Let's finally dispose of this question!

Was Steve Augeri thrown under the bus for tapegate by his bandmates or SHOULD he shoulder 100% of the blame for the act perpetrated on the fans?


I personally feel that the blame should be dished out on all of them evenly. Nobody in their right mind is EVER going to convince me that SA was able to do this without the full knowledge of the ENTIRE band and crew. Unfortunately for Steve, it is too late to repair the damage to his rep in the industry caused by his "brothers" unwillingness to accept even the smallest moniker of responsibility. So SA got buttfucked and the band continues to roll along as if the whole lipsynching problem is nothing more than a gnat on a humid summer night to be swatted away every time it pops up.


Discuss

is this really necessary?

As a matter of fact it is. Face some very real facts here. This, like it or not IS a piece of the Journey legacy and the band's history. Therefore much like every other nuance of the band and it's members, it is fair ground for discussion and debate. You know my position on SA. You will never in your lifetime come across a more ardent supporter of him but I will also call a spade a spade. What they did as a whole was wrong and it deserves to be discussed as long as this band continues to tour. Who's to say they won't try and pull this stunt again? If we as fans just keep saying "let it go" or "why do we need to keep discussing this" and it fades away then they have gotten away with it.

i'm no longer a fan of the band.

that being said, steve augeri was thrown under the bus because they allowed the one sided bashing of him to continue on a certain site while they continued to tour. journey inc. could have shut down the site in question. they didn't. they remained silent while augeri was at home and online sites turned into the "bash steve augeri into the ground show". and they didn't address it until over a year later and they did so by calling the fans obsessed and more recently alcoholics. the steve augeri bashing continues, albeit in a lesser amount, but it continues. people are actually making martys out of schon and cain for sticking by augeri during his vocal issues. oh please, if they really stuck by him, they would have afforded him the rest he needed for his instrument.

the bus only had augeri's name on it.....that is until 6/13/07 when they added jeff's name and he became a "pinch hitter"

That is exactly what I'm getting at here. They needed to follow a different schedule and Steve would more than likely still be there. If they had toured for the first year and then cut out touring to give everyone a rest, and worked on a really great album during that break, Steve vocally might have had a chance. Touring the guy 9 months a year for 8 years straight was just asking no begging for the poor bastard to have a voice meltdown.

iRockJava wrote:

i'm no longer a fan of the band.

that being said, steve augeri was thrown under the bus because they allowed the one sided bashing of him to continue on a certain site while they continued to tour. journey inc. could have shut down the site in question. they didn't. they remained silent while augeri was at home and online sites turned into the "bash steve augeri into the ground show". and they didn't address it until over a year later and they did so by calling the fans obsessed and more recently alcoholics. the steve augeri bashing continues, albeit in a lesser amount, but it continues. people are actually making martys out of schon and cain for sticking by augeri during his vocal issues. oh please, if they really stuck by him, they would have afforded him the rest he needed for his instrument.

the bus only had augeri's name on it.....that is until 6/13/07 when they added jeff's name and he became a "pinch hitter"

He was not thrown under the bus. For a person that is no longer a fan of the band you sure do post alot about them.

GOD wrote:

That is exactly what I'm getting at here. They needed to follow a different schedule and Steve would more than likely still be there. If they had toured for the first year and then cut out touring to give everyone a rest, and worked on a really great album during that break, Steve vocally might have had a chance. Touring the guy 9 months a year for 8 years straight was just asking no begging for the poor bastard to have a voice meltdown.

They did not tour 9 months every year. Check thier past tour schedule 1998-2005. They worked the max 6 months out of the year. His voice was not fit for the songs and the band and himself knew that after the 1st couple of years.

He wasn't thrown under the bus?! You are kidding right? You are gonna try and make me believe that NO one else in the band had any knowledge of the use of tapes? I want some of your weed dude. They all said in interviews that they didn't know because of the in-ear monitors. Ok so SA synched up the tapes EXACTLY to the live songs being played each night without anyone in the band being the wiser. Wake up Mana, they were ALL guilty and they let SA take the hit for it.

Oh and by my count, from the first shows in March until the Vegas shows that ended each tour season in November IS 9 months.

GOD wrote:

He wasn't thrown under the bus?! You are kidding right? You are gonna try and make me believe that NO one else in the band had any knowledge of the use of tapes? I want some of your weed dude. They all said in interviews that they didn't know because of the in-ear monitors. Ok so SA synched up the tapes EXACTLY to the live songs being played each night without anyone in the band being the wiser. Wake up Mana, they were ALL guilty and they let SA take the hit for it.

Oh and by my count, from the first shows in March until the Vegas shows that ended each tour season in November IS 9 months.

He was not thrown under the bus. Has been 20 yrs since I smoked. Dude let it rest, He did not lip synch. The tapes were used to help him, every band does it. I am awake and maybe you should let the Augeri interview speak for itself. Hopefully he will let you post it now. I truly look forward to the interview.
The band did not tour every year from March till November. Here is a couple of links to the 1st 2 years of touring with Augeri.
http://www.journey-tribute.com/journey/resources/tour/vacation/index.html
http://www.journey-tribute.com/journey/resources/tour/vacation/index.html

Does not look like 9 months of touring per year. Now check this link when Perry was with the band the 1st 4 years starting with the Infinity tour : http://www.journey-tribute.com/journey/resources/tour_info_past.html Now that is touring no rest .

Not going to even look at Perry's tour schedule because it is irrelevant. Perry was in his 20's when that occurred. Augeri was in his 40's. Big difference in voice stability in that big an age difference.

GOD wrote:

Not going to even look at Perry's tour schedule because it is irrelevant. Perry was in his 20's when that occurred. Augeri was in his 40's. Big difference in voice stability in that big an age difference.

The point was the band did not tour 9 months out of the year like you said that's why I posted the links for the 1st 2 tours with Augeri. 2001 arrival tour officially started in June and ended end of September. and so on.

I was never a fan of Steve Augeri, but there is no way that he was the only one involved in Tapegate. Anybody who believes that Neal didn't have the vocals coming through his in ears probably still believes in the Easter Bunny. It had to have been a group decision to do that. Augeri didn't have the power within the band to make that kind of decision on his own.

A lot of fans helped them throw Augeri under the bus just like they did Perry because they've made being a Journey fan such a huge part of their lives that they have to find some way to justify remaining a fan. That means they have to convince themselves that it's somebody's fault besides Neal and the people he keeps around to call Journey.

Kind of pathetic really.

I believe all parties involved were guilty at some level. Augeri probably had no choice. Kind of goes back to the Perry/hip thing. The band is demanding to be out on the road and putting the road (because tour = money) over health. However, Augeri probably knew it was either tapegate or no job. In the end, he loses the job anyway. But, at least it allowed him the money and the ability to give us (hopefully) another Tall Stories CD.

In the end, I celebrate Augeri's time in Journey. I thought he was a pretty good voice for the band. Nowhere near Perry, but nobody will ever be as good as Steve Perry anyways.

I think the band basically forced Augeri down the road they wound up travelling. Schon and Frig hold the reins and everyone else just follows along. I feel bad for SA, because unlike some here I REALLY enjoyed his time with Journey. I would have loved to see them turn down the touring schedule, save his voice, and release Revelation (and subsequent albums) with him on vox.