Fellow Journey Members Stand with Arnel Pineda Amid Backlash
Source: Singer Arnel Pineda from US rock band Journey performs at the main stage of the Rock in Rio music festival at the Rio 2016 Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on September 15, 2024. (Mauro Pimentel/AFP via Getty Images)
Journey frontman Arnel Pineda has been experiencing online backlash over his vocal performance at “Rock in Rio” on Sept. 15, but his fellow bandmates have swiftly come to his defense.
After a rocky Rock In Rio performance, Journey’s singer is inviting fans to vote him out of the band via a Facebook pollhttps://t.co/TrCxwMMcik pic.twitter.com/OpDVoRhxDj
— Stereogum (@stereogum) September 23, 2024
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During the show Pineda could be seen visibly struggling with his ear monitors during the performance and missing some of the right notes during Journey’s show in Rio de Janeiro. After seeing much of the criticism of his performance, Pineda took to his Facebook page acknowledging the poor performance and offering fans to vote him out of the band if they so choose.
“Mentally and emotionally, I’ve suffered already, and I’m still suffering … but I’ll be ok,” Pineda said in a Facebook post. “So here’s the deal here now … 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 … and if ‘GO’ reaches 1 million … I’m stepping out for good … are you game folks?”
Source: Arnel Pineda/Facebook
Schon, Castronovo Snap Back at Trolls
Guitarist Neal Schon immediately came to the singer’s defense in a Facebook comment of his own:
“Arnel don’t listen to these blogs,” Schon said. “They are all bought. You’ve kicked ass!”
Schon would later turn his attention to headlining Avenged Sevenfold, blaming the heavy metal band for “sabotaging Journey’s sound,” claiming they had control over it.
“We found out much later that we got extremely limited by Avenged Sevenfold,” Schon said. “That means that hardly any sound can get out of the PA to the audience. It’s a b******t move. Check out the audience. They loved it. The rest of it’s fabricated crap.”
Drummer Deen Castronovo also came to Pineda’s defense, acknowledging the challenge of being the lead singer for Journey:
“[Pineda] has risen to the challenge of Journey’s catalog, night after night, year after tiring year,” Castronovo said. “He gives to you all, and Journey, the best that he can give you. Out of maybe a handful of shows in 17 years, [Pineda] has faced the facts. The voice is a biological instrument, subject to weather, fatigue, virus, bacteria, jet lag etc.”
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Castronovo said in a 2022 interview that Pineda had been working with a vocal coach to fix a vocal issue he’d been dealing with since he joined the band in 2007. According to Castronovo, adjusting the band’s volume on stage has helped.
“To think that he’s been struggling with this for 14 years,” Castronovo said. “I had no idea. I think it was something that he didn’t know if he had the liberty to say, ‘Hey, I need to fix this’ or ‘You guys need to try something different here,’ either get a new sound man or whatever.”
Castronovo would go on to say how Pineda’s improved vocals “blew us away.”
Opinion:
Source: Arnel Pineda of Journey performs onstage during the “Summer Stadium” tour at Truist Park on July 13, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
Journey came to Houston back in August as part of their co-headlining tour with Def Leppard. I’d never seen Journey before, and was skeptical of what a performance without Steve Perry (as I am with any band without their founding/classic era frontman) would be like.
To my pleasant surprise, between performances by Steve Miller band and Def Leppard, Pineda was the star of the show. He rocked Journey’s setlist, filling the big shoes left behind by Perry’s imprint on Journey’s legendary catalog. He made every song his own and worked the crowd better than anyone else that night. You could see the enthusiasm his fellow bandmates had for performing with him – especially Schon.
Perry may not be fronting the band – he hasn’t since 1998 – but with Pineda onstage, Journey is in good hands. His passion, stage presence and vocal range is exactly what the band needs as they progress beyond their 50th year, for hopefully many more.
