Year 2003

December 18, 2003

Dear Friends,

Thank you for the wonderful response to this year's Christmas card.  Kind words are a good medicine, any time of year.  Rock on and have a happy and safe holiday season!

Love,

Tommy

July 19, 2003

Hello Friends,

I'm here in Chicago on a day off before we play Loopfest 2003 here at amphitheater I still refer to as "The World" because that's what it was called for so many years (actually "The World Music Stage" but everyone has always shortened it to "The World"). Our friend Greg Solk, who runs The Loop, a STYX-friendly rock radio station here in Chicago took on the massive job of putting on yet another extravaganza for his listeners.  It will make the promoters a ton of dough, the fans will have a weekend of music that they won't soon forget and Greg Solk deserves the credit for making it happen.  There are always people behind the scenes that most people won't ever hear about, but who love music so much that they will use all their energy and resources to do things like create these huge events, or build beautiful theaters, amphitheaters or stadiums so that we all have the best places to be entertained.  Greg is one of those people.  For many years he has championed Rock Music at The Loop in Chicago, taking on all comers and he's still standing tall today.  Cheers Greg!

We are down to 11 shows to go on this summer's Main Event Tour with Journey and REO.  It's been a slam dunk success, topping so many other tours that we have long since stopped pinching ourselves and accepted the fact that it was what our fans wanted to do with their time and hard earned money this summer.  It's been the most adrenalized touring experience I can recall in all my years.  I've had this discussion with Kevin Cronin, Neal Schon, the guys in STYX and various crew members and they all agree it's been one that wrings every last drop out of you at the end of every day.  The consensus is that because we committed to specific set times and unprecedented short set changes between the three bands, we created this pressure cooker of excellence that can only be performed one way, and that's giving it everything you've got, on every song every night.  It's action-packed and there's no fat, not a song out of place, no messing around, else it puts the whole show behind.  If STYX or REO runs over their allotted time, it all ends up on Journey's back, and puts their start and finish time too late into the evening.  With everyone being the consummate professionals they are, it gets done every night to near perfection.  It's so impressive I think even we are all a bit surprised.  When our crew first said they'd change over in 20 minutes or less I bet everyone had the same reaction we did which was, "Yeah, right!" Well, sports fans, after months or reengineering the stage gear and creating common set pieces that could morph into specific sets for each band, and finding ways to economize what HAD to be on stage and culling out the rest piece by piece, they pulled it off with military precision.  They do it perfectly every night.  It's unbelievable.  But it leaves everyone spent at the end of the day, and I think to a man and woman on this tour, sleep has become a rare commodity.  It just takes so long to unwind from the intensity that everyone gets to sleep late and then wakes up later, losing personal time in the morning.  Hey, don't feel sorry for us, we just needed to figure it out and to get the reassurance from each other that it wasn't just our imagination.  We wouldn't have it any other way!

So, as we near the end of this tour, I'd like to thank everyone who showed up to be a part of it.  This tour has elevated us all, creating awareness of each band among fans and proved to the world just how powerful the music of our era is, and how we will likely ride this wonderful wave of memories, creating new ones and updating them all, until the end of our days.  Critics don't have to accept it, merely adjust to it.  We have!

See you out there...

TS
 

June 1st, 2003

Hello Friends,

We were watching The Beatles Anthology DVDs on our bus this past week on overnight drives between cities.  George Martin played back a tape of an early version of "A Day In The Life" as John Lennon taught the song to his band mates.  It had a real sweetness to it, a sense of early discovery that happens only once or twice when you are making records.  So much repetition that happens in the process that no matter who you are, while you perfect your performance, invariably you lose the innocence you had in the first take.  Martin pointed out that when John sang that version, he had no way of knowing that thirty something years later it would be listened to on a digitally recorded video compilation.

In my own way, to see that the tapes I made with my old band Harvest in 1975 are available on line blows me away.  Kim found enough tracks out there to make a full CD.  It was something we did ourselves in the afternoon at the bowling alley lounge where we performed 5 or 6 nights a week.  We did it on my little Tascam reel-to-reel tape recorder, with no recording console, low end microphones and no proper engineer or producer.  Just us.  Believe me, we had NO idea it would be out there for people anywhere in the world who had a computer to simply download and own a copy of 28 years later.  It was never something you had the option of buying at the record store, so I don'thave any problem with downloading it for free, because that's the only way it's available.  Until now it was something I only had a cassette copy of in a box somewhere in storage, God knows where.

The STYX/Journey/REO tour is really on a roll now.  With tonight being show number 13, everyone is in a fine tuned routine and the crew seems to be getting more rest.  They created a lean, mean touring machine out of a situation that looked almost impossible in the beginning.  They have this saying that I love--"The impossible just takes a little longer..."  I love their attitude.

If we're anywhere near where you live, don't miss the chance to see all three bands.  You'll be glad you did.

See you soon...

TS

May 7, 2003

Hello Friends,

I just arrived here in Las Vegas for Day One of preproduction and rehearsal for our upcoming tour with REO and Journey.  We all went home from Mississippi for a day to repack and now we're in Las Vegas and in it for the long haul.

On our way to Gulfport, Mississippi from Detroit, Michigan last Thursday we met Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Roosa from the Marine Corps Reserve unit that bases out of Camp Shelby.  He was a fan and after chatting for a while he extended an invitation for us to join him and his unit the next day for an afternoon of CQB training.  This would include firing weapons at close range targets.  It was an invitation much too tempting to refuse.

The following morning Lawrence, Todd, Jason and I were picked up by Commander Roosa and Sgt. Cooley.  We drove for over an hour to a remote area deep in the heart of the base, through winding dirt roads, following military maps until we came upon the rest of the unit.  Before long we were being introduced to the most awesome weapons we'd ever seen.  Probably the most impressive was the brand new 50 caliber sniper rifle, accurate at over 2000 meters.  It weighed 35 pounds [15 kilos] unloaded.  The Marine sniper who demonstrated it said it could take out a thin skinned vehicle with no problem.  As he put it, "100 per cent pure diplomacy..."

We fired the new M-4 carbine at the assigned targets in semi-auto and full-auto until we had spent all the ammo we'd been allotted, then took a group photo with all the Marines.  [Ed. Note:  you can see the pictures on Styxworld]

We completed the experience by enjoying a tasty MRE with our friends.

The experience gave us all an even greater appreciation for the skills and dedication of our Armed Forces.  We are still buzzing from the adrenaline.

To Lieutenant Colonel Roosa and Company, thank you!

TS

April 26, 2003

To all our friends in Canada,

We are sad and disappointed to have postponed our visit for a second time. If you think you are frustrated, let me assure you that you will have to wrestle us to the mat to take the award for who is more impatient to make this happen.

We love our connection to you, the history we have and the support you've shown us over the years. I can speak for the rest of the band when I tell you we cannot wait to stand before you on stage to enjoy another night with you. You are such a big part of our story, of our success, and we value that support more than words can say.

We look forward to seeing you again as soon as possible.

Love,

Tommy Shaw
 

February 1st, 2003

Hello Friends,

We're officially back out touring and getting off to a tremendous start.  The show is completely overhauled with new staging and the addition of new songs from CYCLORAMA.

John Waite and Kansas are with us and it's one music-rich evening.

When we met with the president of Sanctuary over a year ago, discussing making a new STYX CD, one of the things we talked about was the ever decreasing willingness for radio to play new music from bands like us who have been dubbed "Classic."  It is a dubious adjective, which has become synonymous with "NO RADIO."  Knowing this, Merc gave us this advice, "Assume there will be no radio support. Make this record for yourselves, for your fans..."  When we heard this from the president of our label, JY and I looked at each other and smiled.  It was as if someone had taken a huge weight off our shoulders.  Suddenly it was 100% about the music, about our fans.  It affected the direction of our works from then on.

The first song we worked on was "One With Everything," which is about as uncommercial as anything we've ever written.  It was liberating to be out of the business of chasing radio's ever elusive tail.  It became more about "What do we love about STYX music?"  "Do Things My Way" and "These Are The Times" sprang up and before we knew it we were developing a picture for what the album would be.

We played our shows and worked in the studio, mixing it up and keeping up our playing skills, giving ourselves time to step back from the music and view it from a distance before going back to the studio.  This gave us an opportunity to see what pieces were needed to make it a well rounded STYX album.

The irony is, once we got to the mixing phase and began putting the songs in order, we played a couple of songs for friends at radio like Joe Benson, Jim Ladd, when we were with them socially or for other promotional events.  They loved it.

What we may have discovered is that our friends at radio miss the days of discovering music as much as we do.  Instead of having this come to them as part of their programming list, they got to decide for themselves and for a moment in time it has been about the music, and not about corporate mandates.  Who knows what will happen, but the past couple of weeks, hearing people say they are hearing our new song on the radio and people walking up to us with charts and lists of stations (I still don't look) it has been like going back in time.  Absolutely bizarre.

Mostly we're very proud of CYCLORAMA.  After touring steadily since 1999 we stopped and focused the energy of the band members on writing and recording and it was the best experience we've had making a record since the creating "The Grand Illusion" in 1977.  We look forward to bringing the tour to your town, and perhaps the rest of the world before we're finished.

TS

January 4, 2003

Hello Friends,

As you see we are getting close to the release of CYCLORAMA, the first CD of new music since we reformed STYX in 1999.  If you like "Waiting For Our Time" then you will be a fan of this CD.

It has been the most enjoyable record-making experience we've had since Pieces Of Eight.  That record was one of three in a row that came from STYX after touring and building and feeling the groundswell of enthusiasm from our fans.  We were a unified force, pulling in the same direction and on a mission.  The same goes for CYCLORAMA.  After over 400 shows we've been busting at the seams to put that creative energy onto a record.

We decided to ask people we admired and whose work we had been enjoying ourselves.  We'd been fans of Billy Bob Thornton since "Sling Blade" came out a few years ago and most recently we had been dissecting "The Man Who Wasn't There" after passing the DVD between JY's bus and our bus and back.  When I went to Cleveland to take part in the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame's tribute to Hanks Williams last year and met Billy, he immediately let me know his long history as a STYX fan, and we're talking Wooden Nickel days (the first four records were on the small Chicago label).  One thing led to another and soon Billy had cut a short but unforgettable piece for our record called "Bourgeois Pig."  We were laughing the other night in his studio that since we met we have both appeared on 4 new records together--CYCLORAMA, his new record (not yet titled and due out this year), Warren Zevon's upcoming record (I played acoustic 12 -string and we both sang on "Heaven's Door"), and a bluegrass record that is just coming out by flat picker Brad Davis (the track "Tell Me Son").  Billy has approached his musical career with the same fearless, unyielding and uncompromising integrity that you see in his film career and he's in it for the long haul.

Todd's fiance' Taylor Mills has been in Brian Wilson's band for a couple of years now and because of that we have had the opportunity to get a little closer to the inside of his legendary magic.  On our bus last year, Glen and Todd put the magnifying glass to Pet Sounds and many other of Brian's phenomenal creations, down to listening to the studio tapes where you can hear Brian actually producing the records, giving cues on the talk back to the musicians out in the studio.  A while back Glen had played us a song he wrote that featured a shortened version of "Fooling Yourself" arranged more like a Beach Boys a cappella moment.  We nudged Todd to ask Brian if he'd sing the background parts for us and amazingly he said yes without hesitation.  The next thing we knew we were in his studio cutting the track.

In 1999 Todd turned us on to Tenacious D.  He and I went to see them at a venue on Sunset and we've been fans for a while.  Todd met them on a couple of occasions and when Jack Black came to see us at the House of Blues he gave Todd his number.  I called him and asked if he and Kyle would like to be on our new CD and after a few weeks of working out schedules (Jack's been in New York working on a new film but was able to come by on a short visit to LA for Christmas) he and Kyle came over and sprinkled some D dust on our project.

John Waite and Jude Cole stopped by one rainy night and we hung out, goofed around and the next thing you know we were all standing around the microphone singing soulful ad libs on the closing song on the CD which we call "Genki Desu Ka."

We were already satisfied with our songs and arrangements so to have our legendary friends make appearances, well, what can I tell you?  It made for the best times we've ever had making a record.

We enlisted the help of Storm Thorgerson to create our cover.  He was the one who created the Pieces of Eight cover in 1978.  Check him out sometime to see his historic contributions to the field of Album Art.  We haven't been this excited by a cover since his last STYX creation.

It's funny, you know by some standards we should not be here doing this.  We are not a young garage band living in one run down band house, driving around in a van from town to town.  Not technically.  But in our hearts and minds we still remember what that's like.  And we still have this crazy belief in our music.  We know that anything is possible and just like they say about the lottery--"You can't win if you don't play..."

It's not even about expectations--we've seen for ourselves that STYX fans are there for us.  We're not concerned about radio or the critics.  We're just the stewards for the name and the music--and the music keeps coming and we are driven by it.  So on we go, full steam ahead.

It's all about you and us.
 

TS