Here is an old photo I found of Hardline back in the day. Deen is on the far right and Neal Schon is the 2nd one in from the left. Johnny Gioeli is on Neal's left. Could we see these 3 reunite and reform Hardline again? Hardline has been around in different variations for several years now. Their recent music has been decent with flashes of brilliance at times but nothing compared to the original line up back in the early 1990's. Could we see the 3 of them do something again?
This is something to watch now that Deen Castronovo has recently teamed up again with Hardline's lead singer and founder Johnny Gioeli for a new album that is coming out in July on Frontiers records. I only speculate because of the turmoil and drama that currently exists in the band Journey. I've always thought that Hardline was one heck of a band but only put out one album. Grunge didn't help the situation and probably kept them from getting a follow up record deal. I also read that Neal was kind of the reason the record deal fell through. Apparently he wasn't a nice guy to record label.
When I asked Deen about Hardline and if they would ever get back together with the Gioeli brothers...
In 1998 when I went out to see Journey tour for the first time without Steve Perry, I was fortunate to get backstage passes to see and talk to the members of the band. When I finally had the chance to talk to Deen who btw was a really nice guy compared to the other members of the band, I asked Deen if Neal and himself would ever rejoin with Hardline? Deen responded with laughter and yelled over to Neal, "Hey Neal this guy is asking about Hardline!" Neal turned around and rolled his eyes. I pressed Deen what that was all about and he said the Gioeli brothers couldn't make any decisions without the other the brother in the room and they didn't see a future for that band and he was glad it was behind them.
Where will it go?
That was 1998... its now 2018 and look who is working with a Gioeli brother again. Pure speculation on my part but lets see where Neal goes once this tour is over. I bet that something will happen especially if the album Deen and Johnny's album does really well. I think Neal is ready to put on the brakes with Journey and move out into something more progressive and fresh. These guys could bring that type of interest back around again and there are a bunch of us out there who would still buy it... even in 2018.
What do you think? Drop me a comment and tell me I'm crazy.