According to Jeff Scott Soto, who joined legendary band Journey for the majority of their six-week summer tour in 2006, things between him and the band are complicated, to say the least.
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Soto was welcomed into the group about a week and a half into their 6-week tour with Def Leppard, to fill the shoes of Steve Augeri who was experiencing vocal issues. Soto was quickly named the permanent lead singer in December 2006, but after five short months he was fired and to this day, he claims he has no idea why.
Soto opened up about his status with the group during a recent interview with Argentinian journalist Lucas Gordon.
"If I knew what the problem was, if I knew the reason why I got fired, then at least I could be at peace with it; I could find a way to discuss it or talk about it,” he shared in the interview translated by Blabbermouth. “My truth is, if I was told why I was fired, if I was told 'your voice sucks,' if I was told I killed one of the guys' dogs, if I made somebody in their family angry, if I was told the reason why I was fired, I could make peace with it. But to this day, 14 years later — whatever it is — I don't know.”
Soto continued on to share the only “reason” he was given was the group members “had a change of heart,” which still doesn’t sit well with Soto after more than a decade.
“If you have a change of heart, call me up and we can say goodbye, we can hug and say, 'Hey, hopefully I can get a couple of tickets to the show with the new singer.' That kind of stuff,” he expressed. "You can leave as friends. I came in as friends; I wanna leave as friends."
He continued, "To this day… I have been extending that olive branch and I'm happy to be on friendly terms with them. I'm 55. I don't wanna leave planet earth with any enemies. I don't wanna leave with anybody hating me. I don't wanna leave with any arguments. I wanna leave with peace in my heart with everybody. And that's including Journey.”
Journey guitarist Neal Schon replied to Soto’s recent remarks by leaving an online comment claiming Soto’s voice wasn’t a permanant fit for the group.
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