CALIFORNIA (CelebrityAccess) – Classic rock band Journey announced Tuesday (March 3) that it has fired bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith following what it is calling a “corporate coup d’état.”
According to a lawsuit filed by Miller Barondess, LLP in California Superior Court, remaining Journey members guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain are accusing Valory and Smith of “sowing discord among the band members by engaging in self-dealing and selfishly putting their interests ahead of the band’s,” scheming to “possess the rights to the Journey name” and venturing to “be paid without actually performing.”
Schon and Cain claim they have a 1998 written agreement with former Journey singer Steve Perry that grants them the “exclusive, irrevocable right to control the Journey Mark, including the Journey name,” therefore, “authorizing them to perform together as Journey, with or without anyone else.”
