Journey has been without a lead singer so long that fans are running out of Steve Perry jokes.

It's been about six months since the band bid goodbye to Jeff Scott Soto (who replaced Steve Augeri, who stepped in after Perry called it quits). Keyboardist Jonathan Cain told ShowBuzz the move was to protect the band's legacy.

"We just wanted to move in a different direction sonically," Cain sad. "We're interested in our legacy right now. We want to sound like our records and we want to sound like the 65 million units that are out there."

So any word on a new lead singer? The band's press representative says official word could come soon. However the buzz on the Web is that the new lead singer could be ...

A FEMALE! (Queue the explosion sound from "Line of Fire").

Several websites are reporting that Patty Smyth of Scandal is being considered for the job. Smyth was once invited to join Van Halen as their singer, so it's not the biggest stretch of the imagination.

However, the smart money is on Arnel Pineda of The Zoo, who is supposedly No. 1 on the wish list to front the band, according to a variety of Web sources. Melodic.net says, "Listen to Arnel sing 'Faithfully' and you can close your eyes believing it's Perry himself."

Click here to see Pineda's version of "Faithfully" on YouTube.com. You will indeed be in awe how closely he sounds like Steve Perry.