Journey is out on a wildly successful tour right now. How successful you ask? Nothing special, just a whopping $30 million in gross revenue reported so far.
Life must be pretty damn good when you’re printing that kind of money, right? Nope! Sadly, the band seems truly on the verge of imploding right now.
Just a few weeks back, frontman Arnel Pineda turned some serious heads when he basically asked the band to fire him on social media. In a series of pretty scathing tweets, he said:
“you people are unbelievable… whoever’s spreading rumor about me regarding the #GregRollie issue?are maliciously ignorant..im not gonna stoop down to your level..”
“i’m with the band to sing the legacy..if some of them are tired of me being with them, with all means,they can fire me anytime.. and don’t lecture me about spiritual BS..#walkthetalk”
“all i know? is #ivepaidmydues so stop reminding me where i came from..coz it’s in my heart everyday.. you just don’t pay attention..im not a slave..im a human being like anybody else..#wrongiswrong #rightisright that simple..”
Now, in a new report from Billboard, it appears that things in Journey land have been melting down behind the scenes for a while now between members Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain.
For reasons not entirely clear, guitarist Neal Schon went all big brother conspiracy theory last year on the band’s arena tour, convincing himself that members of his camp were “out to get him.”
As any rational mind would do in that situation, he hired two off-duty cops to patrol and guard his dressing room. Looking to notch the paranoia up a few pegs, he then reportedly sent an assistant to break into keyboardist Jonathan Cain’s dressing room. What he was hoping to find isn’t entirely clear.
Unfortunately for Schon, Cain caught the dressing room spy, and then (somewhat understandably at this point) turned around and hired his own off-duty cop to keep Schon and company out of his own dressing room.
Apparently, the rest of the tour has consisted of fights about the security guards. Signs of reconciliation are nowhere to be found, as sources say Schon and Cain stood “at least 20 yards apart at all times, on opposite sides of the stage” during a January 27 Journey show.
“That’s just the level of pettiness and control and conspiracy they came to believe in,” a source told Billboard.
Where this is all going, who really knows? But for now, we’re just sitting with popcorn in hand, watching this trainwreck unfold in slow motion. Will Cain and Schon make up with ‘Open Arms’? Or continue to go their ‘Separate Ways [Worlds Apart]? Sorry, what’s life without Journey song puns?