I’m not going to lie, even though I can care less about CNN, I might have to watch it just for the entertainment value that is the combo of Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper during the New Year’s Eve broadcast. Now Andy Cohen may have had a few drinks during the broadcast, but I think he is a purest when it comes to classic rock. After Journey’s performance on ABC’s Dick Clark’s Rocking New Year’s Eve, Cohen begin’s to start shouting that:
“Wow, I just got doused with confetti. Journey is appearing on ABC. If it’s not Steve Perry, it’s not Journey!”
Steve Perry’s last performance with Journey was back in 1991 for the Bill Graham tribute concert, and since 2008, Arnel Pineda has been fronting the band. Now Journey isn’t the only band to have lineup changes and continue to tour. Some notable examples include AC/DC, Kiss, and let us not forget Lynyrd Skynyrd had only two original members performing by the time they called it quits.
Now this raises a great question, should bands continue to call themselves their original name even with line-up changes, or should they be like Queen and have the “featuring” or “performing with” monitor? Or better yet, should a band’s name be treated as a mantle that could continue with different members?