Neal Schon has spoken up in support of Journey bandmate Arnel Pineda after the singer received negative comments for his recent performance at Rock in Rio — and he claimed that festival headliners Avenged Sevenfold were to blame.

In an impassioned social media post, Pineda said he was “devastated” over a sub-par show, and offered to quit the band if a million fans told him to go.

Guitarist Schon then made his own comments on Facebook, defending Pineda and declaring that another band had caused Journey sound problems that night.

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Sharing a video from the stage which showed fans at Rio, Schon wrote: “All this absolute garbage fabricated bullshit about [Arnel]. Does this look like nobody had a good time? I’m asking you. All fabricated, owned and bought blogs, bullshit.” He echoed those thoughts while commenting on another Facebook post about the story: "Arnel don't listen to these blogs. They are all bought. You’ve kicked ass!"

He went on to add another clip showing Journey taking a bow at the end of their Rio performance and said the headline act had imposed control on his band’s sound output.

Neal Schon Says Journey Were Victims of ‘Bullshit Move'

“[W]e found out much later that we got extremely limited by Avenged Sevenfold,” he said. “[T]hat means… hardly any sound can get out of the PA to the audience. It’s a bullshit move.” Despite that, he added: “Check out the audience. They loved it… the rest of it’s fabricated crap.” When a follower asked if Journey’s sound tech couldn’t have resolved the problem, Schon replied: “No,” while another fan explained that “sound equipment [can be] locked up and password protected.” Asked why Avenged Sevenfold had been the headliner rather than Journey, Schon said simply: “Politics.”

The following leg of Journey’s current tour takes them to Japan in October, while their next confirmed U.S. date is on Dec. 28 in Lincoln, CA.

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