Journey’s lead guitarist puts bandmate on notice over Trump event performance

Lawyers for Journey’s Neal Schon are sending a cease and desist letter to one of his bandmates for performing the group’s hit, “Don’t Stop Believin’” at an event for former President Trump.

Attorneys for lead guitarist Schon, who founded the band in 1972, recently sent the letter to fellow musician Jonathan Cain, Variety first reported Wednesday.

Cain was seen in a video posted on social media performing at a bash last month at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida resort home. In the clip, Cain is on the keyboard while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), former Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Kimberly Guilfoyle sing along onstage to “Don’t Stop Believin’ as Trump looks on from the audience.

Schon, Cain and Steve Perry had penned the group’s 1981 rock anthem.

“Although Mr. Cain is free to express his personal beliefs and associations, when he does that on behalf of Journey or for the band, such conduct is extremely deleterious to the Journey brand as it polarizes the band’s fans and outreach,” the letter from Schon’s legal team, obtained by ITK, said.

“Journey is not, and should not be, political,” the letter said.

Cain’s “unauthorized affiliation of Journey with the politics of Donald Trump has the band’s fans up in arms,” the letter stated, claiming it has caused “irreparable harm to the Journey brand.”

Cain’s politics, according to the letter, “should be his own personal business.”

“He should not be capitalizing on Journey’s brand to promote his personal political or religious agenda to the detriment of the band,” it said.

Cain, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, is married to televangelist Paula White, who has served as Trump’s longtime spiritual adviser.

In a statement to ITK, Cain blasted his bandmate and Schon’s spouse, former “Real Housewives of D.C.” star Michaele Schon, saying, “Neal Schon should look in the mirror when he accuses me of causing harm to the Journey brand. I have watched him damage our brand for years and am a victim of both his — and his wife’s — bizarre behavior.”

Listing a number of lawsuits over the years, Cain accused Schon of “toxic” behavior and of arguing “online with fans who don’t see eye to eye with him.”

“If anyone is destroying the Journey brand, it is Neal — and Neal alone,” Cain said.

The cease and desist letter comes as Journey is poised to hit the road on a nationwide concert tour. The band announced earlier this year that it was kicking off its 38-city “Freedom Tour” in February.

Asked during a 2017 radio interview if the band had been approached to play at Trump’s inauguration, Cain said, “We’re not political. We don’t get into politics. We try to stay in our lane.”

Schon said in the same interview, “It’s a tough thing, you know. Even though you want to do certain things, you can’t sometimes because people are split, pretty 50-50. Democrats, Republicans — either way you go, you’re going to lose.”

“Politics and music,” Schon said at the time, “I don’t think it mixes.”

Other music artists have criticized the use of their music at political rallies over the years. Neil Young sued Trump’s campaign in 2020 after his 1989 song, “Rockin’ in the Free World,” was played at a rally in Oklahoma, saying the 45^th president didn’t have the proper licensing. Four months later, attorneys for Young filed to dismiss the copyright case.

This story was updated at 5:27 p.m.