In 1982, when Pineda was 15 years old, he became the lead singer of the Filipino group Ijos. He used to sing at a
Shakey's Pizza parlor on Taft Street in
Manila. In 1986, several members of Ijos formed a group called Amo, which won the Rock Wars contest in the Philippines. In 1988, Amo won the Philippine leg of the Yamaha World Band Explosion. They went to the finals in Hong Kong, but were not qualified to win due to a technicality. The rules said the winning song had to be an original composition, but also that the song entry in the finals had to be the same song with which the band won their country's leg of the competition. Amo's winning song in the Philippines was
Queen's "
Bohemian Rhapsody". After the contest, the band continued as Amo, performing live. They opened for
Robert Palmer in Manila in 1989. He returned to Hong Kong and resumed singing with his band. In 1998, the owner of Igor's, a horror-themed restaurant and nightclub in Hong Kong, asked New Age to perform there. Dressed in skeleton outfits, they called themselves The Rolling Bones. On their only day off, Sunday, the band often performed at Filipino community events. In 2005, Pineda recorded the theme song of the short-lived Filipino radio show
Dayo. The band Visitors was briefly formed for promotion purposes of the
Dayo soundtrack consisting of three members from Ijos/Yjoz, Amo, New Age and Most W@nted.
Journey Videos of The Zoo performing cover songs by
Journey,
Survivor,
Aerosmith,
Led Zeppelin,
The Eagles,
Stryper and other popular acts from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s began appearing on YouTube in February 2007. On June 28, 2007,
Neal Schon of Journey contacted Noel Gomez, a longtime fan and friend of Pineda who had uploaded many of these videos, to ask for Pineda's contact information. Schon sent an e-mail to Pineda inviting him to audition for Journey. Pineda initially dismissed the e-mail as a hoax, but after being persuaded by Gomez, he finally replied to Schon's e-mail. Ten minutes later, Pineda received a phone call from Schon. On August 12, Pineda, along with his manager Bert de Leon, flew to
Marin County, just north of San Francisco, for a week of auditioning. The star-struck Pineda was welcomed warmly but he described the audition as "nerve-wracking, tense". On December 5, 2007, Pineda was announced as the new lead singer of Journey. Pineda debuted as the lead singer of Journey on February 21, 2008, at the
Viña del Mar International Song Festival held at the Quinta Vergara Amphitheater in
Viña del Mar, Chile. Chilean media acclaimed Pineda's performance (translated to English): "The new vocalist fits very well with the band, his vocal aptitudes shining through, which are very similar to the legendary musician of the band,
Steve Perry." Journey keyboardist/guitarist Jonathan Cain described Pineda's performance in a radio interview: "We went to Chile just recently, where we had never played and they went crazy, they absolutely went nuts... Arnel's first show—talk about a stressful thing—we had a televised concert for 25 million people... Is the guy a winner? Yeah, he's a winner. He's a clutch player." Journey returned to the United States for a private
RE/MAX Convention event at the
MGM Grand in
Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 6, 2008, then performed at Las Vegas'
Planet Hollywood on March 8, 2008 (this concert was recorded and used, in part, for the
Revelation DVD). On February 1, 2009, he performed with Journey at the
Super Bowl XLIII pregame show.
Revelation album and tour Journey's first album with Pineda,
Revelation, debuted at No. 5 in the
Billboard Top 200 album charts in the week following its release (released June 3, 2008), and remained in the Top 20 for six weeks. It was certified gold by the
RIAA with more than 336,000 units sold within the first few days. It achieved platinum status by October 1, 2009. The US version of the album (distributed exclusively through
Wal-Mart) consists of ten new songs ("Faith in the Heartland" was co-written and originally recorded by vocalist
Steve Augeri and S. Augeri is credited as songwriter in the liner notes of this album) and 12 re-recorded classics, plus a live-in-concert DVD filmed during the March 8, 2008, concert in Las Vegas. The European version distributed through
Frontiers Records contains 11 new songs, 11 re-recorded classics, plus one new bonus track, but does not include the DVD. All of the music on
Revelation was produced by
Kevin Shirley (who previously worked with Journey on their Platinum-certified
Trial by Fire album). Jonathan Cain described the album in an interview: We recorded our greatest hits with our brand new singer from the Philippines, Arnel Pineda, and it's unbelievable when you listen to it. We paid a lot of attention to the details because everybody loves those hits and we weren't about to step all over it... We're excited because we think Arnel is the future for our franchise... We knew that if we were ever gonna move on, we had to get somebody that was really gonna be our future and sound like Journey is supposed to sound... I think Journey fans are in for a real treat. Journey's 2008 tour accompanying the release of
Revelation began on June 8, 2008, in Spain, followed by four dates in Germany, and one date in the Netherlands. Journey toured the United Kingdom and Ireland from June 17 through June 28, 2008. The US tour (with
Heart and
Cheap Trick) began on July 9, 2008, in
Denver, Colorado, and continued through October 4, 2008, in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. Many dates were already sold out well in advance. Pineda celebrated his 41st birthday on September 5, 2008, during a concert at the
Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto, Ontario. In September 2008, Journey performed back-to-back sold-out concerts at the
Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Pineda sang in 57 concerts during the 2008 Journey World Tour. Journey's recent visit to the United States Gulf Coast performing at the Wharf Amphitheater,
Orange Beach, Alabama, and at the
Pensacola Civic Center, Pensacola, Florida, was a tremendous hit due to the large Filipino communities living in that area. On the second leg of the tour, Journey went on an Asian–Hawaiian tour, going to cities in Japan, the Philippines, China and Hawaii. The Manila concert was
released as a live concert DVD. Total concert revenue for Journey in 2008 was $35,695,481. Pineda apologized for his poor vocal performance at the
Rock in Rio music festival. Behind the Songs posted an FB clip of his struggle to reach the high notes of “
Don't Stop Believin'” on September 21, 2023. He conditionally offered to quit
Journey. == Personal life ==