Bob O’Leary

How about a gig with the band whose song you are covering!

According to the St. Pete Times Stuck in the 80’s blog, Arnel Pineda will become Journey’s new lead singer. Pineda did a version of “Faithfully” that was posted on YouTube. Since Journey fired lead singer Jeff Scott Soto in June, guitarist Neil Schon was looking for a Steve Perry sound-a-like.

Perry split with the rest of the band in 1997 after injuring his hip in an accident. The band waited two years for Perry to have hip replacement surgery, but Perry decided to leave the music business for awhile instead of rejoining the band.

Schon saw Pineda’s video on the net. After auditioning Pineda with the rest of the band, Journey hired him.

“I thought, ‘He can’t be that good.’ But he is that good, he’s the real deal and so tremendously talented,” Schon said Wednesday night. “Arnel doesn’t sound synthetic and he’s not emulating anyone. I tried to get a hold of him through YouTube and I finally heard from him that night, but it took some convincing to get him to believe that it really was me and not an impostor.”

Look and listen to the video that Schon heard.