Styx’s Ricky Phillips on the Long Nights Ahead Touring With Def Leppard and Tesla This Summer
An authoritative hard rock wrecking crew will soon be traveling across North America towards an amphitheater near you. The announcement that the members of Styx will accompany hard rockers Tesla in support of Def Leppard during their upcoming summer tour has been met which much excitement from dedicated listeners, in what is quickly being considered one of this year’s most anticipated treks.
Styx certainly aren’t strangers when it comes to impressive summer tours, having just last year hit the road alongside Foreigner and Don Felder for an extensive headlining run, however this is bound to be one of the most memorable tours in the band’s history. This formidable power trio will begin their five month sprint with a June 23 performance in Tampa, Florida, before continuing across the remainder of the United States and Canada.
Music Enthusiast recently sat down with Styx bassist Ricky Phillips for an exclusive interview discussing the band’s upcoming tour, what he enjoys most about performing live, his thoughts on the group’s latest studio efforts, his stance towards new material, and his ongoing work on the final Ronnie Montrose recordings.
William Clark: Let’s start with the popular topic of the week: it’s been announced that Styx will head on tour with Def Leppard and Tesla this summer! Are you personally looking forward to the tour?
Ricky Phillips: Oh yeah! We haven’t toured with Def Leppard in quite a while, but we did go out with them for several legs about five years ago, and for me it’s a lot of fun because Sav [Rick Savage] and Joe [Elliott] and I play a little bit of golf on days off and get away from the hotels and concrete. We just love those guys, it’s a good time. The two bands really get along well, and the music seems to get along very well. I think Tesla was a good add to that, as well. We’ve done shows with Tesla and it’s a good pallet, you know? It’s a really good compliment of music for the evening. We were busy when we first heard about it, we were doing a bunch of shows and didn’t really have time to digest it, but thinking about it over this past week now that it’s hitting the airwaves that we’re doing this tour, it really sounds like it’s going to be a great night of music.
Read more at musicenthusiastmag.com!
Written By: William Clark
