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The story
On the 28th, YOSHIKI announced the release of a new song, “Forever Love (Live),” featuring Josh Groban. On 5ch, reactions focused less on the news itself than on X JAPAN’s internal dynamics, with many asking “What about Toshi?” Citing the Hotei Tomoyasu/Himuro Kyosuke precedent, commenters were split over whether the collaboration was appropriate.
Wed, Aug 26, 8:37 PM
YOSHIKI will release a new single, “Forever Love (Live),” featuring world-renowned vocalist Josh Groban, on music streaming services worldwide on August 28.
■ YOSHIKI CHANNEL will air a special four-day, six-program livestream series
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
They've already put out enough singles since the reunion to fill a whole album at this point.
I don't think it's ever coming out.
hyde: "Ain't that the truth!"
Doing it live is one thing, but does a single release really have to be self-composed?
Why don't you give it a shot yourself? (lol)
Why can't they even manage that much?
Rating it… I mean, that's way too on-the-nose (lol)
You don't know him? He played table tennis with Ishibashi Takaaki on "The Doctor and Josh" (a Japanese TV comedy segment).
Even if you're not happy with it, just release it already.
You just don't know — about half the songs planned for the album have already come out as singles.
Everyone who leaves David Foster's wing ends up falling off, huh.
Just shows how amazing Foster really is.
Josh and Yoshiki have been friends for over 10 years.
That's the standard template reply for "anyone could do that" / "must be nice making easy money."
So you can't do it, then?
Might be a 'Toshi-ro' (a Toshi knockoff, so to speak).
It's like Hotei having someone other than Himuro sing BOØWY songs.
Doing your own songs with people outside the band isn't unusual even for artists other than Yoshiki, right? Overseas, that kind of cover collaboration at events is standard practice.
Well, if we're going there, Toshi also performed X JAPAN songs with non-X members before and even put out a DVD of it…
https://www.discogs.com/release/18976558
I wish Toshi would speak up about it.
After all, Toshi's the one who blocked YOSHIKI.
DIR EN GRAY's Shinya was on drums for that, I recall.
Lol, for a second I couldn't tell if you meant he was drumming or dragging someone — "tataku" can mean both "play the drums" and "bash/criticize" in Japanese.
Background and Key Points
X JAPAN was formed in 1982 around YOSHIKI, the band’s drummer, pianist and primary songwriter, and Toshi, its vocalist since the beginning. “Forever Love,” the song being re-released here, is one of YOSHIKI’s most famous compositions — a 1996 ballad written for the film Godzilla vs. Destoroyah and originally sung by Toshi, later a huge domestic hit. Since X JAPAN’s mid-2000s reunion, full-band activity has stalled repeatedly, a friction widely tied to the 1990s rupture when Toshi spent roughly a decade affiliated with the group Home of Heart, often described in Japanese media as a mind-control situation, and to unresolved rights and trademark disputes between him and YOSHIKI that persist even now.
The thread’s real disagreement isn’t over Josh Groban’s fame (an American singer known for “You Raise Me Up” and a long-time friend of YOSHIKI’s, unrelated to X JAPAN) — it’s over whether YOSHIKI, as composer, has standing to re-release a Toshi-identified song with an outside vocalist while the two remain estranged. The Hotei/Himuro comparison — BOØWY’s guitarist and singer, who split in 1988 and never let anyone else touch their catalog together — frames one side’s objection, while others note that solo members recording their own compositions with guest artists is ordinary practice, and that Toshi himself has performed X JAPAN material with non-members.
What the thread never states outright is that this is a YOSHIKI-credited release, not an X JAPAN one, and that the “ban” on Toshi singing X JAPAN songs or originals reflects an unresolved private/legal dispute, not a formal industry restriction.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “YOSHIKI Announces New Single “Forever Love (Live)” Featuring World-Renowned Vocalist, Releasing August 28 — Live Broadcast on YOSHIKI CHANNEL.”
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