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Ever since metal gods Judas Priest plucked Ripper Owens out of a tribute band to replace original singer Rob Halford, the idea of the average Joe getting a gig with his favorite rock n’ roll band has captivated people’s imaginations. It inspired the 2001 movie Rock Star and a reality TV show of the same name, where aspiring singers auditioned for the rock bands INXS and Rock Star Supernova, a super-group made up of members of Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and Motley Crue. Currently streaming on Netflix, the 2012 documentary Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey mines similar ground, telling the true story of how journeyman Filipino singer Arnel Pineda ended up as the frontman for classic rock band Journey.
While the music of Journey alternates between ham-fisted riff rock and power ballads —all big hooks and gushy emotional cues— Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey is sincere, compelling and heartfelt. Directed by Fillipino-American documentarian Ramona S. Díaz, the film’s unadorned style avoids predictable rock doc clichés and sympathetically presents the story of the singer and the band as they get to know each other over the course of a grueling 4 and a half-month tour. Pineda is genuinely likable, and you wish the best for him as the movie travels towards its hopefully happy ending.
The movie begins with Arnel visiting his old grammar school in the Filipino capital of Manila. The principal there has no idea who he is, and has never even heard of Journey. It’s illustrative of the wide chasm that exists between the singer and the band. As Journey keyboard player Jonathan Cain says early on, “How do you take someone from a Third World country and throw him into this circus”? While Cain is legitimately concerned, his statement only further illustrates their differences. The Philippines isn’t even necessarily a Third World country (OK, it’s part of the “Developing World”).
Americans love their rags to riches stories, but Arnel Pineda’s story is truly one of a man a clawing his way out of abject poverty. Pineda was born poor and the hard times only got harder when his mother died and the family was evicted from their home when he was 13. Rather than burden his father with one more mouth to feed, he struck out on his own, and was effectively homeless for the next two years, sleeping on park benches, working odd jobs and singing on street corners for money. He became a professional musician at age 15 after hooking up with his first band, and had a respectable if not extraordinary musical career over the next 25 years in South East Asia.
Don’t Stop Believin’ vacillates back and forth between Arnel’s story and that of Journey. Whatever you might think of the group —admittedly, I am not a fan— they actually have a pretty interesting history. Started in 1973 by refugees from Santana, the group originally played a jammy mix of hard rock and jazz fusion, which founding Journey guitarist Neil Schon describes as being like “The (Grateful) Dead on steroids.” Despite a strong live following, record sales were lacking, and in order to hold on to their recording contract Journey turned to a more commercial, radio-friendly sound. In late 1977, they brought in singer Steve Perry, whose soaring vocals powered a stream of classic rock radio hits that kept coming and didn’t stop until the late ’80s.
Schon discovered Arnel Pineda via YouTube clips a fan uploaded of his band covering classic rock standards, from Led Zeppelin to, well, Journey. From the outset, Schon was Arnel’s champion, repeatedly saying “That’s the guy.” Cain, who not only plays keyboards but also wrote some of Journey’s biggest hits, remained skeptical if the diminutive Filipino could fill Steve Perry’s “big shoes.” Despite a shaky audition, Arnel impressed the band once he relaxed a little, and ultimately secured the gig. Following a trial by fire first gig in front of a Chilean crowd of 18,000, and the recording of the Revelation album, the band set out on a big tour in summer 2008. The bulk of Don’t Stop Believin’ was filmed at various tour stops on the Revelation tour.
While his years of playing 3 to 5 hours a night in Manila nightclubs prepared him for the rigors of touring, joining a band with such a large legacy put huge pressures on Arnel. On top of that, the singer harbors insecurities about his height, his looks and his ethnicity. While it may seem ludicrous to a liberal “Coastal Elite” like myself, there were actually longtime Journey fans that were upset Pineda was not white. “I think he should be from here,” meaning America, says one tailgating Journey fan, probably unaware of her own bigotry. This is insignificant, however, when contrasted with the outpouring of pride and affection from the band’s Filipino-American fans, especially at the tour’s West Coast dates. At the end of a rapturous gig in the band’s hometown, Arnel yells out, “Thank you San Francisco! Thank you Pinoys!” As one fan says, “Arnel Peneda has made the world smaller.”
The reception is even greater when Arnel returns home to the Philippines at the conclusion of the tour’s first leg. “It’s like everything that happened was a dream,” he says reflecting on his, ahem, journey. The movie’s emotional payoff is Journey’s March 2009 gig in Manila, where Pineda plays to family, friends and about 30,000 other people. Now, I know I could have found out with a quick Google search as to whether or not he was still with the band (he is), but the film quite cannily keeps us guessing up until the very end about his ultimate fate with the group. That is until the very end, when Journey’s manager John Baruck confirms, “He’s a full member of Journey.” The finale of Journey playing the song “Don’t Stop Believin’” is of course totally predictable, but also totally appropriate, given Pineda’s arc. As he says earlier in the film, while discussing being on the receiving end of adulation, “I was just like them, I was just a fan.”
Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.
