Every guy in Styx is plugged into that experience. RF: You can tell when bands don’t want to be out there but with Styx, that never seems to be the case. So there are nights when we don’t feel like we’re up to it and then suddenly something happens and we wonder, “what could be better than this?” When I saw Roger Waters last year, I was 20 rows back and was feeling that same euphoria. I feel the same way when I’m in the audience. It is truly addictive if you are open to that experience. Then within 20 minutes of being on stage, seeing the people with the smiles on their faces, I’m wondering what the hell was going through my mind earlier. So I’m getting an MRI, thinking I’m going to need surgery and wishing I didn’t have to do the upcoming shows. I blew my knee out last September on stage. Being 20 years into it, I will say there are challenges. That was an easy commitment for me to make because I’d just come off playing 140 shows across Canada and the United Kingdom. The other thing is when I joined the band, and I’m in my 20 th year now, James (Young) and Tommy (Shaw) said they wanted to play at least 100 shows a year. I sleep better on the bus than I do at home (laughs). But once we get on the tour bus, the whole world becomes our own and nothing interferes with us. Some days are fine, some days are really smooth, but some days you’re missing connecting flights and there’s all kinds of pressure and mayhem that’s introduced into the equation. The new reality makes it more of a challenge than it used to be. LG: The hardest part, quite honestly, and actually the only bad part, is the air travel. How has this current run of dates been going and are you still enjoying playing so often or would you rather slow down and not play as many shows? RF: Styx has been touring regularly for several years.
You have to be there and you have to experience it with other people. That experience just doesn’t exist in the virtual world.
That’s the magic of a great rock show you can’t get that on YouTube. LG: I love the audience reaction when “Radio Silence” ends and we’re about to play “ Miss America.” There are all these people who are obviously big supporters of The Mission and they’re standing on their chairs with their arms in the air and then you see the rest of them going “I don’t know this one…what album is it from?” They’re discovering it through the exuberance of somebody next to them. RF: “ Gone Gone Gone” and “ Radio Silence” from The Mission particularly work well in the set. We’re so pleased at how The Mission came together.
The new songs that we’ve been playing live seamlessly go into the show and that’s not an easy thing to pull off when you’re doing a show that’s based so heavily on songs that have a long history. For me, it’s a statement of this lineup of Styx. I’m so happy that it actually happened, that we pushed forward, and did the record the way it was done. It’s the kind of experience that I really wanted when I first joined the band 20 years ago. One year later, I’d say it’s the most galvanizing thing that we could’ve done. We really wanted it to be able to stand beside the classic Styx albums of the past. But with this record, we were really able to look each other in the eye and feel like this was our best work.
Whenever you make an album, especially one that you love, you really begin to second guess all the tiny details just before it comes out, thinking this or that could be the thing that makes the difference of it being a success or a failure. Now that you’ve had some time to fully process it, what are your thoughts on the finished product? Royal Flush: The Mission has been out for just over a year now. The frontman opened up about topics such as the group’s current tour, their latest album The Mission, and the landmarks he likes to visit when Styx performs in New York. Royal Flush recently picked the brain of Styx lead singer and keyboardist Lawrence Gowan following the band’s gig at NY’s Jones Beach.
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