Okay, this is just awesome: Journey has been without iconic lead singer Steve Perry since 1998. After a string of lead singers, guitarist Neal Schion found Filipino vocalist Arnel Pineda, front man of cover band “The Zoos.” But how exactly did Journey find Arnel Pineda? YouTube!
From MP3 blog stereogum:
The Zoo is Arnel’s band, who’ve been rocking Journey covers and originals for years and, of course, posting ’em to YouTube. Neal called Arnel, Arnel called bullshit followed by promptly losing his shit when Schion confirmed it all via email: Arnel had received a formal invitation to be the new lead singer of Journey. Pineda’s wise to the ways of überfans — gotta figure he’s one himself — and he’s “actually looking forward to the scrutiny I’ll get from the hardcore JOURNEY fans. I know they’ll expect me to sound exactly like ‘the voice’ (Steve Perry), but that will never happen. I know there’s only one Steve Perry in this world.” That said, he does seem to stick to Perry’s stylings pretty, yep, faithfully.
I was going to make a joke about if you’re a musician to “don’t stop believing,” but the blog at stereogum beat me to the punch.
(Hat tip: Jesse)
