I don't know
about you, but my image of the "typical" male rock star is based on some
combination of reality, fantasy, wishful thinking and Hollywood.
It
didn't take Chuck Panozzo long to realize that he didn't fit that image.
It took him much longer to come to grips with that fact, and to tell even
his family, friends, fans and fellow Styx members that he is gay.
The
public image of someone who was born and raised on the South Side of
Chicago and went on to form a successful rock band is, it turns out, not
the real image of Chuck Panozzo. "I didn't want to live in denial
anymore," writes Panozzo about his decision to 'out' himself at a Chicago
Human Rights Campaign Dinner in 2001.
"My best friend was in
denial about being HIV positive, and he died of AIDS. I didn't want to be
that person. I didn't want to be a coward about this thing anymore."
The Grand Illusion (also the name of a 1977 Styx album) takes us
from Panozzo's Italian Catholic upbringing through a brief time in a
seminary, a stint as a high school art teacher, through the founding (with
his twin brother, John and Dennis DeYoung) of the band that went on to
crank out four consecutive platinum albums and sell more than 54-million
records. All of this is set against the backdrop of Panozzo's struggles to
deal with his homosexuality, and his eventual battle with
HIV. |