Journey Follow Up

Following the reunion album's release, the band was becoming restless waiting for an answer from Steve Perry regarding touring. Following a phone call between Jonathan Cain and Steve Perry, the latter announced that he would be departing from Journey, releasing himself from the band's contracts and making the decision to semiretire from the music business, disappearing from the public eye again. Steve Smith later exited the band, citing that Journey would not be the same without Steve Perry, and returning to his Jazz career and his Jazz fusion project Vital Information.

The band hired drummer Deen Castronovo, Neil Schon's and Jonathan Cain's Bad English bandmate and drummer for Hardline, to replace Steve Smith. After auditioning several high-profile candidates, including Geoff Tate, (Queensrÿche, Operation: Mindcrime) Kevin Chalfant, and John West, Journey replaced Steve Perry with Steve Augeri, formerly of Tyketto and Tall Stories. The band later recorded the song "Remember Me", which was featured on the soundtrack for the 1998 film Armageddon.

Following a rehearsal with Steve Augeri and Deen Castronovo, the band performed four gigs in Japan, a reliable touring stronghold for the band. When asked how he felt about touring for the first time in over a decade, Neil Schon commented: "It's a little like we are reborn again." Journey embarked on a tour in the United States titled, Vacation's Over, which began in October and concluded at the end of December in Reno. They continued the tour with another leg in 1999, beginning in Minnesota in June and concluding in Michigan in September.

From March to August 2000, the band entered Avatar Studios to record their next studio album, Arrival with producer Kevin Shirley. The album was released in Japan later in the year. A North American release of the album followed in April 2001, peaking at number 56 on the Billboard charts. The album's single "All the Way" failed to boost sales for the album which was considered a disappointment with mixed reviews and resulted in Sony dropping the band from their label. Upon the album's completion, the band embarked on a tour in support of the album in Latin America, the United States, and Europe.

During the events of September 11, 2001, in response to the attacks in New York City, the band joined various other bands at a major fundraising event to help the victims and families of the attack held on October 20 and 21 at the Smirnoff Music Centre in Dallas, Texas. The event raised about $1 million. Activity for Journey was quiet in 2002, as Neil Schon formed Planet Us with bandmate Deen Castronovo, and former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar and bassist Michael Anthony until 2004, when Planet Us disbanded.

Neil Schon also co-wrote songs with the band Bad Company, while Jonathan Cain released another solo album. Having made some recordings between 2001 and 2002, (Namaste, Anthology, and Animated Movie Love Songs). Journey released a four-track EP titled Red 13 in November under their new label Journey Music, with an album cover design chosen through a fan contest with the online cover designed by Kelly McDonald, while the retail cover designed by Christopher Payne was only made available at the band's performances. The band only performed one club gig in support of the EP, but later began another tour of the United States from May to August in 2003, that included their teaming with Styx and REO Speedwagon in Classic Rock's Main Event. The band then toured the following year on the Summer Detour, which began from June and concluded in September 2004. In November, Journey reteamed with both REO Speedwagon and Styx for a tour around the Caribbean aboard the Triumph cruise ship.

In 2005, the members of Journey were inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside former members Steve Perry, Aynsley Dunbar, George Tickner, Steve Smith, and Robert Fleischman. Gregg Rolie was the only member who did not appear at the ceremony. Surprised to see Steve Perry joining them to accept the induction with the band, Ross Valory commented on the wonderful things Steve Perry had to say in which he looked to be in fine shape, and that it was a pleasant surprise to see him.

Following their accolade on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the band began recording at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, for their 12th studio album, Generations, with producer Kevin Elson, who had previously collaborated with the band. The album was released on August 29 in Europe, with a North American release following on October 4. The album peaked at number 170 on the Billboard charts. To promote the album and celebrate the band's 30th anniversary, the band embarked on a tour starting in Irvine, California, in June and concluding in Phoenix in October.

Each concert on the tour was three hours long with an intermission and featured many of their classic hits, as well as new songs from the album. In 2006, the band toured in Europe and then joined Def Leppard in a North American tour. During the tours, however, suggestions arose that Steve Augeri was not singing, but was using backing tracks to cover up his deteriorating vocals, resulting in him getting attacked by the fans. Augeri had been suffering from vocal attrition problems before the band began the tour with Def Leppard,

and Journey had been accused of using prerecorded lead vocals, an accusation that former manager Herbie Herbert insists was true. Steve Augeri admitted in a 2022 interview that he wasn't legally allowed to say whether it was true or not. In a press statement, the band later announced that Augeri had to step down as Journey's lead singer and leave the tour to recover. Augeri performed his last show with Journey on July 4 in Raleigh.

With the successful tour still going on, the band was quick to hire Jeff Scott Soto from Talisman as their lead vocalist. He performed as Journey's vocalist for the first time on July 7 in Bristow. Because of its success and popularity, the tour was extended to November. Soto was later officially announced as the band's new vocalist in December 2006. Following tours of Europe and the United States in 2007, the band announced on June 12 that Jeff Scott Soto was no longer part of the group. In a statement, Neil Schon stated: "He did a tremendous job for us and we wish him the best. We've just decided to go our separate ways, no pun intended. We're plotting our next move now."

Jeff Scot Soto stated on his website "it seems they wanted something different than I brought to the table. No love lost though, they know what's best for the preservation of their legacy."

He later mentioned the gig did not work out because former vocalist Steve Perry was still alive and could hypothetically rejoin the band, hurting fan expectations of any replacement singers. Although he was officially introduced as the lead singer of Journey, the band has not mentioned Soto in recent lookbacks and biographies, skipping over him entirely for his replacement Arnel Pineda.

Following Jeff Scott Soto's departure, the band was again without a lead vocalist. Neal Schon began searching YouTube for a new lead vocalist, with Jeremey Hunsicker of the Journey tribute band Frontiers auditioning and spending a week with the band writing material. Hunsicker claims to have been formally offered the position, but the offer fell through shortly afterwards following tension with Neil Schon. One of the tracks co-written with Hunsicker, "Never Walk Away", later appeared on the Revelation album. Neil Schon later found Filipino singer Arnel Pineda of the cover band The Zoo, covering the song "Faithfully".

Schon was so impressed that he contacted Pineda to set up two days of auditions, which went well, naming him the official lead vocalist of Journey on December 5, 2007. Although Arnel Pineda was neither the first foreign national to become a member of Journey (former drummer Aynsley Dunbar is British), nor even the first nonwhite (bass player Randy Jackson is African American), his recruitment resulted in some fans of Journey making racist comments towards the new vocalist. Keyboardist Jonathan Cain responded to such sentiments in the Marin Independent Journal:

"We've become a world band. We're international now. We're not about one color."

In 2007, "Don't Stop Believin'" gained press coverage and a sharp growth in popularity when it was used in The Sopranos television series final episode prompting digital downloads of the song to soar.

In November 2007, Journey entered the studio with Arnel Pineda to record the studio album, Revelation. The album was released on June 3, 2008. It debuted at number five on the Billboard charts, selling more than 196,000 units in its first two weeks and staying in the top 20 for six weeks. As a multidisc set (2-CD) each unit within that set counts as one sale. Journey also found success on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart where the single "After All These Years" spent over 23 weeks, peaking at number nine.

On February 21, 2008, Arnel Pineda performed for the first time with Journey in front of 20,000 fans in Chile. The band began the Revelation tour in the United Kingdom in June, continuing the tour into North America, Asia, Europe, and South America. The 2008 leg concluded in October. Receipts from the 2008 tour made Journey one of the top-grossing concert tours of the year, bringing in over $35,000,000. On December 18, 2008, Revelation was certified platinum by RIAA.

The band performed at the Super Bowl XLIII pregame show in Tampa on February 1, 2009. The band continued their Revelation tour in May and concluded it in October 2009. The band had also performed in Manila to 30,000 fans, which was recorded for a live release, Live in Manila.

In 2009, "Don't Stop Believin'" became the top-selling song on iTunes among those released before 2000.

The band entered into Fantasy Studios on 2010 with Arnel Pineda to record their studio album, Eclipse. The album was released on May 24, 2011, and debuted at number 13 on the Billboard 200 charts. The band toured the United Kingdom in June 2011 with Foreigner and Styx. Journey was awarded the prestigious "Legend of Live Award" at the Billboard Touring Awards in October. Greatest Hits 2 was released in November.

In June 2015, Deen Castronovo was arrested following a domestic altercation. He was fired by Journey in August and was ultimately replaced by Omar Hakim on the band's 2015 tour. In 2016, Steve Smith again returned as Journey's drummer, reuniting all of the members of the Escape-Frontiers-Trial by Fire lineup except lead singer Steve Perry. Their tour that year also featured Dave Mason and The Doobie Brothers.

In 2017, Journey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony held on April 7 at the Barclays Center in New York City, Pat Monahan gave the introduction speech. The members included in the induction were all based from their debut album up to when they originally broke up, with the exception of George Tickner. Aynsley Dunbar, Gregg Rolie, Ross Valory, Neil Schon, Steve Perry, Steve Smith and Jonathan Cain all gave acceptance speeches. When it came time for the band to play, all but Steve Perry performed, with Pineda taking his place.

In 2018, during the North American tour with Def Leppard, Journey topped the Billboard Hot Tours List by grossing more than $30 million over 17 shows.

On March 3, 2020, Neil Schon and Jonathan Cain announced that they had fired Steve Smith and Ross Valory and were suing them for an alleged "attempted corporate coup d'état," seeking damages in excess of $10 million. The lawsuit alleged Steve Smith and Ross Valory tried to assume control of Nightmare Productions because they incorrectly believe that Nightmare Productions controls the Journey name and mark to hold the Journey name hostage and set themselves up with a guaranteed income stream after they stop performing.

Valory and Smith contested the firings, with the support of former manager Herbie Herbert and former lead singer Steve Perry. Court filings revealed that Steve Perry had been paid as a member of the band for years despite not performing. In an open letter dated that same day, Neil Schon and Jonathan Cain stated Steve Smith and Ross Valory

"are no longer members of Journey, and that Schon and Cain have lost confidence in both of them and are not willing to perform with them again." Valory countersued Schon and Cain, among other things, for their partnership's claim of owning the Journey trademark and service mark (collectively known as the mark), when that partnership, Elmo Partners, was only the licensee of the mark from 1985 to 1994, when the license was terminated by Herbie Herbert of Nightmare Productions, owners of the mark and name. Valory also sought protection against Schon from using any similarities of the Journey mark and name for his side project, Neal Schon – Journey Through Time. On April 1, 2021 it was announced that an amicable settlement had been reached between Schon/Cain and Valory/Smith In May, Schon and Cain announced that bassist Randy Jackson would once again join the band, replacing Valory, and drummer Narada Michael Walden was announced as an official new member of Journey, replacing Smith.

In June 2020, Neil Schon announced via his social-media page that a new album with Randy Jackson and Narada Michael Walden was "starting to take shape". The following month, he confirmed the album's progress, and confirmed that they would be releasing new music in early 2021. In January 2021, he announced that the first single of the album would be released later that year, with possibly a worldwide tour to follow. In April 2021, the band reached an "amicable settlement" with Ross Valory and Steve Smith, confirming their departures. The single "The Way We Used to Be" was released on June 24, 2021.

In July 2021, Neil Schon confirmed that Deen Castronovo, who was previously in the band, had rejoined as a second drummer. Meanwhile, Randy Jackson's back surgery led to the band bringing in Marco Mendoza to play bass, with Mendoza having previously played with Schon and Castronovo in Neal Schon's Journey Through Time. Mendoza's stint with Journey, though, only lasted a few months due to Schon's feeling that his bass playing did not gel with the band's sound, and he was replaced by Todd Jensen, who had previously played with Schon and Castronovo in Hardline.

On February 16, 2022, the band announced the title and track listing of their 15th studio album Freedom, which was released on July 8, 2022. The second single from the album, "You Got the Best of Me", was released on April 26, 2022; the third, "Let It Rain", on May 17; the fourth, "Don't Give Up on Us", on June 7; and the fifth, "United We Stand", on July 4.

On March 1, 2022, Cain confirmed that neither Walden nor Jackson remained in the lineup, with Walden's exit following a minor heart attack after a live show in Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, both were still featured on Freedom, as they had completed their parts on the album before their departures.

Neil Schon later stated that Walden and Jackson were still "musical members" of the band, and he would certainly write again with Walden in the future. Schon also did not rule out the possibility of former members Steve Perry and Gregg Rolie returning for a reunion on the band's 50th anniversary. Although Schon had confirmed that former member Rolie would appear with the band for their tour in January 2023, He later backtracked that same month, stating that Rolie would not be joining for the 50th anniversary tour, although Rolie would later make a guest appearance for the band's performance in Austin on February 22, 2023.

Former member Steve Perry filed a lawsuit against Neil Schon and Jonathan Cain regarding song trademark registrations on September 21, 2022, although he would drop the lawsuit on January 7, 2023. Two months later, Schon filed a lawsuit against Cain over a credit card dispute.

On October 27, 2022, Journey announced its fifth live album, Live in Concert at Lollapalooza, which was released on December 9, 2022.

In December 2022, Neil Schon served Jonathan Cain with a cease and desist order after he performed "Don't Stop Believin'" for Donald Trump, stating Cain "has no right to use Journey for politics". Throughout 2023 to early 2024, the band toured with Toto. On December 7, 2023, it was announced that Journey is set to tour North America again with Def Leppard throughout July to September 2024, as they previously did in 2006 and 2018.

Journey (1975)

Look into the Future (1976)

Next (1977)

Infinity (1978)

Evolution (1979)

Departure (1980)

Dream, After Dream (1980) soundtrack

Captured (1981) live

Escape (1981)

Frontiers (1983)

Raised on Radio (1986)

Classics (1988) ep