My Second Favorite Filipino Singer
This is an amazing story. Arnel Pinedo and his band The Zoo are from Quezon City in the Phillipines. They mostly perform cover songs from Journey, Bryan Adams, Heart and Van Halen, just to name a few. The Zoo has several videos on YouTube.
Enter the real Journey. Several years ago Journey front man Steve Perry parted ways with the band and they have been without a lead singer. Journey guitarist Neal Schon said:
I was frustrated about not having a singer so I went on YouTube for a couple of days and just sat on it for hours. I was starting to think I was never going to find anybody. But then I found THE ZOO and I watched a bunch of different video clips that they had posted. After watching the videos over and over again, I had to walk away from the computer and let what I heard sink in because it sounded too good to be true. I thought, ‘he can’t be that good.’ But he is that good, he’s the real deal and so tremendously talented. Arnel doesn’t sound synthetic and he’s not emulating anyone. I tried to get a hold of him through YouTube and I finally heard from him that night, but it took some convincing to get him to believe that it really was me and not an imposter.
Of course it took awhile for Arnel to believe that the real Neal Schon was contacting him. Arnel’s friend said, “What if it really was Neal and he wanted to offer you the chance of a lifetime?” They eventually connected and Arnel was asked to be the new lead singer for Journey.
You must watch Arnel Pinedo’s performance of Journey’s “Faithfully.”
Long live the American Dream.