In what continues to be a lively year for AOR giants Journey, Neal Schon and Deen Castronovo have both gone on the offensive after singer Arnel Pineda's performance during the band's recent Rock In Rio show in Brazil was criticised online.
Reacting to a video which appeared to show the singer struggling during the band's set-closing classic Don't Stop Believing, a dismayed Pineda offered fans the opportunity to vote him out of the band, before receiving public votes of confidence from several fellow musicians including former Whitesnake guitarist Adrian Vandenberg and Stryper frontman Michael Sweet.
Now guitarist Schon and drummer Castronovo have both stepped up to support their frontman.
Posting a video shot at the Rio show, Schon wrote, "All this absolute garbage fabricated bullshit about Arnel Pineda. Does this look like nobody had a good time? I’m asking you. All fabricated, owed and bought blogs, bullshit."
Schon then shared a second video, and appeared to lay the blame for any sound problems squarely at Rock In Rio headliners Avenged Sevenfold.
"This clip is from Rio, even though we found out much later that we got extremely limited by Avenged Sevenfold. That means that hardly any sound can get out of the PA to the audience," wrote Schon. "It's a bullshit move. Check out the audience. They loved it. The rest of its fabricated crap."
Asked by a fan why Avenged Sevenfold were picked to headline the event over Journey, Schon responded with a single word: "Politics."
Meanwhile, Castronovo composed a lengthy post tackling the "trolls" responsible for posting negative feedback about Pineda's performance.
"I know very few who can pull off what Arnel does without ego and with passion and grace," he wrote, using capital letters and multiple exclamation marks for emphasis. "BACK OFF TROLLS! You are MESSING with MY FAMILY NOW and I am A RABID PROTECTOR OF MY OWN!!!
"This is America, where everyone and anyone can voice their opinion. Consider this though when you do. Is it KIND? Is it TRUTH? Is it NECESSARY? We’ve all seen that meme, and it rings true here as it does anywhere it’s posted.
"To the people who GET IT, THANK YOU, we appreciate you! To the INEPT… PROVE IT and WALK IT or SHUT IT!"
Journey's next live show is at the Sub Arena, in Osaka, Japan, on October 19.
