In 2021, Ricky Phillips – then bassist with Styx – told Prog of his appreciation for late Yes counterpart Chris Squire, and how things went when they finally met and later toured together.
“I was maybe 19 the first time I heard Yes, and as a bass player my ears gravitated towards the incredible, twangy tone of Chris Squire. To this day, his sense of timing on a song like Roundabout represents unparalleled perfection to me.
Along with Paul McCartney and John Entwistle, Chris became one of my biggest influences as I grew up listening to King Crimson, Jethro Tull and ELP. I loved that progressive music took me away from the traditional formula of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-to-fade. It represented thinking outside of the box – being dangerous enough to change time signatures.
I hadn’t known that Tommy Shaw would wave the flag of progressive music again on Styx’s two most recent albums, The Mission [2017] and Crash Of The Crown [2021]. What a blast we’re having with that – I wanted to take things even further on Crash and they had to rein me in; but that’s okay!
Many years after I’d started, I met Chris at the NAMM trade show in California. When I introduced myself I said something like, ‘I really owe you for being such a huge influence.’ He fired back with, ‘Well, pay up, mate!’ I invited him to see Bad English, the band I was in, a week later – and he came, which was a big thrill.
Just a few years before Chris passed, Yes and Styx toured together. I watched those guys pretty much every night from the soundboard and it made me feel 19 all over again. At one show Chris brought his daughter Xilan up and danced with her in the wings while we played!
I’d used Alan White for a track on a project with Fergie Fredericksen [of Toto], so also on that tour Alan invited me for a lunch with him and Chris. One afternoon Chris offered me a guided tour of his rig, which was cool – I had no idea how much stuff he used to create that inimitable sound of his.
He was just a really sweet guy; I feel so fortunate that I got to hang with one of my heroes on some sort of a genuine, friendly level.
