Styx Guitarist Enjoys The Best of Times on Tour
by: Daniel Durchholz
photo by: Owen Sweeney
Typically when Styx tours these days, it’s on a co-headlining bill with bands such as Foreigner, Boston, Yes, Journey, Kansas, Def Leppard and R.E.O. Speedwagon. Styx and R.E.O., in fact, shared a St. Louis stage for a show that resulted in the 2000 collaborative live album/DVD “Arch Allies: Live at Riverport” (as St. Louis’ Hollywood Casino Amphitheater was called back then).
“We’re musicians,” says Styx guitarist James “JY” Young, who is on the phone from his home in Chicago, adding with a laugh, “We like to date other bands.”
Not this time around, however. Sunday’s performance at the Peabody Opera House is advertised as “An Evening With Styx,” which means no shortened, hits-only set.
“The way we’ve been doing things lately is, we’ll do two one-hour sets,” Young says. “We get a chance to get into some of the songs that people haven’t heard in a long time. We get to dig much more deeply.”
In Styx parlance — echoing Charles Dickens, of course — these are the best of times, even as its late-’70s/early-’80s heyday recedes further and further into the past. Back then, the group released five consecutive platinum-plus albums, including “The Grand Illusion” and “Pieces of Eight.” Styx has retained enough of its audience from that era that its fans still eagerly show up for concerts, sometimes with younger generations in tow.
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