Journey’s Neal Schon says his first car was a Jaguar and he paid cash for it.
Neal Schon, Journey
Schon was a kid when he was asked to join Santana in 1969. When the first paycheck arrived, the kid was loaded.
“I was a 15 year old sideman with Santana,” Neal tells Noise11. “But I’ve got to tell you, the first check I ever got I was blown away. I had no idea how much I would make for what I was trying to do. I had never received a paycheck before. I just played out of love. I played a few gigs with them and they gave me my first check and it was for $10,000”.
With 10 grand in his pocket, Neal went shopping for his first car but he didn’t get his first choice, the sales people would not serve him. “I didn’t have a drivers licence yet but I said ‘I’m going to buy a car’,” he said. “My buddy took me down, I was looking at Mercedes for a first car. I walked into the place, I had a big fro, I looked like a little hippy kid and the guy would not wait on me. I got fed up, I walked out and I went over to British Motors and saw a new Jaguar. It was an XJ6, the first year they came out. I said ‘whoever is going to wait on me I am going to buy this thing for cash. The guy came over, I got the car, he drove it out of there with me in the passenger seat. I got my licence a week later and that was my first car”.
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Watch the Noise11 interview with Neal Schon (Part 1)
Watch the Noise11 interview with Neal Schon (Part 2)
