing everything, anyway.”

Over the last few years, as Schon and Cain managed Journey, they had help from CAA agent Jeff Frasco and AEG Live CEO Jay Marciano . (Neither would comment for this story.) On Zoom, Schon lists Journey’s switch from sheds to arenas as his top accomplishment as manager, and some in the concert business agree. “It’s a much bigger statement for a band to headline an arena than a single day at an amphitheater,” says New York promoter John Scher , who booked the band in the ’80s. “Could they be doing better with a different manager? They seem to be doing OK now.”

Schon’s other business priority is Journey trademarks. He says he was amazed to learn that since 1973, Journey hadn’t trademarked its name or logo, despite selling T-shirts for years at venues, as well as retailers from Walmart to Neiman Marcus. After the Schons realized this, in 2019, Neal and Cain registered 20 of the band’s song titles with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, for use on T-shirts, caps and hoodies. (Since Journey’s songs and the recordings are already protected by copyright, this would only cover the song titles for use on merchandise.)

“I’d introduce myself to the CEO and I’d say, ‘I’m Neal Schon, the founding member of Journey, and I now own the trademark for all Journey material. And you guys have kind of gotten yourself in a weird position here, because you’ve been selling tons of Journey merchandise for decades, and we’re seeing peanuts, and I’d like to have an electronic audit,’ ” Schon recalls. “Then a legal team would get on the phone with myself and my wife and they’d say, ‘Well, you know, we weren’t really selling it under the name Journey.’ And I’d go, ‘Well, that’s kind of laughable. I have boxes and cases of stuff in my living room and it’s just from your store and it all says Journey on it.’ ” (A Walmart spokesperson said the company was “not aware of any unlicensed Journey-branded products being sold by Walmart.” A Neiman Marcus spokesperson said he would “need to look into” Schon’s claims, then didn’t respond to follow-up inquiries.)

In fact, the Journey “mark” has been the subject of many years of negotiation among past and present band members. In 1985, the band’s company Nightmare Productions licensed it to a separate partnership, Elmo Partners — Perry, Schon and Cain — according to the complaint in Schon v. Valory .

Ex-Journey Frontman Steve Perry Files to Block Former Bandmates’ Song Title Trademarks

In a September filing to cancel the trademarks with the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office’s trial and appeal board, Perry declared that Schon and Cain sold the rights to the songs they co-wrote and once owned. As of 2019, according to Merck Mercuriadis , CEO and managing partner of U.K. song-investment firm Hipgnosis, his company owns all recording royalties and publishing that previously belonged to Schon, Cain, Valory, Smith and Herbie Herbert , an early longtime manager who died in 2021. Perry argued that Schon and Cain no longer retained the standing to trademark the songs. Plus, the trio’s 1985 Elmo agreement requires “unanimous agreement and consent” among Schon, Cain and Perry to use a trademarked song for T-shirts or other products.

In his filing to cancel the Schon-Cain song trademark action, which cost him $12,000 in fees, Perry accused the duo of making knowingly “false or misleading” statements. In January, Perry abruptly dropped the motion to cancel the trademarks. Schon used the occasion to rip his current bandmate — Cain — on Twitter: “So much for [Cain] trying to throw me under the bus as he claimed I was blatantly trying to rip off [Perry] while collecting the checks for the very diligent work my wife and I did to protect our Merch.”

While federal trademark registration can be important, Journey already had other ways to assert its rights to logos or song titles associated with the band that appear on merchandise. The band could have protected its holdings through “common-law rights,” says Michael N. Cohen , a Beverly Hills, Calif., an intellectual-property lawyer who specializes in trademarks and represents classic rock bands: “Just by virtue of using the mark, you’ve acquired some degree of rights, but those rights are limited.” In other words, Journey has always had the right to make merchandise deals — just by being Journey.

With Kobayashi gone, Schon seems to have taken over again as manager — with the help of Michaele, whom he recently praised on Instagram for serving as the band’s road manager in 2022, even though the band employed experienced road managers throughout the tour. (Kobayashi didn’t respond to requests for comment.)

By February, Journey may have also lost its bank, and with it the ability to easily pay employees and cover expenses on the road. (A representative from City National declined to comment.) As manager, though, Schon understands an important thing about Journey: If the band puts out a new album every now and then — like last year’s Freedom , which didn’t do nearly as well as its classic ’80s material — the arena dates will keep rolling in.

“Let’s be honest: There’s no new Journey fans,” says Brock Jones , a veteran Nashville and Philadelphia promoter and consultant. “It’s about playing the right markets, playing the right rooms, pricing the right tickets and making sure the package is correct.”

At the Choctaw Grand Theatre, before boisterous fans singing along to every “na-na,” Cain manned his red piano at stage right, while Schon soloed constantly at stage left. After the finale, “Any Way You Want It,” the six band members lined up and group-hugged and fist-bumped, happy to perform again after several months off for the holidays. But Cain and Schon stood at opposite ends of the line. They did not hug each other. They did not bump fists with each other. Finally, Schon bounded off-stage — by himself.

Additional reporting by Bill Donahue.

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Neal Schon Says Steve Perry Forced Journey To Sign Partnership Contract

By Andrew Magnotta @AndrewMagnotta

October 10, 2022

Journey founder Neal Schon says the partnership agreement at the center of his and Jonathan Cain 's most recent dispute with former frontman Steve Perry was foisted upon the band minutes before a concert.

Perry recently sued Journey over an attempt by the band to register 20 trademarks for use on merchandise, arguing the patents violate a partnership agreement stating that such a decision must be made with "prior written unanimous consent of all partners in each instance."

In the comments of a recent Instagram post from Q104.3 New York , Schon recalled being caught off guard by the agreement and feeling like he had little choice but to sign it.

He says manager Herbie Herbert brought the contract to the band "10 minutes before we were to go on in Hawaii at a string of five sold-out shows. We had played the first two, then our [manager] came to us, stating Steve Perry was not going to go on without us signing. Herbie claimed he didn't know what else to do, so he suggested we sign. We did sign, but I will say under duress and not having any time for any other legal to look at it."

Ultimately, the agreement allowed Perry and other Journey principals (including Herbert, who passed away last year ) to retain voting rights in the Journey's business affairs after leaving the band.

The partnership itself became news in early-2020 when at a board meeting then-bassist Ross Valory and then-drummer Steve Smith launched what Schon and Cain described as a "corporate coup d'état" to take control of the band's production company.

Perry reportedly sided with Valory and Smith in the vote, which resulted in the rhythm section being fired from the band and sued. (The lawsuit was settled out of court the following year .)

Schon asserted in his comment to Q104.3 that for decades no one, including Journey's various managers, accountants and attorneys, had been paying attention to how secure the band's legacy was. He added that the band name, Journey, was not protected by a trademark until he realized the error himself in 2005.

The band lists 20 Journey songs in its latest patent application , including "Separate Ways," "Wheel in the Sky," "Anyway You Want It," "Don't Stop Believin'" and more than a dozen others.

In September, Schon explained that the trademarks for merchandising was a means to stop a "giant corrupted ring" of people skimming profits from Journey merchandise. He noted that "songwriting and copyrights have nothing to do with trademarks," which is why the band needed to take action to protect itself.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Q104.3 (@q1043)

Journey Reflects on New Album, Whether Steve Perry Could Return for 50th Anniversary Shows (Exclusive)

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The rock legends of Journey are approaching nearly half a century of hitmaking with a new No. 1 album and a Las Vegas residency, to boot! ET was with the icons in Sin City for an exclusive look at their orchestral show and to get the inside story on their first new music in more than a decade.

"Hearing it when it was finished it was definitely emotional," lead guitarist Neal Schon tells ET's Denny Directo of their new album, Freedom , which marks their first full-length release in 11 years. "We had recorded this album in a way different way because of COVID."

The band recorded Freedom entirely separate from one another, laying down their respective parts individually in different parts of the world.

"You get lemons, you make lemonade," says keyboardist Jonathan Cain, revealing the surprising silver lining they discovered through the process. "We were stuck at home. We were supposed to be on tour with The Pretenders and everything got shut down. So we just thought, 'Why not?' And we also made the record for half the price. ... We spent half the money, so we got a blessing from it."

"It will never be the same," vocalist Arnel Pineda chimes in with a laugh. "So we'll do the same thing again to save money, right?"

Creatively, the band drew on both past and present experiences while striving to stay true to the heart of what fans have come to know and love about them.

"I feel that we encompassed like a lot from Infinity to where we are now in this album," says Schon, referencing Journey's 1978 full-length featuring their first Billboard Hot 100 hit, "Wheel in the Sky."

"It's very diverse, it's very musical," he continues. "I’m happy with that. I think it really represents that band well."

In 2023, Journey will celebrate 50 years in the biz. To commemorate their golden anniversary, the group has planned a slew of upcoming performances into the years ahead, including stadium shows and -- in their words: "More pyro!" and "Firing bombs onstage right, bro!"

With more than 100-million records sold, 19 Top 40 singles and 25 Gold and Platinum albums under their belts, Journey remains one of the best-selling bands of all-time.

Pineda has been a part of that success for 15 years after replacing lead singer Steve Perry in 2007. The 54-year-old says his life went "from black to white" when joining the group. "These guys, I owe so much to them," he says.

As for whether they would bring back former band members Perry and Gregg Rolie for the anniversary shows, Schon is open to the possibility.

"I think that those two guys were a big part of the band," he says, "and I think that, you know, if the city permits, I think the fans would overall love it."

Just last week, Journey rocked two of four planned performances from July 15-23 at Resorts World Theater in Las Vegas alongside Violution Orchestra. Only ET was with them for the soundcheck.

"So much came to life with that orchestra," gushes drummer Deen Castronovo. "I mean, they were already beautiful songs and they have such a life of their own. But when you get that orchestra, it's so lush, man. I mean, it's amazing sounding. It really is."

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NEAL SCHON's Wife Says Two JOURNEY Bandmembers Are 'Adamantly' Against GREGG ROLIE's Return

Two members of JOURNEY are adamantly against the return of the band's co-founder Gregg Rolie for the upcoming 50th-anniversary tour, according to guitarist Neal Schon 's wife.

Earlier this month, Schon hinted that Rolie would make an appearance on the band's upcoming trek, presumably in the place of longtime keyboardist Jonathan Cain , with whom Neal has been publicly feuding.

However, Michaele Schon says that not every member of JOURNEY is on board with the lineup change. On Thursday (January 12),she took to social media to let fans know that she and her husband were looking forward to "seeing everyone soon on tour" and noted that legendary guitarist Jeff Beck 's recent passing "has shown us that along with so many who are in Heaven now we see how very precious time is." She then added: "TWO BAND MEMBERS are 'adamant 'NO ' fighting against Gregg Rolie to return .

"Life is so precious Neal and Gregg agree , who wants to have that feeling , truly sad . Music is for inspiration and joy!

"Everyone LOVES you Gregg ROLIE and respects who you are and ALL You have been and are to JOURNEY , for without YOU picking up Neal Schön from school , JOURNEY would not exist .

" Neal Schön and Gregg ROLIE will be somewhere Together at least one time this Year in Honor of what they began in 1972.

"Faith . Let's ask God to find a way for them. Let's pray for forgiveness for those who hurt Gregg ROLIE and hope they learn what spirituality is someday."

On Tuesday (January 10), Cain said that he will be hitting the road with JOURNEY next month despite Schon 's suggestions to the contrary.

Less than two weeks ago, Schon addressed Rolie 's participation in JOURNEY 's upcoming run of dates in a social media post. After Neal shared a graphic for JOURNEY 's 50th anniversary on his Facebook page, a fan commented: "I am SO looking forward to this. Please tell me Gregg Rollie is coming along for the ride! He's the better keyboard player and a co-founder it only seems right. Timing couldn't be better either!!!!" In response, Neal wrote: "you'll be seeing him".

Last month, Cain fired back at Schon when the JOURNEY guitarist called him a "hypocrite" for performing the band's 1981 hit song "Don't Stop Believin'" at Donald Trump 's Mar-a-Lago property. Cain , whose wife, Paula White-Cain , is the former president's self-styled spiritual adviser, played the track in November with a backup chorus of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene , Donald Trump Jr. 's fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle and former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake .

" Neal Schon should look in the mirror when he accuses me of causing harm to the JOURNEY brand," Cain said in a statement. "I have watched him damage our brand for years and am a victim of both his — and his wife's — bizarre behavior."

An attorney for Schon sent a cease-and-desist letter to Cain after he performed at Trump 's Florida estate.

The latest legal move came a few weeks after Schon filed a lawsuit against Cain in California state court, alleging that Cain set up an American Express card without telling Schon and that "millions of JOURNEY funds have flowed through it." Cain , for his part, accused Schon of misusing the card, citing his "excessive spending and extravagant lifestyle."

A month earlier, former JOURNEY singer Steve Perry took legal action against both Schon and Cain , asking them to stop registering federal trademarks on the names of many of the band's hits.

Rolie was JOURNEY 's first singer, though his role quickly diminished when Perry arrived in 1977. Gregg left JOURNEY in 1980, just before the band achieved its commercial heights.

JOURNEY 's tour with TOTO will kick off on February 4 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Presented by AEG Presents , the "Freedom Tour 2023" will make stops in Austin, Montreal and Memphis before wrapping April 25 at the brand-new Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, California.

The 2023 run includes rescheduled dates in Washington, D.C., plus Hartford, Toronto and Quebec, which were postponed last year due to the coronavirus.

Repost from @nealandmichaeleschon • Life is Precious ✝️💜🙏🏻 Jeff Beck has shown us that along with so many who are in Heaven now we see how very precious time is . We look forward to seeing everyone soon on Tour !! NEAL SCHÖN & JOURNEY 50th Anniversary Freedom Tour !! OF A LIFETIME TOUR !! 50 !! TWO BAND MEMBERS of the Journey current LINE UP ARE “adamant “NO against Gregg Rolie to return . Life is so precious Neal and Gregg agree . Who wants to have that feeling , truly sad . Music is for inspiration and joy! Everyone LOVES you Gregg ROLIE and respects who you are and ALL You have been and are to Journey, for without YOU picking up Neal Schön from school , Journey would not exist . Neal Schön and Gregg ROLIE will be somewhere Together at least one time this Year in Honor of what they began in 1972 . Faith ✝️ let’s ask God to find a way for them 🙏🏻 let’s pray for forgiveness for those who hurt Gregg ROLIE and hope they learn what spirituality is someday .We all love you !! ❤️🎼♾️ #untilwemeetagain❤️ @greggrolie @nealschon @journeyofficial @nealandmichaeleschon #love #light #journey #faith @nealandmichaeleschon @carlossantana #amen #respect #fullcircle Posted by Neal & Michaele Schon on Thursday, January 12, 2023

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Jennie Garth Recalls Lessons Learned from Late 90210 Costar Luke Perry: 'I Think of Him Often' (Exclusive)

Garth detailed Perry's "ability to make you feel like you were the only person in the world" during an upcoming episode of 'Getting Grilled with Curtis Stone'

Luke Perry taught Jennie Garth a valuable lesson about showing love to Beverly Hills, 90210 fans — and it's one she hasn't yet forgotten.

In an exclusive sneak peek of Sunday's episode of Getting Grilled with Curtis Ston e , the 52-year-old actress details how much she loves "meeting all the fans" at conventions and how her late costar inspired her approach to those interactions, simply through his example.

After describing the "genuine love and adoration and excitement" of fans at conventions, Garth adds that she feels "so honored to get to meet them."

"I really mean that. And people wait, and pay money and they wait, and it means a lot and I try to give everybody their time and just really hear their stories," Garth, who first played Kelly Taylor throughout the original series during its decade-long run, says.

"I really do genuinely love those experiences and the whole con world has really — it's important for a lot of people and it means so much to them. And the person I think I learned the most about, giving every person their time with you, how important that is... was Luke."

As Garth explains, Perry — who famously portrayed Dylan McKay in the series — taught her about interacting with fans "just by example and just by watching him."

Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection

"How people responded to him and how he had the ability to make you feel like you were the only person in the world that mattered," she says. "And I love that I learned that lesson from him and I try to keep that alive. I think of him often."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Elsewhere in Garth's latest conversation, she elaborated on her excitement for what's to come in her own career, and how ultimately, she wants to "keep working" no matter how many retirement jokes she may make.

"I joke and say I have 9 more years in me and I'm gonna hit that pension, my retirement, I'm out. But I will never stop creating, it's just the way I'm wired," she says. "Life has such a beautiful way of just falling into place if you let it. And I'm really in that space of just being open to what's coming next."

Mark Sennet/Getty Images

Garth has previously opened up about her friendship with Perry , who died in March 2019 at age 52, revealing earlier this year that the loss is "never easy" and is "not going to ever get easy."

She shared ahead of 90s Con in March that rewatching the show for her 90210MG podcast is a "visual constant reminder."

"The thing about when the cast gets together, we all have that in common because we all loved him so much and so there's that connective tissue for us as a group," she said at the time. "And there's that deep understanding that he is right there with us, when we're all together, just put a chair there because he's sitting in it, he's not going to not be there."

New episodes of Getting Grilled With Curtis Stone arrive Sundays on HSN+.

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Jennie Garth Recalls Lessons Learned from Late 90210 Costar Luke Perry: 'I Think of Him Often' (Exclusive)

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