Styx's Ricky Phillips: 'Better, Better Believe In Forever'
Written by Allen Foster
Ricky Phillips has been with Styx for the past 12 years. It wasn’t a decision he made hastily because Ricky knew that if he joined the legendary band, it was going to be forever.
“Tommy called me and we talked for a good hour,” Phillips told AXS in a recent interview. “He said, ‘If you come in, I want you to be the last member of Styx. You’ll be number ten -- we’re in the double digits! We have two who have passed away and one who has left the band, so that’s it, we’re done. Don’t say yes if you’re only going to try it out for a couple of years. We’re gonna rock till we drop and whoever comes on, we want them to be on board with that.’ And, that’s what it took for me to quit everything I’d been building and working on in my studio to join the band.”
At the time of Tommy’s call, Ricky had been doing a lot of production work. “Staring at a computer screen and playing a bunch of instruments can be very satisfying in one regard, but it also can be exhausting because you’re taking on all kinds of projects, and some of them, you don’t even really care about.”
“The best part of music is being in a band,” Phillips noted. “A rock ‘n roll band is a special place... if you can get one that has longevity -- which is very rare. So, Tommy was making me an offer that I could not refuse. I have a lot of friends who are great musicians, but to have that kind of an opportunity presented to you... there’s just not enough of these opportunities out there.”
Read more at AXS.com!
