Hello everyone, my name is Lawrence Gowan of
the rock band Styx and you are listening to my
weekly mixtape with Brian Colburn. I'm just I'm
listening to my weekly mixtape in my head constantly.
I'll bet you are too. Welcome to my weekly mixtape,
a podcast that takes the classic mixtape approach
to building a modern playlist. I'm your host,
Brian Colbert. One of the things I'm excited
to do on the show is speak with some of the incredible
artists whose songs have graced my mixtapes and
playlists throughout my life. And tonight's guest
happens to be one of those artists. From his
incredible solo work through his current decades
-long run as singer and keyboard player for Styx,
I am honored to welcome to the show the one and
only Lawrence Gowan. Lawrence, thank you so much
for joining me on my weekly mixtape. Absolutely
my pleasure, Brian. Great to be on your mixtape.
Well, the first question I would like to start
by asking you is the same question I ask all
of my guests. The word mixtape, does that have
any meaning to you in your career and why? Well,
you know, it's funny because when I saw that
on the description that we're going to chat,
I always think of a mixtape as something that's
on a cassette. On a cassette, basically just
a... a collection of your favorite songs it's
not necessarily an album but a collection of
your favorite songs and it usually would be something
in a car anyway you'd squeeze in between listening
to one of you know you're listening to an album
whatever album it happens to be and then you
happen to put on your mixtape just so you can
kind of shake up the vibe a little bit and that's
what it means to me does it mean something completely
different now that i'm unaware of No, to me,
the word mixtape always came with a connotation
of when I grew up making mixtapes. That's what
this show is a love letter to. I would spend
hours taking all of my favorite songs and turning
them into my story based on how I put them into.
a sequence that I would want to listen to with
my friends. Yes. With modern playlists, you kind
of just drag and drop a bunch of songs onto your
Spotify playlist and hit shuffle. And I'm trying
to bring back that thought process on why songs
work so well back to back. I see. Yes, it's more
of the soundtrack of your life and kind of a
bit of a narrative, a background narrative to
your thought process and to your little adventures
along the way and things that are meaningful.
I think that's a great, yeah, that's more or
less how I first came upon them was, yeah, people
were trying to kind of, I suppose, define their
personality in some way by the songs that they
listened to. And after all, we all do that anyway,
I think. A hundred percent. And one of the bands
that growing up, my parents and I truly bonded
over was your music and the music of sticks.
With a discography of over 50 years, going back
to Styx's self -titled 1972 album, the band has
never slowed down, including the most recent
effort, 2021's Crash of the Crown, shows that
you guys have a lot more to say on a musical
level still. How would you describe the band's
musical evolution across five decades? Boy, that's
a tough one. I would say that if... First of
all, I'll try to pick what I think are the central
strengths that have allowed the band to traverse
over five decades. I'd say, first of all, there's
a dedicated devotion to melody. That's number
one. Just basically trying to come up with melodies
that stick in people's heads. And long before
I joined the band, I'm in my 25th year now, that
was what I noticed about Styx was there are very
memorable melodies that were just once they were
in your head. they would take up residence there
permanently. And that's true of all the bands
that I've loved most. They just have melodic
content that doesn't seem to wane with time.
The other thing is a determination for the band
to go on, to continue despite all the challenges
that come along the way in the life of any band.
It's very, very difficult to make a band stay
together for five years, let alone 50. So the
band had to, along the way, they've made tough
decisions. They've had to be very, very determined
and self -aware as a band to make it through
all those periods. And as you mentioned, I think
Crash of the Crown being the album that came
out in the 50th year of the band's existence,
for that to get to the number one on the Billboard
rock album chart, because after all, it was conceived
as an album, a 40 -minute piece. It really is
remarkable to think that it's a band that seems
to have found the right direction forward in
all eras. Well, at this juncture of the band's
career, Styx could easily walk out on stage and
play a two hour set of nothing but hits. Babe,
Come Sail Away, Renegade, Best of Times Lady.
But then you have songs like Common Ground from
Crash of the Crown that to me. fit right in with
all of those songs. How does the band decide
with all of these years of music, how a show
should flow from decade to decade and song to
song? That's a great question. I think that not
only is the band involved in what we wind up
playing in a set, but in fact, like our production
crew very often, well, on a daily basis, they
have Not just so much an opinion, but a very
informed opinion. Because, for example, our stage
manager, he knows what we've played in various
regions of the country or even in the world the
last time we were there. And so he'll take that
into consideration when it comes to what we play.
So I'm just thinking of, you know, last night
we played to, I guess, about 17 ,000 people in
Lewiston, New York, a place called Art Park.
And that was a set that had to be comprised for
that because since it was just across the border
on the American side of Niagara Falls, to give
you a regional perspective, we decided to do
songs like the standard ones that are in every
Styx show. We're always going to play Renegade
and we're going to do Come Sail Away and Blue
Collar Man and Grand Illusion. Those are in there.
But for example... Miss America, which hasn't
been in shows for a little while. And suddenly
we're starting to get that back again. That's
a really important song to play in that region
because Grand Illusion was a huge record. People
know it as an album. And so it's a great number
to put into that show. We opened with a song
from Crash to the Crown called To Those, which
is a very brief piece. But it just is the right
kind of energy for the type of audience that
we were playing to. So that went into the show.
We put a song from my solo career that became
a stick song after I joined called The Criminal
Mind. We put that into the set because radio
in Buffalo and in that region, it was right across
the border. They played that song extensively
on the radio and they still hear it. And basically,
if I'm doing interviews like this, regional type
interviews will ask, are you going to play this
song in this concert? And The Criminal Mind came
up often in the little... interviews and chats
that i had with people leading up to that show
so that's kind of the ways that the the sticks
set list which is extremely hard to crack and
that's how it gets decided it's jy made a comment
many years ago he said you know well we used
to have some pretty um not too intense but somewhat
uh pointed disagreements as to what to play on
any given night he said well we just seem to
have an embarrassment of riches when it comes
to choices of great songs to play. I love that
expression. So we always seem to concoct just
the right kind of items on the menu, so to speak,
that speak to that audience in a particular way.
Well, I want to follow up on where you're going
with this, because as much as I love the hits
that you talked about, there's a part of me as
a Styx fan that does enjoy some of the deeper
cuts. And just off the top of my head. If I go
back to Kill Roy Was Here, because that was one
of the albums my parents basically introduced
me to the band with, songs like Double Life and
Heavy Metal Poisoning haven't been part of the
set list in a long time. And then if you fast
forward into the 90s, Edge of the Century, Show
Me the Way was something that was played during
a lot of my high school events. Those are just
a couple of examples as a longtime Styx fan,
songs that I'd love to hear at a show. do you
as a member of the band have any error that maybe
there are songs that you would like to see dusted
off for a live run through? Because there's no
shortage of amazing material here. Yeah. Yeah.
It's funny. We, I know what you're saying because
especially, you know, and since I can see you
on this, I can see that you, you know, you're
one of the younger people that came along to
sticks probably after these albums had been out
a while. And I have, It has been noticed that
younger people don't tend to necessarily gravitate
toward what were the songs that were played endlessly
on the radio. Because you don't have that kind
of shaping your opinion or your viewpoint of
the band in any way. So, for example, take a
song like Man in the Wilderness. That's another
track I got. Pieces of Eight is another track
like that. And I noticed... There are some audience
favorites as well. They really want to hear those
songs and those ones really speak. That's part
of their mixtape, so to speak. That's part of
what speaks to their life and that they can relate
so well to. And I happen to really, I love that.
We brought back, for example, Lorelei recently.
That's a song that's been off the set list for
a couple of years. And yet it's the first stick
song I ever took note of on radio in Canada,
in Toronto, was Lorelei. And so I'm really glad
that that one was brought back. And there are
several others. And now that we've had both with
The Mission and Crash of the Crown, we get a
lot of requests for specific songs on those records
that really connect with people. I know that
recently we've been playing... Tommy gets to
get his banjo out and we've been doing our wonderful
lives. And that seems to be a kind of a sentiment
that people are relating to very strongly at
the moment, because having gone through what
we did just a couple of years ago, people are
still kind of resetting and rebalancing from
the aftermath of that. And our wonderful lives
seems to kind of address that. Well, since we're
talking about some of the newer songs from Styx,
I want to dive into that because. I'd like to
light it up and let's get this show on the road
because one of my favorite more recent songs
from the band is Gone, Gone, Gone from your 2017
concept album, The Mission. In a world of singles
-driven streaming that we've seen evolve over
the last two decades, I applauded the fact that
the band took the song's lyrics to heart and
literally got this show on the road, playing
the mission in its entirety on tour, which goes
against the grain of a singles -only trend. Because
most people would assume if you've been a band
for 50 years, you're going to go out, you're
going to play the same... 10 hits night after
night. And here you guys were going completely
against that. And to me, from an artistic standpoint,
that just speaks massive volumes. And it also
speaks to the fact that you and the rest of the
band truly believed in this music to do that,
which was a risky move and one that I applaud.
So can I ask what the band's thought process
was behind taking a full brand new album out
on the road like that? Sure. First of all, I'm
sympathetic to bands who basically pare it down
to the 10 hits or whatever that are going to
work and are going to satisfy their audience.
I can understand that mindset. The thing about
Styx, because every band is different. It's like
every family is different. There's a unique blend
that makes it work. We've always had this within
the band, this enthusiasm to come up with new
ideas. And we always have, even though there
was a long hiatus between making studio records.
That's a different story. But new ideas are always
bubbling up and they're always embraced with
enthusiasm. And alongside that is the knowledge
and the acknowledgement, I guess it's the way
of putting it, is that audiences have... really
specific expectations when they come and see
a classic rock band. They have specific songs
they definitely want to hear. And so in order
to appease that, they will get that every night
at a stick show. That's part of what the dynamic
is. But they also have to see that we're throwing
ourselves wholeheartedly into where the band
is at this very moment in the arc of its trajectory
of existence. We kind of played a bit of a balancing
act in that we specifically wrote the last two
albums, The Mission and Crash the Crown, as albums,
first of all, because the streaming thing, there's
a lot to the question you just asked. The whole
nature of streaming is not all that conducive
to bands of the classic rock era. You know, people
stream, for example, let's take, for example,
say Led Zeppelin IV, you know, where everyone
knows Stairway to Heaven. But I know that record
as an entire album. And you have to work your
way through it to get to Stairway to Heaven.
And there are a lot of steps in between. And
it's all one part of the same book. I'll use
that as a way of describing it. Where you wouldn't
just continually read the last chapter. You would
basically try to drink it in in its entirety
or in a way where it's presented to you. Because
the album is an art form. It really is. And we've
rediscovered that. And that's part of what the
little light bulb that came on in our heads was,
let's not try to make singles and songs that
connect with where streaming is now. Let's instead
make albums where there's a cohesive statement
that the band is really behind and is definitely
enthusiastic about and in love with. And then
let's feed it to the audience in tiny bites.
Like what we did was we would use little bits
of the new album to segue into classic hits.
For example, I just mentioned To Those. By the
time we finished To Those, it segues directly
into Blue Collar Man. So the two songs have a
symbiotic kind of connection in the show. Another
great example of that, I'll use this. Tommy Shaw
sings a song called Sound the Alarm. that's a
way straight into crystal ball and what the beauty
of that is that you get perspective sound the
alarm is a man who's you know looking at his
life on the whole and seeing that it's come to
a point where the things are have not necessarily
panned out you know all perfectly and need to
be addressed in the immediate sense whereas crystal
ball when he suddenly harkens back to that you
hear the young man singing about wanting to absorb
and embrace the future so the two songs they
really are bookends you know so we look for opportunities
like that chuck and ozzo and i do there's a tiny
little piece of music i have on crash the ground
called lost at sea and uh it's only 39 seconds
long but it's a poignant little piece on the
record and an important piece but in the live
show that kind of lays the little carpet the
little welcome carpet before we go in to come
sail away So it kind of gets people into that
nautical frame of mind and that's the way we
did it. And now with the mission, we didn't just
immediately go out and play the album in its
entirety. We did what I just was describing for
a year. And by the end of that year, we found
there were so many people saying, are you ever
going to play this album in its entirety? Because
I love listening to the whole thing and I want
to hear it. And we had enough of that, those
requests that... the palms in las vegas said
why don't you come and do a show of that entire
record and then you can play the hits after you
know and that's what we did so we had stakes
the mission to see how that would work and people
came out you know the place was sold out for
two nights in a row and um we did notice it was
mostly a younger audience you know all in their
mission t -shirts etc because they've come to
know the band say in the last 20 years 30 years
and they want They want to embrace the entire
history of the band and something that's concurrent
with their lives. So they tend to want to be
hungrier for the latest statement from the band.
So with all of that said, that's how we have
been kind of navigating the realities of the
music world today and how Styx fits into it.
That's fantastic. And I want to go back to my
introduction to Styx, which is thanks. In part
or in full to my parents who raised me with fantastic
music. And my father felt that as a young lad
of five, six, seven years old, a song that I
would resonate with was the opening track on
Kilroy was here. That being Mr. Roboto. Yeah.
Because as a child into Star Wars and all that
stuff, here's this. Yeah, it was a very. cool
way to introduce a young person to Styx music.
Yeah. Now, this song wasn't part of the band's
live set for a pretty long time, but has seen
a huge resurgence as of late. Can you talk about
the reception when you first reintroduced the
track and then the feedback you've gotten on
bringing it back since? It was, you know, it's
an amazing little story with that song because
I remember hearing it. on the radio the first
time and noticed that Styx, along with The Queen,
along with Yes, along with Genesis, all the bands
that had progressive music as part of their vocabulary,
you know, musical vocabulary, were all attempting
to transition from the 70s into the 80s and embracing
the new toys that were available and the new
ways of expressing themselves. And they were
suddenly, you know, Faced with bands like, you
know, Talking Heads and Duran Duran and, you
know, U2 and, you know, all these 80s bands.
And how did these classic rock bands fit into
this? So it was a bold move, you know, to embrace
the new technology. But what's great about Mr.
Roboto is, I know at the time, a lot of people
thought of it, and I'll include myself, you know,
so I'll just say I was one of the people that
thought of it as... kind of a kitschy song at
the time. It didn't have the same kind of 70s
bravado, just as I did even with Queen doing
same body language or something like that. Okay,
yeah. Or even Genesis, you know, quite honestly
doing, you know, the transition that they made
into the 80s, you know, with Phil Collins, et
cetera. But then as the picture began to kind
of write itself in my mind, I started to hear
it as, you know, this is actually a very prescient
song. It's kind of... showing where we're going.
Now, once a song, Mr. Robano, once it has stood
the test of time, you have to stop questioning
its validity. You just have to completely accept
it as something that really is meaningful. And
I hear it that way. And I'd say as far back as
about 10 years ago, when I would bring it up,
that maybe we should be playing this song because
it's referred to so often in popular culture,
et cetera. The only thing holding it back was
not the song itself, was not even the music of
ever the music of Kill Rose here. But with J
.Y., Tommy, and Chuck, who were there when that
record came out, it was the residual feelings
that on the tour of that album, that's when the
band really kind of felt they had met their demise.
They basically were at odds in quite a way. So
the memory of that. was kind of glommed on to
the actual album. But time, you know, as it does
tend to, you know, recalibrate our vision, our
version of things, began to kind of soften up.
And then it was that we were, oh, that's right.
We were doing a tour with Joan Jett. And we thought
we need to do something in this show that people
are not expecting because Joan was a different
type of act for us to be touring with. It really
worked. And so suddenly Mr. Roboto was brought
out for discussion. Yeah, we decided let's go
to Nashville and rehearse it for a couple of
days and see how we feel about it. So that's
what we did. And of course, you know, we leaned
into it a bit heavier, I guess you could use
that expression, than the original. We ramped
up the guitars a little bit. My own approach
to singing it, you know, I had to, I love the
perspective in a song where the singer has a
secret to reveal. I just love that anyway. And
that song is built around that. Yes. And so I
love that as a bit of rock theater, you know,
so I can throw myself into it lyrically. And
then, you know, my appreciation for what a great
piece of pop culture it is, what an excellent
song it is, has just continued to grow as we've
played it. Now, initially, I will say this. When
we played it... You could see some people in
the audience, it was a divisive thing because
some people, we could see up front, we're not
all that crazy about us bringing Mr. Roboto back
into the set. Wow. Yeah, yeah, because they were
part of the audience that was probably with the
band from the very beginning and saw that as
a divisive or whatever they want to, you know,
however they subjectively viewed that song. But
that dissipated within about two weeks. It just
went away. We don't really know why. Maybe it's
just because of the way we were playing it and
the way we were kind of throwing ourselves into
it and how well it fit, slotted in between. We
would end the show with Come Sail Away and then
come back for an encore of Mr. Roboto and Renegade.
And it just seemed to be a great reflection of
those three big moments in the band's history.
Excellent. Well, as someone who's written and
released a ton of successful solo music outside
of Styx, songs like A Criminal Mind, You're a
Strange Animal, Moonlight Desires, just to name
a few. Can you talk about the dynamics in writing
music as a solo artist versus writing music in
a group with Styx, as you did with the last 20
years of albums with the band? I can. I can.
You know, my first three solo albums, you know,
they were all on Columbia Records, but they were
only released in Canada. I wrote them entirely,
you know, music and lyrics. And I considered
myself a 100 % solo type writer and artist. Okay.
Fortunately, by 1990, I decided, you know, one
of the things I might be missing is there's something
about co -writing suddenly that interests me
just to see if I can do it. And the first person
that I worked with very fortuitously was a guy
named Eddie Schwartz, who wrote Hit Me With Your
Best Shot for Pat Benatar. But since writing
that song, he had become a very, very favored
writing partner for a lot of people. And I thought
Eddie might really kind of be a good way to start.
And he was, because we wrote maybe five songs
that we just tossed away, but just to kind of
get in the groove of how to do it. And then we
hit on something really strong that did well
on my fourth album. And I learned through him
how it kind of works, how it is to write with
another person. And first of all, it doesn't
work the same way every time, but there are certain
key factors that come along. And one is to really
learn to listen and absorb what the other person
is putting forward before you can really... add
or subtract from what the idea is. But eventually,
from writing with Eddie and then writing with
Jim Vallance, who co -wrote with all the big
Brian Adams songs, a lady named Annette Ducharme
wrote one song with her that made it onto an
album. I learned just a little bit of what it
is to kind of co -write with people. So when
I joined Styx, I had that kind of in my little
lexicon already as to, okay, this is going to
be different. But the hurdle there was, it's
one thing to co -write with people on a one -off
basis, but to be in a band with them where you're
an actual band, it takes some time to really
let the ideas meld together in a really meaningful
way. You know, you can kind of go on pieces together,
almost like a Lego set, you know what I mean?
Where it's predictable in the outcome, but really
what is... amazing is when someone's got one
idea and an almost opposing idea to it almost
as if it's coming from a completely different
space when those two things clash creative friction
is created and that's where songs like crash
on the ground can come out you know which one
would be the title track a song where first of
all you've got three lead singers on it starts
out jy and then tommy most of the time and myself
and then it ends with myself and No one in the
band could have written that song alone. It would
be impossible. You couldn't do it. You had to
have these disparate ideas, sort of almost obtusely
at first, trying to figure out how they locked
together. But the moment they did, you couldn't
pull them apart, no matter how hard you tried.
And you realize this is what band writing is.
This is what the magic of it is, that you really
are this. kind of collective brain that has concocted
something that has its own spirit that lives
outside you and yet came from you as a group.
It's fascinating. Now, with Styx being kind of
a progressive rock band in the 70s and obviously
going through different things, you have worked
with a lot of progressive artists such as Tony
Levin, Jerry Murata, and David Rhodes from Peter
Gabriel's band, John Anderson of Yes. Ken Greer
of Red Ryder, Alex Lyson of Rush. Did working
with those musicians in your solo career help
make the transition into becoming a full -time
member of Styx more seamless for you as an artist?
Undoubtedly. Undoubtedly. Much like co -writing,
when you get to work with great artists, like
I've been so lucky to have, yeah, you begin to
see how they... how they approach the craft of
what they do, you know, and where the artistry
comes through from that. And you can also really
observe up close the amount of effort and the
work they've put into how great they are to be
alongside. It's evident, you know. And yes, it
very much did prepare me for that, you know.
when you're playing with other players that you
really admire it's just a fantastic moment it's
just that's the best way i can describe it it's
like you're you're kind of in in this great mind
this great headspace where you're wearing it's
like wow and we're riding on this this vehicle
together you know and what you're throwing into
this is really it's really lifting the whole
experience that's basically what happens you
know when i was yeah working Unstrained General
on that album, having Tony Levin and Jerry Murata
and David Rhodes and another fellow named Chris
Jarrett who played guitar on that album as well.
And an excellent producer, having that whole
kind of group together and elevating everything
up another notch, another notch, another notch,
because each player has such unique and useful
ideas that keep kind of tossing the ball back
and forth. That definitely prepared me for working
with Styx. And that's probably why that may be
one of the chief reasons as to why it's worked
out for so long as it has, is that I had all
this kind of background experience that I guess
I brought with me. And little by little, there's
been moments when that's all been very, very
useful along the way. Well, one of the songs
I'd like to touch on is The Grand Illusion. We're
in 1999. You have established yourself as a solo
artist. You are stepping into a band with a storied
career. You have a storied career. And you're
stepping in front of the microphone to sing.
one of the band's most iconic songs for the first
time. And you don't know how the audience is
going to react. This is two very talented groups
coming together, as in you and the band, and
this is the first time out. Walk me through that
moment, what that is for you as an artist, singing
that song for the first time. I think we touched
on this in the past, Brian. I'm glad you remembered
it. That's a vivid moment in my mind because
once we decided we were going to do this and,
you know, I was going to join the band and we
started our rehearsals, it kind of seemed very,
very easy. You know, it's like we fit together
really, really well. And, you know, we played
for a few friends before we went out to do the
first show. And that was all easy enough. The
moment we stepped on stage in front of a live
audience, it was in Branson, Missouri, which
I don't think we've ever been back to. Or maybe
once we have. That's not correct. We did go back
once. I do remember drawing breath to go into
Grand Illusion and thinking, oh. Remember, it's
1999. It's a different time. I'm thinking. they're
about to hear someone else sing this song for
the very first time you know i don't i couldn't
think of any covers out there of grand illusion
at that time and i thought um this might be all
resolved in about four minutes time when we finish
this song as to whether this is going to work
or not and so that did cross my mind back then
but fortunately grand illusion is a song that
i could very much relate to i i think it's a
great lyric that touches on the prefabricated
view of what success is you know and i i like
that very much as a theme by the time i got to
the end of the song the audience you know it
really they loved it because they're all arms
up in the air and you know high fives and all
that and that's because i feel that the spirit
of the band the strength of that song first of
all but the spirit of the band was somehow still
being presented much this I like to think, okay,
I can't say for sure, but much the same as when
I went and saw Genesis for the first time. When
the drummer, that's all I knew him as, I heard
had become the singer of the band. I only knew
Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks because Tony was
the keyboard player. I only knew their names.
And when I heard that the drummer was going to
become the singer, I thought, well, this is definitely
not going to work. And a friend of mine gave
me a ticket to go see them. And I reluctantly
went along. And then I found out. very quickly
the drummer's name is phil collins and how the
spirit of genesis did not seem to be detracted
from it was amazing to me how someone as great
as peter gabriel could be suddenly not in a band
and still have the band the spirit of the band
remain intact is a remarkable thing but i took
note of it then and i remember thinking you know
had that not happened Would we have all those
amazing Peter Gabriel solo records? Would I be
buying tickets to see Gabriel when he comes to
Toronto? Suddenly we had two great bands. And
so I kind of felt like bands themselves carry
a spirit that's outside the band. And yet it
needs to be kind of nurtured and needs to kind
of survive if the band is going to go through
any big changes. And so only time will tell.
We've been doing this for an awful long time.
Yeah. Well, one of the things back in 2010 and
2011, you took the spirit of this version of
Sticks and put your stamp on classics throughout
the band's catalog. And that was the Regeneration
1 and 2 albums. Songs like Too Much Time on My
Hands. And then, believe it or not, a cover song.
several cover songs from Tommy Shaw's stint with
damn Yankees doing high enough, which for me
as a 45 year old man, high enough hit right at
that time in my life where I was just starting
to date power ballads were a huge thing. And
I've gone on record on this show in the past
saying that high enough is probably one of my
favorite songs of all time. The beautiful soaring
harmonies in that vocal performance and what
Tommy and Jack Blades and Ted Nugent do on the
original is amazing. I love what you guys were
able to do to bring that into the Styx fold.
And I'm curious, what was it like taking a song
that was from kind of outside of the Styx realm?
So this would be high enough. part of Styx moving
forward. You know, that's great. We did High
Enough for a year after that album. Yeah. And
again, it's a great song. So, I mean, you know,
and you had the original singer over there with
Tommy there. So, a lot of the pieces just kind
of fell into place very easily, quite honestly.
Yeah, I remember recording that and thinking,
God, this could be a hit all over again because
it's the song that just works. That's all there
is to it. It's one of those songs that's just
perfectly balanced and just works. And we were
able to hit the notes. That's the hardest part.
You nailed it. Absolutely nailed it. The perfect
title for that. Yeah, it's up there in Bee Gees'
territory. But you guys knocked it out of the
park. And that's something that I was, I was
happy to hear that song continue a life because
for me, the song just resonated with me on a
personal level and to hear the band continue
with it, put a big smile on my face. And that's
great to hear, Brian. I think, I think also,
you know, one of the realities is, you know,
I think, I think, you know, Tommy shot definitely,
you know, he had that successful career with
damn Yankees, successful second act. Let's call
it that. And I know early on, he would have liked
to have gone and done, even toured with them
again, perhaps. But there just wasn't time. There
was just suddenly, you know, Styx had taken Fener
stage again. And, you know, we were playing at
a pace of, and we still are, about 100 shows
a year. He would just burn himself out if he's
trying to do that. So the easiest thing to do
is just bring the song into the band. Well, it
worked really well, and I love that rendition.
So I wanted to touch on that, even though it's
not originally part of the Styx catalog. Now,
while we're on the topic of cover songs, you
have had your original songs covered. Retrocity
did an acapella version of You're a Strange Animal.
Styx has had punk versions of their songs redone,
note -by -note reimaginings, all the way out
to... South Park covering Come Sail Away in the
voice of Cartman. Best version ever. Yes. I mean,
seriously, what is it like for you to hear another
artist reinterpret your work in a different way,
whether it be a acapella version, a punk version
or a comedic version like South Park? Well, as
a songwriter, it's one of the greatest things,
right? For any songwriter, it's a great thing.
You know, I mentioned it. Eddie Schwartz with
Hit Me With Your Best Shot. He had recorded that
song for his own solo record when someone said,
oh, we've got this new artist, Pat Benatar, and
we'd like her to record that song. And he obviously
loved the version because it certainly worked.
I've heard really interestingly beautiful flamenco
guitar versions of A Criminal Mind, for example,
and I love that. But then again... I even heard
karaoke versions that I've also enjoyed too because
you can see how much people want to throw themselves
into a song because it's, back to your original
theme, it's part of the mixtape of their lives.
No, I think it's a wonderful thing. It's also
something that I continue to do because there's
artists that I really admire so much. And I love
doing covers of other people's songs just to
do them. Gordon Lightfoot who left. the planet
recently so many amazing phenomenal songs that
you know i had to immediately open up his catalog
and you know try to keep his kind of uh memory
alive through his songs and discovered you know
i forgot the song oh beautiful which was one
of his one of his many hits but not one that's
as immediately known i immediately wanted to
do a version of it which i did and put out it
just on Instagram, et cetera. And it's amazing
how people respond to that. It's good to hear
other artists do cover songs that have meant
so much to them. I guess it's our version of
mixtaping in a weird way, is that we actually
play the song and kind of put our own inflection
into it. And I have to ask, with the mindset
of that South Park version, did that introduce
the band to a whole new audience who was like,
who is this? And all of a sudden you have people
that you don't recognize in the crowd because
this song introduced Styx to them? Yeah, I'm
sure that happens. First of all, I joined at
a very gratuitous time because all these cultural
references to Styx were just beginning when I
joined. The initial one, I remember the initial
phone call with G .Y. was that Adam Sandler was
referencing sticks several times in a movie called
Big Daddy. That was the beginning of it. But
then suddenly you saw TV commercials and South
Park and Scrubs and Sex and the City and all
these various cultural references to sticks that
kept popping up. That, I'm sure, is part of how
the net got thrown wider and the audience became
broader because of that. Well, I've talked about
a lot of my favorite songs from you and the band
tonight, but I would love for you to put your
stamp on this mixtape that we've discussed throughout
this episode. If you had to choose three songs
that would best define your legacy as a musical
artist, it could be from any juncture of your
career, solo or stuff with sticks. What three
songs would you pick and why? Okay, so I have
to, boy, this is one hell of a question. So let
me pick three songs that are not of myself or
sticks, just so I can kind of go with that. I
would say, And this is really off the top of
my head. It's like crazy. I would say probably,
oh, gosh, this is really tough. I saved the best
for last. Yeah, you did. You're stumping me.
I'm just going to go quickly here. I know I'm
going to get this wrong, but I guess there's
no wrong. There's no wrong answers. First of
all, I'd go with A Day in the Life, okay? Because
the voices of both John and Paul are in that
song. It's terrible to have to give up George
and Ringo for this, but you're forcing me down
this road, Brian. I'd go with A Day in the Life
because there's something so all -embracing about
that piece of music that just puts me in awe
of the universe, I suppose. I'd go with that
one first. And then probably the second one would
be, oh boy, this is really tough. It might be
something as... This has become extremely obvious
now. But again, it's got such great classical
overtones in it. And it'd probably be Bohemian
Rhapsody by Queen. It'd be the second one for
so many reasons. And I guess if there was a third
one, it might be Rocket Man by Elton John. There
you go. I guess it would be those ones. Now I
can just as quickly jump in and say. I want to
have Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones,
Space Oddity by David Bowie, and let's see now,
what would be number three on that list? The
Landmines down in Broadway by Janice. Oh, man,
this is becoming a hell of a mixtape here. I'm
liking where you're going. It's too tough. It's
far too tough. I've stuck to those two eras,
but I have lots. I could easily do a mixtape,
though, of just the new millennium. That would
embrace a song like Somewhere Only We Know by
Keane. That's one of my faves. I would say a
second one to that would be, oh, there was one
on the, it was a Eurovision song by a guy named
Sam Ryder called If I Were an Astronaut. Oh,
shoot, what's the title of the song? I listen
to it all the time. I'm up in space, man. I think
it's just called, maybe it's called Space Man.
I'm spacing on the title and I listen to it a
lot. So there's two and then possibly something
by a song called Elephant by Tame Impala. Oh,
yeah. I'm jumping all over the place here. I'm
not giving you a very good answer. Are you kidding
me? This is great. We'll go back to the very
beginning and say, yeah, I got to pick three
songs. It's going to be a day in the life, Bohemian
Rhapsody, Rocketman. They all have special meaning
to me in so many ways. All right. And then the
final stamp, the three songs from your career,
whether it be Lawrence Gowan or Styx, what three
songs would you choose and why? Okay. So those
three songs would be probably Moonlight Desires.
Because I get to hear John Anderson's part in
that song, too. He does solo in that song. Yes.
I'd probably go with saying Moonlight Desires,
Renegade would be in there for sure. And probably
Come Sail Away. Yeah. I guess it would be those
three. Three fantastic tracks. Now, we've talked
tonight about five decades of Styx classics,
as well as your original classics. Certainly,
the band shows no signs of slowing down. Is there
any new music that's currently in the works that
you might be privy to talk about right now? We're
working on new things right now. I mean, you
know, there was an idea to do new songs we've
been working on for just in the last 10 days
or so. Nothing I can tell you yet because everything
about them could change entirely in the next
few months, you know, lyrics and melodic content,
et cetera. But no, the new ideas are. constantly
coming out. The only thing that really is going
to stop that is life itself. It's going to eventually
pull the plug on that. But until it does, we
love what we do. I think that's part of what
translates so well to the audience. They can
see that we really enjoy every aspect of doing
this. It's hard sometimes. Like anything else,
it's worthwhile. It's not always easy. There
are travel things that become very, very invasive.
But overall, the moment of celebrating music
together with a few thousand people on their
feet, with their arms in the air and big smiles
on their faces, that just makes everything worthwhile
for us. Well, as one of those fans, this has
truly been an honor for me. Lawrence Gowan, thank
you so much for joining me on My Weekly Mixtape.
My pleasure, Brian. Great to talk to you again.
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Until next time, enjoy the tunes.