Lead Guitar, Songwriting
Three time Hall of Fame and Grammy Award Winning artist Neal Schon is one of the most accomplished and recognized guitarists and songwriters worldwide. Admired as a trailblazer and inspiration to millions, the Journey founder has long established his position as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, with some of the top all time best selling singles and albums, including multiple Gold and Platinum as well as two Diamond certifications, over 100 million records sold, and over a billion Spotify streams.
Neal Schon founded Journey in 1972 and has been the only consistent member, having participated in every album and tour to date. Schon is a Grammy Award winning guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who is not only the founding member of Journey, but was a member of Santana at the age of 15 and has performed with a variety of other acts including Bad English, Jan Hammer, HSAS, and has released 11 solo albums, including his latest, Universe.
Neal Schon's guitar style has been described as soulful, melodic, and is infamously admired by such fellow legends as Eric Clapton and Prince.
In 2005, Neal Schon and Journey received a Star on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame and were further recognized by Billboard Magazine with the Legend Of Live Award at the 2011 Billboard Touring Conference.
Neal Schon was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame as a member of Journey as well as the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. Tulsa, Oklahoma Mayor G.T. Bynum honored Neal with the announcement of June 5th to be Neal Schon Day in Oklahoma. The announcement was at the Woody Guthrie Center Museum, and Neal also made an archival contribution to the Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture (OKPOP) in July.
Schon has also received honors for his philanthropic work including John Hopkins, Rainforest Fund, California Fire Relief, and numerous additional charitable foundations. He has also organized numerous fundraisers for military services and first responders.
In 2019, Neal was voted Guitar Connoisseur Fan Favorite Guitarist in a social media poll over the course of 15 rounds, consistently topping the list among his fellow legends.
In 2021, on the 40th anniversary of its release, Journey’s seventh studio album, Escape, was certified diamond by the RIAA, which denotes the album has sold over 10 million equivalent units. 1981’s Escape spawned the hits "Open Arms", "Who's Crying Now", "Stone In Love", and "Don't Stop Believin'", which has over a billion streams on Spotify alone. The band rounded out the summer with epic performances, headlining at both the iconic Lallapalooza and iHeartRadio Music Festival and Schon invited to perform “The Star Spangled Banner” at the Las Vegas Raiders Vs. Chicago Bears game on October 10, 2021 at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas , NV.
JOURNEY's 1988 released, 15 time Platinum certified Greatest Hits was certified diamond in April of 2008, has logged 1,328 weeks on Billboard's Catalog Albums chart as of October 2021, and is one of the most popular 'best of' packages, at times selling close to 500,000 copies globally per year.
Journey’s worldwide sales have reached over 100 million records, making them one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time, with a wide selection of chart-topping hits like "Don’t Stop Believin'", the most downloaded song of the last century. The band's album sales have resulted in twenty five gold and platinum albums and nineteen Top 40 singles in the US.
Keys, Songwriting
In 1976 Jonathan Cain released his first solo record, Windy City Breakdown. In 1979 he joined the band, The Babys, and in 1980 joined the rock band, Journey, rounding out the songwriting genius behind the defining album, Escape, which was RIAA certified Diamond this year. Cain's signature piano, synth playing and songwriting contributions with Journey, The Babys and Bad English have earned him many Billboard hits, multiple Gold, Platinum and Diamond-selling records, a Star on the Hollywood walk of fame, a GRAMMY nomination and the best-selling catalog rock song in iTunes’ history (“Don't Stop Believin'”).
Journey was named as the fifth best band in rock history in a 2005 USA Today opinion poll, was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and continues today, selling out major venues worldwide. Cain’s solo albums that released amidst acclaim in recent years include: What God Wants To Hear (2016), Unsung Noel (2017), The Songs You Leave Behind (2018), More Like Jesus(2019) and Piano Worship (2020). Later this month (Oct. 2021), Cain will release his Oh Lord Lead Us EP featuring the title tracksingle that became his biggestSpotifysolo hit to date.
lead vocals
After searching far and wide, watching thousands of singers on YouTube, Neal Schon was about to abandon his hunt for Journey’s next lead singer. Instead, he clicked one last link and something caught his attention. Arnel Pineda was singing with the band The Zoo, and he wasn’t even singing a Journey song. Neal continued his research on Arnel, watching all 40 videos that were posted. This unearthed Neal’s realization that Arnel is a chameleon who can sing on anything.
Neal knew Arnel was the one. He called Jonathan Cain to tell him he found the guy. After learning Arnel was located in the Philippines, Jon chuckled and said, “Jesus, can he even speak English?” Neal responded with, “Who cares! He’s singing in English, and very well.” Neal called management next, and they told him he was crazy, but they did their job and got him to the US from The Philippines in three months.
It took a few days in rehearsal, but by day three everyone clicked, and Arnel sounded amazing. Once the jet lag wore off, Neal, Jon, and Arnel hit the studio in Novato, CA to get on a couple tracks. Neal played back the audio and said, “There’s the guy.” Jon agreed.
