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Since forming in 1972, Chicago rockers Styx never shied away from their prog credentials. But it wasn’t until 2021 album Crash Of The Crown that the band fully embraced the genre. Confidently stating they’d finally “got happy” in the years after their acrimonious split with Dennis DeYoung, guitarist Tommy Shaw and singer/keyboardist Lawrence Gowan told Prog why their 17th studio record represented a new lease of life.
Though it wasn’t always evident, progressive rock has provided the backbone of Styx’s music for almost 50 years. The Chicago-based group are better known for notching up hits with saccharine-soaked hit ballads such as Babe, The Best Of Times and Boat On The River, but recently co-founding keyboardist Dennis DeYoung told Prog that the genre’s influence guided their earliest years, revealing: “Yes had a profound experience on all of us in Styx.”
Styx and DeYoung parted ways acrimoniously in 1999, but he left behind a glittering pomp-rock legacy defined by three landmark triple-platinum-selling statements; 1977’s The Grand Illusion, ’78’s Pieces Of Eight and Paradise Theater in 1981 (and just for good measure, 1979’s Cornerstone also sold two million copies). In opting to replace DeYoung, Styx chose a precocious, locally established solo artist from Canada with a strong affinity for progressive music.
“It was the prog side of Styx that made we want to joind,” Lawrence Gowan explains. “To my mind they were the first non-British prog act. The prog elements in their early music made me sit up and think: ‘Wow, those guys are from Chicago!’ When I became part of Styx I wanted to embrace that – to a degree, at least.”
Glasgow-born but raised in Ontario, Gowan’s prog journey began at the age of 14 after borrowing a school friend’s copy of Fragile by Yes. “It launched me into a whole new world, and from there I discovered Jethro Tull, Genesis and ELP.”
After the break-up of his band Rhinegold, Gowan made six records of his own that featured the talents of Robert Fripp, Tony Levin, Alex Lifeson, Peter Gabriel’s associates David Rhodes and Jerry Marotta, and Jon Anderson. “Jon and I went to the pyramids in Mexico to make a video for the song Moonlight Desires,” he relates excitedly. “That was a complete thrill.”
Despite his longevity in the role, the arrival of the flamboyant Gowan in Styx has been something of a Marmite appointment. Onstage, Lawrence is a blur of activity, spinning his keys and prowling the stage. “If people consider me a show-off, I’m not in the least bit bothered,” he laughs. “The first time I saw Rick Wakeman I realised you could play the piano and be a super-hero. In their own way Wakeman and Keith Emerson were frontmen, just like Elton John and Freddie Mercury. I’ve always been drawn to that kind of performance.”
By complete contrast, 46 years into his career with Styx, Tommy Shaw is a self-confessed “student of prog.” The Alabama-born guitarist/vocalist, who joined as replacement for John Curulewski just before the band broke big with their sixth album, 1976’s Crystal Ball, came from a background as a mellower, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-style singer/songwriter.
“I don’t know that I’m a prog-rock fanatic because, honestly, Styx was the first rock band I was in,” Shaw admits. “Everything I know about prog came from Will [Evankovic, producer, songwriter and musician] and Todd [Sucherman, the band’s drummer since 1995]. They ushered me into the usage of these different time signatures.”
It was being part of a North American tour with Yes that really opened Shaw’s eyes to the possibilities of the genre. Over the summer of 2011 the two acts became fast friends.
“That tour was like taking a trip to another dimension,” Tommy smiles. “I watched Yes from the side of the stage every night. I remember that during a gig at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in San Francisco I surprised Chris Squire by taking his bass from a roadie during a guitar-change and presenting it to him between songs. That was hilarious. Later on he did the same thing to me!”
With the band’s fortunes as a recording act having looked ever-more doubtful during the new millennium, Evankovic enabled the reinvention of Styx, playing a pivotal role in their last two records – The Mission in 2017, and the brand-new Crash Of The Crown. The former, their first collection of original material in 14 years, related the sci-fi tale of a voyage to Mars in 2033. It put Styx back on the map in no uncertain terms. Crash Of The Crown is also conceptual and sees the band ramping up the levels of pomp drama.
Life can be hopeless and tragic, but tomorrow the sun will come up for the start of a new day
Tommy Shaw
“This new record is far more proggy than The Mission,” acknowledges Gowan with evident pride. “It isn’t simply traditional radio-friendly rock.” The Canadian’s unapologetically lavish ivories are plastered all over the album’s 15 songs. “It can be tough to weave keyboards in between the double-guitar onslaught of Tommy and James ‘JY’ Young, but we managed that,” he reflects. “And at last I got to use the vintage Mellotron I’d owned for 10 years at the end of the title track.”
Crash Of The Crown was recorded at Shaw’s home studio in Nashville. Its contents had largely been written before the world changed through Covid-19, with the lion’s share of its tracking completed in isolation. “It’s a friendly place to work, and despite the restrictions we found a comfortable way to make music with people flying in and recording their parts before it was the turn of the next person,” the guitarist explains. “Everyone feels at home here.”
The songs Our Wonderful Lives and Lost At Sea feature bass guitar parts from co-founding member Chuck Panozzo, who since 1991 has lived with HIV which progressed into AIDS. Replaced by former The Babys/Bad English man Ricky Phillips in 2003, Panozzo continues to make guest appearances on record and on stage. Wary of the Covid virus, he made the 900-mile return journey to Nashville by car from his home in Miami.
“There’s one thing for sure – Chuck Panozzo will always be on any new Styx album,” Shaw says fondly. “Chuck is a joy; we call him the Iron Man because he’s indestructible.”
The record trumpets a theme of “a new era of hope, survival, and prosperity.” Its central theme of positivity had already been well defined; but as Shaw admits: “The record took a different turn when Covid hit. Life can be hopeless and tragic, but what my mother always told me as a kid remains true: tomorrow the sun will come up for the start of a new day,” he says. “Music can provide hope.”
Also according to the promotional blub, the album was inspired by events that took place in 1066, 1455, 1775, 1861 and 2001. We know that was on Styx’s mind with Save Us From Ourselves, which samples Churchill’s legendary “Fight them on the beaches” speech from World War II; but Shaw – who, along with Gowan and Evankovic, wrote the lyrics – is reluctant to spill the beans about individual stories. “I like people to pick their own meanings for the songs,” he comments. Even if they happen to get them wrong? “Those theories are never wrong,” he fires back. “That’s the nice thing about music.”
I’m very proud of my own era of Styx – if we didn’t make the change in 1999 the band was pretty much over
Lawrence Gowan
For the first time since Styx II way back in 1973, guitarist JY Young had no compositional input. He’s never been one of the group’s main writers, but did the exclusion put his nose out of joint? “Not at all,” Shaw insists. “He loved what we were doing. If you listen to his part of the song Crash Of The Crown [which, for the first time in the band’s history, is sung by three vocalists – Young, Shaw and then Gowan in his best Freddie Mercury voice], to me that sounds like JY talking to his wife, Susan. The thrill of JY singing makes me tear up. He always brings the magic. The guy lives in his own atmosphere, but you can always count on him.”
In conversation with Shaw and Gowan, the glowing happiness of the pair is unmistakable. The guitarist brings up the subject himself. “A few years ago this band finally got happy,” he announces. “There used to be this discourse [with DeYoung], but Lawrence is such a disciple of fun and laughter. He’s brought a freshness and a joy that we never expected.”
Given the popularity and importance to his illustrious predecessor, does Gowan – now into his 22nd year with the band – feel fully established? “I feel that the current Styx is a culmination of everyone who’s ever been in the band, and I include John Panozzo [the group’s original drummer, who died in 1996], John Curulewski and Dennis in that,” Gowan replies. “With our 50th year coming up, there have only been 10 people in the band and each was pretty much unique.
“I’m very proud of my own era of Styx – if we didn’t make the change in 1999 the band was pretty much over,” he continues. “To survive, we had to play no less than 100 shows per year. We did that, and since then we’ve played well over 2000 shows around the world.”
The way I feel right now, I wouldn’t mind taking my last breath on a stage with Styx
Tommy Shaw
Before our interview, we’d been warned not to mention DeYoung or discuss the possibility of a reunion. But the fact that he’s releasing the second part of his farewell album, 26 East, at the same time as Styx unveiled their own record, makes such demands impossible. Dennis had recently told Prog that Shaw was personally responsible for blocking any regathering.
“Whatever reason Dennis isn’t in the band, it isn’t my fault,” the guitarists replies wearily. “I wish him the best, but the band was going nowhere. Dennis would rather the band had stopped, and the rest of us didn’t feel that way. I haven’t spoken to him for 22 years, but there’s nothing new to say. Dennis makes a lot of statements but I don’t read them. I would say to him, ‘Go with God and have a good life.’”
While DeYoung is considering retirement, it’s clear that Styx have no such intention. “And do what?” Shaw laughs. “I’ve been stuck at home for a year, getting pissed off and wearing sweatpants. I’ve missed the fulfilment of it all. As long as we can stand on our own two feet, and so long as our voices hold up – which they are doing – then we have no reason to stop. The way I feel right now, I wouldn’t mind taking my last breath on a stage with Styx.”
