The band Journey played a gig in Seattle a few days ago, and their concert was filled with nostalgic songs from their prime in the 1980s. The fans reportedly loved the concert even though the band's original lead singer wasn't with them. Their former lead singer Steve Perry left the band in 1996, and the band has been floundering since that time. But Journey is back with a lead singer from the Philippines that the band found while watching covers of their music on Youtube.
Their new lead singer is Arnel Pineda. Pineda's mother died when he was a child (13) and for a while he was homeless. Before being recruited by Journey, he was a member of a band in the Philippines that sometimes did stints in places like Hong Kong. The CBS news featured Pineda and his story on their Sunday morning news show (video below). An article in this week's Rolling Stone claims that Pineda is homesick and misses his girlfriend and son. He sometimes cries and says he is doing this for his family. He complains that he only sees the inside of buses and stages and never gets to walk around. Welcome to America!
I was never a big Journey fan and I didn't attend the concert, but this story is incredible. It surprises me that there haven't been more stories like this. Every time I travel to the Philippines I hear bands that rival the most talented ones in the US. During my last trip, I heard a country western band in Baguio that sounded better than ones I heard in Nashville. The lead singer's dream is to sing in Nashville. The next time I go there I will make a Youtube video of him and just maybe....
I think it's something like Kiss, Journey and Heart all at once!
I know that in the Philippines people pick someone to mimic perfectly - they do that in Bangkok too.
I've seen "We Are The World" productions where each person perfectly duplicated one of the original singers.
Posted by: Slugbug | September 27, 2008 at 10:13 PM