Journey’s Gregg Rolie Once Lived Here (in My House)

I received the first one of these letters from the state controller same time last year and duly sent it back “RTS”. Got this one a day or so ago, so have contacted his fan club …maybe the secretary of his fan club can get it to him.

Anyway, what’s cool is that this kind of proves what my neighbors have told me (I thought they were joking) that Carlos Santana and Gregg Rolie lived in my house, when they were struggling musicians.

via Journey (026/365) on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Journey’s “Keep on Runnin’” – Deen Castronovo – Manila 2009

Journey, in Billboard Top 2008 Music Money Makers List

If anyone had any doubt that touring is where the money is in the music business, a quick look at the top Moneymakers for 2008 should hammer the point home.

Regardless of genre, retail sales or radio play, each of the 20 acts on Billboard’s Moneymakers list toured in 2008. (Taylor Swift mostly opened for Brad Paisley but doesn’t get credit for that revenue). For almost all of them, touring generated the most revenue. And in a year when recorded-music sales declined yet again, many earned more at the box office than ever before.

Journey made $44,787,328

via Madonna Tops 2009 Music Money Makers List.

Pineda’s homecoming with Journey (and a fan’s view of the event)

Pineda was at his best doing crowd pleasing rock-star stage acts as he jumped, ran around the stage a la Guns & Roses’ vocalist Axel Rose, danced like an Indian warrior in a trance, kneeled and shook hands with the audience near the stage and at one point, waved a Philippine flag that a lady fan handed to him.

Rip Rokken, an American fan of Pineda came all the way from Houston, Texas, with his friends just to watch Pineda’s homecoming show with Journey in Manila. He told BUSINESSMIRROR after the concert, “Arnel’s like a double underdog success story. His personal one is the stuff of classic Journey songs like “Don’t Stop Believin’”, from struggling to support his family to being chosen to sing for one of the most recognizable classic rock bands around. But he’s kept his humility, and is still a nice and very approachable guy.”

Asked why he came all the way from the US, he said, “Arnel goes a long way for us fans, and now it’s our turn to go a long way for him. This is his time, his moment, and I wouldn’t be any other place in the world right now but to see him enjoy it!”

via Pineda’s homecoming with Journey.