Following Journey’s halftime performance at the San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears game on Sunday (Dec. 28th), the band faced accusations from a fan that drummer Deen Castronovo was lip-syncing to Steve Perry’s voice.
Addressing the fan’s claims, Journey co-founder and guitarist Neal Schon responded on Twitter/X.
“Any that are in doubt that was Deen Castronovo 1000% he does sing that well,” Schon said.
When another fan pleaded with Schon to “just bring Steve Perry back already,” he shot down the idea.
“Seriously does everyone live under a rock and in denial of true facts about Steve’s own statements?!” he replied.
Perry left Journey for the second and final time in 1998 and has repeatedly stated that he has no interest in rejoining the band.
In a 2018 interview with 106.7 Lite FM, the singer flat out denied any possibility of a reunion.
“I think that we’ve gone on our separate ways and we’re doing great,” he said at the time. “Arnel [Pineda] is a great singer and he’s been in the band for ten years, but yeah, I don’t think that’s where I’m at right now. It took forever for me to find the passion for music again because I felt it was kind of damaged. I thought I would never feel that love again for music, so I had to walk. Now that I’ve found that again — I have so many other songs ready to be recorded.”
