Journey guitarist Neal Schon responded aggressively to a fan’s criticism on Facebook regarding the dramatic legal ousting of former members Ross Valory and Steve Smith. A fan commented on Schon’s post saying “After what was done to Ross Valory and Steve Smith, I’ll never go see those guys again.” Schon dismissed the criticism sharply. “BS. You have no clue what you’re talking about. Off base completely. Don’t speak about things you don’t have any education on,” Schon wrote in his reply.
The exchange highlights the ongoing tension surrounding one of rock music’s most contentious internal disputes. Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain fired Valory and Smith in March 2020. They accused the two former members of attempting a corporate coup to seize control of the band’s trademark and corporate entity, Nightmare Productions, to fund their retirement. Valory and Smith had allegedly held improper shareholder and board meetings in an attempt to gain control of the company. They mistakenly believed the entity held the rights to the Journey name.
At the heart of the conflict lay a fundamental disagreement over trademark ownership. Schon and Cain claimed that they, along with former lead singer Steve Perry, held all rights to the Journey name through an entity called Elmo Partners, established in 1985. They argued that Nightmare Productions did not control the Journey trademark. Valory and Smith sought windfall payments in the millions of dollars by gaining control of the corporate entity. The lawsuit filed by Schon and Cain sought damages exceeding $10 million for breach of fiduciary duty.
Valory’s countersuit, filed in April 2020, presented a starkly different narrative. The former bassist disputed the characterization of events as a corporate coup. Instead, he argued that the board was attempting to protect the Journey brand after Schon had applied for a similar trademark for his offshoot group, Journey Through Time. Valory’s legal action alleged that Schon was the member who actively injured the value of the Journey trademark by pursuing the conflicting mark. He sought past and future compensatory damages along with a judicial determination of who had the right to use the band’s name.
The legal battle consumed years of litigation and acrimony between the former bandmates. Both sides presented competing interpretations of the band’s corporate agreements. Valory’s team contended that a 1985 agreement granting Elmo Partners control of the trademark had been terminated in 1994. A subsequent 1998 agreement acknowledged Nightmare Productions as the actual owner of the trademark. The dispute represented not merely a disagreement over business control but a fundamental clash over the legacy and future use of one of rock’s most iconic band names.
By April 2021, the protracted legal war finally came to an end. All four parties reached an amicable settlement. Schon and Cain agreed to drop their $10 million damages claim, bringing closure to a dispute that had fractured the band and divided its fanbase. Despite the settlement, the underlying tensions remained evident, as demonstrated by Schon’s recent sharp rebuke of the fan who questioned the circumstances of Valory and Smith’s departure from the group.
