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The Surprising Story of Journey’s Filipino Frontman

Well, it’s actually not that surprising once you learn about musical culture in the philippines..

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Guys weaned on Led Zeppelin aren’t supposed to like Journey. Yet, decades beyond my rock ‘n roll formative years, I proudly stand in a crowd of Journey fans in Saratoga, New York, enamored with the band’s new Filipino lead singer, Arnel Pineda—the same singer who, a year prior, I watched perform cover tunes in dingy downtown Manila bars where wobbly ceiling fans swatted flying cockroaches. Having previously zigzagged across the Philippines in search of the keys to their native musical genius, I must admit I wasn’t surprised to witness Pineda’s rise to fame.

Arnel Pineda performing with The Zoo (before fronting Journey)

Photo by Bruce Northam

During my third trip through the Philippines, Southeast Asia’s only Christian country, I sought to answer the question: Why are the Philippines the rock-and-roll engine for the rest of Asia? From Hong Kong to Singapore and back up to Tokyo or Beijing , if there’s a skilled rock band on stage, they’re likely Filipino.

The Spanish colonial era that began in 1565 introduced guitars, choirs, and the art of serenading to the Philippines. This Eurasian hybrid—linked to the Renaissance—set the stage for a nation hooked on music. Historically, Filipinos have a song for every occasion, such as planting rice, fishing at night, and courting sweethearts. The Filipino serenade was inspired by the old-style Spanish romantic scenario: A guy shows up with his guitar outside his dream girl’s home and croons a love song. If she opens her window to listen and sings a song in response, he’s in; if the window doesn’t budge, it’s off to voice lessons or another gal’s house. Nearly every Filipino man I met born before 1960 had vivid recollections of serenading his eventual wife—or being shot down in flames.

Arreceffi Island, Philippines

My musical mission first led me to sand-and-ungle fringed Palawan, a narrow 250-mile-long island bisected by an imposing spine of limestone mountains. One of 7,017 Philippine islands, this is where I met Bing, a charming mother of five. She was serenaded at 2 a.m. by her eventual husband, who wasn’t put off by her underwhelming appearance at the window—her face at the time was encrusted with otherwise beautifying talcum powder. It was true love from the get-go.

Music wriggled its way into the Philippine heart long before the Spanish towed in stone cannonballs and religion. Palawan’s indigenous lowland Aboriginals, the Tagbanuas, expressed feelings of love in singing poems inspired by the inexhaustible variety of sounds in nature. They imitated the singing of insects and birds and created a bird scale that mimics musical notation. That birdlore vocabulary continues to bond men and women of the jungle.

In the 1980s, karaoke was invented by a Filipino man and then sold to a Japanese investor. It overtook the Philippines and modernized the serenade. Then, jukebox-style videoke began booming from street corners, bars, and malls. While American-style signs of affection play out as pricey gifts, horse-drawn carriage rides, and scoreboard proposals—most American men sing to their women only to humor them—Filipinos still sing to theirs as if their futures depend on it.

After Spain’s rule gave way to American colonization, the U.S. built schools in practically every village and taught the Filipino people English. Hollywood was also delivered to their doorstep. The Vietnam-era military bases needed entertaining, so Filipino rock, jazz, and lounge bands surfaced and thrived. Base towns became hubs for live Western music, which inspired many to pick up a guitar and sing. American soldiers also left behind a legacy of vintage guitars. Hundreds of collectors’ guitars—mostly Gibsons—found permanent homes in the Philippines. Turkey may have claimed the world’s “East Meets West” slogan, but it also justly describes the Philippines’s music scene.

Modern Manila, a mega-city of 15 million, is traditional yet faddish, Asian in character, but Western in disposition. Still hunting for the history behind the Filipino love of music, I was unaware that their irrepressible musicality was about to storm America until I caught wind that the iconic 1980’s rock band, Journey, had just auditioned a Filipino named Arnel Pineda as their new lead vocalist—and that same singer was fronting his Manila-based rock cover band, The Zoo, in a few hours. I sat in the front row and introduced myself to Arnel between sets. He sat with me and explained that Journey’s guitarist admired his covers of the band’s hits on YouTube and flew him to California. Only a few days after his tryout, it was supernatural to witness this still unknown would-be star rock out in a random, smoky Manila bar.

Arnel Pineda is not yet famous, but still happy.

While the decision to hire Arnel had still not been made, I interviewed him after two more Manila shows. His arena-rocking potential was obvious. A month later, Journey announced him as their new vocalist, as well as a world tour. A Filipino fronting a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-bound band was the biggest entertainment news ever in the Philippines, outshining Filipino Lea Salonga’s Tony Award-winning role in Miss Saigon .

Before Arnel was launched out of obscurity and into the world spotlight, the youthful, unassuming 40-year-old was armed only with standard Filipino politeness. He insisted that his birthplace was “a big sponge that’s open to world music.” No stranger to smiling, he added, “We grew up breathing music, it’s in our veins.”

Some may call it luck, but Arnel was well-prepared for this opportunity. His mother, a tailor who passed away when he was 13, began grooming him via in-home performances at age five. Born into poverty, he was competing in local singing competitions by age seven. He went pro at 15, initially showcasing his vocal range in malls and later throughout the Philippines and other parts of Asia. His story was also punctuated by spells of hunger and homelessness.

It seems almost everybody in the Philippines can carry a tune. Women sing to nobody in particular, as they stare into internet café computer screens; a man whistles as he stands before a urinal; cab drivers croon along with their radios; maids belt out while working; a teenaged boy strums a guitar on a street corner, practicing a puppy love song. Like Brazilians and the Irish, few Filipinos are performance shy, because music—from liturgical to metal—is bred into their souls. Although karaoke machines are displacing windowsill serenades, my faith was restored as my Philippine Airlines flight touched down in California, and two flight attendants seated in the jump seats facing me began singing to each other. Music celebrates a universal love, and there’s no greater invitation to love than singing about it.

When Arnel Pineda first toured the world with Journey, he invited me backstage in Saratoga Springs, NY, where he was about to dazzle 25,000 wildly cheering fans. After a hug and a handshake, we reflected on how things had changed for him since our smoky bar-room conversations in Manila. It was a fleeting moment to revel in his rags-to-riches story. It’s rare to successfully replace the lead singer of an iconic band. Van Halen and AC/DC pulled it off, as did Journey. Before heading to center stage, he said, “If my mom was alive today, she would have been so proud.” His body may have been on cloud nine, but his familial heart was beating aloud. I reminded him that I wanted to write his biography. Walking into the spotlight, he turned around and nodded a yes.

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He Didn't Stop Believin'

By Alex Pappademas

Photography by Andrew Hetherington

arnel pineda, who turns 41 this year, has been performing in bands since he was a teenager, and by now he has mastered virtually every kick-ass lead-singer move known to rock. He can launch his compact body off the drum riser and land without twisting an ankle. He plays excellent microphone-cord air guitar. He knows when to do the reach-out-and-touch with the fans in the front row and when to turn the microphone stand upside down and lift it above his head, as if calling down the lightning. He knows how to do these things because he is a professional lead singer and a good one, which means he is a virtuoso whose instrument is his own charisma. He is also adept at the parts of the lead-singer job that involve singing.

Until recently, the only place you could see Pineda doing any of this stuff was in Manila, where he and his band, the Zoo, appeared regularly at bars and nightclubs, or on the YouTube channel of an industrious Zoo fan named Noel Gomez, who has uploaded more than sixty video clips of the band performing live, usually on stages that resemble discarded sets from early-'90s late-night talk shows. It was thanks to those videos, in which Pineda sings the songs of Deep Purple, the Goo Goo Dolls, Heart, Stryper, Styx, Toto, Aerosmith, Bob Marley, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Simple Minds, Bryan Adams, Men at Work, the Beatles, and REO Speedwagon, that he wound up here at the Planet Hollywood hotel in Las Vegas on a Saturday in early March, playing his first U.S. show as the new lead singer of the legendary '80s rock band Journey.

It's a little after 8 p.m., and we've reached the point in "Any Way You Want It" where lead guitarist Neal Schon, who cofounded Journey in 1973, plays a precise yet impassioned hairspray-torch of a solo. This is Pineda's cue to sidle up to Schon and make your-guitar-playing-is-rocking-me-so-hard faces at him, prompting Schon to make equally ridiculous not-as-hard-as-it's-rocking-me-my-brother faces back. It's the kind of thing singers in arena rock bands have been doing during the guitar break since arenas were invented, and usually it's only entertaining if you know, for example, that the guitarist and the lead singer actually hate each other. But when Pineda does it, it's more than a gesture. He has performed this song live many times before, but he's still getting used to performing it with the band that made it famous, so when he does the grooving-on-the-solo thing, he appears genuinely awed,1 not only by the force of Schon's rocking but by the fact that he, Arnel Pineda, is actually being rocked by Neal Schon. When he turns to the audience—where fans have been waving the Philippine flag and their own homemade banners (arnel for president) in his general direction all night long—the look on his face is equal parts glee and disbelief.

"My life is a fairy tale," Pineda told me earlier. "But I'm awake, and I'm dreaming it."

if you're in a long-running classic-rock band and you find yourself without a lead singer, as Journey did last summer, you have several options, aside from retirement. The minute it's announced that you and your frontman have parted ways, aspirants to the position will begin sending you their CDs, whether or not you have asked for them.

But if you're Journey, at least a few of the innumerable bedroom karaoke-ists, tennis-racket axpersons, and car-dashboard drummers your music has inspired will have gone semipro, forming tribute bands that play your music in a Civil War–reenactment kind of way, which means you've also got a vast pool of ready-on-day-one understudies from which to draw. When Judas Priest made their first album without original lead singer Rob Halford in 1996, they drafted Tim "Ripper" Owens, an Akron office-supply salesman who sang Halford's parts in a Priest tribute band; thanks to the 2001 film Rock Star, in which Mark Wahlberg played an Owens manqué named Chris "Izzy" Cole, this is probably the most famous example of a band calling a singer up from the farm team.

It's a major crossroads, this frontman decision. You can bet on the future by tapping a singer who may have his own thing happening, or you can reinvest in your legacy by recruiting a singer who's been practicing your stuff for years. But when Journey parted ways with frontman Jeff Scott Soto last summer, Neal Schon began to wonder if there was another way to go.

What you need to know here is that the lead-singer slot in Journey has always been a high-turnover position, somewhere between "Mr. Pamela Anderson" and "drummer for Spinal Tap" on the volatility scale. Soto was either the third, fourth, or fifth guy to have the job, depending on whether or not you count keyboardist Gregg Rolie (responsible for some of the vocals on the band's first three albums) or Neal Schon (ditto) or Robert Fleischman (who sang live with the band and cowrote "Wheel in the Sky" but never appeared on a studio album). But as far as Journey's fans are concerned, there is but one true Journey vocalist, and his name is Steve Perry. Before Perry, Journey were a chops-flaunting jazz-rock outfit whose first three albums had sold poorly; when Columbia Records threatened to drop the band, their manager, Herbie Herbert, prevailed upon them to hire Perry, who had a supple tenor, a gawky, earnest stage presence, and one of the worst haircuts in rock. Together, he and Journey began writing new songs that showcased two of these three qualities, and by the turn of the decade they'd become one of the biggest bands on earth.

Sometimes pop songs are poetry, and sometimes they're art, and sometimes they're poetry transformed into art and written in airbrush on acid-washed denim. During the Perry years, Journey sang about dreamers on the run, about summer nights, about the lonely road. They once rhymed "walkin' a high wire" with "caught in a cross fire." They made videos so singularly ill-conceived—like "Separate Ways," which is clearly supposed to take place in the kind of gritty urban environment where one might find oneself caught in a cross fire while walking on a high wire but appears to have actually been filmed in the parking lot of an Ikea—that they now resemble_ Flight of the Conchords_ skits. Pete Townshend once said, "If you steer clear of quality, you're all right," but Journey played everything with an aerobic professionalism that suggested that quality was Job One. Most rock critics despised them; they were frequently lumped in with Styx and Foreigner and characterized as "faceless," an allegation the members of Journey say they neither appreciated nor understood.

By Brett Martin

By Jeremy Freed

By Matthew Roberson

They were never cool, and they were never dangerous. Cool, dangerous bands advocated the use of drugs, or at least testified to their allure; Journey signed a then groundbreaking endorsement deal with Budweiser and once arrived at a St. Louis gig in a carriage pulled by the brewer's iconic team of Clydesdales. Cool, dangerous bands lured their fans to the dark side using satanic iconography; Journey tempted their fans into arcades to pump quarters into Bally Midway's Journey video game.2 Cool, dangerous bands made parents nervous; any kid who tried to rebel by cranking the soaring and saccharine sounds of Frontiers or Escape deserved to be laughed at through his or her bedroom door (and sat down by an elder sibling for a stern talking-to about the greatness of Black Sabbath).3

But for about a decade, they could basically do no wrong in the eyes of the record-buying public, who fell hard for future classic-rock radio staples like the shamelessly inspirational "Don't Stop Believin'," the shamelessly sentimental "Faithfully," and the shamelessly self-explanatory "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'." 4 Cool, dangerous bands are rarely accessible; Journey wanted to speak to as many people as possible. It didn't matter what kind of car you drove; if you'd ever wished it were a Trans Am, Journey were singing to you. Between 1978 and 1986, every record they made went platinum.

In 1984, Perry made a solo album, _Street Talk, _which spawned the hit singles "Foolish Heart" and "Oh Sherrie"; Schon says its success put a strain on Perry's relationship with the rest of the band. Perry returned to the Journey fold to make one more record, _Raised on Radio, _before taking an indefinite hiatus in 1987, citing vocal and emotional burnout. Journey didn't play together again until 1995. They made a comeback album, Trial by Fire, and scheduled a reunion tour; then Perry injured his hip on a hike in Hawaii. He needed to replace the hip in order to play live, but put off getting the surgery; Schon says the band waited until they couldn't wait anymore. The next time Journey toured, their singer was Brooklyn-born Steve Augeri. He took flak from hard-core fans for sounding too much like Steve Perry, and then he stepped aside, citing a chronic throat infection, and handed the mike to Jeff Scott Soto, who took flak for not sounding Perryish enough. A subtext was developing: Journey's fans felt that no one other than Steve Perry was fit to sing Journey songs in the shower, let alone onstage.

In conversation, the members of Journey jokingly refer to Steve Perry as "He Who Cannot Be Named," like the evil wizard in the Harry Potter books. Later, I ask Schon about this, after reading an interview with their former manager in which it is alleged that Journey are somehow legally enjoined from speaking on the record about Perry.

"Oh, y'know," Schon says. "There's no legal issue. We just try not to. I mean, I didn't say anything inflammatory. I didn't talk about how he still gets paid like a motherfucker even though he shouldn't be. It's stuff like that I'm not allowed to talk about. He sorta just bitches and moans and whines about everything. And he just assumes that every time we bring up his name, that we're sayin' bad things."

no one in journey was excited about auditioning new singers, and none of the tribute-band Steves they looked at seemed like the answer. "I didn't think they had anything new to offer," Schon says, "other than making us a nostalgia act, and I wasn't interested in that."

Instead, Schon says, "I sat in my house for a couple days, hoping the almighty Internet would bring some relief."

He trawled YouTube, looking at all the live footage of male rock vocalists he could find. "You never know what you're getting on a CD," Schon says. "It can be all doctored in Pro Tools. You never know if somebody can sing unless you're watching something live." He found a few singers with potential—a couple of guys in England, doing "a Justin Timberlake–type thing." And then he stumbled on Noel Gomez's Zoo videos.

There are a few clips on YouTube of Pineda singing Journey songs like "Faithfully." His Steve Perry is almost eerily flawless; he nails both Perry's girlish quaver and the grit and pacing Perry borrowed from soul singers like Sam Cooke, and the fact that you can occasionally hear his accent makes the rest of the performance that much more uncanny. But Schon insists that what grabbed him about Pineda was his range. He slam-dunked Survivor. He tore up Toto. He made something out of "Makin' Love out of Nothing at All," and—spoiler alert—what he made out of it was love .

"The hair stood up on my arms," Schon says. "I got up off the computer and told my girlfriend, 'No way—this guy sounds too good. I don't believe it.' "

He went for a motorcycle ride. Thus are important rock-star decisions made. When he got back, he watched the clips again. Then he started calling his band. "I said, 'I found the singer,' " Schon says. "And they go, 'Where is he' And I'm like, 'He's in Manila!'

"And they go, 'Great—so you found a singer who can't speak English.' "

pineda's english is actually fine.

Right now he is trying to save his voice for tomorrow's show, so he speaks softly, which makes him seem as if he's in a state of perpetual awe (and maybe he is).

Pineda may have the most Dickensian backstory in rock history. His mother died when he was 13; his father took Pineda's siblings to live with relatives, and Pineda struck out on his own. He collected scrap metal, bottles, and old newspapers, usually bringing home the equivalent of thirty cents a day. Sometimes he'd sleep at a friend's house; more often than not, he'd sleep in Manila's Luneta Park, alone or with a group of other homeless kids. They drank from a fountain there and bathed in it, too; most mornings, Pineda would wake up sick from the dew. ("All clogged here," he says, pressing two fingers to his sinuses.)

His friend Monet Cajipe played guitar. Sometimes when Pineda wasn't working, he'd go over to Monet's house and they'd sing songs together. "He would bring me to his family," Pineda says, "and say, 'Come on, give some food to my friend,' because I was starving. They would make me sing, and then they would feed me. They would just bribe me with food."

At 15, Pineda tried out for a group called Ijos Band. He'd never sung with a real band before; during the audition, his voice was strong but his timing was weak. The bandleader saw something in him anyway, and when the other members of Ijos groused about having to split their nightly take with an extra man, one of the bandleader's friends came to the rescue, offering to pay Arnel's salary—thirty-five pesos a night—out of his own pocket. Perks of the job included a tiny room under the guitarist's front stairs, where Pineda could sleep.

He went on to cofound a band called Amo, which evolved into a band called New Age, featuring Cajipe on guitar. Like many Filipino bands, they played a mix of original material and covers of American and British rock and pop. While the U.S. occupation shaped Filipino musical culture during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Philippines truly became a cover-band nation in the '60s, when the islands served as a way station for troops en route to or from the Vietnam War and every nightclub needed bands who could entertain American servicemen with Top 40 rock 'n' roll. To this day, Pineda says, "if you only play original songs, [audiences in the Philippines] will not appreciate you 100 percent. They want to hear you singing other bands' songs that made it to number one. Like Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Journey."

In the early '90s, New Age relocated to Hong Kong, a time-honored path for -Filipino musicians seeking their fortune. It didn't go so well. Playing the same cover tunes every night began to drive Pineda crazy. He was bored, so he drank, took drugs, and generally pursued any and all forms of rock 'n' roll self-destruction available to a boy from Manila adrift on the Hong Kong bar circuit. Before long, he'd wrecked his voice. When he found he could no longer hit the high notes in Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight," he went to a doctor, who told him to retire. He was 27.

"He said, 'You're finished. Your vocal is just done,' " Pineda says. "I did not believe him. I told myself, I can get it back."

He returned to the Philippines, got straight, learned to sing again. He recorded a self-titled solo album in 2000; he and Cajipe started the Zoo. They recorded their first album,_ Zoology_. For a man who'd been told he'd never sing again, it was a happy enough ending. Then, last summer, the phone rang.

When Pineda went to get his visa, the guy who interviewed him at the embassy—"His name is Ben. I can't forget his name," Pineda says—was a fan who'd seen him play with the Zoo a couple of times, so Pineda took a request, and everybody in the office looked up from their desks at the guy singing "Wheel in the Sky."

He flew to San Francisco, spent a day jamming with the band at their rehearsal space. He hadn't slept much on the flight over, so his voice kept cracking, and he assumed he'd blown it, but he almost didn't care. He'd come to America and sung with a band he'd loved since he was 12 years old. He'd shot some home movies of them on his camcorder—a YouTube-able epilogue to his crazy YouTube adventure. He was ready to settle for that. But that jam session led to a long day in the studio, where Pineda sang two new songs and four or five of the Dirty Dozen—nailing most of them in one take—and by the time it was over, he'd passed the audition.

"Arnel cared about getting it right," band member Jonathan Cain says. "There wasn't this arrogance—the Lead Singer Disease that so many guys have when they have fantastic voices."

let us consider the New Guy.

In life, the New Guy gets the office that was once a closet full of printer paper, or maybe still is; the New Guy is told about bogus traditions involving the New Guy picking up the lunch tab; the New Guy spends a lot of time wondering what's so funny.

The New Guy's phone rings, but it's not for him. He disappoints people just by picking it up. _No, I'm sorry—he's not here anymore. Is there something I can help you with _

In rock, being the New Guy is the same, except harder. The jokes you don't know go back to some long, snowy between-concerts bus ride circa 1984. And you're trying to inhabit a stadium-sized myth, not a cubicle. You might win over a few late-to-the-party fans, but your presence alone will always be proof to some people that the band has outlived its awesomeness. A band with a New Guy on vocals is like a late-period Happy Days episode, one of the ones where nobody's left except Ted McGinley and a middle-aged Fonz who can barely zip the leather jacket. And because the only way for a band in this position to shake off the taint of the glue factory is to reunite with its original singer, the New Guy in a rock band is always a dead man rocking.

Tim Owens got seven years with Judas Priest before Rob Halford returned. Anyone not named David Lee Roth who agrees to sing for Van Halen is basically keeping the leather pants warm for Diamond Dave. And however comfortable Pineda's been made to feel during the past few months, he must know on some level that Steve Augeri and Jeff Soto once felt comfortable, too. Toward the end of our interview, as dusk bleaches the color from the desert outside the window, I ask him if he's thought about how long this is going to last.

"Well, of course," he says. "Of course I did. I'm a very realistic person. I like to plan. I like to see the future. If I'm lucky, if I'm still strong, I want to be with them for the next three years. And if they still like me after that, I still want to be with them. And hopefully we will create new Journey music that people will love."

And at some point, I suggest, you'll become essential. People will say Journey without Arnel, who wants that

"I just want to be a part of a band that will be able to reinvent themselves, you know" Pineda says. "And I think they will be able to help me build a future, with my family. They will help me financially. They can help me with that. Because all of us need a good future for our children, for our families."

It's true, we do. The members of Journey talk about Pineda like he's given them their youth back, the way thrice-married men talk about the young wives who've got them doing wheatgrass shots and yoga, listening to the Killers. It's never too late to feel like you're going to live forever. "I think we're reborn, right now, with Arnel," Schon says.

He talks about the band's first show with Pineda in Chile, how Arnel was all over the stage, jumping around, surprising everyone, and making Schon—who's playing a cordless guitar for the first time since the '80s—feel the need to step his game up. "I'm gonna be riding my bicycle a lot, and skating," he says, "and getting myself in tip-top shape so I can keep up with this little guy."

When Journey were off the road last year, during the gap between singers, it gave Schon time to get sober. When we talk, it's been nine months. "I believe I was a functioning alcoholic," he says—he'd stay straight for shows but kill a bottle of vodka on the tour bus afterward, and that went on for years. So this moment is also a rebirth for Schon; he's facing all of it straight for the first time. "I feel like I have 100 percent of myself here," he says, "and I'm really excited about getting out there and being completely in control."

Pineda's arrival lets them zero out the odometer. "Had I known Arnel was around fifteen years ago," Schon says, "singing even better than he is now—Goddammit, I would have called him!"

journey may not want to be thought of as a nostalgia act. But they are clearly totally fine with being an act that benefits from nostalgia. When I ask Cain why people still care about Journey in 2008, his response is basically a definition of the term:

"It's music they grew up to," he says. "Fell in love with. Had sex with. Got married to. Graduated from high school or college with. It's a moment frozen in time, and when they remember those moments, they remember those songs. Y'know, the '70s and '80s were awesome times. There was a lot less trouble in the world. And it's like people wanna go back to that simpler place and time. We see these housewives—they used to come to our shows when they were teenagers, and now it's like The Big Chill. They come back, they get a room, and they come see Journey. And I see 'em in the bars and buy 'em a drink and talk to 'em. Or there'll be a daughter that's bringing her mom to a Journey show as a birthday present, because she didn't get to see us back then. And you're like, 'Oh my God—I'm part of this.' "

How Journey's fan base will respond to the band's new incarnation is another question. Journey's new album, Revelation, will be available in June, exclusively at Wal-Mart. In this regard, they're following in the footsteps of the Eagles, who've sold 2.9 million copies of their album Long Road out of Eden through the big-box retailer since last October.

The album package will consist of a CD featuring eleven new Journey songs with Pineda on vocals, a DVD of the Planet Hollywood show, and a third disc featuring Pineda-sung rerecordings of eleven Journey classics whose original iterations featured you-know-who. Depending on how you look at it, this rewrite of the band's history is either a huge vote of confidence for Pineda or the rock 'n' roll equivalent of trying to prove to yourself that you're over your ex-girlfriend by dating a woman who looks exactly like her. And it's a move guaranteed to piss off more than a few Journey fans—even the album's producer, Kevin Shirley, compares it to "roxing the Holy Grail."5

I get a hint of the backlash that may be on the way when, a week or so before the Vegas show, I post a thread on the Journey message board at Melodicrock.com, an Internet forum for people with strong opinions about power balladry and Night Ranger side projects. I ask people to tell me their Journey stories; I ask people what they think of Pineda. I give out my e-mail address. Within minutes, my in-box fills up with e-mails—angry, passionate e-mails.

I hear from a few thick-and-thin super-fans, from plenty of reasonable people ready to give Arnel a fair shake, and even a few early Pineda converts. But I also hear from people frustrated by the band's -inability to hold on to a lead singer and from people who resent the band for continuing on at all. But mostly, I hear from people who have not stopped believing in Steve Perry. They compare him to Elvis, John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, and God. They describe the post-Perry band as "a second-class rendition of Journey." They send me all-caps e-mails—Steve Perry really brings out the caps-lock in people—that begin "IT HAD BEEN BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION THAT YOU ARE LOOKING TO WRIGHT AN ARTICLE ABOUT WHY JOURNEY IS NO LONGER JOURNEY BUT NOTHING MORE THEN A TRIBUTE BAND TO THE BEST SOFT ROCK BAND EVER." They send me photomosaics of Steve Perry created out of many, many tiny little pictures of Steve Perry.

"You want to know why the 'fascination' with Journey all of a sudden" writes Thomas Cordea of Fort Wayne, Indiana. "With the hiring of a blatant 'sound-alike' singer, the world is 're-awakening' to the fact that THEY MISS STEVE PERRY LIKE MAD.… That is the real 'hidden' storyline of your article, not this latest frontman hire."

Maybe. But this latest frontman hire still seems like the first smart move Journey have made in years. They've got a guy who can sing the Perry material on tour. They're excited about making new music with him. And the fact that they discovered Pineda on YouTube has given them a ready-made PR hook. In a clicky, viral, cell-phone-delivered media moment where even the twice-weekly cult-of-the-amateur hour that is _American Idol _seems like a rusty piece of star-making machinery and Simon Cowell like a snooty gatekeeper, Journey—Journey!—seem like innovators, in touch with the forces shaping the culture. For a band prominently featured in people's memories of the Carter administration, this is pretty impressive.

This doesn't change the fact that they're Journey —emblematic of the way '70s rock betrayed the '60s in the '80s, part of the problem that punk's loogie-hawking historical rebuke supposedly solved. The middleman-eliminating YouTube story line can't make them cool; neither can the existence of a Journey-branded "Virtual Island" in the online nerdiverse Second Life. But coolness accrues in unexpected ways; once-verboten things slip out of cultural jail under cover of irony.

five signs the journey revival is imminent or possibly already here, in descending order of cultural impact:

1. David Chase uses "Don't Stop Believin'" in the last scene of the last episode of The Sopranos. It either is or isn't the last song Tony Soprano ever hears. (A week after the episode airs, Hillary and la famiglia Clinton parody this scene, right down to the onion rings, in a viral-video campaign ad.)

2. Drolly doleful indie rockers—Badly Drawn Boy, Of Montreal—begin slipping ironic-but-maybe-sincere "Don't Stop Believin'" covers into their live sets. Kanye West does, too—at the shows he played in Europe shortly after his mother's death, it often followed "Hey Mama," the one he couldn't get through without crying.

3. Literate classic-rock obsessive Craig Finn and his Brooklyn-via-Minnesota meta–bar band, the Hold Steady, reference Journey in song: My name is Steve Perry, but people call me Circuit City.… My name's Neal Schon, but people call me Nina Simone.

4. Petra Haden, formerly of the late, lamented three-girls-and-a-guy alt-rock band that dog., records an a cappella cover of "Don't Stop Believin'." Haden: "My favorite part is singing that guitar solo. I always end up laughing at the end. I shouldn't, because it's supposed to be so serious. But I always do."

5. Some aspiring George Romero with access to a camcorder and a backyard uploads a no-budget horror short called "Journey of the Dead" to YouTube. Synopsis: "Steve Perry (former lead singer of Journey) saves a Rock and Roll loving couple from an attack by Rock Star Drummer Zombies. After a violent and bloody battle with the zombies, Steve Perry emerges victorious (as always) and then finds himself engaged in a karate showdown with the ultimate evil lead singer mastermind, Freddie Mercury!" Best quote: "Hey, zombie-breath—you picked the wrong day to not be dead! Now you're going to have to face Steve Perry!"

tapping somebody who can do Perry as well as Pineda can may indicate that the band want that uncomplicated approval they got from their audience during the Perry years, as opposed to the problematic tough love they're getting now. Or maybe Neal Schon—who started Journey, spent years building an audience through tireless touring (traveling, in the early days, in four-door station wagons, rolling into the venue just in time to jump onstage and play—who says Journey weren't punk) before having Perry foisted upon him in 1977 for reasons of commercial expediency, and has spent the post-Perry years being accused of sacrilege for daring to continue playing in the band he founded in the first place—wants to prove that it is he and his bandmates who make it Journey.

But when I ask Schon if he's at all tired of Journey being defined by Perry's presence or absence, he answers, "Um, no. I think he contributed so much to the sound of the band. Those songs are gonna be embedded in everybody's heads and hearts forever."

I get a slightly different take from Steve Perry, who calls from his home near San -Diego. Perry, who's finally started working on his first album of new material since leaving Journey, doesn't want to talk about the vocalists who've followed in his footsteps, Pineda included. "I only know that they've been through three guys," he says, "and I've never heard any of them. I stay away from it, because it's really none of my business now. We have children together, which are the songs we wrote, but that's about all."

But he will talk about what it was like when he joined a Journey already in progress in 1977, shedding a little light on what it might feel like to be Pineda now. "You've got to remember, they didn't want to make it with a lead singer," he says. "They wanted to make it without one."

I ask him about the scene in VH1's Journey_ Behind the Music _episode in which Perry declares that he "never really felt like part of the band." Was that because Schon resented having to hire a frontman

"What that meant," Perry says, "was that there was a period of time where I always felt that I had to prove myself. But along with that, you have to print that I can't blame them. It was [Neal's] band. Herbie Herbert built that band around Neal because he's a star on his own, from a guitar standpoint. There's nobody who plays like Neal Schon, to this day. I still miss his playing. We don't get along, but I love his playing.

"They wanted to make it on their own goalposts that they had in mind. There's nothing wrong with that. And I hope you print that, because it's important that people know that. I'm not bitchin'. I'm not whining. I completely understand how they felt and why."

the security people at the Planet Hollywood show—even the women—have the hired-muscle intimidation factor of pit bosses. For all I know, they are pit bosses. But at the end of the Planet Hollywood show, when Journey come back out to redo a couple of songs for the DVD—"We have to do one of the new ones again," Schon says cheerfully, "because we fucked it up!"6—the crowd-control policy is relad and people are allowed to come down the floor-seat aisles and up to the stage to scream and clutch at Pineda, presumably because this will make the show look more exciting on-camera. Someone hands him up a tiny Philippine flag on a wooden stand, the kind a diplomat keeps on his desk, and he stares at it for what counts, in rock-show time, as a long moment, before handing it back.

The do-overs end the night with a sort of anticlimactic thud, but overall it's been a good show, particularly for Pineda. Almost half the crowd—and this is an unscientific estimate based on what the nonwhite people looked like when I turned around—appeared to be Filipino, and from the first note he sang, they were his. And while none of the new Journey songs will make anybody forget "Don't Stop Believin'"—as always, the words "Here's another one from the new album" are the classic-rock-show audience's cue for a bathroom break—some of them are pretty affecting.

Kevin Shirley described "After All These Years" to me as "like 'Faithfully: Part 2'—it's a gem," and it kind of is. Like "Faithfully" (Journey's greatest gift to wedding DJs), it's a soaring, soulful ballad, readable as both a pledge of eternal fealty and a love letter to the fans. But the "all these years" theme adds the weight of long-term commitment to the mix; a song like this is how you tell your audience you'd marry them all over again. And while it's not anywhere near as good as "Faithfully," you can imagine it someday becoming part of the canon. Someday it will be performed by a singer in a smoky room—some Hong Kong piano bar, maybe—and traveling salesmen far from hearth and home will shed a tear or two, and maybe that's all that matters.

Afterward, there's a bottleneck in the lobby of the theater. As everyone shuffles slowly toward the doors that lead to the mezzanine above the casino, someone in the crowd starts singing the Nah nah, na nah nah / Na na na nah nah refrain from "Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'," the last song of the night. (It's the one song in Journey's catalog where you can most clearly hear the Sam Cooke mannerisms in Steve Perry's delivery, and Pineda nailed it—an Asian guy imitating a white Californian imitating a black guy from Chicago, on a stage in a Las Vegas hotel with "Hollywood" in the name. The mind reels.)

Then, as if the air-conditioning has started pumping karaoke spores, other people join in and start singing Nah nah, na nah nah / Na na na nah nah, too. It only lasts for a few seconds, but those seconds are maybe the most sincere moment of community I've experienced at a rock show in a long, long time—and they feel like proof that the Pineda-fronted version of Journey has succeeded in giving people the kind of life-affirming Journey experience they were looking for.

Later there's a VIP meet-and-greet in a high-ceilinged Planet Hollywood banquet room. Trickling in like they've timed their entrances, the band pose for pictures and sign T-shirts, albums, ticket stubs. The energy is a little flat until Arnel appears, wearing a shiny long-sleeve T-shirt, his hair pulled back in a ponytail. People immediately crowd around him, waving digital cameras; somebody shouts, "Move back, move back!" He makes it to the other side of the room, still swarmed by fans—many of them Filipino, many of them girls. I try to ask Arnel a couple of questions about the show, which yields a brief interview, reproduced here in its entirety:

Q. How's it going, Arnel A. Hey, man!

Then someone else gets his attention and he's off, posing for another photo. Instead, I interview Patty Zaragoza, who's a flight attendant "representing the Cathay Pacific cabin crew." She doesn't know much about Journey, but she's a fan of Pineda's—she used to see him perform in Hong Kong, at a bar called Grammy's. She gives me a blue Cathay Pacific lanyard, in case the one that came with my Journey backstage pass ceases to function. I turn around to try to get another word or two with Pineda, but he's mobbed. The crowd swallows him. He is, at least for now, a rock star.

the day before the show, I ask Kevin Shirley if he feels Pineda has fully processed everything that's happened to him during the past few months.

"No," Shirley says. "No, I don't think he has. I think the record needs to come out. I think he needs to go on tour. I think he still has a lot of fear about whether he can play this set every night. But he can. I feel very confident. But yeah—once all that settles in, and maybe once he gets his first royalty check. In the meantime, it's like, 'Can you buy me a sandwich I'm the lead singer of Journey!' "

alex pappademas is a GQ staff writer.

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Silverdocs: How Journey Found A New Lead Singer And Made Friends In Manila

Linda Holmes

Arnel Pineda became the lead singer of Journey in late 2007. Silverdocs hide caption

Arnel Pineda became the lead singer of Journey in late 2007.

One of the oddest things about the story of Arnel Pineda is that it's not actually quite as odd as it might seem.

Pineda was a bar and club singer working in Manila in 2007, doing some original material but finding an audience mostly for his covers, when he got an e-mail from Neal Schon, the guitarist from Journey. Schon had seen videos of Pineda performing on YouTube and asked him to come to San Francisco and audition to become the band's new lead singer. From Journey fan to Journey member, because of YouTube.

That's the hook of Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey , which opened Silverdocs on Monday night. Director Ramona S. Diaz followed Pineda and the band from the time shortly after he started rehearsing with them through their very successful 2008 tour and their – the word is a cliché, but it applies – triumphant show in Manila in March 2009 when they brought him back home a hero, the successful lead singer of an iconic American band.

There is a certain fairytale quality to all of it – the guy who was singing Journey covers when he suddenly got The Call – but really, it's not that weird. Schon didn't stumble on him accidentally or get an e-mail from someone that said "You've got to see this guy!!!"; he found Pineda while specifically searching YouTube for lead singers, because it's a not-unusual way to find musicians. Maybe he was even looking for lead singers doing Journey songs. Maybe even for lead singers doing Journey songs who sounded a lot like former lead singer Steve Perry – which Pineda surely does. Other than the fact that he was in the Philippines, Schon found his guy the way he set out to find him.

Pineda isn't quite as young as he sometimes seems in the film; he can seem like a kid, but he turned 41 during the 2008 tour. He's a stretch younger than guys like Schon, who's pushing 60, but he's not Justin Bieber being plucked from YouTube because he's never done anything. The story threatens at times to become a wacky internet novelty, but at its best, it's something a bit more satisfying than that. At its best, it's about a working singer – not a YouTube fluke, but a working, day-in-day-out singer who's been playing for years and years – can suddenly find himself jumped to the head of the line, playing to 22,000 people with musicians he's admired all his life. It doesn't have a lot to do with YouTube; the better story is about a band taking a huge risk on a completely unknown quantity because they need a guy and they found one they think will be a fit.

(As a side note, as tempting as the "Don't Stop Believin'" title is, I would have gone with a variation on "Journeyman." Just a suggestion, pun-wise.)

The best parts of the film focus on Pineda; he has a playful attitude toward his own sometimes overwhelming anxiety about the situation into which he's been thrust. He turns out to be a terrific fit for the band, despite his own comment that partly because he's "so Asian," he looks like they Photoshopped him in when Journey has photos taken. In fact, one of the guys in the band comments that bringing something a little more "international" to the "all-American" group is probably an advantage – a prediction that proves true when Pineda helps the band develop an impassioned following of Filipino-American fans in addition to the people back home in Manila. (The security team notes at one point that for some of Arnel's fans, he's "like Elvis.")

But at almost two hours, the film feels long. It comes to what seems like a natural ending at one point, and then it goes on for probably another 20 minutes. There are some background segments on the general history of Journey that don't seem to have been made with the love that went into the Pineda-era stuff, and a persistent subplot about Pineda getting colds and drinking tean — while care of the voice makes a nice tour detail — keeps coming back and back and back but never really goes anywhere.

Then there is also the problem of "Don't Stop Believin'" itself. I don't think it's a spoiler – I really, truly cannot imagine how it could be – to tell you that the film builds to the performance of that particular song. This tour happened after The Sopranos put "Don't Stop Believin'" in the spotlight but before Glee put it there again, and the closing titles of the film point out that it's now the most downloaded song written in the 20 th century. But at some point, waiting for it becomes a bit of a tease, and the build to the performance (and the holding out on playing much of that song after playing most of Journey's others that are well-known, sometimes more than once) turns into a game. I would have dropped the bomb a little sooner, just to avoid the sense of inevitability.

But the film is fun, and it's worth seeing, not because it's the tale of an internet sensation, but because it's the tale of a bunch of guys who really, really want to hear crowds scream – either again or for the first time ever. As much as it's about how a band lifted an unknown singer into a dreamlike world of screaming crowds and far more money than he'd ever known, it's also about how a band found just the right guy at just the right time to help capitalize on the surprise comeback of one of the band's most famous songs. Pineda says at one point that it's like hitting the lotto, what happened to him, but in truth, Schon hit the lotto, too. You can see the guys standing around him at certain moments, looking at him or watching him perform, realizing that he's incredibly grateful to them, but in fact, without him, they are out of luck .

There's an argument to be made that when you set out to find your new lead singer looking specifically for someone who can sing your existing hits and make them sound just like they did when your old lead singer sang them – rather than being primarily focused on a guy who can contribute to whatever your next identity is – you run the risk of essentially covering your own music. Under this theory, Pineda was originally recruited to be the lead singer of the most famous Journey cover band in the world – the one called Journey. But they have since released two albums of new material, and it seems to be a little more than that. It may even be a little more than Schon expected to find on YouTube.

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Arnel Pineda: The Story of Journey’s Lead Singer

June 18, 2023 by Gerald Lacuarta Leave a Comment

Who would have imagined that the lead singer of  Journey would be coming from the Philippines, discovered on the Internet by the legendary band desperately looking for a new voice? Yes, the story of Arnel Pineda is one of rag to riches, filled with stories of hardship, struggles, failures and perseverance. Anel Pineda has mesmerized music fans all over the world as he brought new life to the classic rock band and turned a new generation of fans onto their music. This blog post takes a deep dive into Arnel Pineda’s remarkable journey, from poverty in the Philippines to international success and fame.

Born in the urban district of  Sampaloc, Manila, in 1967, Arnel Pineda grew up in a poor family. Music was his refuge, and he started singing at an early age to make ends meet. By the 1980s, he was performing in Manila’s club scene, but success eluded him. In the early 1990s, he formed his own band, The Zoo, and started performing in Hong Kong’s music scene, where he gained a considerable following.

However, it was a YouTube video of him singing Journey’s classic hits that changed his life forever. The video went viral, and Journey’s lead guitarist, Neal Schon, took notice. Impressed by Pineda’s vocal range and energy, Schon invited him to audition for the band, which he did in 2007.

Arnel’s audition was a success, and he became the lead singer of Journey — filling the big shoes left by renowned Journey vocalist Steve Perry. Arnel’s first concert with them was their 2008 concert in Chile, which drew a record-breaking crowd of 18,000. His energetic performances and powerful voice have won over fans worldwide, and he has helped Journey’s music reach a whole new generation. Old time fans of Journey needed a little more convincing that Arnel was a good replacement for Steve. Sure, doubters have remained to be Steve loyalists, but there is a sense that most Journey fans have accepted Arnel as the new voice of Journey.

Since joining Journey, Pineda has toured with the band extensively, and they have released several albums featuring his vocals. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Journey.

Pineda’s story is an inspiring one. He overcame poverty and worked hard to pursue his passion for music, and his perseverance paid off. His success shows that with talent, determination, and a little luck, dreams can come true.

Arnel Pineda’s Journey story is one for the books not only because of his background but also because of the way he was discovered — through YouTube.

Arnel may have just covered Journey songs before in a tribute band, but his surprising rise to become the Journey’s lead singer has established him as true rock star in his own right.

Author: Gerald Lacuarta

Gerald Lacuarta is the editor and content curator of Phil Report. A former reporter of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and a managing editor of the Philippine Collegian, Gerald has written extensively on politics, courts and justice system, environment, foreign affairs, defense, media and technology. He is also a web developer and server administrator, and spends free time playing music and tinkering with cryptocurrencies.

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The Truth About How Arnel Pineda Joined Journey

Arnel Pineda's path to Journey is something out of a Hollywood movie, complete with tragedy and triumph.

Pineda, who became the lead singer of the band in 2007, was discovered by lead guitarist Neal Schon on Youtube and the rest was history. According to Pineda's official website biography, Schon saw Pineda singing with his then band The Zoo on Youtube and was impressed by how much he sounded like former Journey lead singer Steve Perry. But his path to stardom was very different.

Pineda grew up in the Philippines, where he began his career from the very bottom. He said in a 2010 interview that he left school early after his mother died and his family had to leave their old apartment. He lived in the streets of Manila for two years, working odd jobs, bathing out of gas station water barrels, and surviving off sardines and rationed biscuits. By the time he was 15, he had joined a band and began making a name for himself.

Over the next decade, he would continue performing to larger audiences, which eventually led to gigs in Hong Kong. A friend of Pineda's uploaded one of these performances to Youtube and a star was born.

The journey to Journey

Pineda told Rolling Stone  that Schon found his friend's email and asked how he could contact the singer. When news reached Pineda that Journey's guitarist was looking for him, he thought it was a joke.

"When my friend forwarded the email to me, I was just laughing," Pineda told Rolling Stone in 2017. "I just told him that this is one of the biggest jokes I have ever received from someone. 'It's a hoax,' I tell him. 'You shouldn't believe it.'"

But Pineda did email Schon back and flew to California to meet with him for a week of intense, nerve-wracking auditions. Finally, in December 2007, Journey announced Pineda as its new lead singer.

Now, Pineda's story may soon be turned into Hollywood film, directed by Crazy Rich Asians director Jon Chu. According to the Philippine news website ABS-CBN , Pineda met with the director and other producers to get the ball rolling, stating in Filipino that he's excited for the movie to happen so that other dreamers like him can find much-needed inspiration, and that it might open more doors for other Filipino and Asian artists.

If it pans out, this won't be the first time Pineda's story was told on film. The 2012 documentary Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey followed the band on one of its tours, including Pineda's homecoming concert in Manila.

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The incredible journey of Arnel Pineda

A documentary on the unlikely rise of a singer in philippines to frontman of the us band journey finally hits theatres..

Journey in Manila, with Arnel Pineda, centre. Courtesy Emerging Pictures

In between gigs, a young prince of rock 'n' roll sinks into his cushions and sighs.

"I'm living a fairy tale right now."

Truly, Arnel Pineda's life story is the stuff of fairy tales - a poor boy with a golden voice finds his way to become the lead singer of a legendary rock band. It's a modern day, real-life Cinderella story, not to mention a version of the 2001 Mark Wahlberg film Rock Star , which in turn was based on the heavy metal group Judas Priest, who replaced their frontman with one found performing in a tribute band.

Pineda's story unfolds in the documentary Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey , which was an official selection last year at the Tribeca Film Festival and the winner of the Audience Award at the 2013 Palm Springs International Film Festival. The film has just gone on wide release in cinemas in the US.

Brace yourself for a goosebumpy ride. The film goes on the road with Journey, criss-crossing hemispheres and timelines, to chronicle the intersecting destinies of Pineda and the iconic rock band in this age of the internet and social media.

The central story that started it all is itself an internet legend. Back in the summer of 2007, the members of Journey, who got together in 1973 and disbanded several times in the ensuing decades, began searching for a new lead singer. It was a tall order considering the anointed one would be stepping into the very big shoes of departed singer Steve Perry. The group, who hit the height of their popularity in the early 1980s with big, rich rock hits including Open Arms , Faithfully and Don't Stop Believin' , have sold more than 80 million albums worldwide.

After trawling YouTube for possible leads and almost ready to give up, the lead guitarist Neal Schon clicked on one last video. There popped up Pineda onstage in the Philippines, singing Journey cover songs for his band The Zoo. "This is too good to be true," said Schon.

Emails were sent, and soon an incredulous Pineda found himself in San Francisco to audition for the lead role.

Voice for a visa

The film's director Ramona S Diaz recounts how she was first inspired to make the documentary. In 2008, she received an email from a friend in Manila with the title "Best US Embassy Visa Application Story". Written by one of the immigration agents at the American Embassy in Manila, it was about Pineda, who said that the reason he was going to the US was that he was invited by Journey to audition for lead vocals.

"Journey? The rock band Journey?" the dubious agent had asked, and Pineda could only nod meekly, producing some flimsy email correspondence from the band. So Pineda was asked to sing Wheel in the Sky . He belted it out loud enough for the entire waiting room to stop and listen.

"Look sir," said the agent, "there isn't a person in this embassy who would believe that story! So I'm giving you that visa. You're going to try out. And you're going to make it."

And make it he did.

Rags to riches to racism

Pineda, who once had to sing for food, who lost his mother when he was 13 and grew up in a family so poor his father had to send siblings to live with relatives, who quit school and struck out on his own to ease the burden, spending two years on the streets before finding some domestic success as a musician, today performs in front of thousands in sold-out concerts all over the world.

His story was covered in Rolling Stone , he performed at a Super Bowl pregame show and he was a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show . Yet many times he'd still wonder if it was all a dream. In one scene, he says: "Why me? I'm short, I'm so Asian … it was like I was just edited in with Photoshop!"

Since 2007 Pineda has recorded two albums with the rejuvenated band: Revelation in 2008 and 2011's Eclipse . But Everyman is about life on the road, and in it the frontman proves an endearing, soulful character, a nice guy who suffered at an early age and is now reaping a lifetime's worth of good karma.

Says Diaz: "As we've travelled to film festivals the world over, it's apparent that audiences young and old feel a powerful kinship with Arnel. The bursts of applause and the standing ovations have overwhelmed us.

"Audiences truly like Arnel, they root for him because his success affirms that in this crazy world we live in, good things still happen to good people."

Now what fairy tale would be complete without a villain? Or in this story, villains - the haters, critics and downright racists who hurled their insults in cyberspace. If the internet was what got Pineda discovered, it was also where wickedness thrived - where such insults as "garbage," "impersonator" and "monkey" were slung.

"Arnel was very aware of that," says Diaz. "The internet has no gatekeeper. But he chose to ignore it, he knew he couldn't please everyone. He couldn't let that seep into his consciousness. Also, he had no time to focus on that because he was on tour."

It's an issue that Pineda addresses in the film. "There are people out there who want me to fail," he says. "I'm sticking to those people who believe in me."

Those people could translate into a whole country as his backup. As one Filipino fan commented in the film, when Journey chose Pineda for the lead, "they inherited a nation".

Rock 'n' road

So what was it like going on the road with Journey for a year? "It's really not glamorous," says Diaz. "They're working 24/7 for a two-hour act, every minute getting to those two hours on stage is hard work."

She was very impressed, however, describing the group as a "well-oiled machine with many moving parts".

As for the whole "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" cliché? Surprise, surprise - there wasn't even alcohol in the dressing room. "As the band has reached a certain level of maturity, they've passed all that - they were all sober."

Feel-good tale

During a gruelling year on the road, Diaz, of course, had no way of knowing how her film would end. "As a documentary filmmaker, one of the most exciting things about the process is not knowing how it's going to turn out," says Diaz. "Observing life as it unfolds through the camera's lens is a privilege."

Ultimately, Everyman's Journey is a feel-good film with a great soundtrack and a positive message. It shows the soft side of rock, seen in the warmth and enduring faith of the veteran rock stars Neal Schon, Ross Valory, Jon Cain, Deen Castronovo and the band manager John Baruck, in their fellowship of strings.

"No matter how clichéd it seems, it really is a story of never giving up," says Diaz. "Or, at the very least, surrounding yourself with friends who never stop believing in you."

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Flashback: Journey Unveil Arnel Pineda at 2008 Concert in Chile

By Andy Greene

Andy Greene

Journey faced a very hard road back to the top after parting ways with Steve Perry in 1998. They came close to their first tour since 1986 just a couple years earlier, but Perry injured his hip during a hike in Hawaii and needed major surgery. Frustrated with the wait, they hired a soundalike named Steve Augeri (nicknamed “Steve Perry with a perm” by the fans) and toured steadily for eight years, but vocal problems and allegations of lip-syncing surfaced in 2006 and Augeri’s tenure ended. Jeff Soto stepped in for a couple of years, but he didn’t sound much like Perry and the fans never really accepted him. By the end of 2007 he was gone and Journey seemed to be headed into oblivion.

The timing couldn’t have been worse. The season finale of The Sopranos later that year kickstarted a wave of “Don’t Stop Belivin'” mania that continued in the following years when the song appeared in Rock of Ages , Glee and every karaoke bar on the planet. The public was hungry for more Journey, but they were a band with a major lead singer problem. Out of desperation they turned to YouTube and discovered Jeremey Hunsicker, the frontman of the Journey tribute band Frontiers. They flew him to California for an audition and came close to having him on the dotted line, but it ultimately collapsed. (Check out this interview for Hunsicker’s take on the situation.)

Right around this time, Journey guitarist Neal Schon went back onto YouTube and discovered a series of live videos by Filipino band the Zoo fronted by 39-year-old Arnel Pineda. They specialized in cover songs by 1970s and 1980s icons like Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Survivor, Air Supply and Kenny Loggins. But the band truly shined when they played Journey. English may not be Pineda’s primary language, but when he sings Journey he seems almost possessed by the spirit of Steve Perry. A stunned Neal Schon flew Pineda out to California, and soon enough was telling the world that Journey found their new singer in Manila.

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Journey’s first gig with Pineda took place February 21st, 2008 at the Viña del Mar Festival in Chile. It was a bold move to debut a new singer in front of such a large audience, but Pineda was quite up to the task. Check out video right here of “Don’t Stop Believin'” from that big night. Dates were soon booked all over the world, and the story of an unknown Filipino fronting a major rock band was an irresistible story for the media. The band even got booked on Oprah and became a subject of a documentary, helping Journey sell more tickets than they had since Perry left. “If it wasn’t for me finding Arnel, who knows where we’d be right now,” Schon recently told Rolling Stone . “He does bring it. Now that people know him and have seen him so many times, they understand him and they believe it. They know there’s conviction in it.”

Hovering over all of this is the mystery of Steve Perry. He’s kept a very low profile since wrapping up a short solo tour in 1995, but in 2014 he did reappear to sing a few songs with the Eels . It was enough to dispel rumors that his voice is shot, and now that Journey is getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame there’s a tremendous opportunity for him to finally get back onstage with Journey, even if it’s just for a couple of songs. “We’ll just have to wait and see what happens,” Schon said . “I suppose we’ll hear something about it a day before or the day of. Who knows? I would be surprised if it didn’t happen, but I’ll deal with it whichever way. I think it’s gonna be an interesting evening.”

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Perry is refusing all interviews and only offered the briefest of brief statements: “I’m truly grateful that Journey is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.” It’s unclear if he even plans to show up, let alone sing a song or two with Journey. Schon said he doesn’t even have his phone number, so the mystery might linger right up until Hall of Fame night. But whatever happens, the very existence of the miracle that is Arnel Pineda means that Journey can keep touring for many, many years no matter what Steve Perry decides to do. 

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Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey

• Episode aired Mar 8, 2013

A documentary on Arnel Pineda, who was plucked from YouTube to become the new singer for the rock & roll band, Journey. A documentary on Arnel Pineda, who was plucked from YouTube to become the new singer for the rock & roll band, Journey. A documentary on Arnel Pineda, who was plucked from YouTube to become the new singer for the rock & roll band, Journey.

• Ramona S. Diaz
• Jeffrey Dinsmore
• Lois Vossen
• Arnel Pineda
• Jonathan Cain
• 9 User reviews
• 26 Critic reviews
• 53 Metascore
• 1 win & 1 nomination

• Self - lead vocalist, Journey

• Self - lead guitar, Journey
• Self - keyboards and rhythm guitar, Journey

• Self - bass, Journey
• Self - drums, Journey
• Self - manager, Journey
• Self - Arnel Pineda's greatest fan
• Self - Arnel Pineda's wife

• (archive footage)

• Self - lead vocalist 1977-1998, Journey
• Self - Arnel Pineda's brother
• Self - lead vocalist 1998-2006, Journey
• Self - tour manager 1998-2010, Journey
• Self - stage manager, Journey

• Self - bass and vocals, Chicago

• Self - lead singer, Heart
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Soundtracks Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) written by Jonathan Cain & Steve Perry courtesy of Jonathan Cain (as John Friga) & Steve Perry

User reviews 9

• Michael_Elliott
• Jul 18, 2014
• March 8, 2013 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Official site
• ジャーニー　ドント・ストップ・ビリーヴィン
• Moises Salvador Elementary School, Manila, Philippines
• Arcady Bay Entertainment
• Defining Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

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• Runtime 1 hour 45 minutes

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Journey frontman Arnel Pineda breaks silence over band feud

Lead singer of American rock band Journey , Arnel Piñeda , can no longer hold back from talking about the feud between two of his bandmates that broke out earlier this year and became public.

Tension continues to brew within the band up to now amidst Journey's ongoing 50th anniversary Freedom tour , fueled further by misleading reports spreading like wildfire across social media.

Arnel, who is not involved in the legal financial dispute between guitarist Neal Schön and keyboardist Jonathan Cain , found himself caught up in another issue after the Facebook post of Neal's wife Michaele Sch ön made the rounds online.

She shared (published as is), "TWO BAND MEMBERS of the Journey current LINE UP ARE 'adamant NO' against Gregg Rolie to return.

"Neal Schön and Gregg ROLIE will be somewhere Together at least one time this Year in Honor of what they began in 1972 .

"Faith, let’s ask God to find a way for them. let’s pray for forgiveness for those who hurt Gregg ROLIE and hope they learn what spirituality is someday .We all love you !!"

After the post went viral, fans were prompted to theorize that the two band members opposing Gregg Rolie's return are Arnel and Jonathan.

Read also: Arnel Pineda reacts to those tagging him as "new voice" of Journey; earns praise from the band's fans

Airing his side for the first time, Arnel took to Twitter on January 13, 2023: "you people are unbelievable…

"whoever’s spreading rumor about me regarding the #GregRollie issue?are maliciously ignorant..im not gonna stoop down to your level.."

Then again on February 5, 2023, he dropped two posts addressing the negative press he continues to get to this day.

He wrote (published as is), "m with the band to sing the legacy..if some of them are tired of me being with them,with all means,they can fire me anytime..

"and don't lecture me about spiritual BS..#walkthetalk"

His follow-up tweet read: "all i know? is #ivepaidmydues so stop reminding me where i came from..coz it's in my heart everyday..

"you just don't pay attention..im not a slave..im a human being like anybody else..

"#wrongiswrong #rightisright that simple.."

In an attempt to quash the worsening band conflict, Arnel once again tweeted three days later on February 8, 2023: "so much hatred people..we're on the brink of WWIII..

"lets just spread LOVE...

"don't you think its better to die being loved that being hated? [heart emojis]"

• Arnel Pineda on being inducted to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "I don't think I deserve that."
• Arnel Pineda surprised Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu wants to do his biopic
• Arnel Pineda, Journey give rendition of "Bayan Ko" during Manila concert
• Arnel Pineda gives "amazing" performance with Journey on Ellen Degeneres Show

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Netflix’s A Journey: Where Was the Filipino Movie Filmed?

With RC Delos Reyes at the helm, Netflix’s ‘A Journey’ is a Filipino drama movie that revolves around three childhood and lifelong friends, out of which Kaye Abad’s character receives the news that her cancer has made its way back into her life. Instead of undergoing the necessary treatment for the illness, she insists that she wants to check off some things on her bucket list with her husband and best friend, which includes going on a road trip across Tasmania.

As the trio of friends embark on the adventurous journey, they find out some harsh truths about one another. The narrative is brought to life through the brilliant performances of talented Filipino actors, including Paolo Contis, Patrick Garcia, Kaye Abad, and Jimmy Santos. Exploring the themes of friendship, love, and loss, the film also pays attention to the visual side of things as there are many beautiful spots in the backdrop that keep the viewers intrigued and glued to the screen.

A Journey Shooting Locations

‘A Journey’ was shot in the Philippines and Australia, with the cast and crew specifically setting up camp in Manila, Tasmania, and Melbourne. Beginning in May 2023, the principal photography for the drama film continued for about three months, before seemingly wrapping up in August of the same year.

Manila, Philippines

For the first leg of the production, the filming unit of ‘A Journey’ utilized the locales of the capital of the Philippines — Manila AKA the City of Manila, which lies on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on the island of Luzon. Several important scenes, especially the exteriors, were recorded in and around the city’s vast skyline.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Patrick Garcia (@onlypatrickgarcia)

Tasmania, Australia

Next, the production team of ‘A Journey’ traveled to the Australian island state of Tasmania, where they recorded multiple pivotal sequences, involving the three lead characters. The cast and crew members of the drama movie were spotted taping a few key portions in and around the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park situated in the Central Highlands area of the island. Consisting of many walking trails, the national park is where hikes for the popular Overland Track begin.

Located between Burnie and Ulverstone, there is a town called Penguin that served as yet another filming site on the island of Tasmania. From the looks of it, the filming unit spent a significant amount of time in and around the small town while lensing crucial scenes. Overall, they took many aerial and other outdoor shots while the trio of friends traversed through the Tasmanian terrains in their vehicle.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Paolo Contis (@paolo_contis)

Melbourne, Australia

Reports suggest that the director of ‘A Journey’ and the rest of his team set up camp in and around Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria. Using the modern architecture and vast landscape of the city as the backdrop, the production team recorded various prominent scenes for the film.

Read More: Best Filipino Movies on Netflix

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After The Emotional Rollercoaster Of ‘A Journey’, Here Are Another Five To Go On

Filipino tear-jerker A Journey tells the bitter-sweet story of three friends on a voyage of self-discovery to cope with life-changing news. The relationships between the threesome are the focus, and the film pulls every trick in the book to allow us to empathize with and relate to the cast. If you enjoyed this emotional roller coaster, it might put you in the mood for similar fare, so I’ve put together a short list of romantic Filipino movies like  A Journey  that are similarly recommended.

Romantic Filipino Movies Like A Journey

• She's Dating the Gangster (2014)

English Only, Please (2014)

One more chance (2007), the hows of us (2018), rewind (2018), she’s dating the gangster (2014).

She’s Dating the Gangster | Image via Netflix

Here’s a light and frothy entry that avoids the more depressing elements of A Journey , but still presents us with characters that we can root for and relate to. This schoolyard romp follows Athena, playing a trick on the campus heartthrob, and setting a series of events in motion that sets everyone against her.

Silly stuff that aims for a heartbreaking resolution in its final act.

English Only, Please | Image via Netflix

American Filipino Justin needs a translator after receiving a letter from his former partner. He eventually hires Tere to help, but as their relationship grows, so do their feelings, and the situation that brought them together now threatens to tear them apart again.

This is a trope-laden romantic comedy that knows exactly what it’s doing, earning it a place on our list.

One More Chance | Image via Prime Video

A once-perfect couple find that they may have reached the end of the line as far as their romance goes, and decide to separate. However as they both try to move on with their lives, it becomes more and more obvious that what they had was more than the sum of its parts, and they are constantly reminded of their love for each other.

A simple story, but one that resonates, making this a must-see tear-jerker movie just like A Journey .

The Hows of Us | Image via Netflix

Young and loving couple Primo and George have been together for a long time and dream of spending their lives together. The film follows the ups and downs of the couple as they face real-world problems, such as career changes, that threaten to tear their lives apart.

The huge success of the film may have also been partly due to the real-life relationship of the two leads, and the goodwill they have drummed up from their invested audience.

Rewind | Image via GMA Network

This is a romantic tale with a sci-fi twist that looks at the premise of second chances. Once again, the film has two leads who are actually involved with each other in real life, adding to the romantic vibe of the movie.

Mary and John are finding that after years of marriage, the spark may be fading, however, a terrible accident takes Mary out of the equation until John realizes that there may be a way to rewind the events that have occurred.

Time travel and love stories have often been a poignant and thought-provoking mix, and this production looks at a notion we have all had: What if I could go back?

Do you have any other suggestions for romantic Filipino movies like A Journey? Let us know in the comments below.

More On  A Journey :

Review | Ending Explained | Filming Locations

Article by Louie Fecou

Louie Fecou joined the Ready Steady Cut writing team back in August 2018 as an Entertainment Writer and, since then, has published over 1,000 articles for the site. Louie has proven experience in various publications, print and online. To kickstart his journalism career, in 2013, he was a columnist and writer for The Irvine Herald Newspaper.

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A Journey (2024) ‘Netflix’ Movie Review: Wears Its Heart and Influences on Its Sleeve

Netflix’s Filipino drama “A Journey” (2024), directed by RC Delos Reyes, is a pathos-filled sentimental tearjerker with a familiar premise. The age-old “Terminal illness upping life’s value” trope sets the film on its ‘journey’ to explore friendship, love, and, of course, death. The lack of novelty prompts a lack of appeal, initially. However, to its credit,  “A Journey” includes a few more turns that help the film reach its tender finishing line with significant brevity and poignancy. Even with cynicism, one cannot help but appreciate the feeling “A Journey” tries to evoke when the credit starts to roll. 

Shane (Kaye Abad) and Bryan (Paolo Contis) are happily married. So, when Shane visits her oncologist, we can feel ourselves bracing for the big bad news. Shane’s cancer has returned. The news devastates the couple. The couple has a friend from their childhood, the perennial third-wheel Kristoff (Patrick Garcia). Kristoff is a carefree bachelor and an actor with a significant fan following. Shane, Bryan, and Kristoff have been friends since childhood. Understandably, the cancer news depresses Kristoff as well. After taking a moment to deal with the curveball, Shane takes a literal ‘life-changing’ decision. She decides not to take treatment. 

The film’s eponymous ‘journey’ refers to a stubborn Shane’s final hurrah. Shane, who does not want to spend her remaining days fighting an arduous and losing battle, decides to go on a journey to fulfill some of her wishes. She pulls out the old ‘magic list,’ where she mentioned things like “Seeing Penguins.” Now, if you are aware of the term “Bucket List,” coined by screenwriter Justin Zackman, or you have seen the movie by the same name, written by Zackman and featuring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, you know the deal. It is a list of things to do before one kicks the bucket, so to speak. Things to do before we die. 

Bryan and Kristoff plan Shane’s subsequent ‘bucket list’ journey. So, the film becomes a travelogue featuring some of the scenic landscapes of the Philippines and Australia. This is the part where one becomes aware of the serious lack of novelty, with the obvious similarities with films of such ilk, like “The Bucket List.” Shane, Bryan, and Kristoff experience both new and old things, like seeing the Tasmanian Devil and visiting their old school. Their journey is filled with reconnecting with lost relationships and welcoming new things while churning out standard “Seize the day” moments and dialogues. 

Just when it seemed that “A Journey,” although well-intended, is just about a knock-off of “The Bucket List,” it changes for the better. Without delving into a spoiler-filled plot reveal, I can say that it always felt like the film needed just about anything different to set itself apart a little. And thankfully, it does, with another different trope. With about only one-fourth of its duration remaining, “A Journey” takes some bold decisions and makes its entire story mean something else. It gives death the fearful respect it deserves. It underlines the finality of death much more than I thought it would do when Shane’s journey to cross things off her list began. 

For this alone, “A Journey” should deserve some praise. Thanks to the performances of the three main cast members, the film always has a grip on the emotional quotient. Kaye Abad and Paolo Contis have had the perfect chemistry of a couple who have been together for thirty-odd years. Abad’s Shane is the driving force of the film and she excelled there. Contis, equally, did not hold back. Patrick Garcia’s Kristoff is charming, playful, and poignant. Kristoff’s transformation is all the more important when you think about how the story ends. The eponymous journey changes him for the better, career-wise and lifestyle-wise. 

Director RC Delos Reyes starts with an all too familiar premise and sticks with the usual storyline for quite a long time. “A Journey” changes course late, but thankfully not too late. Too often, films and stories like this fall into the abyss of off-handedly thought-out life affirmation cliches. And despite significantly running the risk of that, “A Journey” veers away and becomes something else. It becomes a story of genuine love, undying friendship, and the bittersweet phenomenon of remembrance. 

Read More: 20 Great Travel Movies For Those Seeking Escapism

A journey (2024) movie links: imdb a journey (2024) movie cas: paolo contis , patrick garcia , kaye abad, where to watch a journey, trending right now.

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A Journey Release Date, Trailer, Cast & Plot

By Vritti Johar

A Journey is a suspenseful and intriguing mystery, leaving the audience eagerly anticipating the unfolding of the plot. This compelling tale explores the themes of resilience and the profound connections that shape our lives. Every fleeting scene from the trailer further captivates the audience, keeping them on the edge of their seats.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Release date — when is A Journey coming out?

A Journey’s release date is April 12 , 2024.

Netflix will release a standalone Filipino film on April 12, 2024, that tells a heartfelt story of friendship, resilience, and the human spirit.

Trailer — watch it now

You can watch the A Journey trailer below:

The Netflix film “A Journey” trailer depicts a genuine and poignant narrative. It showcases characters who confront their challenges while also experiencing moments of celebration, emphasizing the importance of meaningful relationships and emotional recovery. The trailer’s mood shifts between happiness and sadness, reflecting a story that delves deep into the characters’ experiences during pivotal life events. The film touches upon personal growth and emotional depth, making it an excellent choice for viewers who appreciate such stories.

Cast — who is in A Journey?

A Journey cast includes:

• Paolo Contis as Bryan
• Patrick Garcia as Kristoff
• Kaye Abad as Shane

Plot – what’s the story about?

It is originally a Philippine film and is a Netflix Original movie.

This independent film emphasizes the pivotal role of deep friendships in life. The story centres around Kaye Abad, a woman who enjoys a blissful marriage until a sudden, cancer diagnosis changes everything. The film is set in a stunning island location, combining scenic beauty with intense emotional drama. As Kaye confronts her challenges, the narrative delves into themes of resilience and the importance of savoring every moment. This heartfelt story is bound to evoke both tears and inspiration.

Vritti Johar currently holds the position of an SEO Content Writer at ComingSoon.net, where she combines her passion for cinema with her skills in content creation. Outside of her professional endeavors, Vritti enjoys delving into the realms of art and photography, further nurturing her creative spirit.

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ASTRID S. TUMINEZ | FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS IN A PHILIPPINE VILLAGE TO PRESIDENT OF UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY CASE STUDIES

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Join us on a remarkable journey with Dr. Astrid Tuminez, President of Utah Valley University, as she shares her incredible life story from humble beginnings in a Philippine rice farming village to leading a university. In this heartfelt episode, Dr. Tuminez delves into her experiences as an immigrant, a scholar, and a leader, highlighting the pivotal moments and the influential people who helped shape her path. From her early education to her academic pursuits at BYU, Harvard, and MIT, and her impressive career across global institutions like Wall Street and Microsoft, Dr. Tuminez's story is a powerful testament to the transformative impact of education and perseverance. Discover how her unique approach to leadership at UVU is fostering an environment of care, accountability, and results, preparing a diverse student body for the challenges of tomorrow.  This episode is not just an exploration of Dr. Tuminez’s life but also a celebration of how one person's journey can inspire and mobilize a community towards greater achievements. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Dr. Rob Walcher's Chiropractic journey in the Philippines

T en years ago, actress Patricia Javier and her American chiropractor husband, Dr. Rob Walcher, made the life-changing decision to make the Philippines their permanent home. Their motivation was simple yet profound: to immerse their two children in the Filipino way of life.

Little did they know, however, that they were not only at the cusp of enriching their children's lives but helping so many Filipinos "live their best life."

Over the weekend, the Walchers held a joint event to celebrate Dr. Rob's 50th birthday and the 10th anniversary of what has become the successful Doc Rob Chiropractic Wellness Clinic chain in the Philippines.

Dr. Rob happily recalled, "We actually didn't come here for me to start a practice. I even sold my practice in San Diego before we moved because I wanted to spend more time with the family. I'd been working straight for 14 years in the US and was looking forward to more free time."

But with his vocation always with him — and more importantly, his oath to help people with chronic body pains — Dr. Rob nonetheless held free clinics for relatives, friends and neighbors whenever he can until the wonders of chiropractic quickly spread like wildfire.

"We started getting people knocking at the door of our rented condo as late as 9 or 10 in the evening, asking if I could treat them," he added.

Joining the conversation, Patricia said, "That's when we realized na marami palang Pilipino na nangangailangan nito [so many Filipinos need this treatment] and agreed for Rob to start a practice here."

"It grew organically," he husband related.

Their journey, however, has not been without challenges. As the number of their clinics grew from the first original site in Quezon City to a total of six today, they have had more than their fair share of bashers who accuse Dr. Rob of being a quack, unaware that chiro is a legitimate branch of alternative medicine.

Patricia admitted her celebrity is a double-edged sword. While it has helped spread the word about her husband's practice, the "artista" connection also made it an easy target.

But after a decade of knowing her husband has helped so many Filipinos live pain-free lives, Patricia shared, "I no longer pay attention to them, nor do I read the negative comments because they're very destructive," Patricia continued.

She emphasized that all their endeavors in the Philippines are legitimate. "We wouldn't open a clinic without a license," she added, citing the licensing process required by the sub-branch of the Department of Health concerned with alternative medicine.

"I personally go to the municipalities and the government offices where we get clearance for our chiropractic clinics, specifically the Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC)."

Patricia said that while it has done her well to stop reading negative posts for some time now, she was so affected by them in the past only because, ultimately, it was Dr. Rob they were putting down.

"I was hurt because my husband studied for nine years and finished his medical and chiropractic education. But 10 years on, we know better, and that's to continue doing what we love, which is helping others."

Despite the challenges and negativity, Dr. Rob shared that he Patricia and their boys remain happy and fulfilled in the Philippines. For indeed, the increasing number of their patients is a testament to their success and unwavering commitment to helping others live healthier, more balanced lives.

Focusing on the good, how exactly does chiropractic care help people?

Dr. Rob explained, "If you have back pain, neck pain, or if you have siatica or your fingers and wrists often go numb, we precisely determine where your nerve system may be experiencing interference."

Through an individual program of gentle and specific chiropractic adjustments, he and his team of experts can correct spinal misalignments (subluxations) and improve the body's innate healing abilities.

In layman's terms, Dr. Rob paraphrased, "We release the stress in the spine and relieve the pain. Without this interference, overall wellness is maintained and improved," Dr. Rob maintained.

Patricia cautioned that if you're expecting an hour-long massage or some sort of rehab program, a chiropractic doctor won't do that.

"And I also have to warn people that hindi lahat na kayang magpatunog ng buto ay totoong chirpractic doctor [that not everyone who can crack bones is a real chiropractic doctor]," she added, finally restating what their continued mission is for the next decade moving forward.

"I really believe that since this all started, Dr. Rob has done a significant job in providing people the knowledge and awareness about this alternative to managing pain and toward chiro-acceptance. And, of course, within that is dedication and commitment to share our blessings and Dr. Rob's skills to help others live healthier, more balanced lives."

Like many testimonials say, logging on to the main website of Doc Rob Wellness Clinics (docrob.ph), you could be their next miracle.