Sunday, December 18, 2011

Rock News Story Of The Year #4: STEVE PERRY & JOURNEY

As part of the 2011 hennemusic Rock News Awards – recognizing the biggest rock news stories and artists of the year - hennemusic is counting down the Top 10 rock news stories of the year.

The Top 10 are determined by music fans: numbers are based on page views of the top 50 hennemusic rock news stories of the past twelve months.

Rock News Story Of The Year #05 – GUNS N’ ROSES
Rock News Story Of The Year #06 – GARY MOORE
Rock News Story Of The Year #07 – GENE SIMMONS
Rock News Story Of The Year #08 – DUFF MCKAGAN
Rock News Story Of The Year #09 – VAN HALEN
Rock News Story Of The Year #10 – STEVE PERRY

The 2011 hennemusic Rock News Award winners will be announced on Tuesday, December 20 at hennemusic.com.



Rock News Story Of The Year #4 – STEVE PERRY & JOURNEY



November 12, 2010



Steve Perry wants to rejoin Journey



UPDATE 11/15: hennemusic has been informed that the original U.K. Daily Star story, that this item was based on, has been confirmed as an inaccurate report by representatives of the artists involved.


Some crazy news following Journey picking up the "Event Of The Year" award at Classic Rock magazine's annual awards ceremony on Wednesday.

Steve Perry wants to rejoin the band.

Wow.

Perry left Journey in 1998, replaced by Steve Augeri, Jeff Scott Soto and, in 2007, Filipino YouTube discovery Arnel Pineda.

In recent years, the band’s 1981 smash, “Don’t Stop Believin’” (with Perry) has been featured in The Sopranos and covered by the cast TV’s Glee, introducing Journey to a whole new audience.

“Don’t Stop Believin’” is a phenomenon: it topped downloads in the iTunes Music Store amongst songs not released in the 21st century, and sits just outside of the top twenty best selling digital songs of all time.

In the U.K., ITV's The X-Factor 2009 winner Joe McElderry covered the song, and it went Top 10.

On Wednesday, the Marshall Classic Rock Roll Of Honours "Event Of The Year" award was presented to Journey to honor the return of "Don't Stop Believin'" to the UK Top 10 this summer. Journey guitarist Neal Schon was on hand to pick up the prize.

The song’s renewed success has Journey making headlines again, and with it, news that Perry wants back in.

The band was reportedly stunned when approached by Perry to rejoin them. Schon told Britain's Daily Star, "He seems to be enjoying the spotlight a little too much. The fact is he's no longer the lead singer. He walked out."

Ouch.

In summer 2007, Schon found YouTube videos of Pineda singing Journey songs, tracked him down for an audition, and he was announced as the band’s new voice in December of that year.

With an exact Perry sound-alike in Pineda, is Schon telling the world he wants Perry’s voice in the band, but not Perry himself?

Stay tuned….


Don't Stop Believin' - Escape Journey - Don't Stop Believin' - Escape

Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ (Steve Perry) (1981)

Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ (Arnel Pineda) (2008)