Sunday, April 15, 2007

Backstage Memories of Styx-1981

I worked for an album-rock station back then and I would go backstage to interview the top rock bands of the day which included Foreigner, the J. Geils Band, and Styx. Styx was touring and drawing tremendous audiences, most of them young girls between the ages of 12 to 17.
I went backstage and met Dennis DeYoung, the lead singer, who gave me a fine interview, along with Tommie Shaw.
When Styx took the stage there was a giant TV screen behind the band and when the TV screen focused in on Tommie Shaw, the young girls, thousands of them, screamed with delight.
I had never heard such noise before and I had to cover my ears. Every time Shaw did something the girls just went crazy, about 15 thousand of them, and I thought the roof was going to collapse.
It must have been like this for the Beatles, I thought, as Styx played their hits.
That year, 1981, I covered the appearances of ZZ Top, J. Geils, REO, Billy Squire (The Stroke),
and Foreigner among others.
And now, all these years later, these band members are probably in their 50's and middle-aged.
I wonder what they think now of their incredible ride at the top back in the early 80's.

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