Neal Schon

Birthday: 27 February 1954, Midwest City, Oklahoma, USA

Birth Name: Neal Joseph Schon

Height: 175 cm

Neal Schon was born in Midwest City, Oklahoma on February 27th, 1954 to Matthew and Barbara Schon. Neal dropped out of school when he was 15 to join Carlos Santana's rock group Santana. Four years later Carlos Santana and his band split up, so Neal and Gregg Rolie formed Journey. Journey released its self-titled debut album in 1975. Journey then released "Look Into the Future" (1976) and "Next" in (1977). Records weren't selling well and the band was told to get a lead singer so they brought in Steve Perry. With Steve they released the album "Infinity" in 1978. Infinity was followed up by "Evolution" (1979) and "Departure" (1980). Also released in 1980 was a compilation album of earlier works called "In the Beginning". Also in 1980 the band went to Japan to record a soundtrack for the movie, "Dream After Dream". In 1981 the live album "Captured" was released. Greg Rolie left after the release of the album "Departure" so keyboardist Jonathan Cain was brought in for the 1981 release of "Escape". "Escape" was Journey's biggest record and the single "Open Arms" went to #2 on the charts. Also in 1981 Neal teamed up with Jan Hammer for the album "Untold Passion". Again in 1982 Neal teamed up with Jan Hammer for an album called "Here To Stay". In 1983 "Frontiers" was released and Journey was named the most popular rock group in America. After "Frontiers" the band split for a while. Neal formed HSAS with Sammy Hagar and in 1984 they released an album called "Through the Fire". In 1986 Journey, without bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith, and released the album "Raised on Radio". In 1988 Neal helped form the group Bad English. Bad English released their self-titled debut album in 1989. Neal also released his album "Late Nite" in 1989. In 1991 Bad English released their second album, "Backlash". In 1992 Neal joined Hardline for the album "Double Eclipse". Neal released seven solo albums, "Late Night", "Beyond the Thunder", "Electric World", "Piranha Blues", "Voice","i on u", and "The Calling" (2012). A Journey reunion of band members Schon, Jonathan Cain, Steve Perry, Ross Valory, and Steve Smith happened for the 1996 album "Trial By Fire". In 1997 Neal released his album "Electric World." In 1998 Steve Perry was replaced with Steve Augeri as Journey's new lead singer after the band waited almost two years for him to fix his hip. Steve Perry and Journey debuted together on the _Armageddon (1998)_ soundtrack with the song "Remember Me". 2001 saw the release of the Journey record "Arrival". Neal discovered Journey's current lead vocalist, Arnel Pineda, on YouTube, in 2007. Neal released his fifth solo album, "The Calling", in 2012 and will release "So You" in 2014. Neal has five children: Miles, Lizzy, Sarah, Aja and Sophia. He became engaged to Michaele Salahi on October 14, 2012, and they were married on December 15,2013 in San Francisco, California. Show less «

We're a very musical band and we've never really had anybody come in and re-arrange our stuff with P...Show more »

We're a very musical band and we've never really had anybody come in and re-arrange our stuff with Pro Tools. We were always well-rehearsed, we'd walk in the studio, play live, and I'd always play live solos. Show less «

I think that song is so popular because it's a positive message. We play aggressively, but lyrically...Show more »

I think that song is so popular because it's a positive message. We play aggressively, but lyrically it never got angry or pissed, and it was never 'I hate you'. The whole arrangement of Don't Stop Believin' is really odd. We had this breakdown and I started playing that little guitar solo [at 0.54], which is in the oddest place ever for an AM radio song. People would say that it didn't make sense and I'd say, Well, so what? It sounds good! It fell together fast, and when I listened back in the studio, I remember saying, That song's gonna be big. At the time, when Escape was released, it wasn't the biggest song on the record. Now it is. Show less «

With radio being in the state it is, I don't really feel the need to make a whole record just for th...Show more »

With radio being in the state it is, I don't really feel the need to make a whole record just for that, and be looking at my watch saying, Okay, this guitar solo has been playing for ten seconds, that's enough. (In 2011) Show less «

A lot of the stuff we've done since the eighties was slower, and with Faithfully or Open Arms or wha...Show more »

A lot of the stuff we've done since the eighties was slower, and with Faithfully or Open Arms or whatever, those songs are embedded in stone and people expect to hear them live... if they don't, they're gonna be pissed and throw shit at you. With this album, I wanted to write grooves that we don't have in our show, and not just make a new Separate Ways or Stone In Love. Once you've written it once, it's easy to repeat it - just move the chords around. It's really simple to do that, but at this point, I don't see the purpose of it. (On the "Eclipse" album) Show less «

Neal Schon

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