Journey guitarist and co-founder Neal Schon is publicly lashing out at his bandmates over their recent visit to President Donald Trump’s White House.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Schon posted video of the Journey White House meeting and blasted his bandmates’ attendance, writing: “Journey should never be used and exploited by anyone, especially band members for politics or any one religion. I’ve been here since 1972 and this has always been our belief. This was with intent to exploit the brand and use the name.”
In a series of Twitter messages, Schon addressed rumors that his Journey bandmates wanted to go their separate ways and even hinted at leaving the group over political differences. “How would you feel if u found out that the rest of the band wanted to tour without me? I’ve always been 100%JRNY and made the right choices.”
“I will travel to new musical terrain that we never have and encompass everything,” Schon later wrote in response to a fan’s question about him going solo.
The beef between bandmates has apparently been brewing for some time, Schon says, noting that they had agreed to keep politics and religion out of Journey business.
However, Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain’s wife, Paula White Cain, is a televangelist who has been described as President Trump’s “spiritual adviser.”
“Everybody’s entitled to like and believe what they want but when we’ve had this discussion many, many times it was always a no WH. All know,” Schon wrote. “Arranged photo op against what we’ve all stood for up until 2 years ago (when) Jon changed radically… And then on top of it the stories that have stemmed from their visit say JOURNEY was there. Like I don’t exist. I brought all these guys in.”
Lead singer Arnel Pineda addressed the issues surrounding the band on Twitter, writing “mayB nobody deserves to go through THIS bt maybe dis s what needs 2 happen 4 us 2 know wat kind of HOUSE we all helped build through d years.”
While Cain has not addressed the drama directly, he has taken to Twitter to share a meme that reads: “God protect me from ANYTHING that wasn’t sent by you. He is my shield and my sword.”
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson