He stayed between the ditches with Journey. He showed his stuff later.
That said, to your point, his effort on that clip didn't match the original, and he admitted as such. It's kind of an unfair fight, though.
It's only one data point, but I was set to take a national merit scholarship to study finance at a B1G school. Fall semester my senior year of HS, my dad (an engineering prof) said to me "you know, you're really good at math and you love music and hifi -- have you considered studying acoustics?"
It had never occurred to me. I ended up studying mech eng undergrad and then acoustics at UT for grad school (via the mech eng department). I am so fucking glad I didn't study finance.
At this point in his career that seems like a good move. He's not likely to ever be much beyond an emergency starter, so he could pull a Colt and get a healthy 8-12 years in the league, decent pay and his pension. Go sell commercial real estate next.
I think I was about 7 years old when that was one of the big games on the playground. I'm pretty sure I didn't really know what "queer" meant. It seemed like a generic pejorative term to me.
Good for Bijan for owning it. Time to move on.
Because their media does not tell them the truth. Only now, with the costs of food etc. well higher than just a few years ago are some of the dim bulbs starting to glow.
It's a bit like the old saying "on your deathbed, you'll never regret travel taken". In this case, "on your deathbed, you'll never regret buying that guitar".