Journey will play out the last two weeks of their Final Frontier tour without Deen Castronovo. On Friday, November 13, guitarist Neal Schon posted a statement saying the drummer “has decided to step away to focus on personal health matters that require his attention,” and that Steve Murphy will sit in for the remainder of November.
The announcement made official something fans in three cities had already seen for themselves. Castronovo had missed all or part of the band’s three most recent shows, and on Thursday night in Cleveland he never came out at all.
Three shows, three warning signs
The trouble began in early October. At the band’s show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the concert stopped after just two songs when Castronovo suffered what was described as a medical emergency. He was taken to a hospital, and longtime Journey drum tech Steve Toomey got behind the kit so the show could go on. From the stage, keyboardist Jonathan Cain told the crowd, “We’re hoping it’s only a delay,” while Schon apologized for the inconvenience. No details about Castronovo’s condition were released.
He was back two nights later in San Antonio, according to The Music Universe, and for a few weeks it looked like Tulsa had been a one-off. Then, on Tuesday this week in Boston, he left the stage partway through the show and Toomey stepped in once more.
Thursday’s concert at Rocket Arena in Cleveland was the first full show without him. Partway through the set, Cain introduced the new face at the back of the stage. “This is Steve Murphy’s first gig with the band tonight,” he said, as reported by Ultimate Classic Rock. Schon’s statement followed the next afternoon.
The band has not said what the health matters are, and neither has Castronovo. Any guess about the cause would be just that, and the band’s wording makes clear they want to keep it private.
Who is Steve Murphy?
Murphy isn’t a household name, but he isn’t a stranger to big stages either. He is a drummer, singer, producer and engineer who plays with the New York-area group the Hit Men, and Blabbermouth lists credits with the Alan Parsons Project, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Christopher Cross and Jack Bruce.
That vocal side matters in Journey. Castronovo has long been more than a timekeeper for the band: he is one of rock’s rare singing drummers, and for years he has taken lead on Steve Perry-era songs during the show. Murphy covered that too in Cleveland, singing Perry’s parts on “Just the Same Way” and “Anytime,” according to Ultimate Classic Rock.
A long road with the band
Castronovo first joined Journey in 1998, replacing Steve Smith, after earlier runs with Bad English and Hardline. His time with the band has not been a straight line. He was dismissed in 2015 following an arrest, a period he has since talked about openly in interviews, including with Billboard, where he said the firing “had to be done.” He rejoined in July 2021, at first sharing drum duties with Narada Michael Walden, and has been the band’s full-time drummer since.
There were hints early this year that this tour might be his last lap. In a February Instagram post about the purple pearlescent finish on his kit, the same color he chose when he started Bad English in 1988, he wrote that he would “finish our 35+ year run in Journey” behind it, Metal Wani reported. He stopped short of saying he was retiring, and fans have argued over what he meant ever since. Jonathan Cain, by contrast, has said plainly that he plans to step away after this tour.
Temporary, or the end of an era?
This is where the reports diverge. Schon’s statement, as quoted by every outlet, says only that Murphy will join for the rest of November. Blabbermouth’s headline calls Murphy a temporary replacement. Ultimate Classic Rock goes further and says Journey has replaced Castronovo for the remainder of the farewell tour, though it also notes that his return for later dates is unconfirmed.
Both readings fit the same facts, because the current leg is almost over anyway. The Final Frontier tour opened in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on February 28. The current leg began September 12 in Los Angeles and resumes Saturday, November 14, in Greenville, South Carolina, before closing with a hometown show in San Francisco on November 28.
What comes after that is the real question. The band’s only announced 2027 date so far is the Stagecoach Festival in Indio, California, in April, and nobody has said who will drum there. According to The Music Universe, Schon has confirmed Journey will keep going into 2027. He said the band played 110 shows this year and that the tour has brought them closer together. Cain has also said he may reconsider his own exit after seeing the turnout.
So the band itself may not be finished. For now, Castronovo’s place in it is uncertain, and his health comes first. Most of this year’s shows had one of rock’s best singing drummers at the back. The last few will not.
