With Steve Perry’s departure, Journey was in search for a new lead singer during the late 80s. Even though there were several musicians who fit the bill, Neal Schon ultimately decided to go with Arnel Pineda. However it seems there were a brief moment Schon considered Michael Bolton instead of Arnel.
In a 2012 Q&A session with Classic Rock, Neal gave insight into how he chose Arnel and why he didn’t pick Michael as Steve’s replacement. The rocker explained:
“We thought about it for a second. Michael [Bolton] definitely had pipes – he was pretty bionic when I worked with him. But even then there was a lot of personality clashing. I didn’t feel that we would get too far, that’s all I can tell you.”
During the same Q&A, Neal recalled working with Bolton and how that showed him what Journey’s future would hold if they went with him instead of Arnel as Perry’s replacement. He expressed:
“Michael Bolton was a little eccentric. I played the blues guitar solo on his version of (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay, and Bolton made me re-do my solo about 200 times.”
Besides Bolton, there was someone else that almost made the cut, the band’s very own drummer Deen Castronovo. Deen revealed in an episode of the Thunder Underground podcast this past April that there were discussions about him stepping up and taking over as the lead singer, but he decided to forfeit the idea.
The drummer shared how they, as a band, decided that the lead singer should possess something more and chose to go with Pineda. He expressed:
“There was talk about it, but I was like, ‘No, no.’ They were like, ‘We should get Deen up there.’ ‘Well, no’ [laughing]. And that was early on… I think we all agreed I was not that special person to front a band. You got to have that thing. Whatever that is, the charisma or [something else]. Whatever they want to call it…”
You can read Neal Schon’s 2012 Q&A with Classic Rock here.
