Neal Schon has responded to Steve Perry and his petition against recent Journey trademark filings. Spoiler: The guitarist doesn’t hold back.
As previously reported, Perry filed a petition against his former bandmates Schon and Jonathan Cain over trademark registrations of 20 popular Journey songs. Perry alleges in his petition Schon and Cain didn’t have the legal grounds to file for trademarks. He also claims he should have been notified of the registrations per a previous legal agreement relating to various Journey compositions that were created when Perry was still in the band.
Following the news of Perry’s petition, Schon took to Facebook where he shared a news story about the petition and then went off in the comment section.
“What a bunch of total crap. Here’s how it goes friends,” begins Schon. “Jon Cain calls a board of directors meeting out of nowhere, then before I found out about the meeting, Jonathan came to me and said he didn’t like what they (Ross Smith Perry and Herbie) were planning.”
For clarification, the “they” Schon is referring to is bassist Ross Valory, drummer Steve Smith, Steve Perry and former Journey manager Herbie Herbert. Valory and Smith were fired from Journey in a detailed press release back in March 2020. The press release stated Smith and Valory attempted a Board of Director’s takeover at Nightmare Productions, Inc., one of Journey’s corporate entities, and claimed Smith and Valory thought Nightmare Productions had control over the Journey trademark. However, Schon and Cain have the “sole, exclusive, irrevocable right to control the Journey Mark, including the Journey name.”
He continues, “On that meeting Steve Ross Smith and Herbie voted myself and Cain off the board of directors and Steve and all voted Ross in my place and Smith in Jons. They all knew at this time I’d been investigating our Trademarks for years trying to get to the bottom of all corruption as we found (my wife and I) that nothing had ever been Trade Marked besides our music. They all went for a takeover and it didn’t work. Quite simple.”