Journey drummer Deen Castronovo was helped off the stage at Tulsa's BOK Center just two songs into Wednesday night's concert, prompting organizers to pause the show and announce he was having a medical emergency. The band resumed its set with a longtime drum technician filling in, while first responders were stationed outside the arena during the performance.
Video captured by Tulsa World sports reporter Eric Bailey showed Castronovo being helped offstage shortly after the concert began, according to News 9. As the band paused, keyboardist Jonathan Cain asked the crowd to pray for Castronovo, and guitarist Neal Schon told fans he was headed to the hospital, per Ultimate Classic Rock. Singer Arnel Pineda later tried to reassure the audience, attributing the episode to “too much Gatorade.”
No further information on Castronovo's condition has been released. Drum technician Steve Toomey stepped in to finish the show, the same report notes, allowing the concert to continue without canceling the remainder of the set.
A Familiar Backup Plan for Journey
Toomey's role as an emergency fill-in is nothing new for the band. He previously took over on drums during a December 2021 New Year's Eve broadcast after Castronovo tested positive for COVID-19, and again during an August 2024 concert in Toronto following a family emergency, the outlet's reporting shows. Toomey has served as Journey's primary drum technician for every show since 2008 and doubles as the touring drummer for Revolution Saints, a side project fronted by Castronovo, according to The Paw Print. He is also the son of former Journey tour manager John “JT” Toomey, the same outlet's reporting notes.
Castronovo's history with Journey stretches back decades. He originally played drums for the band from 1998 to 2015 before being dismissed following a domestic violence arrest, eventually rejoining in July 2021 after completing court-ordered rehabilitation and probation, per the earlier Ultimate Classic Rock account. Beyond drumming, he handles lead vocals on select songs during live shows, including the ballad “Mother, Father,” and has worked alongside Schon since the late 1980s, when the two played together in Bad English.
Band's Legal Friction Forms a Backdrop
Wednesday's medical emergency unfolded against the backdrop of ongoing corporate governance disputes between Journey co-founders Schon and Cain, which reached Delaware Chancery Court in August 2024. Legal filings in that case referenced internal arguments over touring expenses, corporate credit cards, and drum substitutions, though the presiding judge, J. Travis Laster, declined to rule on the band's lineup choices.
The Tulsa stop was part of a 40-city fall expansion of The Final Frontier Tour, with Journey next scheduled to play the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, on Saturday. Whether Castronovo will be well enough to rejoin the band for that show remains unknown.
A Milestone Year for the Tulsa-Bound Band
The scare came just a month after Journey was honored in Honolulu with official Hawaii state and city proclamations marking 52 years since the band's second public show, performed inside Diamond Head Crater on January 1, 1974, as Hoodline previously reported. State leaders presented the band with the honors during a three-night run in September.
The BOK Center itself has been the subject of local scrutiny this year. Tulsa officials considered hotel tax increases in February to help fund more than $100 million in structural repairs and capital improvements at the 19,000-seat municipal arena and the connected Arvest Convention Center, Hoodline reported at the time. The venue opened in 2008 and remains one of the city's primary stops for touring acts.
News 9 reporter Katie Alexander, a web content producer who joined News on 6 in August 2023 after graduating from the University of Tulsa with a bachelor's degree in media studies, first reported the Tulsa incident. No additional details on Castronovo's prognosis or his status for the band's upcoming Texas dates had been released as of Thursday.
