Journey’s inside authorized battles have spilled into Trump territory as guitarist Neal Schon has filed a cease-and-desist in opposition to his bandmate Jonathan Cain to forestall the latter from performing their hit “Don’t Cease Believin’” at Mar-a-Lago.
In November, Cain carried out the band’s 1981 hit at an occasion at Donald Trump’s nation membership alongside backup singers that included Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Kari Lake; Cain himself is a member of Trump’s inside circle, as his spouse Paula White, a televangelist, served as Trump’s religious advisor.
In an effort to forestall related viral and embarrassing moments that includes Journey’s music from taking place, Schon filed the cease-and-desist order in opposition to his fellow Journeyman, stating that the usage of their music at a Trump occasion is of “dangerous use” to their model, Selection experiences.
“Though Mr. Cain is free to specific his private beliefs and associations, when he does that on behalf of Journey or for the band, such conduct is extraordinarily deleterious to the Journey model because it polarizes the band’s followers and outreach. Journey isn’t, and shouldn’t be, political,” the cease-and-desist letter states.
“Mr. Cain has no proper to make use of Journey for politics. His politics must be his personal private enterprise. He shouldn’t be capitalizing on Journey’s model to advertise his private political or non secular agenda to the detriment of the band.”
In response to the lawsuit, Cain informed Rolling Stone: ”Neal Schon ought to look within the mirror when he accuses me of inflicting hurt to the Journey model. I’ve watched him injury our model for years and am a sufferer of each his–and his spouse’s–weird habits. Neal sued Dwell Nation twice, dropping each occasions, and damaging our means to ever work with them once more; Neal outrageously tried to remove emblems from Steve Perry; Neal and his spouse frequently insult the professionalism of quite a few accountants, highway managers, and administration corporations with limitless authorized threats and their bullying, poisonous, and incoherent emails; Neal argues on-line with followers who don’t see eye to eye with him; and Neal and his spouse recklessly spend Journey’s cash till there may be none left for working prices. If anybody is destroying the Journey model, it’s Neal–and Neal alone.”
And a spokesperson for Cain informed Selection of the letter, “Schon is simply pissed off that he retains dropping in court docket and is now falsely claiming the tune has been used at political rallies.”
That “frustration” partly stems from a litany of self-inflicted authorized motion Journey has filed between themselves and former members, together with — most not too long ago in October — a lawsuit filed by Schon that accused Cain of refusing to offer him entry to the group’s American Specific card and its data.
“Neal has at all times had entry to the bank card statements; what he lacks — and what he’s actually looking for — is the means to extend his spending limits,” Cain mentioned in an announcement on the time.
“Since Neal determined to publicize what’s going on, I can inform you we’ll current the proof to the court docket that exhibits that Neal has been underneath large monetary strain because of his extreme spending and indulgent way of life, which led to him operating up monumental private prices on the band’s bank card account.”
That lawsuit adopted one filed in September by former lead singer Steve Perry, who took authorized motion in opposition to each Schon and Cain to cease them from registering federal emblems on the names of most of the band’s greatest hits. Perry, who left Journey in 1998, claimed the trio had an settlement that required unanimous consent for any enterprise choice associated to the emblems and that he had not licensed mentioned consent.
Going again to 2021, Schon and Cain have been on the identical aspect after they confronted off in opposition to bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith after these former members allegedly tried to fund their retirement by wresting management of the band’s title; an “amicable settlement” was reached in that lawsuit.
Miraculously, regardless of all of the in-fighting, Journey — with Schon and Cain in tow — nonetheless managed to launch their new album Freedom in 2022, their first LP in 11 years. The 2 longtime bandmates can even put their variations apart when the band embarks on their Freedom Tour in Jan. 2023.