Journey guitarist tells keyboard player to stop playing songs for Trump
A rift has occurred in legendary rock band Journey over keyboardist Jonathan Cain’s repeated performances for former President Donald Trump.
In response to Cain playing the band’s iconic immortal song “Don’t Stop Believin” at Mar-a-Lago last month which featured Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Kari Lake singing along with his performance, guitarist Neal Schon said served the 71-year-old a cease and desist order. As Fox News noted, Cain “has been part of Trump’s inner circle for a long time and has been seen with the former president at various events over the years.”
Cain’s wife, Paula White, also works with Trump as a spiritual advisor.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Kari Lake performed “Don’t Stop Believin'” with Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain at a recent event with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. pic.twitter.com/dvSp1z62BX
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) November 23, 2022
Obtained by The varietythe cease and desist letter accuses Cain of politicizing the band without their will, arguing that they hope to keep their songs apolitical.
“While Mr. Cain is free to express his personal beliefs and associations, when doing so on behalf of Journey or for the group, such conduct is extremely detrimental to the Journey brand as it polarizes fans and reach of the band. Journey is not and should not be political,” he said.
“Mr. Cain is prohibited from using Journey for politics. His politics should be his personal business. He should not capitalize on the Journey brand to promote his personal political or religious agenda to the detriment of the group,” a he added.
A major rift occurred between Schon and Cain earlier this year when the latter was allegedly denied access to the band’s American Express card. Schon’s attorneys argued that this stemmed from Cain’s billing of more than $1 million for “inappropriate personal expenses.”
A spokesperson for Cain said Schon was “just frustrated about losing in court,” referring to a legal battle over the limitation of Schon’s access to Journey’s credit card. In a statement to Fox News, Cain said Schon should “look in the mirror” if he accuses others of damaging the band’s image:
“I watched him damage our brand for years and am a victim of his bizarre behavior and that of his wife. Neal sued Live Nation twice, losing both times and hurting our ability to work with them again. ; Neal has outrageously attempted to remove Steve Perry’s trademarks; Neal and his wife continually insult the professionalism of many accountants, road managers and management companies with endless legal threats and their intimidating, toxic and incoherent emails Neal argues online with fans who disagree with him; and Neal and his wife recklessly spend Journey money until it runs out of money,” he wrote.
The statement ended by saying “if anyone destroys the Journey brand, it’s Neal – and Neal alone.”
Cain, Schon and singer Steve Perry wrote the hit song together in 1981.
As noted by Fox News, Schon said in 2020 that he didn’t want Journey to become a symbol for Democrats or Republicans and felt it necessary to champion the brand.
“I had to fight all this time to protect the brand I built with Steve Perry, long before Gregg [Rolie] and I chose Cain to replace him when he wanted to retire from the road at the time. And quite frankly, I’m tired of having to defend on my own,” Schon said.
Mixing Journey with politics has not always been forbidden to the guitarist. In 2007, Hillary Clinton infamously announced her candidacy for president with a parody of the famous Soprano finale which also included the hit song.
breitbart
