We are proud to announce that Marcel Jacob will give us a daily updated news about the Talisman Farewell Tour.

Ok

This is an intermediate diary entry, between the European dates and going to Brazil in a few weeks time. It was prompted by events that occurred while I was on tour with another band I (and Jamie) am involved with – Last Autumns Dream. This entry is therefore divided in 2 parts, namely the trip to Japan, and the WTF!

WTF! A week ago I received the e-mail from Jeff with the message of his termination. It wasn't a total surprise, as I will explain. But it was still a massive WTF! moment.

Ok, I am back home, body and mind starting to synchronize yet again. I just can't hold back anymore…I know that Jeff has signed a confidentiality agreement - I totally expect him to sugarcoat everything he says to any media – but I have not. And everyone who knows me expects me to say it how it is, so get ready.

Jeff had told us early on in the tour, like the first day really, about how he was concerned about what was going on with Journey, that there was some unspecified dissatisfaction with him coming mainly from Neal Schon, and that he couldn't get an answer from anybody in the band or from management what it was about. We all told him not to worry, it was a weekend, they would tell him something soon. After the weekend there was a rumour on the internet about Jeff getting fired. Management responded to inquiries from Jeff about that, telling Jeff to cool it and don't do anything,

it was just Neal being Neal and that it would blow over. But I could see the agony was still there, the band themselves were still not returning any calls. The thing was, Jeff was doing this farewell tour with Talisman so he could lay this part of his past to rest, before moving on to further commit to his new job with Journey. This mean't being away in Europe, feeling isolated from what was going on back home, that alone should have prompted reasoning adults to respond to messages or questions … WTF! Great reward for Jeff's loyalty and commitment…

Well, I know Jeff expected to come home to have a sitdown with Neal and management to discuss and sort out whatever issues or misconceptions. Instead this happened: we'd done a highly emotional show at Sweden Rock, we were all feeling good about the reception…and backstage at the Aerosmith show Jeff meets the singer for another band that have the same management as Journey. This guy steps up and says to the effect "Hi Jeff, so sorry to hear the news about your departure from Journey"! Talk about a letdown!

Ok. Let me stop here in my narrative and tell you what I think of Azoff and friends, the so called Journey management. They tell other artists on their roster before they tell Jeff about the termination – confidentiality breach anyone ? Keeping band business under wraps ? When the rumours started they told Jeff it would blow over if he would cool it and not be so active on the internet etc. which in retrospect is of course lies and very manipulative. They allow their clients Schon & Cain (aka Frick&Frack, love the ridicule they get on for example melodicrock.com) to send out press statements that are just plain dumb. Noone with management is watching out for the trademark "Journey" it seems.

How is it that they accept their clients idea of choosing a cover band singer ( haven't heard the guy, he may be the shit for all I care) when they had Jeff come in and breathe new life into a band that was floundering ? And WTF, they terminate Jeff, send out a moronic press statement, delete Jeff's image from the website and his participation from the bio…and immediately put on top of their news section a 3 times as long as the termination press statement a NEW press statement where they brag about how they got a song on the Sopranos! They usually update the news on the website what, once a month or less ?

Everything Azoff & friends have done in this situation reeks…makes me wonder what the scene with the other Azoff artist was all about, they wanted him to be the axeman, or lay some foundation so Jeff wouldn't cause some sort of embarrassing scene when they had to place the call ? What makes me even more nauseous however are the malicious rumours that I've seen.

I wonder who is behind those, the common creeps out there, or somebody more "connnected"? I swear, Jeff hasn't said or done a single thing that doesn't rhyme with his intentions of loyalty and commitment to working with Neal, Jonathan, Dean, and Ross. He's the kind of guy that would have stepped down, worked it out so everybody came out smelling of roses – but he simply hasn't been given the chance. WTF! When Jeff told me about the situation I thought "very immature people" but I never expected F&F to really go through with it. WTF!

Jeff's been my brother for a long time. I hurt almost as bad as he does. I feel very strongly that he's been used and wrongfully dismissed, no warning, no second chance, for no proper reason given other than that Journey now wants to use a cover band singer. How sad, screwing Jeff for that…