The battle between Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain and guitarist Neal Schon took another turn this week. Last month Schon filed a lawsuit against Cain claiming he hasn’t been granted access to financial records for the band. Cain called Schon’s “reckless spending” the real issue.
Schon also later filed a cease-and-desist letter directed to Cain when the keyboardist performed the song he largely wrote, Journey’s mega-hit “Don’t Stop Believin’”, at an event for former president Donald Trump.
Now it appears as the band approaches their 50th-anniversary tour that Schon is planning to use another keyboard player, band co-founder Gregg Rolie.
A fan commented on Schon’s Facebook post promoting the tour by saying: “I am SO looking forward to this. Please tell me Gregg Rollie is coming along for the ride! He’s the better keyboard player and a co-founder it only seems right. Timing couldn’t be better either!!!!”
In a response, Schon wrote: “you’ll be seeing him”.
Cain played “Don’t Stop Believin’” at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida. Cain’s wife, Paula White-Cain, serves as the former president’s spiritual advisor.
Variety reported: “The members of long-running rock band Journey have long had fractious relations, but an inter-band cease-and-desist order is a new peak: Keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who performed ‘Don’t Stop Believin” for Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month with a backing ‘chorus’ including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Kari Lake, was served with a cease-and-desist order from an attorney for bandmate Neal Schon for that performance.”
Schon went on to say that Cain is free to express his personal beliefs, “[But] when he does that on behalf of Journey or for the band, such conduct is extremely deleterious to the Journey brand.”
Schon added: “Journey is not, and should not be, political. Mr. Cain’s unauthorized affiliation of Journey with the politics of Donald Trump has the band’s fans up in arms. … This has caused, and continues to cause, irreparable harm to the Journey brand.”
Cain blasted Schon in a response saying: “Neal Schon should look in the mirror when he accuses me of causing harm to the Journey brand. I have watched him damage our brand for years and am a victim of both his and his wife’s bizarre behavior. If anyone is destroying the Journey brand, it is Neal and Neal alone.”
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