StyxDisc - 1983 Radio interview speical

[StyxGuy]

This double LP was 3 sides of Styx hits and one side, an interview with individual band members.

The LP came with an "interview supplement / questions & comments " card which I think local radio stations would pretend they were interviewing the guys. Those questions have been put in this video to give better context to the answers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLGk5VhYkWg

[yogi]

Totally incredible, JY states that ‘Heavy Metal Poisoning’ is by far the heaviest song Styx has ever done yet they refuse to play it at the Texas Jam in Dallas as the Jams headline act. Tommy,JY and Cahil talk about the ‘daunting’ task Styx faced following such heavy acts as Triumph, Ted Nugent &Sammy Hagar. So how do Tommy & JY respond ?
They respond by NOT playing Heavy Metal Poisoning the heaviest number Styx has ever created at the Jam. Even though they have performed this song at all the other Kilroy shows???? How on earth does this make any sense???

Tommy in his portion of the interview talks about staying behind in Japan at the conclusion of their Paradise Theater tour to cut a demo of Just Get Thru This Night. Later he states from filming & doing videos for Kilroy Was Here and getting ripped apart by Brian Glass how much this has help him as an artist. He also lets Dennis tear him apart cause ‘he’s tough and can take it, these constructive criticisms brings out his best’ He states that Styx fans will hear this for themselves because ‘ his singing has never sounded better than it does on the Kilroy Was Here Album’.

I love Tommy Shaw but what a fuc.ing liar. They don’t release ‘Haven’t We Been Here Before’ which would of been a sure hit because Tommy wanted to sabotage this album. It’s got to be the reason cause nothing else could come close to making sense after hearing this.

They all praise the album and basically say this was the natural progression for Styx.


After hearing this there is no doubt that cTommy, JY & Chuck literally stole the band Styx from Dennis.

[FormerDJMike]

I have that record somewhere. I bought it in the late 80's and tried to make my own interview hahaha.

As for Styx "playing" HMP it was an embarrassingly bad backing track which would probably be better left out of the set list at Texas Jam. I like the song but the "live" version is cringe-worthy.

However, years later JYG would play a very good version of it.

With all of that said it would have been cool If Styx played it at Texas Jam and actually played it instead of the backing track version. These days I think it is one of the few songs JY could still sing in a decent register without straining his voice so I am all for them adding it to the modern set list

[Monker]

Totally incredible, JY states that ‘Heavy Metal Poisoning’ is by far the heaviest song Styx has ever done yet they refuse to play it at the Texas Jam in Dallas as the Jams headline act. Tommy,JY and Cahil talk about the ‘daunting’ task Styx faced following such heavy acts as Triumph, Ted Nugent &Sammy Hagar. So how do Tommy & JY respond ?
They respond by NOT playing Heavy Metal Poisoning the heaviest number Styx has ever created at the Jam. Even though they have performed this song at all the other Kilroy shows???? How on earth does this make any sense???

Tommy in his portion of the interview talks about staying behind in Japan at the conclusion of their Paradise Theater tour to cut a demo of Just Get Thru This Night. Later he states from filming & doing videos for Kilroy Was Here and getting ripped apart by Brian Glass how much this has help him as an artist. He also lets Dennis tear him apart cause ‘he’s tough and can take it, these constructive criticisms brings out his best’ He states that Styx fans will hear this for themselves because ‘ his singing has never sounded better than it does on the Kilroy Was Here Album’.

I love Tommy Shaw but what a fuc.ing liar. They don’t release ‘Haven’t We Been Here Before’ which would of been a sure hit because Tommy wanted to sabotage this album. It’s got to be the reason cause nothing else could come close to making sense after hearing this.

They all praise the album and basically say this was the natural progression for Styx.


After hearing this there is no doubt that cTommy, JY & Chuck literally stole the band Styx from Dennis.

Of course they are going to say all of this stuff. It's a promotion. Do you really think something like this would ever be released to radio if Tommy and JY attacked the album and Dennis?

Also, there is no such thing as "a sure hit". Nobody can know for certain how an album is going to perform. Do you really think it was known that "Thriller" would be as massive as it was before it was released? Nobody knew. To look back and say that a any song would be a huge if it were released as a single is just a made up fiction. Nobody knowd/ If "HWBHB" was released and it failed, Tommy fans could say THE EXACT SAME THING about "Cold War".

[yogi]

Cold War absolutely sucked as did High Time. The song ‘Haven’t We Been Here Before’ was as sure of a hit as Don’t Let It End was. It was as sure of a hit as anything Styx had ever done. Back then those type of songs with the name Styx attached to them were SURE FIRE hits.



Yea it was promotion, but their asses were all on board. Proves they can lie their asses off like they did when they spewed their bullshit about the Texas Jam in Dallas.

[gr8dane]

Cold War absolutely sucked as did High Time. The song ‘Haven’t We Been Here Before’ was as sure of a hit as Don’t Let It End was. It was as sure of a hit as anything Styx had ever done. Back then those type of songs with the name Styx attached to them were SURE FIRE hits.

Actually,all the songs sucked ,except,Just get through this night.

[yogi]

At the time, I thought that Side 2 of Kilroy was excellent. Still do today.

At the time I thought that Side 1 was awful. Today I can listen to Roboto cause it’s so different but I still don’t like it. Don’t Let It End is probably the worst ballad Styx & DDY ever did. Cold War & High Time were awful although High Time fit the concept.

[gr8dane]

At the time, I thought that Side 2 of Kilroy was excellent. Still do today.

I can tolerate side two, actually.
Been on a two day Styx bender, playing Styx on shuffle all day.
Yes ,songs on side two are OK.
Did focus a lot on John's drumming though.I have to say ,he did have a very nice drumming style.
Casual,smooth and to the point and not a beat out of place.Great drummer ,John was.
Oh,and Homewrecker was better than I remembered.

[yogi]

On side 2 of Kilroy I thought Heavy Metal Poisoning was Styx & JYs hardest song ever , loved the lyrics and thought it played perfectly into the concept. I really liked the song. Double Life was also decent. Tommy’s two songs especially Just Get Thru This Night were fantastic. Two stellar songs. The Don’t Let It End reprise I like far better than Don’t Let It End ( the top 10 hit). I felt that way then and I feel that way now. At the time I literally hated side 1 of that album. I only bought albums so after about 5 full listens I only played side 2. I would switch the station when I heard Roboto, & Don’t Let It End on the radio. I was absolutely stunned when I heard High Time on the radio. I thought that song was putrid. Hearing side 1 & Roboto, Cold War & High Time I thought Styx had gone techno. Add to it the worst ballad I thought they ever had put out Don’t Let It End. I was highly disappointed. Still side 2 was GREAT and it was the Styx I loved.

The Kilroy tour also was beyond GREAT. I saw it 3 times.

As for Homewrecker I really like how it ends and it’s a good JY song

[Monker]

Cold War absolutely sucked as did High Time.

I don't think either "sucked". They were not the best songs ever but I don't think they were "bad" or "sucked" at all. In fact, I don't think either was any better or worse than HWBHB.

The song ‘Haven’t We Been Here Before’ was as sure of a hit as Don’t Let It End was. It was as sure of a hit as anything Styx had ever done. Back then those type of songs with the name Styx attached to them were SURE FIRE hits.

No, it wasn't. NOTHING is a sure fire hit. I like HWHB, but it's not a song i look at as something that would chart in 1983. It's NOT "Don't Let it End", with a huge DDY vocal and chorus...which is typical DDY crooning. The key that Tommy sings in at times is actually so high that it becomes a bit annoying if you listen to it enough. It's a good song that tells it's own story, but guaranteed hit, no...it's simply not.

It's just typical revisionist history and fiction. If it had been released and failed to chart, then Tommy fans could be saying the exact same thing about "Cold War". It was such a guaranteed hit. A much more of a rock song that should have been released instead of ballad after ballad. People get tired of hearing that and wanted something different. On and on...

Yea it was promotion, but their asses were all on board. Proves they can lie their asses off like they did when they spewed their bullshit about the Texas Jam in Dallas.

You just don't understand. They all want to make money. Cahill, Tommy, Dennis, everybody. You are not going to go out and trash an album or members of the band if you want to make money. If Tommy said in this interview that Dennis was a dictator, he forced KWH on the band, he hated trying to write songs about robots, etc...and that he was contemplating leaving the band...do you really think KWH would even go platinum? Do you think there would be ANY hit singles? Do you think the label would spend ANY money promoting it? Do you think there would have been a mini-movie for the first single? I don't. IMO, you would have had maybe a gold album and a minor hit with Roboto...and Styx breaking up.

Why do I have that opinion? Bad English, "Backlash". When it was released there were kinds of rumors that the band wasn't getting along. The first single came, and it was a decent and did OK..barely charting, if I recall correct. But, there were all kinds of rumors of a problem with the band, or with the label. I think John Waite did a couple interviews or whatever. But, Neal announced Hardline, and BE was over. The album tanked, there was one more single that went nowhere. It ended VERY quickly after Hardline was announced.

IMO, if Tommy and/or JY, or anybody else, really spoke their minds, that is what would have happened to Styx and KWH. Instead they kept their thoughts positive and made some money from a hit album and a short tour. And, THEN it blew up when Tommy couldn't take it any longer and quit.

When you say things like Tommy tried to sabotage KWH and then say this is promotion, you are contradicting your own theory. If Tommy wanted to sabotage KWH, he wouldn't be promoting it....at least not in a positive way.

[Monker]

On side 2 of Kilroy I thought Heavy Metal Poisoning was Styx & JYs hardest song ever , loved the lyrics and thought it played perfectly into the concept. I really liked the song. Double Life was also decent. Tommy’s two songs especially Just Get Thru This Night were fantastic. Two stellar songs. The Don’t Let It End reprise I like far better than Don’t Let It End ( the top 10 hit). I felt that way then and I feel that way now. At the time I literally hated side 1 of that album. I only bought albums so after about 5 full listens I only played side 2. I would switch the station when I heard Roboto, & Don’t Let It End on the radio. I was absolutely stunned when I heard High Time on the radio. I thought that song was putrid. Hearing side 1 & Roboto, Cold War & High Time I thought Styx had gone techno. Add to it the worst ballad I thought they ever had put out Don’t Let It End. I was highly disappointed. Still side 2 was GREAT and it was the Styx I loved.

The Kilroy tour also was beyond GREAT. I saw it 3 times.

As for Homewrecker I really like how it ends and it’s a good JY song

A funny story about DLIE (reprise). Back during DY's "Don't Tread", I was visiting a friend in CA. We went to a DY concert in Sacremento. During one of our car trips somwhere, we were listening to KWH. At the end of DLIE (reprise) DDY starts shouting out band names and such. I turned to this friend of mine, who is a huge, huge Styx fan, and I asked In a completely serious way, "who are the Plumbers?" It was definitely a funny moment...and probably a "you had to be there" moment, because she could not stop herself from laughing at me.

[yogi]

The Plumbers?? Does he really say that??? If so who are they????

[yogi]

What you said above about promotion is correct. I loved the Backlash Bad English album.

With that said DDY wrote two songs about Robots - Roboto & High Time. JY wrote two songs about the Roboto situation with one also dealing with censorship in Double Life & Heavy Metal Poisoning. IMO Tommy wrote zero songs about the concept although Haven’t We Been Here Before might have been?? Just Get Thru This Night was written in Japan right after the Paradise Theater tour concluded( according to Tommy). Cold War was techno(Roboto like) but seems to have nothing to do with the concept.

Anyway so be it. It’s over. They( Tommy, JY, Cahil & to a lesser degree Chuck) totally lied or at the very least misrepresented the truth about the Dallas portion of The Jam, and coming from a still Styx fan I will always believe they totally stole DDYs band from him not because they couldn’t get along but for money & control.

[Monker]

The Plumbers?? Does he really say that??? If so who are they????

No, I think he says "The Coasters"...I totally misheard it.