December 6, 2007 0:23

Journey hire cover band singer as new frontman

Filipino fan scores gig of his dreams

Legendary rockers Journey have hired a Filipino fan to front the band after parting ways with Jeff Scott Soto earlier this year.

The band discovered Arnel Pineda, from Quezon City in the Philippines via YouTube, when they saw footage of him singing Journey songs in his homeland with his band The Zoo.

Original frontman Steve Perry was replaced in 1998 with Steve Augeri who was forced to leave the band due to health problems.

But Pineda almost missed his dream job after initially assuming emails from guitarist Neal Schon were a hoax.

“My friend Noel picked up the message on YouTube and told me it was from Neal. I thought it was a hoax so I ignored it. Noel said, ‘what if it really was Neal and he wanted to offer you the chance of a lifetime?’ So I e-mailed Neal back and the rest is history.”

The band are currently working on a new album with producer Kevin Shirley, tentatively scheduled for a spring/summer 2008 release.

--By our New York staff.
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