Diamond-certified hard rock legends Journey have responded to criticism regarding their vocalist Arnel Pineda‘s performance at the annual ‘Rock In Rio‘ event held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 15th. Footage of that set faced online backlash, with a clip from that performance recently receiving a response from Pineda himself. The clip in question can be seen below:
Responding to that via Facebook, Pineda offered:
“once again,thank u so much everyone who came to @journeyofficial show since #february this year ..i appreciate uou all do kuch..anf not only that,everytime that im on stage w/ the band, i feel this immense gratitude,humility and honor..
i am very aware of this-https://www.facebook.com/share/v/A4eXCTecRY2Cptqi/?mibextid=WC7FNe
no one more than me in this world feels so devastated about this…
its really amazing how 1 thousand right things you have done will be forgotten just cause of THIS..and of all the place , its in Rock In Rio…mentally and emotionally, ive suffered already,and im still sufferring..but i’ll be ok.
so here’s the deal here now..i am offering you a chance now ( especially those who’s hated me and never liked me from the very beginning) to simply text GO or STAY right here..
and if GO reaches 1million…
im stepping out for good..are you game folks?
let’s start…
God bless all of you and thank you once again to all of the fans and friends who believed in me dince Day1″
Yesterday (September 22nd) saw Journey‘s lead guitarist/backing vocalist Neal Schon respond online, sharing the below clip and post on social media. In the caption, he pushed back against the criticisms the band have faced for their set at the fest and blamed headliners Avenged Sevenfold for apparently setting decibel limits on the PA. Journey were the third highest booked band on the bill that night at ‘Rock In Rio‘ under Avenged Sevenfold & Evanescence.
Schon stated:
“This clip is from Rio, even though we found out much later that we got extremely limited by Avenged Sevenfold that means that hardly hardly any sound can get out of the PA to the audience. It’s a bullshit move. Check out the audience. They loved it the rest of its fabricated crap.”
While generally frowned upon, the practice of headlining artists limiting how loud their openers can perform at is not an uncommon practice. While some argue that it helps with hearing fatigue and serves to ramp up the climax of a show, others claim that it is more self-serving and feeds the ego of the headlining artist at the expense of the openers.
