Rockers Def Leppard, Styx, Tesla Bring Big Hits To Riverbend
by Ginny McCabe
photo by Jason Powell
Center with Styx and Tesla Monday, Aug. 17 at 7 p.m. as part of an extensive North American summer tour.
Following Def Leppard’s successful run with KISS this past summer, the tour will hit close to 50 cities across the U.S. and Canada. With Def Leppard headlining, the three rock legends kicked things off in Tampa, Fla. June 23.
In addition to the tour, Styx released Live At The Orleans Arena Las Vegas on CD and in digital formats on July 24 from Eagle Rock Entertainment. The project, recorded on July 25, 2014, features a number fan favorites, including “Lady,” “Too Much Time On My Hands,” and “Come Sail Away,” and many more. Last summer, Styx toured with Foreigner and Don Felder from The Eagles.
Averaging more than 100 shows a year, multi-Platinum rockers Styx is comprised of Tommy Shaw (vocals, guitars), James “JY” Young (vocals, guitars), Lawrence Gowan (vocals, keyboards), Todd Sucherman (drums) and Ricky Phillips (bass), along with an occasional surprise appearance by original bassist Chuck Panozzo. Over the course of their four-decade career, Styx has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide.
We recently caught up with Gowan while he was on the road from New York. Gowan talked about the tour, and offered insight on what area fans can expect from the show.
Q: How is the tour with Def Leppard and Tesla going?
A: We have a great following in Cincinnati. Of course, Def Leppard and Tesla do as well. So, this is a way of amalgamating all of those faithful people together in one place, and having one extended evening of incredible classic rock.
Q: Tell us a little bit about the show and the format. What are some of the songs we can expect to hear?
A: We determined at the beginning of this tour, when we were doing the pre-production that we would go on in the same order every night, so Styx is always on in the middle, which is a good spot for us. So, it’s Tesla on first, then Styx, and then Def Leppard. It amounts to about four hours of music over the course of the night. That’s pretty amazing. It is our guarantee, at least what you’ll hear from Styx and Def Leppard, we stick very closely to the biggest songs from the catalog for these shows, because we are playing so much to the other band’s audience, you know. People that would not have seen Styx, who are huge Def Leppard fans, are seeing Styx for the first time, so we give them the highest energy, most intense Styx experience that we can cram into just over an hour of us playing. And, Def Leppard seems to be doing the same. They know there are a lot of Styx fans in the audience as well as their faithful fans. They deliver everything from Pyromania and Hysteria, with a few other things tossed in there as well, but you are pretty much guaranteed to know every single song that you’ll hear over the course of the night.
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