Styx and Stones still together… no broken bones

Toronto Sun
August 24, 1978

Styx and Stones still together… no broken bones
Sylvia Train

How often do you get a phone call from three rock stars? From an airport?

Three of the Styx quintette, Dennis DeYoung and the twins John and Chuck Panozzo phoned me from the Duluth airport. They were just on their way out after performing in that city the night before, and they’re all set for their CNE Grandstand date Sept. 1.

The three Chicago-born musicians have been together 15 years, which is almost a miracle, since most groups have a falling-out at one point or another. The Rolling Stones are the only other group to tie Styx’ record of togetherness.

The trio went to college and taught for a time while they were trying to get a band off the ground. That was back in the sixties, when they called themselves TW4 and were recording with Wooden Nickel. They changed their name to Styx – the interpreted the name as being a burning symbol of intense metaphysical energy-added talented guitarist James Young, changed record labels, hired new management and started recording albums for A&M.

They started their climb to the Big Time with their fourth album, Man Of Miracles. Their fifth album, Equinox, made it to gold. Tommy Shaw, guitar and vocals, joined them to become the fifth member of the group you’ll see at the Ex next month.

DeYoung (keyboard, vocalist and composer) told me he lives outside Chicago, not far from the other two-but certainly far from 101st Street in the dingy steel mill part of town in the South side where they were brought up. He’s married (he has a seven-year-old daughter) and plays baseball with a men’s league when he’s not performing or composing. He admits that since he plays keyboard he worries about his fingers when he’s playing in the outfield, but it doesn’t stop him.

“Our dream is to be the top rock band and it looks like we’ll realize that dream in the next six or eight months,” said DeYoung. “It’s a hell of a nice feeling to know we’re finally hitting it big. I wonder if it would feel the same if we’d been an overnight sensation.”
John Panozzo (drums) is also married, but he says he doesn’t worry about the groupies who hang around the band.

“You can’t drink every day,” he said mischievously, then laughed. “However, we’re all human.”

He told me he and his twin brother look nothing alike. “I have curly, curly hair and Chuck had a beard which he just shaved off,” he confided, adding, “He looks awful. I’m going to try to get him to grow it back. He’s 20 minutes older than I am, but everybody thinks that I’m the older one.”

Chuck (bass) the bachelor of the group, quickly took over the phone before his twin could say anything more. He told me he’s been taking bodybuilding exercises. “I really don’t expect to look like Charles Atlas, but it would be nice.” Chuck taught art during those early years and still paints and sculpts a bit. “I’ve never been able to have a showing of my work because I never have time to get enough pieces together,” he said a bit sadly.

Their seventh album, The Grand Illusion was released on the seventh day of the seventh month of ’77 and it sure was a lucky one. Grand Illusion hit Platinum, selling more than one million albums. They’re trying the same gimmick again-their eighth album is called Pieces of Eight. Dennis must be the superstitious one; he was feeling good because he’d been staying in room 808 in Duluth.
Obviously their peculiar numerology is paying off. They’re the hottest ticket this year at the Ex.

from Laurie Muffler