Journey lead guitarist and co-founder Neal Schon is speaking up in support of his bandmate Arnel Pineda after the singer had been panned for his recent performance at Brazil’s Rock in Rio, claiming that the event’s headliners, Avenged Sevenfold, were actually to blame.
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After being made aware of a video circulating showing Pineda -- who has been with Journey since 2007 -- struggling with his vocals, the singer took to social media with a poll asking fans to vote "GO or STAY," with the results deciding his fate with the group.
"No one more than me in this world feels so devastated about this," Pineda wrote. "It's really amazing how 1 thousand right things you have done will be forgotten just cause of THIS." Arnel also noted, "Mentally and emotionally, I've suffered already, and I'm still suffering... but I’ll be ok."
"I am offering you a chance now (especially those who’s hated me and never liked me from the very beginning) to simply text GO or STAY right here,” Pineda added. "If GO reaches 1 million… I'm stepping out for good … are you game folks?"
Guitarist Neal Schon, who discovered original Journey singer Steve Perry's replacement years ago, commented himself on Pineda's performance and leveled the accusation that another band had, in fact, caused Journey's sound problems. “All this absolute garbage fabricated bull**** about [Arnel]. Does this look like nobody had a good time? I’m asking you. All fabricated, owned and bought blogs, bull****.” In another Facebook post about the story, Schon added, "Arnel don't listen to these blogs. They are all bought. You’ve kicked ass!"
Schon continues, saying the band "found out much later that we got extremely limited by Avenged Sevenfold"... meaning "hardly any sound can get out of the PA to the audience. It’s a bull**** move.” He implored fans to “Check out the audience. They loved it… the rest of it’s fabricated crap.” Lastly, when asked in the comments why Journey had not been scheduled as the night's headliner, Schon replied: “Politics.”
Journey’s current leg of their tour brings them to Japan in October, with the next U.S. date slated for December 28 in Lincoln, CA. Grab your tickets HERE.