by Rockwriter » Wed Oct 26, 2005 7:01 am
Hi everyone:
This is Sterling Whitaker, the author writing the unauthorized Styx bio. I had no idea this board was even here until today, I wandered around and saw an old thread about my book so I decided to respond.
As far as who participated from the band and who did not, I have interviews with Tommy (all I will say about my interview with him is that it is VERY different from anything you have ever heard him say in public before), Glen and Todd. Larry agreed to an interview and then backed out the day it was scheduled, saying he was afraid to put his job at risk.
As far as others I have interviewed, they range from tour manager Jim Vose to manager Derek Sutton to people from A&M to the Preseident of CMC International to journalists to publicists to roadies to friends to radio people to assistants to . . . well, a slice of everything I guess. Many of these are exclusives, people who have never spoken of the band before. I feel my research is pretty comprehensive.
As to JC, I did finally manage to interview his son, and I also interviewed his partner in a studio and friend Charlie Piper, who was also a roadie for early Styx. Two very good interviews. I thought JC was slighted in BTM and wanted to have an accurate characterization of him in this book. He was in this band for 7-8 years after all, during the time in which it built its initial audience and had its first hit single and album. JC was not in any continuous contact with anyone from the band after he left, but was somewhat friendly with all but Dennis. All but Dennis attended his funeral service.
As to who was tapped to replace Dennis in 1979, well first off, BTM got it all wrong as to why the firing happened. The band had been doing 150 dates a year, or more, and an album each year. Dennis wanted to draw the number of dates back to 70-85. Suzanne was either pregant with Matt, or they were planning another child at that time and he wanted to be home a bit more than he had when his daughter was a child. It was a sticking point for the other guys and they fired him for it. Steve Walsh, as far as I know, was never tapped to be in Styx. Frankly, he's not regarded as easy-to-deal-with. They DID audition Tommy Shaw's best friend Eddie Wohlford from Harvest, who was on GWG. They auditioned him twice, and each time Tommy would get a call from Derek and come back to Eddie with the news that they were sticking with Dennis. Derek arranged for Dennis to return under a new agreement because he knew that, despite the problems, it was not the right time to put a dent in the forward thrust of the band by losing a major member.
I feel pretty confident that any fan interested in the true history of Styx will find something to like about this book. No doubt some will dislike certain elements as well, LOL. I've been throgh that before! But I have done a huge amount of research. It is balanced, I am not on anyone's side and have no agenda other than to write about the band as best I can. For those who thought BTM was interesting, I will say that it was just a basic course in Styx 101 and that my book is the real story.
I hope all is well.
Sterling