How I Got Into THAT Band: Styx
Two weeks ago I was given an opportunity to interview Lawrence Gowan, one of the members of the classic-rock band Styx. The group, famous for songs like “Renegade,” “The Best of Times” and “Come Sail Away,” is on tour again this fall and is performing in Macon, Georgia on Sunday, October 5th. The Target Audience Magazine interview with Lawrence can be found here, and focuses on Styx’s seemingly non-stop tour of the world.
I’ve been a Styx fan for over 30 years and can say, without any exaggeration, that their songs were the foundation of what would become my diverse and slightly odd taste in music. My first real interest in Styx can all be traced back to a summer in the 1970’s, before I started fourth grade. A new family had just moved into a neighboring house and their daughter, Karin, was my age and about to start going to the same school. We quickly became friends and thanks to the power of the internet we still keep in touch to this day.
When Karin and I first met, I had an overwhelming obsession for all things “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and “Mork & Mindy,” but my musical knowledge was limited to the constraints of the local Top 40 radio station. Karin, on the other hand, was really into music and introduced me to the concept of having a record collection. After a while her bubbling enthusiasm for music, especially Styx, began to rub off on me. She seemed to have every picture of Tommy Shaw (Styx’s guitarist and vocalist) that she could find on display in her bedroom. When Kilroy Was Here was released in 1983, she managed to convince the manager of the local record store, Waxie Maxie’s, to give her the life-sized standee of Mr. Roboto they used to display the album. To say she was a Styx fan is probably the greatest understatement that I can make.
Read more at TargetAudienceMagazine.com!
Photo by Michael Bradley
