JOURNEY's NEAL SCHON Talks Mending Fences With JONATHAN CAIN: 'We Just Decided That The Music Is The Music'

In a new interview with Los Angeles-based music journalist Lyndsey Parker, JOURNEY guitarist Neal Schon was asked about how he and keyboardist Jonathan Cain have managed to mend fences after publicly feuding over several issues, including Neal allegedly causing over $1 million in personal expenses to be charged to the band's shared American Express card and Schon demanding that Cain stop playing events for former U.S. president Donald Trump. Neal said: "We just decided that the music is the music. We worked really hard and diligently on keeping this thing alive all these years and just not let the other stuff get in the way and kind of keep it separate. It's all right for us to have separate beliefs on everything. It was actually a rule that way before Jonathan was in the band, that our manager made with us all, that we would never have politics involved in our music, or any one religion, because [JOURNEY's music] is for everyone. Anytime you [get political] and you segregate, you're going to lose fans. And why would you want to do that? Just keep it open for everyone to be able to enjoy your music as music."

Asked how he feels when certain JOURNEY songs get used for a cause or a candidate, at a rally or whatever, that is not in line with his personal beliefs, Neal said: "I'm not a fan of it. No, I'm not a fan of it. But it doesn't matter. It's not one way or the other. It's not the left side, not the right side. It's just I'm in the middle and I don't want it to go one way or the other. I think we should remain neutral and let everybody enjoy what they want to enjoy, and I think it's nobody's business. I've never appreciated music [with] politics. I don't think they go hand-in-hand. I think that music is the greatest communicator of the world and that it shouldn't have a label on it to be one way or another. It should be to be conveyed by everyone in their own way."

Cain is a devout born-again Christian whose minister wife Paula White-Cain delivered the invocation at Donald Trump's 2017 presidential inauguration.

Back in December 2022, JOURNEY guitarist Neal Schon blasted Cain as a "hypocrite" after the JOURNEY keyboardist performed the band's 1981 hit song "Don't Stop Believin'" at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property. Cain played the track with a backup chorus of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle and former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.

In the past, Schon has also publicly voiced his opposition to having JOURNEY's music associated with political or religious causes. Back in 2017, he derided Cain on social media after the keyboardist, singer Arnel Pineda and then-bassist Ross Valory were photographed with Trump in the White House.

In a 2017 video interview conducted in the studios of the radio station ONE FM 91.3, Cain could be heard saying: "We're not political; we don't get into politics. We try to stay in our lane, and I just think that's the best answer we can give you."