DOVER, Del. – The rock band Journey has compiled an impressive list of hits over the past 50 years, but the song that might now be resonating the loudest for some band and crew members is “Separate Ways.”
The latest in a series of legal disputes with band founder and lead guitarist Neal Schon, longtime keyboardist Jonathan Cain is asking a Delaware judge to resolve a deadlock involving Freedom 2020, a company formed three years ago to oversee tour-related finances.
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According to court filings, Schon is president of Freedom 2020, but he and Cain each holds a 50% stake in the company. In a petition filed last week, Cain said he and Schon “fundamentally disagree” on the management and operation of the company. He wants the court to appoint a custodian to act as an independent, deadlock-breaking director.
Cain’s attorneys also asked the judge to fast-track the case amid the band’s current 50th Anniversary Freedom Tour, which concludes Nov. 17 in London. During a hearing Wednesday, Cain's attorney Sidney Liebesman told Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster that the current situation is “dysfunctional.”
“It is in crisis,” Liebesman said. “The damage is taking place during the tour.”
Liebesman complained that Schon is wasting company assets and believes that, as president of Freedom 2020, “he can do whatever he wants.”
“It is his self-interest that is driving his decision-making,” Liebesman said.
In a court filing Monday, Schon’s attorneys said many of Cain’s allegations have no basis. They specifically rejected allegations that the tour’s production company and vendors weren’t being paid on time.
“Petitioner’s allegations that the company faces imminent irreparable harm from a purported inability of the company to meet its financial obligations has no basis in fact,” according to Schon’s attorneys, who will file a more complete response to Cain’s petition on Monday.
“Our client denies that there’s been any mismanagement,” Schon's attorney Jack Yoskowitz told Laster, adding that any dysfunction has been caused by Cain acting in his own self-interest, including making allegations to the press that harm the band.
Laster scheduled a final hearing in the case to begin on Sept. 3, timed with Labor Day weekend, as sought by Cain’s attorneys. Schon’s attorneys sought a hearing in late September or early October, after the North American leg of the tour ends.
Cain’s attorneys say a quick resolution is needed because the deadlock has become “a very much public battle” that also has created a “toxic internal environment” during the tour.
“Rather than focusing on the band’s performances during a major international tour, the band’s business manager, lead vocalist and crew members now find themselves caught in the middle of the directors’ disputes, afraid of performing their job responsibilities, and pressured to align with one director or another,” they wrote.
Cain’s attorneys say the dispute also threatens the band’s reputation, could negatively affect its fan base, and could further strain relationships with vendors and personnel.
“Indeed, the band has lost multiple members of its crew because of such tensions over the past several months,” they wrote, adding that the company’s new business manager, its seventh, was hired two months ago.
Cain says Schon’s desire to take a $1.5 million advance from promoter AEG Presents LLC to cover tour expenses, and his opposition to Cain's proposal for a more modest advance of $500,000, has caused “a major rift.” He also accuses Schon of “exorbitant and wasteful spending” on hotels and airfare for band and crew members. Schon, for example, has ignored the company limit of $1,500 per night for hotel accommodations and has spent up to $10,000 per night for hotel rooms for him and his wife, according to Cain.
Cain also alleges that Schon allows crew members to stay in hotel rooms during tour stops in or near their home cities, and to fly in business class. Schon also has used the company credit card for personal expenses and incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs for private jets for himself, his wife and various crew members, according to Cain.
The dispute also has even spilled over to creative differences, including Cain’s disagreement with Schon’s selection of a substitute drummer for a Toronto performance last week, and whether Cain should play rhythm guitar during performances of the 1978 song “Wheel in the Sky."
"Even if that decision were within the scope of Freedom 2020’s business, which seems highly doubtful, matters of song arrangement are objectively not a type of disagreement that threatens the company with irreparable harm," Schon's attorneys wrote.
The two band members have been at odds for several years. In 2022, for example, Schon sent a cease-and-desist letter after Cain performed the 1981 hit "Don’t Stop Believin’” at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. Schon said Cain, whose wife was a spiritual adviser to Trump, had no right to use the Journey brand for politics. Cain countered that Schon was the one damaging the band’s brand through his bullying tactics and reckless spending.