Journey keyboardist floored by new singer

Journey and Def Leppard finished up their wildly successful North American tour on Sunday, November 19th, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After all the shows they did together, it's amazing to think the whole thing almost collapsed early on because Journey singer Steve Augeri had to drop out for medical reasons. Journey thought about packing it in and going home, but guitarist Neal Schon got them to check out Jeff Scott Soto, who sang with Schon's side band Soul Sirkus. Keyboardist Jonathan Cain told us that Soto worked out better than anyone could have hoped: "Jeff came out and started, and we just threw him to the wolves, and he went out there and somehow got it done, and I was like, 'Whoa, that's astonishing.' And night after night, he kept getting better and better, you know? And then, you know, we had a coupla shows where he absolutely slayed the audience -- I mean, they just were, like... roared with approval."

There's been no word yet on whether Soto is now a permanent member of Journey, but he's in the new publicity photos for the band's European tour in March.
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