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Here's something not many bands can boast: In each of the past four decades, Styx has had a new album in Billboard's top 50. The band, which formed in Chicago in 1970, scored their big hits in the late '70s and early '80s with rock anthems including "Come Sail Away" and "Renegade" from their triple-platinum albums "Grand Illusion" and "Pieces of Eight." A five-year hiatus in the mid-'80s didn't slow them down; they came back in 1990 with the gold record "Edge of the Century" and its hit "Show Me the Way."
Even after losing their founding drummer, John Panozzo, who died in 1996, they have continued to rack up the hits. Their version of the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus" rose to No. 2 on the classic-rock radio charts in 2004.
With so many years of rocking and rolling behind them, they know how to please their fans. When they play the Paramount Center for the Arts on Wednesday night, they'll be sure to deliver plenty of crowd favorites.
"One thing we've learned about what we should and should not do in our presentation is that people have come to hear what we call the soundtrack to their glorious misspent youth," says founding guitarist James "JY" Young. "Songs like 'Renegade,' 'Too Much Time on My Hands,' 'Come Sail Away,' 'Blue Collar Man,' 'Lady,' and all of those wonderful songs."
The band has grown accustomed to success with their music. But they were surprised to top the charts with the music of others.
They covered "I Am the Walrus" as a lark during their set at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2004. They had just played in Dallas, where the fundraiser was held, on a co-headlining tour with Peter Frampton, and wanted to do something to spice up their set for fans attending both performances. "[We said] let's play against type here at this event, where everybody is playing the blues and everybody is a guitar-slinger," Young says. "Let's do a wacky, weird Beatles thing."
Wacky or not, the song was so well-received that they began playing it during their encore on that summer's tour. The popularity of the cover led them to record an album devoted to the music that had influenced them in their early years. "Big Bang Theory," released in 2005, included songs like The Who's "I Can See for Miles" and The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City." The songs were chosen not only because they were important to the band's evolution, but also because members felt they had something fresh to add to these classics.
"I said, 'Let's go for hopefully deep tracks, so we can show the people that profoundly influenced our development as a band,'" Young says. "The other caveat for choosing music was that we could actually do a good job. We had a notion of how to arrange it to make it our own, because I've heard so many of these tribute records where it sounds like somebody walked in and did a pale imitation of the original just to get their name on there."
Recording tracks by their favorite artists became an opportunity for the band to rediscover itself. They had just rebuilt their lineup, with keyboardist Lawrence Gowan, drummer Todd Sucherman, and Ricky Phillips of Bad English joining longtime guitarist Tommy Shaw and founding members Chuck Panozzo and Young. They were still in the process of discovering the band they could be, and they wanted to honor their past while striving to evolve.
The goal of continuing to reinvent themselves musically was particularly important for a group of musicians long known for pushing boundaries, with concept albums like 1981's "Paradise Theatre" and a constantly changing notion of what rock 'n' roll could be.
"A part of it was to really explore things that we could potentially do as a band, because the lineup had changed, and sometimes the way people write doesn't always, ironically, play to their strengths as performers," Young says.
Having grown into their lineup, the band continues to look ahead. Members hope to write and record more material, whether they release it as singles or an album. "We have, I believe, the power to make another great record, or at least write some great songs," Young says.
But their first love will always be performing. The band expects to deliver more than 100 concerts this year.
"People applaud for me at work," Young says. "But there's also something about seeing the joy on people's faces, particularly new faces that I've never seen before, just really getting into the music and being joyful, at such a time of troubles and trials and tribulations in this country and across the globe."
The band has seen how their music has shaped the lives of fans who have been inspired by their music to achieve greatness in their own lives.
"People have looked me in the eye and said your music saved my life, your music changed my life, I would have never made it without your music," Young says. "Your song 'Fooling Yourself' inspired me to do great things on the football field, do great things when the doctor said I would never walk again after being hit by this car. I'm managing this grocery store today because I didn't believe, and I listened to your music. So we're the stewards of this amazing force, and that has brought me great personal joy, to realize that, and then to articulate it."
