Ever since I mentioned Journey’s discovery of Arnel Pineda, I’ve been following along to see how things transpire for him.
Articles of Interest
Someone went through great effort to build a nice Wikipedia page on Arnel Pineda and included recent news about his involvement with Journey.
“Immigrant Success Stories” (dead link) currently shows “Arnel Pineda’s Journey To America As Faithfully Told” near the top of the page. After reading the story, it makes me question the intelligence of the immigration officers at the embassy. Arnel Pineda lucked out because the officer actually saw him perform. What would have happened if the officer hadn’t seen the performance? I’m pretty sure the visa would have been denied since they had already categorized him as a “nutjob”. I guess they can’t look up names like “Arnel Pineda” on Google and YouTube at the embassy.
Current Events
Arnel Pineda is already touring with Journey and they’ve performed in Chile and Las Vegas, Nevada (US) as evidenced by all the videos available on YouTube. He has been featured on television shows in both the Philippines and the US.
The band has already recorded a new album titled “Revelation”, which will be available exclusively through the Wal-Mart chains in a few days. Guess what? I can’t get it here! With new renditions of “Don’t Stop Believin’”, “Wheel In The Sky”, “Faithfully”, “Open Arms” and other classic Journey hits, this is a “must have” addition for my personal collection.
[Update: My wife is buying it and bringing it back with her. I love that woman!]
Other Notes
Arnel Pineda started singing at the age of 15. When he was with one of his former bands, “Amo”, he played at clubs here in Olongapo City. When my relatives heard the news about him becoming the lead singer of Journey, they were ecstatic since most of them had seen him perform live. Yes, he was performing the Journey songs even back in the late 80s and 90s.
An interesting aside to all of this is that there are reports that Arnel Pineda sought out Journey because he’d heard they were looking for a new lead singer. The reality is that Neal Schon (of Journey) sought Arnel out after seeing his videos on YouTube.
I will be surprised if “Journey’s Revelation” doesn’t go platinum. I’ll be continuing to follow along as time progresses just to watch it happen.
Is he now back in the States?
I saw him on a local broadcast recently, so I can’t tell you where he is at the moment.
I rejoiced at Pineda’s good fortune and wished him well but I wasn’t a hard core fan so I left it at that. Recently however, I came across one of his YouTube clips by chance and before I knew it, I’d been watching his clips for two days. I’ve read his story too (and the band’s) and got hooked. He has inspired me to run after my dreams despite being close to the age of no return myself. Who knows, I might just make it when I’m 40.