Journey’s Neal Schon has seemingly responded to claims made by signer Arnel Pineda, which claimed he was unable to quit the band due to “contractual obligations”.
The singer – who joined the line-up in 2007 after the departure of Steve Perry – spoke to Rolling Stone recently about the band, and revealed that he was entertaining the idea of not joining the band on their current farewell tour.
He told the outlet that he asked his bandmates to let him know if they were planning on scheduling tour dates, particularly as he wanted to make sure that the schedule aligned with him and his “personal problems”. Despite this, he alleged, the members went on to book a 60-date tour without running it by him.
“I was really not happy with how they scheduled this tour,” he said, later claiming that messages he sent regarding the schedule were ignored, as were two instances where he said that he wanted to leave the group.
The struggle with leaving the line-up, the outlet shared, was due to the contract with AEG, which does not allow the band to tour without the current frontman.
Now, guitarist Neal Schon has seemingly addressed the comments made in Rolling Stone by sharing a new post on Facebook.
He began the post by sharing that there has “been some recent press and speculation that doesn’t reflect the full picture”.
“Touring at this level involves many moving parts, and decisions are made collectively with our team, including management, agents, and promoters,” he added. “Like any long-running band, there are moments where people feel the pressure differently. I respect that, and I have nothing but appreciation for what everyone brings to the stage.”
Alluding to the contract Journey has with AEG, Schon added: “For clarity, no one was ever prevented by me from making their own personal decisions. At the same time, we were all advised by our representatives that there are contractual obligations tied to touring that need to be honoured.”
“My focus has always been — and remains — delivering the best possible experience for our fans and keeping the music alive,” he concluded.
Journey’s ‘Final Frontier Tour’ continues in Des Moines tonight (Wednesday April 8), before further shows in Salt Lake City, Spokane, Vancouver and more throughout the year. Visit here for remaining tickets.
The farewell tour announcement comes after Schon alleged on social media that keyboardist Jonathan Cain would be leaving the band after their 2026-27 tour. Cain denied the comment via his team: “And any reports suggesting otherwise are inaccurate. He is fully dedicated to touring with the band over the next couple of years and has only expressed plans to retire at a later time”.
Cain did, however, suggest in a recent appearance on the Strang Report podcast that he has plans to leave Journey, describing a 2026 tour with the band as “our farewell Journey tour”, adding: “So I’ll be saying goodbye to that”.
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