There are all kinds of pretensions about art, but I'm just a guy who sings for his supper.
Look, nobody is a bigger fan of Tommy Shaw than me. The day I met him in 1975 I knew he was going to be a great guitar player, performer and songwriter. I was his biggest fan, and I'm Styx's number one fan.
Yeah, if anyone tries to tell you 60 is the new 40... don't believe them.
It's great when it all comes together in a great musical like 'Sweeney Todd,' when Stephen Sondheim writes songs from heaven, the book is good and the staging is good. But it's very rare when that happens.
I made 'Desert Moon' and when I made those solo albums, I was trying not to be Styx, because I thought, 'That belongs to us.' So, I made different kinds of solo albums that were not dipping my hand back into the magic Styx jar and pulling out all the tricks - because bands, they have tricks, don't they? That's what makes them different.
If there's a goal, you can't stop me. I'll put my head down. I'll have tunnel vision and I'll go until I get it.
To be successful in your life, you have to be convinced in your own mind that you have the ability to accomplish your goals.
After being replaced in Styx, everyone around me encouraged me to try and stop them legally. I just couldn't. It would have been like suing myself and I held out hope they'd ask me back. They toured under the STYX name for a year and a half before I initiated legal action. I didn't sue for money or use of the name. I simply wanted back in the band.
I am what I am. Whatever it was that made me what I am, I thought I should stay around and be that.
If you're in rock 'n' roll, you're not supposed to admit to liking theatre stuff, but I'm a big theatregoer.
Essentially I'm a melody person in a rhythm age, and that's what Broadway is really about, the songs.
Styx was always a theatrical band. In fact, we played City Center in 1983 with a rock opera, 'Kilroy Was Here.'
I think the music business is as crass and as unrewarding as it has ever been.
All I ever thought about was music and being a musician.
Over the years, I thought many times about how my life would have changed if I had been drafted and Styx never had happened. Even if I hadn't been wounded or emotionally scarred, it would have changed my whole timetable.
My brother-in-law, Chuck, whom I have known since we were teenagers, is a disabled veteran who was wounded while fighting with the marines in Vietnam. I've been around to observe how the war affected his life and the problems that veterans have, and I knew for a long time that I wanted to write a song about Vietnam.
If you say 'Domo arigato' to people, they're apt to go, 'Mr. Roboto.'
I lived at the greatest time in the history of mankind to be a musician.
I feel like the luckiest guy on the planet.
I never wanted to be a solo artist.
