Post Styx Days

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Post-Styx days
Friday, April 21, 2006

By DAVID J. SPATZ



Forget hearing songs like "Come Sail Away," "Babe," "Lady" and other tunes that made Styx the first musical act ever to have four consecutive triple-platinum albums.

"We're actually going to be doing a retrospective of the Cowsills," he says of the '60s bubble gum family band.

He pauses for dramatic emphasis before breaking into laughter and adding, "It hasn't been very successful."

During a phone chat with DeYoung from his Chicago home, he easily swings from silly to serious -- sometimes in the same sentence -- and it seems he can't believe his music still means something to fans of the group originally called the Tradewinds, when DeYoung and some friends first hooked up in Chicago in 1961.

But it's clear DeYoung takes his work seriously.

Backed by a band consisting of veteran musicians, some of whom he's worked with for as long as 20 years, DeYoung will perform his best-known cuts tonight at House of Blues at Showboat. In fact, the show is billed as "Dennis DeYoung: The Music of Styx." This show also will reunite DeYoung with guitarist and New Brunswick native Glen Burtnick, who played with Styx during the 1990s.

Performing on his own, as he's done for the past six years, has advantages and disadvantages, he says.

"The thing I liked about performing [with Styx] is that you shared the success but you also shared the hard knocks. If something does go badly, you don't feel completely responsible, because you're part of something that's larger than yourself. By the same token, when everything goes right, you get to share in the success."

Creative differences

Although drug use among band members contributed to DeYoung's decision to leave Styx, it wasn't the only thing that fueled the split. Creative differences between the group members had begun to surface, especially between DeYoung -- who was pushing for a more theatrical and progressive rock sound -- and guitarist and singer Tommy Shaw, who joined Styx in the mid-1970s.

"In a group, you're not always going to find that everyone's 100 percent behind every idea, but in the end you've still got to be on the same page," he says. "We weren't."

In 2000, DeYoung found himself in an unusual position. For the first time in almost 40 years, he wasn't a member of the band.

To draw a distinct line between Styx and himself, DeYoung did something that had always met with resistance in the group. He began doing concerts with his small band tucked inside a symphony orchestra, a broad, progressive theatrical touch he'd always wanted to add to Styx.

The risky and expensive proposition hit pay dirt in French-speaking Canada, where Styx always had a big fan base. He sold millions of CDs and DVDs and sold out 16 consecutive concerts in a 4,000-seat venue.

"It was like stepping up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning with the bases loaded, closing my eyes and hitting one out [of the park]," he says.

Still, DeYoung misses the group dynamic he had with Styx.

Bittersweet memories

"Leaving Styx wasn't such a bad thing," he says, a trace of melancholy creeping into his voice. "This was something I'd given my life to since I was 14. I don't have bad feelings about my association with the guys. We did some extraordinary things."

Then he immediately contradicts himself and says some lingering bad feelings do exist. He still feels some pain that he was basically forced to leave Styx. But he's also somewhat philosophical about it.

"I say that when life bites you on the [butt], as it will, there is plenty of room for self-pity," he says. "The trick is to get over it and try to move on. Sometimes it's not easy, but you have to find the way."



Dennis DeYoung performs at 8 tonight at House of Blues at Showboat. Tickets are $33 to $48, available through Ticketmaster.