Journey's new drummer | Steve Murphy steps in

Journey are in the last month of their farewell tour, and they have just changed drummers.

Deen Castronovo has stepped away to focus on his health. Steve Murphy has taken over for the rest of the run, which ends with a hometown show in San Francisco on 28 November.

So how does a band swap the drummer three weeks from the end of its last ever tour, and who is the man now sitting behind the kit? Let’s take a look.

What has Journey announced?

On Friday 13 November, Journey said Castronovo is stepping away from the tour to deal with “personal health matters”, as Blabbermouth reported. The band haven’t said any more than that, and we aren’t going to guess.

It follows two difficult nights. In October, Castronovo was helped off stage two songs into the show in Tulsa. We covered that night, when drum tech Steve Toomey sat down and finished the set.

Then on 10 November at TD Garden in Boston, it happened again. Castronovo left the stage, Toomey took over once more, and the band cut several songs from the set.

Two nights later in Cleveland, Murphy made his debut. According to Billboard, he stays until the end of the tour.

Who is Steve Murphy?

He’s a New York-based drummer and singer with a long career as a touring pro. Not a household name, but exactly the sort of player bands call when the gig has to happen.

We checked his credits against his own site, Murphonics, and a Modern Drummer profile. They hold up:

• Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He played their US tours in 2000 and 2001.
• Christopher Cross, Jack Bruce and Alan Parsons. In summer 2002 he toured with A Walk Down Abbey Road, a package show that put all three on one bill. He then played Bruce’s own “Cream of Jack Bruce” dates.
• Alan Parsons. At the end of that tour, Parsons asked him to join his live band, the Alan Parsons Live Project.

He has also played with Todd Rundgren, Eric Burdon and Felix Cavaliere. Those come from his own bio, so treat them as his own account.

Gear fans, take note: he is a Canopus endorser, the Japanese maker better known for its snares than its stadium kits.

Why Murphy makes sense

Look at that CV again. It’s a list of artists with big catalogues, demanding arrangements and fans who know every fill. That is the Journey brief exactly.

He also sings. That matters more than you might think. Castronovo isn’t just Journey’s drummer, he’s a lead and backing vocalist too. A dep who can only cover the drum parts leaves a hole in the harmonies.

How do you take over a tour this late?

Fast, and by fitting in rather than putting your own stamp on things.

The set is already fixed, along with the click, the in-ear mix and every cue. Expect hours with the live recordings, charts for the trickier arrangements, and as much rehearsal time as the schedule allows. Arena tours rarely have much of that to spare.

The kit is the easy part. Toomey and the crew already know every stand height, so the tech side can be tweaked for Murphy rather than rebuilt from scratch.

And Toomey deserves another mention. Covering one show with no warning is hard enough. He did it twice in five weeks and kept the tour on the road until a dep could fly in.

If you want to build the skills a gig like this needs, our lesson on playing to a click is a good place to start.

Final thoughts

Every fan wanted Castronovo to play the last night in San Francisco. Instead, the band have put his health first, and that’s the right call. We hope he’s back behind a kit soon, whenever he’s ready.

In the meantime, Murphy has one of the most pressured jobs in rock. He has to play the hits note-perfect for three weeks, and then the band is done.

For another band handling an empty drum stool this year, see how Pearl Jam are getting on without a drummer.

Sources: Blabbermouth, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Murphonics and Modern Drummer.