Remembering Jim Vosecek and the phone call that changed Tommy Shaw’s life

By Doug Fox

It’s not hyperbole to suggest that there was one specific phone call that forever changed Tommy Shaw’s career trajectory.

Just over 50 years ago, Shaw picked up the phone at his home in Montgomery, Alabama, and took a call from Styx tour manager Jim Vosecek, imploring him to hop on a plane to Chicago the next day and audition for the band.

We all know how that turned out. The rest, as they say, is “Styxtory.”

On the first day of 2026, Shaw began receiving phone calls from mutual friends informing him that Vosecek — or Vose as he was more commonly called — had passed away peacefully at the age of 75.

Shaw reached out to share some of his favorite memories of Vose and his early days in Styx for this special edition of The Stygian Chronicles.

“You know, if not for Jim,” Shaw said during our wide-ranging hour-long chat, “I might still just be living in Montgomery playing in bars. That phone call changed my life.”

That phone call didn’t come out of nowhere. Shaw’s and Vose’s paths had already crossed in Chicago — in the clubs on Rush Street and in the tight-knit ecosystem of musicians and crew members grinding it out night after night.

‘You’re Not Going to Have Any Money Problems’

Shaw’s band MS Funk played a lot of gigs on Rush Street, a near-mile long, bustling row of clubs and upscale entertainment venues in the Near North Side community of Chicago.

While working with Styx, Vose had seen MS Funk play, and took a shining to the stage presence and overall skill of the band’s energetic blond guitarist. Vose even booked some shows for MS Funk, an eight-piece ensemble group complete with a horn section. 

“I was just another guy playing on Rush Street, but our band was killer,” Shaw said. “But it didn’t seem to matter how good our band was. Eventually, there was just no audience for it, coast to coast. We played until there were no more gigs, and then we all just went home. That was it. That was the end of the band.”

Back in Montgomery, Shaw joined a local band, called Harvest, playing covers and originals five nights a week at Kegler’s Kove, a lounge inside the local bowling alley, Bama Lanes. After endlessly chasing gigs in Chicago and beyond with MS Funk, the steady work with Harvest provided a newfound air of stability. With a weekly $200 paycheck and the purchase of a home, a glimpse into Shaw’s personal crystal ball projected momentary stability. 

That is, until Vose’s urgent phone call in early December of 1975 rocked his world.

Styx was facing an immediate crisis. The band had just released “Equinox,” its first release on A&M Records, and was set to embark on a nationwide tour when original guitarist John Curulewski abruptly departed the lineup. 

Famously, Vose convinced the band that he knew the perfect replacement. He just had to find a way to reach him. Cue the well-known story of Vose finally tracking Shaw down in Montgomery via directory assistance and presenting him the opportunity of a lifetime.

“They were kind of in a jam because the dates were booked, the tickets were sold and everything was in play,” Shaw said, recounting his original phone call with Vose.

“And Jim said, ‘Can you come over tomorrow? I’ll have a plane ticket waiting for you at the counter. If you just go to the Montgomery airport tomorrow, get on the plane and come here, we’ll go out and see the guys.’”

Shaw shared one humorous part of his phone call with Vose.

“I told him I was making $200 a week and that he would have to beat that,” Shaw said. “And he kind of laughed and said, ‘Don’t worry, you’re not going to have any money problems.’”

The ‘Audition’

Shaw, of course, did fly up, but the meeting with Styx turned out to be less of an audition and more seeing if everything was a good fit. He brought an electric guitar with him, but said he never even took it out of the case. 

The key question, it turns out, was whether Shaw could vocally hit the high note in “Lady.” They all gathered around a piano to find out.

“They gave me the highest note — it was the highest note plus another step up to the real highest note,” Shaw recalled. “I wasn’t used to singing those kind of clear, tight notes. I was more of a blues singer. But once I did that, they didn’t really linger on it.”

To show Shaw the direction the band was heading, they pulled out the brand new “Equinox” album and dropped the needle on the first song of Side II — the James Young scorcher “Midnight Ride.” Whatever Shaw had mentally envisioned hearing from Styx, the incendiary riffage in “Midnight Ride” exceeded all expectations.

“I fell in love with James Young at that moment,” Shaw said. “I was like, ‘OK, this is going to be good!’”

Shaw remembers sharing a song he was working on at the time called “Ain’t Getting Down For You.” 

“That’s one that never made the airwaves,” Shaw said. “But all they wanted to know is if I could sing that high note. I think I had the job when they heard that. They already knew I could play.”

Shaw stayed over at Vose’s apartment in Berwyn, a suburb of Chicago. Vose hosted a party that first night that Shaw mostly remembers for something he can’t explain. 

“I stood up at one point and the next thing I know, I’m on the floor and JY is on his knees looking at me,” he said. “I didn’t know anybody and there was just a lot of new things happening and apparently I had an anxiety attack and passed out. I’ve never passed out like that. I’m hard-headed, so it didn’t hurt but I had no idea why I blanked out. So that was my very first night there!”

Vose was getting ready to take Shaw back to the airport the next morning when the doorbell rang. It was Curulewski. He didn’t appear to be having any second thoughts about quitting the band.

“He was pretty jovial,” Shaw said. “He was a really nice guy and he seemed really relieved to be out on his own and just not, you know, wrestling the bear, so to speak.” 

Shaw returned home to pack up his road gear and prepare for life in Styx. The band gave him an initial dozen songs or so to learn for the impending tour.

According to Shaw, rehearsals involved “just me and my record player back in Montgomery.”

A Penchant For Hijinks

Shaw remembers meeting up at the Panozzos’ house in preparation for his first road trip with the band. He piled into a four-door station wagon with Vose and the Panozzo twins — with one in the front and the other in the second row, but both on the right side. Within seconds, he said, all hell broke loose between the two.

“The first thing I know, fists started swinging and feet started flying,” Shaw laughed. “And I’m like, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’”

When it comes to his role with the band, Shaw said Vose wore myriad hats.

“He was a great guy,” Shaw said. “We had a small crew originally. Jim could mix the sound, he could help set up, he could drive the rental truck. He was just an all-around good guy. He was funny and had a big laugh, and a great sense of humor.”

It was Vose’s sense of humor, in fact, Shaw seemed especially fond of — noting the duo’s penchant for hijinks while on the road. Shaw related two incidents that came immediately to mind. 

The first occurred at a cylindrical Holiday Inn just across the border in Wisconsin. In cahoots with the band’s opening act, they’d unplugged a Coke machine in the hallway and rolled it into one of the rooms and then pulled the fire alarm, causing calls from the hotel staff for everyone to evacuate the building. 

“You could look through the little peephole in the door and you could see people evacuating,” said Shaw. “All of a sudden, Dennis DeYoung walks by with his overcoat on and he was pulling his two suitcases.

“One of our lighting guys was there with us, and he’d taken all the emergency light bulbs out — those long ones that sit behind the little plate that just says, ‘Exit.’ He’d take them and see what he needed and he put them all in my pocket. The fire marshal showed up, and there I am with all these light bulbs.”

Another time, the band was staying in a campus hotel and the shenanigans crew set their sights on the elevator, moving in a table and a few chairs — along with a tray of drinks.

“We were laughing so hard at that,” Shaw said. “Eventually it got kind of quiet, and they called us up and said, ‘You guys have to get your stuff and get out.’”

According to Shaw, Vose was neck deep in those capers and he understood the need for young men on the road, with too much time and money on their hands, to shake things up once in a while.

“You know, day after day, it’s the same old stuff, and things like that really help the time go by,” said Shaw. “When you’re on road trips like that, you’ve got to do something to keep yourself amused — and, oh yeah, Jim was big into that, too.”

A Lasting Impact

Prior to his association with Styx, Vose worked from 1970-72 as a sound engineer and roadie for The Ides of March, primarily known for their hit single, “Vehicle.” His years with Styx encompassed 1974-1980, a period which saw the band release six records, five of which achieved platinum or gold status.

According to his obituary, Vose joined Tour De Force Productions in 1980, specializing in  graphic design and staging for major rock acts.

Vose remained a beloved character in the extended Styx fan family. He not only appeared in MTV’s “Behind the Music” episode on Styx, but frequently shared his insights and inside experiences through the years in various online fan groups.

“We were friends for a long, long time,” said Shaw, lamenting that they’d fallen out of contact over these later years. “You kind of take for granted that people are going to be around for a while. And then one day you get a phone call that says, well, they’re not around anymore. And you realize that you missed your opportunity to go say goodbye. But Jim was a really good guy — and he changed my life.”