Journey founder and lead guitarist Neal Schon and longtime keyboardist/guitarist Jonathan Cain are asking a Delaware judge to resolve a business deadlock.
According to court filings, Schon is president of Freedom 2020, a company formed three years ago to oversee tour-related finances. He and Cain each hold 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 as a director to resolve disputes.
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 alleged 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 claimed many of Cain’s allegations have no basis.
“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. He said that any dysfunction has been caused by Cain acting in his own self-interest, including making allegations to the press that harm the band.
Cain’s attorneys say a quick resolution is needed because it’s 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 blames Schon’s taking $1.5 million advance from promoter AEG to cover tour expenses, despite Cain’s request for a more modest advance of $500,000. He also accuses Schon of “exorbitant and wasteful spending” on hotels and airfare for band and crew members, saying Schon ignored the company limit of $1,500 per night for hotel accommodations while spending up to $10,000 per night for hotel rooms for him and his wife.
Cain also alleges that Schon 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.
The dispute also includes creative differences, including 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.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
