I'm going to do a little bit of speculation on the history of the rock group Styx. There may be an even bigger article coming. In that column, I'll speculate on how certain members of the current band Styx really feel about Dennis DeYoung and why I'm led to believe that. In this article, I want to talk about why DeYoung should have replaced Tommy Shaw in Styx after the Kilroy Was Here tour.
As somebody who considers Styx one of my all-time favorite bands, it makes me sad to see what's currently happening with the key members of the group that I loved. Sure, I always leaned towards Dennis DeYoung in this group. However, I appreciated what everybody brought to this band. Although I think they wouldn't have been as big a band or maybe even existed without Dennis, you can't argue the edge that James Young brought to the act, nor can you ignore the fact that Tommy Shaw brought the band to a whole new level when he joined.
I don't want to talk too much about what should be covered in another article, but I will say that Dennis has spent the last 20 years disproving the narrative that the other band members have been trying to create. From the position that they are in, they can just keep moving forward and define Styx however they choose. They own the band name. From Dennis's perspective, It's not just about him proving that what these guys have said is wrong. You can tell that he is deeply hurt by the things that took place after the second reunion tour of the band in 1997.
DeYoung never thought it would come down to this. How could he? There wouldn't even be a band if not for Dennis. He formed it with John and Chuck Panozzo. They were a very different band in 1962. They weren't the rock band we came to know. This was a group that did cover tunes and played at weddings and other venues in the Chicago area.
At some point between then and the time 10 years later when they became Styx, they became a rock band. They were still playing cover tunes and figuring out who they were as a band. Up till that point, nobody who's currently performing live with the band was even in the band. By the time they got their first record deal with Wooden Nickel, James Young had joined.
DeYoung played an important part in creating the sound of this group. It wasn't that he did everything, but from the moment they recorded the song Lady, he understood what this band was meant to be. He also understood that he wasn't the only reason they sounded the way they did. He understood the part each member played in that sound. When it came to writing and creating the music, he understood what James brought to the deal.
When Shaw came along after they got their second record deal with A&M records, he knew exactly what the new band member brought to the act. They already knew what their sound was. Tommy's contributions were the songs that he brought, not necessarily the shaping of the overall sound of the band. They already knew who they were by then.
Fast forward to the Kilroy Was Here tour. It's my belief that Tommy was already very unhappy with this band before they even recorded that album. I personally believe it started going downhill for him the moment they did Cornerstone, but I'll talk about why in another article. Dennis clearly had a vision for Kilroy Was Here, and I think the themes of that album are very important. Musically, it left Tommy unsatisfied, and he wanted out. Dennis has even admitted that everybody else was still good to go. They wanted to continue with a big stadium greatest hits tour and live album before heading back into the studio a year or so later.
Dennis has even mentioned that he promised Young that they would do the stadium tour after Kilroy, but Tommy left at that point. It was pretty clear that James, Chuck and John still wanted to continue, but Dennis didn't want to. He was looking at the band dynamics and who they were. He believed that fans would not accept this band without Tommy bringing what he brought to the show. Therefore, the three other remaining members could not convince DeYoung that it was a good idea to tour. Did he make the right decision? Here is where I will engage in some speculation.
Other bands had replaced lead singers for whatever reason by then. Kansas had replaced Steve Walsh and still had some chart success with a new lead singer. AC/DC had to replace Bon Scott and ended up having the biggest chart success they'd ever had. There were cases of bands moving forward without key original singers, and they were able to sell concert tickets and create new music.
Considering the minor success Styx had about a decade later with Edge Of The Century and the fact that Tommy wasn't involved in that album, I'd have to believe that this band would have been okay for at least a few years. It's my belief that Dennis should have replaced Shaw at that point, and there's a few reasons I believe this.
I have to agree with critics of bands when it comes to replacing singers and not trying to get somebody who sounds like the guy everybody loved. I think Lawrence Gowan is a fine keyboardist, but he sounds so different than Dennis that he becomes distracting when you listen to him singing anything that Dennis recorded with Styx. He doesn't do him fair justice. When Journey replaced Steve Perry, they at least made an effort to bring in somebody who sounded like the guy. Say what you want about Arnel Pineda, he's a reasonable vocal facsimile of Perry.
Dennis was right about what Tommy brought to the band, and simply putting a guy in there that could sing decently and play guitar would not have worked. However, we witnessed over the last decade that DeYoung understood that in his own band. They finally play Styx songs that were made famous by Tommy, and the guy they have singing those songs, August Zadra, does a good job of making the song sound close to what long time fans remember. There's only one Shaw, but I'm saying that DeYoung did a reasonable job of bringing somebody into his band who could sing those songs.
The first order of business would have been going out on the road and playing live. That was the plan. The band could have taken as long as they needed to bring in a guy who could sing the Tommy Shaw songs faithfully enough and play guitar. Then, they go out on the road. We're talking 1984 at that point, and I think it would have worked reasonably well for the guys. There's probably a live album at that point and maybe even a concert that would have appeared on MTV. Then, they go back into the studio with the new guy, unless Tommy decides at that point that he wants to come back.
It's possible that Tommy sees that the guys are touring and rocking out more than they did on the Kilroy tour, and he wants back in. Maybe not. If not, the band records another album, and they possibly have a little bit of success. Maybe they don't reach the triple platinum status of before, but gold or even platinum is possible.
With their status, they can go back out on tour and make money, and the band still continues. Another tour and another album? That's just possible. All the while, the door is still open for Tommy to come back, but what if the new guy actually does such a good job that they don't need Shaw to come back into the band? Again, this is just speculation.
DeYoung tried to wait Tommy out and did his own solo stuff. It should be pointed out that Dennis really made no attempts in any of his solo work to sound like Styx until he did 100 Years From Now about 15 years ago and then his latest two albums. This is because he wanted Styx to be done by the band, not just himself. While he disbanded this group for about 8 years, he waited for Tommy. Tommy had no incentive because he was still making records and touring. He wasn't doing as good as he had with the band, but he was still doing okay throughout the 1980s.
What going back on tour does is keeps the other band members happy. The other three members probably pointed out that they were there before Tommy for a while and felt that they were as much the band as he was. If it didn't work out, which I doubt would have been an issue, they could have given it up a couple of years later.
However, what if Tommy looks over at the band and decides he really wants to come back? It's very possible that after a tour and another album with somebody else, Tommy is brought back in and we get the lineup of the band that we all know and love. Dennis isn't seen as the bad guy for putting an end to the band for so long, and who knows what songs they create at that point?
The other thing about DeYoung bringing this band back is the other three members are happy and they continue on in the newer incarnation. There's not eight years of idle time that builds up any sort of animosity from those members. He can at least claim that he tried as requested if it doesn't work out, and it's not going to damage the reputation of the more popular songs from the band.
The other thing it does is keeps the band under the guidance of Dennis. This slightly different history makes it less likely that he gets kicked out of the band when it eventually happened, and he doesn't have to go through the last 20 years trying to defend himself and figure out what went wrong.
I dislike the idea of replacing popular members of bands when they are still available. If somebody actually doesn't want to come back, that's another story. Perry doesn't want to be in Journey, so that's not going to happen. DeYoung very much wants to be in Styx, even if it's just for one final tour. He's been wanting to do something with the guys for a while now, but they won't hear it.
DeYoung is powerless to do much about it at this point except for explaining his side of the story in interviews. Had he went ahead and done the stadium tour after Kilroy, it's just possible that he'd still be in the band to this day. That's my take as an observer and a fan of the classic line up of the band.
