JOURNEY Singer Says He Lost Nearly Everything To Drugs

Korina Sanchez of TV Patrol World — the flagship national network news broadcast of ABS-CBN in the Philippines — recently conducted a very revealing interview with JOURNEY's Filipino lead vocalist Arnel Pineda.

He was once an unknown singer who is now suddenly being mobbed in America as the lead vocalist of the legendary American rock group JOURNEY. Pineda, born and raised in Sampaloc (in Manila),grew up in poverty and often slept in in Luneta, a park in Manila. Along the way, he tried using illegal drugs and became addicted — "to the point that I wished that I was dead," he said.

For Arnel's family, especially his wife Cherry, this was the most miserable thing that had ever happened to them. She told TV Patrol World, "When he gets drunk, he cries, so I asked him, 'What is the problem?' And then I found out he was using drugs."

Arnel lost his mother early in his life when she died of a lung disease. He said that it was the memory of his mother that prevented him from totally becoming consumed by drugs. "I think my mother was there all the time," he said. "Every time I thought I was almost dying and gave up hope in my life, I felt like she was whispering in my ear and asking me, 'Why are you doing this?'"

Because of drugs, Arnel lost almost everything. "It was my wife who saved me," he revealed. "It was my birthday and we were having fun. I was high on drugs; I was high on alcohol. While [Cherry] was upstairs, she was packing her bag. When I went up, she told me she was leaving and will have to let me go. So that woke me up."

Watch the three-minute TV Patrol World report below.