Jeff Scott Soto recently made an appearance on Lucas Gordon Show for an interview. During the conversation, the musician revealed that he can’t say any negative things about his tenure in Journey due to a legal document he signed.

Throughout his career, Jeff Scott Soto has performed with many artists, including Yngwie Malmsteen. Best known as Malmsteen’s vocalist on his first two albums and his long tenure in Talisman as their frontman, Soto lent his vocals to Journey as well.

In 2016, Soto joined Journey as Steve Augeri’s replacement after Augeri left the tour due to his acute throat infection. After working with the band for several months during the tour, Soto officially became a member in December 2006 as the band’s singer. However, his tenure was brief in the band as he was fired on June 12, 2007.

In an interview with Lucas Gordon, Jeff Scott Soto discussed why he was fired from Journey. He said he doesn’t know what the problem was, and if he knew, he would make peace with it. Following that, the singer revealed he isn’t supposed to talk about it negatively because he signed a legal document aiming to protect the band’s reputation.

Soto then added he was never given a proper explanation of why Journey didn’t want to continue with him. The singer stated it has been 14 years, and it still doesn’t make sense to him. According to the musician, he would have preferred to leave the band as friends. So, it seems like Soto still needs some answers even though it has been almost a decade and a half.

During the interview, Jeff Scott Soto said the following about the reason he was fired:

“The problem is I don’t know. That’s the problem. If I knew what the problem was, if I knew the reason why I got fired, then at least I could be at peace with it; I could find a way to discuss it or talk about it.

But I’m not legally supposed to talk about it, because when we finally… It got to the point where we had to take it as a legal side of things. But to get away from the legal side, I signed a document that I wouldn’t talk about anything negative, anything bad about them. And I don’t wanna talk negative; I don’t wanna talk about anything bad.

But if I knew the reason… And this is not bad — I’m not saying anything bad about them; I’m just telling you the truth. My truth is if I was told why I was fired, if I was told ‘your voice sucks,’ if I was told I killed one of the guys’ dogs, if I made somebody in their family angry, if I was told the reason why I was fired, I could make peace with it.”

He went on to say:

“But to this day, 14 years later — whatever it is — I don’t know. I don’t have the answers. I was never given a proper reason. The only thing I was told was they had a change of heart. It didn’t make sense to me.

If you have a change of heart, call me up and we can say goodbye, we can hug and say, ‘Hey, hopefully, I can get a couple of tickets to the show with the new singer.’ That kind of stuff. You can leave as friends. I came in as friends; I wanna leave as friends.”

You can watch the interview below.