Former Journey bassist Ross Valory sat down with Dr. Music for a new interview and discussed his past and future with Journey.
During the chat, he revealed the real reason why the band’s former member Jeff Scott Soto was not the right fit. After acknowledging that Soto is a great singer, he explained:
“Jeff stepped up and I did everything he could do to fill several other people’s shoes on short notice. A different approach to entertainment, a different kind of voice. But I think he did as well as he could and hats off. His stay with Journey was rather brief when it came to writing and arranging new material [with] the writers Jeff, Neal and Jonathan. Jeff’s style was very different from what we had or have believed the Journey signature vocal approach would be so that just didn’t work out.”
Soto’s Time With Journey Was His ‘Greatest Experience’
Soto joined Journey during their 2006 tour with Def Leppard. He stepped in for Steve Augeri who was dealing with vocal issues at the time. After a successful run of shows, Soto was officially announced as Journey’s new singer in late 2006. However, his time with the band was short-lived as he was fired in June of the next year.
There’s been talk about why Soto left, and he mentioned taking legal action against the band. Still, Soto said in another interview that his time with Journey meant a lot to him:
“Probably one of the greatest experiences of my life. I treated it with absolute respect – when I’m on the road, I tend to have a couple of drinks with the guys; I’ll drink on stage and that can wear and tear you down the road, if you do too much excess. When I joined Journey, I vowed I’m not even going to drink beer. I’m not going to drink beer on stage, after the show. I didn’t drink wine. Nothing. I just stayed away from alcohol because that’s the one thing that will kill your voice on tour if you’re not careful.”
He added:
“And I didn’t want to do anything that disrespected their decision to get me into the band. I wanted to deliver; I know that the fans were being really critical. I [was going to] be under the microscope every night, being scrutinized, like, ‘Oh yeah, he doesn’t sound like the right kind of singer,’ or, ‘He sounds rough,’ or ‘He can’t hit the notes.’ I wanted to give them no excuses and no reasons to have to defend why they got me into the band.”
You can see the interview below.