It made headlines in June when Journey's drummer Deen Castronovo was arrested and charged with rape, sexual abuse, coercion and unlawful use of a weapon in a domestic violence case involving his fiancée, Deidra. Now, months later, he has finally opened up about the incident, and his confessions are brutally honest.
While speaking with The Statesman Journal on Monday, he referred to himself as a perpetrator, an abuser and a batterer. "It's my truth, I have nothing to hide," he explained. "I was a verbally abusive man. I was a physically abusive man."
He went on to explain what caused something like this to happen, and while his 24-day meth binge might have seemed like the main reason, after several months in counseling, he now understands that there was more to it than just his drug problem.
"Domestic violence is really a choice, and it is calculated," he said. "The drugs and the alcohol exacerbated it immensely, but there's no excuse for what I did. I deal with it every day, and it's deeper than regret or remorse."
He apologized over and over again to those he has let down. "I want to talk to my community, that's important," he continued to say. "I have to live there. I've lived here all my life. My children have gone to school here. My children have friends here. They deserve to be apologized to. I've got to make it right now, now matter what it takes or what it costs...This is not about clearing my name. The only way I'm going to get my family's trust back is to walk the walk. I've let everybody in the community down, everyone who ever put any faith and trust in me."
While also speaking with Ultimate Classic Rock earlier this week, he went into more detail about his time in rehab since the incident, working toward maintaining sobriety and the four years of probation ahead of him.
"There's been a lot of emotional, verbal and physical abuse with D and myself, and it came to a head after this last tour," he explained. "I hit lower than bottom, and it's something that I'm going to have to fight the rest of my life."
As for his 24-day meth binge, he can't believe he let it get that far. "This last run was a shock to me as well," he continued. "I never thought in a million years that in 24 days I would destroy everything that meant something to me. Everything. It's heartbreaking, but you know, I'm alive, bro. Thank God, I'm alive."
Months after the arrest, news broke that Journey had kicked him off the tour, but Castronovo is now admitting for the first time that he was actually fired from the band.
"I was terminated. They haven't released an official announcement but, yeah, I was fired. I was in treatment at the time and I'm grateful that I was in treatment to be able to process that, because that was heartbreaking," he explained. "Journey has a stellar legacy and I've tarnished that, and they did the right thing. They did what they needed to do. Not because they were punishing me, because it wasn't about punishing me or wrecking my life. They didn't do anything of the sort. They did this because they loved me and they wanted to see me alive. That's the beauty of it."
