Jy, Daily Herald Interview

[styxfansite]

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2012 ... 712279965/


Styx guitarist and Chicago native James Young is coming home.

And he's bringing the rest of the band.

Just don't expect to hear "Mr. Roboto," or anything else off "Kilroy Was Here" for that matter, when the rockers take the stage Saturday in Waukegan and Sunday in Merrillville, Ind.

The album that broke the band up and eventually led to the ousting of frontman and chief songwriter Dennis DeYoung is still kind of a touchy subject with Young, who hesitates not even for a nanosecond when asked if he misses his former bandmate.

"No," Young said. "He's a profoundly talented man and truly gifted in many ways, but his musical tastes and mine were always dramatically different."

So expect a lot of late 1970s arena-rock Styx if you're heading to one or both of the shows. You're going to get "Miss America," "Renegade," "Blue-Collar Man" and "Fooling Yourself." You may even get some of the hits off "Paradise Theater," which many critics believe was the blueprint for Kilroy.

"'Kilroy Was Here' was Dennis' dream and our nightmare," Young explained. "We really don't play 'Babe' or 'Mr. Roboto.' Soft syrupy ballads are also not part of our set lists."

Many fans of the current incarnation of Styx will be fine with that.

"We are going to play the songs that our fans want to hear," Young said. "This works. Tommy (Shaw) and I are the connection to the source."

DeYoung has been out of the band for more than a decade now. Shaw had left for some time, but came back when DeYoung departed. Only Young and Shaw remain from the group's heyday, but they keep a loyal following and remain a successful draw on tour.

"We do about 110 shows a year, so I'm away from home about 150 nights every year," Young said. "We've been touring constantly."

The southside native still calls Chicago home, when he's actually able to get home. He assures that life on the road is not as glamorous as it has been mythologized.

"Sometimes the hotel choices are pretty limited and don't make for a comfortable night," he said. "The indignities of travel in the modern world have taken much of the glamour out of touring."

But touring isn't the same as playing music, he said.

"The two hours we spend onstage, those are magical, wonderful times and that's not work," he said. "We go up there and play with our toys for a couple hours and everyone has a hell of a time."

Mainly touring with other pop/rock acts from the 1970s and '80s, Young said sharing the stage with other bands who have gone through similar travails is half the fun of touring.

He said the schedule doesn't give him or Shaw a lot of time to do much fresh songwriting.

"The way the music industry is these days, there's not much incentive to write new music either," he said. "Nobody has sold more than 100,000 records, so to spend a year off making a new record doesn't make much sense when you can do a better job of making new fans with your older stuff."

Despite growing up in Chicago, playing all sorts of legendary spots throughout the city as the band made a name for itself and still calling the south suburbs home, Young claims a particular fondness for playing at the House of Blues in New Orleans.

"Every venue has a unique charm, but my favorite in the world is House of Blues in New Orleans," he said. "Those crowds they get in there are just profoundly enthusiastic in an over-the-top way that you don't get anywhere else."

The gauntlet has been thrown, Chicago.

[brywool]

I like both camps.

But why can't JY just say something like "I'm thankful for what we had with Dennis. It brought the band a lot of success, but in the end we wanted to take a different road than Dennis did. We all wish Dennis the best." If he would just clam up after the bolded quote above, it would do wonders for his image.

These guys need to patch things up if for nothing else than just to be friendly with one another and go to their graves as friends. They're not getting any younger and to constantly hold onto the bitterness is just sad. Gotta wonder what'd happen if they met on the street at some point. Would they even nod at each other? They've all got kids and have been connected to each other and each others families for years. There's got to be some bit of caring on the part of those 4 guys for one another, right? It's a drag that everybody can't be a bit more reverent of the past, not to mention each other. Granted, Styx doesn't want to do the Kilroy and Babe stuff. Okay. No need for the "syrupy ballad" comment. Just say "we want to go in a different direction." or "those songs and that album were really Dennis's babies and we just don't feel right about playing that stuff" or something a bit more eloquent.

I don't blame JY or any of them, really. Stuff happens and emotions run high in a band. There's a lotta money at stake. There's a lotta things that have to happen and everyone needs to be working together as a unit for it to work. If one guy or one faction is working one way and the other is working another way, it ain't gonna fly. But it's been so long, it seems everybody could move on and be a bit more civil about each other by this point. I even thought Dennis' most recent note was a bit less classy for him and he's ALWAYS talked about the split and the past with the utmost class.

Has something happened recently to get these guys all annoyed with each other again? They really need to let it go.

Speaking of Dennis- he's obviously cured of what troubled him during the Brave New World sessions. Has it ever been diagnosed? It'd be interesting to know how he overcame that.

Bury the hatchet. The past has passed.

[Everett]

In a perfect world bry. I think there is less hatred then there was 10 years ago.
Hell JY would never even mention dennis name in an interview remember he
used to say "the former keyboardist" . Anyway IMO I think it's best to
let everyone do their own thing. It's safer that way.

[pinkfloyd1973]

I like both camps.

But why can't JY just say something like "I'm thankful for what we had with Dennis. It brought the band a lot of success, but in the end we wanted to take a different road than Dennis did. We all wish Dennis the best." If he would just clam up after the bolded quote above, it would do wonders for his image.

These guys need to patch things up if for nothing else than just to be friendly with one another and go to their graves as friends. They're not getting any younger and to constantly hold onto the bitterness is just sad. Gotta wonder what'd happen if they met on the street at some point. Would they even nod at each other? They've all got kids and have been connected to each other and each others families for years. There's got to be some bit of caring on the part of those 4 guys for one another, right? It's a drag that everybody can't be a bit more reverent of the past, not to mention each other. Granted, Styx doesn't want to do the Kilroy and Babe stuff. Okay. No need for the "syrupy ballad" comment. Just say "we want to go in a different direction." or "those songs and that album were really Dennis's babies and we just don't feel right about playing that stuff" or something a bit more eloquent.

I don't blame JY or any of them, really. Stuff happens and emotions run high in a band. There's a lotta money at stake. There's a lotta things that have to happen and everyone needs to be working together as a unit for it to work. If one guy or one faction is working one way and the other is working another way, it ain't gonna fly. But it's been so long, it seems everybody could move on and be a bit more civil about each other by this point. I even thought Dennis' most recent note was a bit less classy for him and he's ALWAYS talked about the split and the past with the utmost class.

Has something happened recently to get these guys all annoyed with each other again? They really need to let it go.

Speaking of Dennis- he's obviously cured of what troubled him during the Brave New World sessions. Has it ever been diagnosed? It'd be interesting to know how he overcame that.

Bury the hatchet. The past has passed.

I didn't see anything negative about Dennis' last note, he made a tongue-in-cheek comment asking about ice floes on the River Styx when asked about a reunion

[Cassie May]

I never had the impression they were friends even during their heyday. They were all so different from one another. Sure, the Panozzos were brothers, and Tommy and John were party buddies, but Tommy has stated that all the years he lived in Michigan Dennis came to his home only once, and there is the quote that Styx was more a business than anything else. It always seemed to me that in the early days they were united in their goal to hit the big time, but once that occurred, they didn't have much else to hold them together and they went their separate ways--even while still in the group. I never had the impression that they got together whenever they had downtime between albums and tours. It would be interesting to know what they all privately think of one another.

[Toph]

I never had the impression they were friends even during their heyday. They were all so different from one another. Sure, the Panozzos were brothers, and Tommy and John were party buddies, but Tommy has stated that all the years he lived in Michigan Dennis came to his home only once, and there is the quote that Styx was more a business than anything else. It always seemed to me that in the early days they were united in their goal to hit the big time, but once that occurred, they didn't have much else to hold them together and they went their separate ways--even while still in the group. I never had the impression that they got together whenever they had downtime between albums and tours. It would be interesting to know what they all privately think of one another.

I think we know the answer to what they think of each other....

And yes, JY, for a guy that has exactly 0 charted songs, continues to be an ass.

[brywool]

Actually Toph, yer right.
I guess it was the fact that he brought up the whole thing with he and Shaw during Brave New World. I was thinking "Why bring that up?". Yeah, I read more into that than it was. Dennis doesn't usually talk about the negative stuff and unless it's an actual interview in a publication, it seemed odd of him to post that on his site.

[yogi]

I have always pretty much supported both camps. Depending on the day one more than others.

JY just seems to ALWAYS have a chip on his shoulder. Its a DDY chip.

But thanks to Dennis its a GOLD chip.

[Boomchild]

Money and ego do funny things to relationships. Since the split I got the impression that JY seems to harbor resentment towards Dennis. I don't think it's just their musical differences either. I think it's much more then that. Maybe he is upset that he didn't seem to have more of a public presence during their heyday. As far as Dennis' illness goes I don't think he's "cured" but has found a way to deal with it. I believe that it was diagnosed as side effects from chronic fatigue syndrome.

[brywool]

Money and ego do funny things to relationships. Since the split I got the impression that JY seems to harbor resentment towards Dennis. I don't think it's just their musical differences either. I think it's much more then that. Maybe he is upset that he didn't seem to have more of a public presence during their heyday. As far as Dennis' illness goes I don't think he's "cured" but has found a way to deal with it. I believe that it was diagnosed as side effects from chronic fatigue syndrome.

I wonder if JY always felt that way but just couldn't say anything about it while they were together for fear of screwing things up. I remember some interviews where it was just Dennis and JY and they seemed to get along quite well. It's gotta just be the money thing. Didn't Dennis rewrite their contracts so that the entire band didn't get a portion of the song credits or something? Seems at one point, Dennis (or maybe all the writers) shared that more and then Dennis changed his portion of that when they reunited. I have a crappy memory for stuff like that, I could have that wrong... Sterling?
Maybe it's because I'm a fanboy like Everett ... er, like a lot of us here , but I thought Styx was a very Beatley band in that each guy had his own identity. Really, the only faceless one might've been Chuck. But if they'd resent anybody (for non-musical, jealousy reasons) you'd think it'd be Tommy as he ended up being "the cute one" and getting THAT whole thing and the attention that comes with it. Eh, gotta wonder what the future will bring and really, these guys need to bury the hatchet. Not as in a reunion, but just for the sake of the friendship. The reunion probably won't happen. I'm fine with that because everyone seems pretty happy- and I think Gowan's a great talent. But at least to be friendly. Like me and Toph.

[Toph]

Money and ego do funny things to relationships. Since the split I got the impression that JY seems to harbor resentment towards Dennis. I don't think it's just their musical differences either. I think it's much more then that. Maybe he is upset that he didn't seem to have more of a public presence during their heyday. As far as Dennis' illness goes I don't think he's "cured" but has found a way to deal with it. I believe that it was diagnosed as side effects from chronic fatigue syndrome.

I wonder if JY always felt that way but just couldn't say anything about it while they were together for fear of screwing things up. I remember some interviews where it was just Dennis and JY and they seemed to get along quite well. It's gotta just be the money thing. Didn't Dennis rewrite their contracts so that the entire band didn't get a portion of the song credits or something? Seems at one point, Dennis (or maybe all the writers) shared that more and then Dennis changed his portion of that when they reunited. I have a crappy memory for stuff like that, I could have that wrong... Sterling?
Maybe it's because I'm a fanboy like Everett ... er, like a lot of us here , but I thought Styx was a very Beatley band in that each guy had his own identity. Really, the only faceless one might've been Chuck. But if they'd resent anybody (for non-musical, jealousy reasons) you'd think it'd be Tommy as he ended up being "the cute one" and getting THAT whole thing and the attention that comes with it. Eh, gotta wonder what the future will bring and really, these guys need to bury the hatchet. Not as in a reunion, but just for the sake of the friendship. The reunion probably won't happen. I'm fine with that because everyone seems pretty happy- and I think Gowan's a great talent. But at least to be friendly. Like me and Toph.

Right back at you Bry

Someone will die -probably sooner rather than later - everyone but Tommy is collecting social security checks. Would be nice for them to bury it before another one goes.

[Everett]

I'm a fanboy?

[Boomchild]

these guys need to bury the hatchet. Not as in a reunion, but just for the sake of the friendship. The reunion probably won't happen. I'm fine with that because everyone seems pretty happy- and I think Gowan's a great talent. But at least to be friendly. Like me and Toph.

I would be surprised if the ice ever breaks on the "friendship" thing. I get the impression that Styx never "jelled" in the same way as other bands did. I don't think any of them except for maybe Chuck, John and Dennis had close friendships with each other. It seems they more interacted with each other as business partners. Which if true is a real shame.

[yogi]

UNTRUE 100%!! Back in the mid 70''s - early 80's they were good buddies.

I read an article that even stated back in the day Dennis went through all the required training( at his own expense) to become a mohel so he could perform the bris for JY's son.

[Boomchild]

UNTRUE 100%!! Back in the mid 70''s - early 80's they were good buddies.

I read an article that even stated back in the day Dennis went through all the required training( at his own expense) to become a mohel so he could perform the bris for JY's son.

Ah, maybe DDY botched the job and that is why JY seems to have a huge chip on his shoulder.

[brywool]

I'm a fanboy?

wear it proudly!