Neal Schon Explains Why They Fired Jeff Scott Soto
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 07: 2017 Inductee Neal Schon of Journey attends the Press Room of the 32nd Annual Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Barclays Center on April 7, 2017 in New York City. The event will broadcast on HBO Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 8:00 pm ET/PT (Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
Journey guitarist Neal Schon stated the reasons for dismissing former lead singer Jeff Scott Soto, saying he “didn’t sound right” to them.
Argentinian journalist Lucas Gordon asked Soto about his firing, he said (via Blabbermouth):
“The problem is I don’t know. That’s the problem. If I knew what the problem was, if I knew the reason why I got fired, then at least I could be at peace with it; I could find a way to discuss it or talk about it. But I’m not legally supposed to talk about it. It got to the point where we had to take it [to] legal side of things.”
And added that he, “signed a document that I wouldn’t talk about anything negative, anything bad about them. And I don’t wanna talk negative.”
“If I was told why I was fired, if I was told, ‘Your voice sucks,’ if I was told I killed one of the guys’ dogs, if I made somebody in their family angry, if I was told the reason why I was fired, I could make peace with it. But to this day, 14 years later — whatever it is — I don’t know. I don’t have the answers.”
Soto continued.
On the Blabbermouth article in Facebook, Schon left a comment as his responds to Soto’s statements saying,
“It was unfortunate, but Steve Augeri’s voice gave out,” and added, “We were in the middle of [the] Def Leppard tour, so I was working with Jeff on [a] side project and suggested he come in and help [finish] the tour. It went well but all were not sold on him being the lead singer after writing a tune and listening. Both [keyboardist Jonathan Cain] and I agreed it didn’t sound right – or, better put, what we wanted. I hope this satisfies this ongoing drama. It didn’t work out.”
Soto was not happy about Schon’s responds and said in 2019,
“There’s zero mention, there’s zero attention brought to the fact that I was even in the band and I did those tours,” and continued, “I was officially made a member of the band. And then for them to act like it didn’t exist or to say that they wanted a signature sound, and I was only supposed to be a hired gun and just to get them through the tour, that kind of bums me out.”
