It’s been two decades since Dennis DeYoung last spoke with his former bandmates Tommy Shaw and J.Y. Young of Styx, and he’s in the hopes for a reunion with his former colleagues.
“We should do one last tour for the fans,” DeYoung said during an interview with Rolling Stone. “Let’s go do 80 or 100 shows. Let’s put Moe, Larry, and Curly back on the stage.”
DeYoung was Styx’s original singer and a co-founder as a teenager alongside his neighbors Chuck and John Panozzo in the early ’70s. Soon after, Styx guitarist, Young was brought in with Shaw joining the group in 1975.
DeYoung wrote many of the band’s hits such as “Lady,” “Babe,” “Show Me the Way” and “Come Sail Away.” After some successful reunion tours, DeYoung decided to leave the group in 1999 while Young and Shaw continued performing as Styx. The reason for DeYoung’s leaving the band differs depending on who you ask.
Shaw and Young insist that the turmoil came from the band’s 1983 concept album Kilroy Was Here — it created serious tension within the group leading them to break up in 1984. DeYoung, on the other hand, told that his former bandmates use the 1983 concept album as a scapegoat when their true motive was more about control and authority.
“They said in 1999 that the reason they had to replace me was because of something that happened in 1983,” the singer explained. “And we’d just done two successful reunion tours in 1996 and 1997 and we were recording a new album! But if you tell a lie long enough and with enough enthusiasm, people are going to believe it.”
DeYoung adding that Shaw and Young “wanted to assume control.” But despite how he feels, he still wants the reunion to happen.
“Let’s get together and give the fans one more run at this thing, and then I’ll ride off into the sunset,” DeYoung declared while imagining a conversation with his old bandmates. “You’ll keep doing your Styx thing and using the name. I don’t care. I want it one more time for our fans.”
In spite of these comments, the odds of a reunion happening are quite low.
I want to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame because we deserve to be,” the singer stated. “I’m sickened by the fact that we’re not.”