Last fall, classic rock institution Journey announced their extremely long and ambitious Final Frontier tour, one last farewell trek across North America's hockey arenas. For decades now, Journey have been effectively printing money, even though the internal band dynamics seem to be all messed up, with founding guitarist Neal Schon and longtime keyboardist Jonathan Cain suing each other and with singer Arnel Pineda inviting fans to kick him out of the group. Now, plenty of fans are wondering whether the farewell tour will even involve all of Journey, or whether Schon will leave Cain and Pineda sitting at the side of the road.
When Journey announced the tour in November, the press materials included the above promo photo, with all the band members posing together, and it had quotes from Schon, Cain, and Pineda. You would certainly think that a Journey farewell tour would need to include those two guys. Cain joined Journey in 1980, and he's the writer and co-writer of some of their biggest hits, including "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Faithfully." He's the longest-tenured current band member except for sole remaining original member Schon. Pineda joined Journey in 2007, coming from the Philippines and shouldering the enormous responsibility of replacing iconic singer Steve Perry. But the tour is set to kick off next month in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and fans have noted that Cain and Pineda haven't taken part in the group's two recent promotional appearances.
Last month, Journey performed on The Voice and at halftime of a 49ers/Bears game, and Jonathan Cain and Ariel Pineda weren't there, as you can see at Setlist.fm. As Journey's subreddit notes, Pineda recently posted this comment on Journey drummer and occasional singer Dean Castronovo's Instagram: "congratulations and have fun on your 2026 Farewell Tour."
On Twitter, Schon recently posted that Dean Castronovo "does sing that well," and it's not hard to read between the lines and imagine Castronovo being put in place as lead singer.
A couple of years ago, Pineda apologized for a lackluster Rock In Rio performance on Facebook and offered fans the chance to vote him out of the band. But fans are speculating that the reason Pineda wouldn't be part of the tour is that he's facing domestic violence charges in the Philippines. Incidentally, Castronovo has also previously faced domestic violence charges, and pleaded guilty to them, but not in the Philippines.
Schon and Cain continue to detest each other, but hopefully neither has access to the Journey corporate AMEX anymore. Ultimate Classic Rock has a lot more information on Journey's internal instability. Whatever happens, I'm sure the vibes for this farewell tour will be immaculate.
