For the past 21 years, vocalist Hugo Valenti – who bears an odd resemblance to Steve Perry and has a similar singing voice – has fronted Journey tribute acts, beginning with Voyage, and now Hugo – The Ultimate Journey Tribute. And on August 29, the dream of a lifetime came true when the real Journey invited him onto their stage in Fukuoka, Japan, to perform “Faithfully.”
“I wrote this next song in 1982 about the road life we lived, how it takes people dedicated, people who are loyal, like you Journey fans out there,” keyboardist Jonathan Cain told the crowd, before welcoming Valenti. “We got a special treat for you tonight. We have a dear friend who came all the way from New Jersey to visit Japan. I thought we’d have him sing a song for you tonight. Give it up for our friend Hugo Valenti.”
When Perry left Journey in 1998, Valenti was briefly a candidate to replace him. “I had gotten a phone call from John Kalodner at Sony saying that Perry was out of the band and it was time for me to get my Journey records out!” he told Melodic Net in 2007. “After the holiday season, I was to fly out to L.A. to meet and rehearse with the band. As it happens, people in the Journey organization decided too many similarities may have been a detriment to the continuation of the band. It was a hard one to swallow, but hearing Steve Augeri fit so well, it was the right decision for the band.”
Journey guitarist Neal Schon backed Valenti’s account in a 2003 interview with Melodicrock.com. “I remember seeing him in a video and he looked exactly like Perry which I thought was really weird,” he said. “I said if we are going to get somebody with him looking exactly like Perry, I though that was a little too weird! And also I just think that Steve Augeri as a singer was a lot more happening.”
In 2005, Valenti started the Journey tribute band Voyage, which continues today with Pedro Espada as the lead singer. Valenti now leads Hugo – The Ultimate Journey Tribute. They next play September 11 at Sinatra Park in Hoboken, New Jersey.
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The actual Journey, meanwhile, begin the supposed final leg of their Final Frontier farewell tour September 5 in Honolulu, Hawaii. It wraps up September 28 in their hometown of San Francisco. “It’ll be fitting to end there for sure,” Cain recently told The Associate Press. “Who knows who’s going to show up? I don’t know. There might be a reunion of sorts, I hope.”
The comment stirred up hopes yet again that Steve Perry would perform with the band for the first time since the 1991 Bill Graham tribute show in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, but that’s extraordinarily unlikely. When Cain hinted at the possibility of a reunion early this year, Perry shot it right down.
“While I’m always grateful for the love people still have for Journey, the rumors about me rejoining the band are simply not true, and I want to gently put them to rest,” he wrote. “I completely understand why people would hope for that. The music we created together means a great deal to me too. But I’m continuing to explore new creative work and really enjoy working on new music that reflects where I am today.”
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Journey’s plans are vague beyond the conclusion of the reunion tour, and Cain has made it clear he’s ready to retire from the road. Schon has very different feelings. “I’m not nearly done with what I want to do,” he told the AP. “I think there’s many great opportunities in the future. Whether or not it’s with everybody that’s here right now, I’m not certain.”
Pineda has also hinted that he’s ready to leave Journey behind following this tour. Could that possibly mean Valenti will get the big job he’s been dreaming of for nearly 30 years? That may sound like an unlikely course of events, but who could have predicted that Journey would find a singer from the Philippines on YouTube and employ him for nearly 20 years? The Journey saga is an odd one where almost anything could happen, with the sole exception of a reunion with Perry. That’s never, ever happening.
