The Best of Styxology 2021, Part I

First of two parts, wherein we look back on the many highlights of the past 12 months in the life of our favorite band, Styx.

Text & photos by Mike Mettler, resident Styxologist

Live band photos by Jason Powell

“I’m so grateful for all the fans who continue to stick with us on this journey. Our new songs all come from the same menu — there’s just a few different dishes added into it, you know? But they’re all from the same chef.”  —Tommy Shaw

Hello, friends! First, let me again extend the heartiest of our heartfelt season’s greetings to each and every one of you, our most cherished Styx supporters both new and old alike! All of us here in the grand Styxworld at large hope you continue to have the merriest, happiest holiday season as we climb that much closer to seeing the calendar turn to 2022. True, it’s been yet another challenging year for everyone, but we continue to be touched by seeing how genuinely supportive Styx fans have been all throughout this calendar year — and for that, we are eternally grateful. After all, there is no us without you.

 

 

Next, seeing how we’re aware that a) a good number of you reading this right now may very well be accessing our Styxology column for the first time ever, thanks to being generously gifted a Styx Lounge membership by way of a dear loved one and/or a certain merry old soul who also goes by the name of “St. Nick,” and b) we all feel 2021 was one gargantuan year full of, well, a litany of crowning achievements in the life of our all-time favorite band Styx — therefore, with all that in mind, we feel it’s our solemn duty to take a short end-of-calendar pause to look back on all that transpired within these past 365 (or so) days.

Hence, before we set our sights on looking ahead at chronicling what promises to be one of the most exciting years in the band’s history — i.e., 2022’a year-long celebration of Styx’s 50th anniversary — we’re going to commence this here two-part look back on all the band’s major doings over the course of 2021.

Before we get down to doing just that, it’s also our responsibility to point out every Styx fan is welcome to check out all the up-to-the-minute information regarding any upcoming Styx-related event in a number of ways, including Styxworld’s core News section and our always vibrant Facebook page, in addition to our official Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts.

 

 

For those of you brand new to clicking on the site membership’s Lounge area tab and pulldown menu in particular, you’ll find this weekly Styxology column you’re reading right here, right now in this very space (as perpetually penned by yours truly, your trusty Styxologist) posts new installments every single Monday morning of the year at 10 a.m. Eastern time sharp — just as we’ve done without interruption for the past 361 weeks in a row (and counting). Fact is, there’s no end to all the ways we can delve into the whys and wherefores of the ongoing Styx saga that’s now entering its 50th full year on record, so I again reiterate our most sincere and humblest of thank-yous for climbing aboard the ongoing voyage of the Styx Mothership.

 

 

But enough of all that ramblin’ preamble chatter — let us now initiate that above-noted look back before we move full steam ahead into the highly anticipated year of 2022. For this initial best-of installment, we’ll be focusing on the main events of the first half of 2021, which essentially foretold the key events of the second half of the year — namely, the June 2021 release of Styx’s 17th studio album Crash of the Crown and the band’s subsequent triumphant return to the live stage for a whopping 70 shows (give or take).

 

 

And now, with our Styxological FYI/FAQ house officially in order, we pull the curtain back on the first half of a most interesting 2021 by way of comments from Libby Gray, Tommy Shaw, James “JY” Young, and Ricky Phillips. Take it away, fellow Styx Folks!!

 

 

Libby Gray (longtime lighting director and designer, on her lighting goals for every Styx show no matter where the performance is taking place): At the risk of stating the obvious, it can be quite complex. Depending on the lighting rig [at any given venue], I will do an elaborate technical lighting dance. I will try to “teach” the lights they have there with the moving lighting rig we have, and what I expect them to be. There are always variations in the behavior of the actual physical lights in the air — unless they are exactly the lights I program them to be.

And so, running the same cues in two different rooms, with different equipment — even if they are executed with, by and large, the same songs — “Mr. Roboto,” for example, is in fact different every night. That’s true of the whole set. The color palette may be the same and the movements static, but the lights may interpret the tempo of their movement differently. They will certainly, very often, have different degrees of sharpness and softness to their edge, and different timing.

 

 

I can’t cue every single cue in the show differently every single night, because there is an organic variation to songs like “Roboto” in totally different rooms, and totally different moving lights, running the exact same cues. You will see ten different iterations of that song. There are things that are beyond my ability to control as a function of not carrying our equipment [to every show], and only having so many hours in the day before doors.

So, you’re not imagining it. Even if you watched every single night of “Roboto” being played, you still might not get all of it — but you might. It’s very consistent. In an environment where the lighting rig is actually changing every night, you’re not imagining things. That is true of the whole show, to a degree. It is fresh.

 

 

Tommy Shaw (guitarist/vocalist, on debuting his one-man, all-acoustic version of the then-new Styx song “Our Wonderful Lives” way back in January 2021 as part of an online charity benefit — essentially foreshadowing much, much bigger things to come from the full band just a few short months later — and what his pandemic routine at home in Nashville was like before Styx were able to get back out on the road this past summer): I’m glad I did “Our Wonderful Lives” acoustically, and I’m glad the fans liked it! You know, new songs all come from the same menu — there’s just a few different dishes added into it, you know? But they’re all from the same chef.

I’m so grateful for all the fans who continue to stick with us on this journey. They’re not wearing the same clothes they wore in the ’70s and the ’80s. They look different, they dress different, and they feel differently. We’ve all had other experiences, but they can relate to them. I mean, we’re going to do all that new material anyway, but I’m glad it worked, you know? (both laugh)

 

 

These are interesting times. Being at home for long periods of time — it’s really different for me, as someone who’s used to traveling all the time. Like, for somebody who’s traveled a lot and been out on the road as many years as I have, it’s a new thing to wake up in the same place every day and do the same thing — and, because we have pets, there’s an absolute routine that must be followed. It goes all throughout the day, and it goes to the end of the day. You get a certain amount of sleep, and then it starts up again. It’s absolutely Groundhog Day — and “I Got You Babe” comes on every morning. (more laughter)

 

 

James “JY” Young (co-founding guitarist/vocalist, on the origins of his musical skills and the connection he has with all his bandmates): My dad could hear a melody, and sit down and bang it out on a piano. Now, that’s a gift. And, in some ways, I take after him. Playing piano is something different. I mean, playing guitar has become so easy. (chuckles) Power chords and single-string leads — that’s kind of what I do. But I was pretty good on piano. Actually, I have a goal of getting better on piano.

 

 

I definitely feel I’m tuned into a certain kind of energy when I’m onstage, because the magic is absolutely there. As you know, I’m not on social media, but to hear there are three JY fan groups out there that are dedicated to me personally — I guess that’s physical proof of something I just couldn’t believe. I mean, I hear them [the fans] scream for Tommy [Shaw], but I don’t hear them screaming for me. I also hear them scream for Lawrence [Gowan, keyboardist/vocalist extraordinaire], but I do have my legion; there’s no doubt. But collectively, what we do as a band — we lift each other. We work as a collective for the greater good.

 

 

Ricky Phillips (bassist/background vocalist, on how fans in Japan were already quite fanatical about Bad English, the supergroup he played bass in toward the end of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, even before they had arrived there to support Jeff Beck on tour in 1989): It was pretty crazy. I remember the first day I got there, which was before we had even done any shows. We were there two or three days early, just to run everything [on the Bad English setlist]. Before that tour, we had never even done any live show before, so we had to go through all our stuff.

 

 

Anyway, I went to go work out. While I’m in the gym, I see this Japanese guy working out — and I thought I was being set up! He was bench-pressing next to me, and he actually had a stereo vinyl record player with him. He took out a copy of the new Bad English record [i.e., their self-titled June 1989 debut, Bad English] — at that point, I had barely even seen one myself! — and he put it on. I went, “Oh my God, you have got to be joking. You’ve gotta be joking.” (MM laughs)

After I was done with my workout, I walked over to him, and he looked at me and went, “Oh! Oh my God — Ricky-San!” It was one of those moments where you realize it was not set up. It was real.

 

 

Tommy Shaw (chief architect of Crash of the Crown, discussing the band’s decision to release two exclusive studio tracks, “The Same Stardust” and “Age of Entropia,” on The Same Stardust EP, which initially came out on vinyl as a Record Store Day exclusive a week before COTC was released in June 2021): We’re not locked into thinking, “Ok, this song idea has to have ten other songs to go with it. We can’t just put it out by itself.” Well, sure we can. Why not?

These two new songs are not rejects in any way — they’re part of the fold. We just didn’t have enough room on the 12-inch vinyl for Crash of the Crown to fit them all in. Fans can now have themselves an extended version of COTC with them, though!

 

Next week: We continue our review of Styx’s amazing 2021 journey with Crash of the Crown-centric observations from Will Evankovich, Chuck Panozzo, Lawrence Gowan, and Todd Sucherman, plus more from Ricky, JY, and Tommy! See y’all back here in 7 days, circa 58 hours (or so) after the socially responsible ball drops to ring in 2022!!