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Andrew McNiece posted a great new interview with former Journey frontman Steve Augeri on melodicrock.com. You may remember Augeri losing his vocal abilities in the middle of Journey’s stint with Def Leppard back in the summer of 2006. Well, Augeri finally goes on the record about what all went down during his time with Journey as well as offer up some comments on new vocalist Arnel Pineda. I’ve always like Augeri and it’s good to see that he doesn’t sound bitter about the whole ordeal and owns up to some mistakes that he made during that time.

here are some excerpts from the interview.

looking back on his 8 years with Journey:
I would certainly say that there were probably a good many vocalists that could have done EASILY the job that I did. But it just so happened that I was the lucky one. I won the Journey lottery back in 1998. I was lucky that eventually the fans came around. You know, um… it was difficult at first. The fans didn’t want to know about it. But, you know, the band persisted – they had faith in me and we persisted. We went out year after year and we built. The audience started out in 1500 seat theaters in 1998 to the mega concerts that they are doing today. And so, yeah, I’m proud of the time that I spent with the band. I think they, I know that they are well aware that we did it together. And frankly, unfortunately for me, I couldn’t continue on. My health—I couldn’t make it. The whole journey.

on the grueling tour schedule that affected his singing abilities:
I’ll tell you what – the unfortunate thing is that it comes down to the individual. I can never point a finger; you can’t point a finger at anyone but yourself. So, if the schedule was grueling, then I didn’t have the backbone to say, “Stop. I’m getting off the train.” Do you know what I mean? That’s the bottom line. So, the only regret I have is that I didn’t have the courage to say stop. I may have…you know what.. frankly, to be honest with you, I did.. but the train kept going.
That’s.. we had built from 1998 to 2006, and God knows to the present, there was an absolute and gradual…it was if you had a locomotive just started up, just restarted, let’s face it, cause they were there. We started and there was no stopping it. The machine was going.

His regrets about being on the road for so long:
The first year, I had my bags packed a week before we left, before the plane left.
(laughing) And, by the end of my tenure with the band, my bags may not have even been packed until the day I left. The other thing was after 8 years, you start missing your wife more. You start missing the little creature comforts of home. I felt like I missed half of my son’s growing up. And that, I tell ya, is one of the biggest regrets I had was missing that. Those were the moments you can’t go back and retrieve.

On Arnel Pineda:
They were fortunate enough to find Arnel. And I can’t think of a better guy to fill the spot that he’s filled. I think his voice is absolutely spot on for the Journey sound. And when I say the Journey sound—the legacy that Steve made with them…
As a band member, not alone but as a unit, and I think Arnel does it so well. As I said, it’s remarkable when I listen to him. I’m looking at myself as an out of body experience, thinking about myself when I first joined them in ‘98 and thinking, you know what, this is This man’s big shot and his big chance and that was YOU. How great was it for you and so be happy for him. Quite frankly, that’s exactly how I feel.
I’m literally, I’m totally, totally all for the guy cuz I see myself several years ago doing what he’s doing and I’m thinking, boy, he’s having the ride of his life right now.

read the full interview at melodicrock.com.

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here’s Steve Augeri with Journey back in 2000 performing “Higher Place” off of the album Arrival.

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Related posts:

1. Steve Perry – Pipeline Cafe – Hawaii – Journey
2. Herbie Herbert on Journey
3. Pineda ready for Journey
4. Better Together
5. Journey's new lead singer

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music by retroDan