I'm a few days behind. I received the Google Alert for this news item on the 9th. Arnel Pineda arrived at the Manila airport on the evening of October 8th and the video of it was broadcast on the 9th. The webcast is at "Journey frontman Arnel Pineda back in RP, to do local concerts (video)", but you can view it here through the magic of embedding:
It happens to celebrities all the time.
The Original Story
Rolling Stone magazine published "Sad 'Journey' for New Singer, subtitled Discovered on YouTube, Filipino frontman finds Journey tour "a curse". The interview was taken out of context, painting him as being in a negative kind of mood.
The Rebuttal
In an interview with CBS5 News, Arnel and Neal Schon were asked about the story. The video is currently available at "Journey Singer: Magazine Quotes Out Of Context".
Neal read the full transcript and it wasn't quite like what Rolling Stones made it out to be.
The Philippine Connection
Having been married to a Filipina for more than 23 years (dates go back more than 25 years), I completely understand his moods. Homesickness happens to anyone who spends time away. It seems to be more prevalent, however, with Filipinos because of how close-knit the families are.
The sad part is that the author for Rolling Stones felt the need to generate a negative story out of all of it. It just goes to show how low people will go in order to sell a story.
I have the Revelation album with me here in the Philippines, even though it isn't being sold here. I mentioned that my wife would be bringing it with her on her Philippines vacation when I wrote Arnel Pineda's success story and she did.
Leave it to my son (Joseph), who's with his Air Force wife in Germany, to tell me about something that happened here in the Philippines. Arnel Pineda from The Zoo, a local cover band, was recently "discovered" by Journey after months of music videos appearing on YouTube. I never spotted him before or I'm sure I would've seen this coming.
