Neal Schon, member of the rock band Journey, has issued a cease-and-desist order against bandmate and keyboardist Jonathan Cain for performing their hit song Don’t Stop Believin’ with several Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Green, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Kari Lake for Donald Trump at his residence at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. 

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Variety revealed that Schon’s attorney released a letter to Cain, which noted, “Although Mr Cain is free to express his personal beliefs and associations when he does that on behalf of Journey or for the band, such conduct is extremely deleterious to the Journey brand as it polarizes the band’s fans and outreach. Journey is not, and should not be, political.”

Who is Neal Schon? 

Neal Joseph Schon was born in Midwest City, Oklahoma on February 27th, 1954 to father Matthew and mother Barbara Schon. Schon dropped out of school at 15 to join Carlos Santana’s rock group, Santana.

Four years later, the band split up. So Neal co-founded the band Journey with Santana member Gregg Rollie. They released their self-titled debut album in 1975, followed by Look Into The Future in 1976 and Next in 1977.

The band’s earlier music was primarily instrumental, with a progressive rock influence; the addition of Steve Perry led to the production of several hard rock songs, which were a commercial success, topping various charts. Wheel in the Sky, Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’, and Anyway You Want It were charting the FM. 

Rollie left the band post the release of Departure, therefore Jonathan Cain was brought in for the release of the album Escape in 1981. Escape remains their biggest record, its lead single Open Arms charting at #2. The album yielded other hits like Who’s Crying Now and Don’t Stop Believing. 

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The same year, Schon invited keyboardist Jam Hammer to work on a fusion-inspired Untold Passion. Hammer collaborated with Schon once again in 1983 for the release of Here To Stay. 

Schon rejoined the band for Frontiers, and then 1986’s Raised on Radio. Despite the commercial success of the latter, Schon left the band in 1989, recording a solo deal with Late Nite, and then went on to form another band Bad English with singer John Waite. It failed to perform well despite putting out two LPs, so they disbanded and Schon rejoined Journey, releasing an acoustic solo Beyond the Thunder two years later. The two-disc Electric World was released in 1997, and in 1999 Schon released Pirahna Blue.