Make Up Your Own Minds

I appreciate the offers of debating Dean in other's personal Blogs, but for myself, the only way I will debate Dean is either here, or at his Blog.

Dean has a way of only debating where he has max exposure to stroke his massive ego and only where he knows he has backup. I could care less about stroking my ego and need no backup.
In fact, my issue is more with Dean and his lack of integrity, than with anything he says about Journey.

He claims to have these so-called inside sources, when he actually has no more knowledge than anyone else outside the band's inner circle.

I believe that he did have some sort of loose relationship with Jeff and that this relationship caused tension between Jeff and the band. At least this is what I've been told.

Think about it. Steve Augeri goes down in July of 2006 and they immediately go to Jeff to fill in. Jeff does a fantastic job and has a way of energizing the crowds in a way only Steve Perry has come close to, during his heyday with the band.

The band goes on with Jeff throughout the rest of the 2006 Tour and through all accounts from Neal, he's loving the chemistry and the positive buzz the band has been getting ever since.

Both Jonathan and Ross expressed some disappointment with the fact that Steve Augeri was let go, but by the end of 2006 and especially the beginning of this year, it seemed even they had come aboard and were equally as excited as Neal and Jeff about the new collaboration and the apparent great chemistry between them.

This was such a tremendous chemistry that the band had been touting the fact they were actively writing new songs for a CD that was to be released sometime after New Year 2008 and even performed one of those songs only 2 weeks before it was announced so suddenly that Jeff was being let go.

On the surface and for most of us that were looking in from the outside, this was an absolutely stunning turn of events and led many to believe this was simply a case of Neal's and Jonathan's egos getting the best of them and they just were scared that Jeff would show them up.

The suddenness of this decision combined with the facts leading up to and surrounding the eventual announcement, along with Dean's commentary, latest blowout and attack against Neal and Jonathan in particular, I believe supports something much more than simply the band all of the sudden decided Jeff just wasn't close enough to the Classic Journey sound, leading them to determine they needed to look elsewhere for their immediate future.

Think about the situation as a whole and look at the possible scenarios without all of the drama. You have the one scenario that after knowing Jeff for at least 2 years before he became Journey's 'permanent' lead vocalist, the fact they went so quickly to Jeff as Steve's replacement, touring with him for another 5 months or so, announcing they were lying their entire future at his feet in December 2006, going into the beginning of 2007 praising the new union as the band's "New Beginning", writing a bunch of new songs, one being played at the band's only US show this year and only 2 weeks later, showing Jeff the door and claiming it was merely the band's decision to go back to the formula that brought them their greatest success.

Or, is it more likely that something came between them on a more personal level, causing them to first request Jeff refrain from pursuing an affiliation that the band felt was detrimental to their future, then when the affiliation continued, failing to return any of Jeff's calls for a relatively short period of time while he was actively touring with Talisman on their "Farewell Tour", leading to Jeff, as well as the fans to be blindsided by the band's doing a 180 degree turn and suddenly letting him go.

Unlike Dean, I will never say that I have an inside source, especially that a bandmember or a representative of the band gave me any information. I will say that I have discussed this with at least 2 unbiased and trusted individuals that corroborate the information I have discussed above. Due to what information I know from listening to Dean's rants and observing his tendencies to personally attack anyone he dislikes or feels is unworthy and especially those that dare disagree with or question his motives and sources the past few years, coupled with information I have no reason to believe isn't based in the individuals' first hand knowledge of the entire situation, I believe most of what Dean claims to be fact are merely his attempts to garner attention to himself and make it appear he is more knowledgable than he truly is and that the only thing he really knows is the little bit Jeff let him in on before he was let go and the rest is all what he wants us to believe the facts to be.

I believe it is more than likely that the band's decision to let Jeff go was of a personal nature and not that they all of the sudden decided Jeff's sound was too far from that of the Classic Journey sound they wanted to continue to pursue. The information I've heard from my trusted sources seems much more plausible, but in the end, it really doesn't matter. It's the band's personal business and if more of us respected that, instead of speculating on what happened and holding the band to doing what 'we' believe is their best course of action for their future, we would all be better off.

For me it all remains about the music. Not the inner workings of the band's personal relationships and how they conduct their business. I am concerned with the fact that an individual like Dean Ohlrich, one that has proven he is extremely self-centered and from all appearances has some personal demons in his own closet that cause him to act in an extremely irrational manner and that makes personal attacks with such impunity and lack of care and understanding for the people he hurts, is relied on for facts for which he generally has no more knowledge than you or I.

I am concerned with the fact that this individual is enabled by a website as powerful in the Melodicrock internet Community that absolutely refuses to reign in the outrageous behavior of such an unstable personality, thus allowing him to savagely attack anyone he chooses on an extremely personal level and even influence, if even on a relatively small scale, the business practices of an entire band.

I feel that Dean's smear campaign caused a chain of events that directly, or indirectly led to 2 decent individuals losing their jobs and quite possible caused severe damage to the first individual's entire professional career.

When are certain individuals going to be forced to take accountability for their actions? Possibly never, but I'm not the type of individual that will quietly slip in a corner and shut my mouth simply because some cyber bully with a severe personality disorder and "Jim Jones" complex wants to shove his koolaid down my throat.