Journey’s drummer left the stage mid-show twice in five weeks. Now he has left the band, two weeks before what may be their last concert

Journey have lost their drummer with two weeks left on what is billed as their farewell tour.

The band said on Friday, US time, that Deen Castronovo “has decided to step away to focus on personal health matters that require his attention”. It said he has the band’s full support. Steve Murphy, a New York drummer, joined the tour in Cleveland on 12 November and will play the remaining dates.

What happened on stage?

Castronovo’s troubles became public on 8 October, when he suffered a medical emergency two songs into a show at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was taken to hospital. Journey’s drum technician, Steve Toomey, sat in to finish the concert. Castronovo was back behind the kit two nights later in San Antonio, Texas.

Then on Tuesday night in Boston it happened again. Castronovo left the stage midway through the show, Toomey stepped in once more, and several songs were cut from the set. Three days later, the band announced he was leaving.

Neither Journey nor Castronovo has said what the illness is, and VNN is not reporting any of the speculation about it.

Who is Steve Murphy?

Murphy is a session and touring drummer whose credits include the Alan Parsons Project, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Christopher Cross and Cream’s Jack Bruce. Reports differ on how long he will stay: one account of the band’s announcement has him as Journey’s drummer going forward, while others say he is covering the rest of the tour. The band has not set out a plan beyond November.

Why does this hurt more than a usual line-up change?

Because there may be nothing after November. The Final Frontier tour was extended earlier this year with 40 more North American dates and is billed to end with a hometown finale at the Chase Center in San Francisco on Saturday 28 November, the night after a show in Las Vegas. That concert has been promoted as possibly the band’s final performance. Guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain, the band’s leaders, have not said what the night will include, and talk of some kind of reunion remains just that.

Castronovo was a big part of what fans have been paying for on this run. He first joined Journey in 1998, when the band began touring with singer Steve Augeri, and has been singing lead on the 1978 ballad “Lights” on this tour.

What does it mean for fans?

Fans at the final shows will see Murphy on drums rather than the man who has been behind the kit for most of Journey’s touring life since 1998, apart from the years after he left in 2015. The dates themselves go ahead as planned.

For Australian fans, there is no local leg: the farewell tour has been a North American run, so the closest most will get to the finale is the footage that follows it.