Ricky Phillips of STYX
by Deb Rao
Staff Writer
One of the greatest hard rock bands that helped define the classic rock era Styx is currently performing on The Grand Illusion/Pieces Of Eight Tour performing both albums track by track in their entirety. Catchy melodies, power ballads, and a combination of progressive rock, and stellar musicianship are Styx’s strongest forte. Styx emerged out of the Chicago area inspiring many hits including, “Lady,” “Babe” and “Come Sail Away.”
In 2010, there seems to be a whole new generation of fans discovering the band for the first this. This prompted the re-recording of six of the bands greatest hits in a new album release available at the bands concerts entitled REGENERATION, VOLUME 1. The EP also contains one new song entitled “Difference In The World.”
Hardrock Haven had the privilege of speaking with Styx bassist Ricky Phillips after the opening night of The Grand Illusion/Pieces Of Eight Tour. In this exclusive interview Ricky gives the readers a detailed look into the making of one of the most anticipated tours of the season.
HRH: Ricky, Thank you for checking in with Hardrock Haven. Styx recently kicked off The Grand Illusion/Pieces Of Eight Tour. How did opening night go? What were some of the highlights?
Ricky: The highlights were remembering the songs. (Laughter) We are actually doing a lot of material in the set that we haven’t played in ages, and some stuff that Styx that has never performed. We have got such a comfortable place in our set where we are running around jumping off the drum riser, summersaults all kind of crazy stuff onstage. Now all of a sudden we got to stop and think there are moments when I got lead boots and I am just standing there going oh my God what is next? But it gives it a great energy. I have to say last night’s show had such an undercurrent of intensity that we talked about afterwards that we got offstage. There is a very cool vibe. There is a different type of audience coming to this. More of the audio file type of audience and we like that. It is fun to see and fun to feel. It is not so immediate of people just jumping up and down and rocking out for no apparent reason. It is people who are checking it out and us out in the process. It was a great show and good fun.
HRH: Do you find there is a whole new generation of Styx fans out there? Does it feel like you are performing the hits all over again for the first time with the new audience attending the concerts?
Ricky: Some of them yes. Some of the immediate gratification songs, I would say like ”Come Sail Away” and “Fooling Yourself”, you say oh yeah. Some of the stuff is a slow burn and it pulls you in. You are right, there is sort of the Styx army building over the years who have discovered the band . Some of them through their parents or grandparents and also some of them just in a search of music and what became before. It is kind of the same way I discovered Howling Wolf and Albert King and a lot of the people through the British musicians that was re-introduced back to the Americans back in the 60s. So whatever way they get there as long as they get there. It is fun to look at and see young faces in the crowd.
HRH:What inspired the band to play these albums back to back in their entirety?
Ricky: A lot of the credit goes to Charlie Brusco our manager. We have been doing a lot of shows. We are on the road 280 days a year. He figured we needed something to spice it up for us. Even though we have a 2 hour set or 70 minute set, we change up what material goes with that format. He could see us getting to a point where we needed to do something a little bit different. We do get a lot of fan mail people requesting this song or that song . The sweet spot seems to be The Grand Illusion or Pieces Of Eight albums. He said why don’t we do this. This is a new concept this is a theater tour. Why don’t we do Grand Illusion take an intermission come back and do Pieces Of Eight that simply. Nobody said anything, we just kind of looked around the table and thought that is a great concert cool idea. Other bands have done it. I remember Cheap Trick doing three nights at the House Of Blues in LA each night with a different album. So it was a very cool thing. What we are trying to do is recreate the album experience and bring the album experience where you bring the album experience where you play a A side and a B side in such a way that it is sequenced. We are playing it exactly in order of the album. The live show is normally put together very differently. You start with an opening big number and you build your set back up to a frenzy till the end of the encores. When you released the album, you stack heavy on the front side because you want people to hear songs that you feel are your best songs and so they will buy the album. So we will come out on “Grand Illusion” and open with “Grand Illusion” and then go straight into “Fooling Yourself”, and “Come Sail Away.” Big songs on the front side and then it gets a bit introspective and works towards that last song on the A side where you walk over and flip the vinyl over and you start the new experience of the side B. It is tricky. It is a whole different way of listening. It is a whole different experience. It is a different way of going through each catalog from both records. For us it is as different as was it was the audience.
HRH: Tell us about the stage show? It is elaborate or are you just concentrating on the music?
Ricky; I don’t really want to give away the stage show. There are a couple of things that we are doing I can’t see because I concentrating on what is coming up next. There is a lot of vocals and things coming up next. It is not just bombastic music hitting the audience over the head. There are those moments where it chills way down and because a little more of a moodiness that comes to the show. There are different plateaus and different levels. I think for the theater it has been a sit down audience for one night I think it has proven so far to be very interesting. It is kind of just like going to the theater. It stresses the theater format.
HRH: In 1977 the breakthrough album The Grand Illusion hit the airwaves. Then the following year you had Pieces Of Eight and all of the hits including “Renegade.” How would you say those albums differ musically in style?
Ricky: I think that Grand Illusion is an album that is very well put together. Opening with Grand Illusion and kind of building up this different time signatures and complexity rhythms that develop in a song. Although it may appear to be a very melodic song there is a long going on. Each song seems to graduate to the next up until the last song which is the grand finale. It is very well put together. There is a lot of thought put into the creation of Grand Illusion. Then as you see as you see as you go into Pieces Of Eight a little more looser format a little bit more the performance of the musician. The songs get a little bit more looser in the sense the musicianship that is displayed takes it to another level. I always think about when I saw The Beatles perform “She Loves You” to Sgt. Pepper. Where is gets a little bit crazier even though there is great production and great techniques used it starts to get “Wow” these guys are serious. It is kind of that progressive.
HRH: Styx has a brand new album Regeneration, Volume One. Six songs that are re-corded and one brand new song entitled,” Difference In The World.” Tell us what you were striving for in the studio when you were recording the six hits that are going to be displayed on the new album?
Ricky: I think what we were striving for is not to change the songs. That wasn’t the reason for going in and doing Regeneration. It kind of came out of Guitar Hero and Rockband wanting tracks from us for our games. You go back and try and find the original recordings and you wonder does the record label have them? Are they in storage? When you find them are they in good enough shape to be played. Some of these things have to be baked. There is a process where they seriously have to be heated up before they can get a playoff. They try to digitally try and record what is left and the tape disintegrates basically. So there was an actual reason for us re-doing them. And then we thought we do get fan mail from some of the younger fans who say wow we come and see this power packed band and we go buy the records and we don’t sound the same like the same band. Well some of the people are not the same. But we do respect highly the original recordings. They were meticulously put together with great due respect, we are not trying to come up with new licks or new arrangements nothing like that. It is basically, the band as musicians they mature They get better, and recording techniques get better. So we are just trying to get good representations of the band today playing those tracks. “Difference In The World” which is a new track that Tommy Shaw wrote, I am a huge fan of that song. When Tommy first wrote it, he played it for me and I flipped. I said dude that has got to be a Styx song. I didn’t want him sending it off to another artist or having them have a hit with it or be in a movie if it wasn’t us playing it. Everyone else seemed to agree. The next thing I knew it was going to be a bonus track or a piece of new information on Regeneration.
HRH: Well the release is perfect timing for the new fans and it also showcases the evolution of the band too. Do you agree?
Ricky: Yes, exactly and that was specially the point.
HRH: How would you say Styx has evolved since the heyday?
Ricky: I was first onstage with Styx in 1979 and they were a strong unit then. I was in a band called The Baby’s and they were always a strong unit. It is basically things just changed. For something to thrive and stay alive and to get better and to grow there has got to be change within. Some of those elements have changed and some of those happen to be members. Unfortunately Johnny, the drummer for Styx passed away John Panozzo. Todd Sucherman came in. He was also a Chicago drummer. He was also voted World’s best rock drummer in Modern Drummer in the readers poll last year. All of the people who have come in Lawrence Gowan who came in on keyboards who is a huge star in Canada was basically one of those magical finds in a magical fit to come and fill the keyboard spot and also be able to sing the way he does and perform the way he does. He has got his own bevy of fans. He is a dynamic performer and singer. Each of them who have come in, I don’t want to take away anyone who has come before in the band because there is great respect for anyone who has been in Styx. The way it is formed, the way it has grown and the way it is now is an a place where it is probably at it’s highest intensity. We are tough on each other. We are a band of brothers but we care enough about the music to always discuss it at the end of the night. If something isn’t right or a tempo isn’t right we jump on it then and there. With that in mind and with that intent the band has been able to grow and flower.
HRH: It is amazing. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard “Babe” on the radio this week. What would say the secret of the longevity of Styx is?
Ricky: I think any good song. I think if you are 17, 18 or 19 and a song comes out on the radio and reflects a relationship you are in or reflects your life and the melody repeats itself where you can hang on to it and it grows and grows and grows. There are certain songs that just land at the right time. I was a huge Led Zeppelin fans and remember buying Physical Graffiti and played it once. I said what the hell happened to my band? It is terrible. Well it ended up becoming my favorite album of all time. There was so much meat to it. It took a second, third or fourth listen. There is so many ways of things growing and becoming as big as they may become. I think that every generation has its music and sound. There are very subtle differences. Sure you might be able to take a song and play a song from the 60’s with an 80’s type production and boom it becomes a hit if it is good song within. But there is a lot of color that goes in to creating records. That is one of the things that is kind of cool about this experience that we are doing right now with Grand Illusion/Pieces Of Eight Tour. We are re-visiting those things and maybe just us playing them updates the songs just a bit. We are not trying to it is not intentional. It is just the development and growth within a band.
HRH: How long will this tour run? Will it go into next year? Will you add another leg to it? Do you think?
Ricky: I think it is too soon to tell to be honest. It could happen. We were going to do eight shows and now it grew to 22 and we said stop. We need some time off. We need some time off. We have already been out and did three tours this year. Now we are adding this fourth one. We need a break. Everybody needs to go back to their families and chill a bit. I do believe if this 22 run of the theaters catches on and people seem to like it, we will do it again at some point.
HRH: You are such an established bass player. You have also performed with The Baby’s, Bad English, Coverdale/Page. What were some of the highlights from those days?
Ricky: Well, I think The Baby’s days were a pure time in music. There has always been trends but it wasn’t so cookie cutter of the bands from the ’60s and ’70s didn’t sound like the next. The ’80s began to get homogenized. The Babys was a band that we were all trying to be Humble Pie and The Rolling Stones. We were all little brothers of what became before and we spit it out in our style. We loved fashion and we loved good tumble rock and roll songs. We loved Led Zeppelin. When Bad English came along we were at a time when bands had the same haircuts and clothing designers. All songs sort of sounding similar. Productions styles were similar. But in Bad English we were all accomplished musicians. That is kind of how we came together. A couple guys from Journey, a couple guys from The Baby’s. we were trying to be more of a musical band. Then to get radio airplay in those days, you kind of had to be the flavor of the month. The record tried to pressure you to do tracks. What we would do we would record all the songs the record company would throw at us. We tried to beat them by writing songs. They would all fall to the wayside. generally, it would come down to the bands material. But that was something a real battle that every band had to follow in those days to get airplay and to keep a record deal. Then when the Coverdale/Page thing came along that came out of Bad English touring with Whitesnake. We were the same management as well. David said I hear from management that you guys are splitting up and I am going to be doing this project with Jimmy Page. It might be a super group it might be just the two of us we don’t know? Would you be interested in working with us? So that is how my involvement in that project started. At the end of the four or five month period all of a sudden I had a plane ticket and I was flying to a little mountain in Vancouver, Canada where we ended up cutting the record. That just a great time for me because I was a huge Led Zeppelin fan and became a huge fan of David Coverdale. I had been a fan of his since he was in Deep Purple. I had never seen the process of what it was like to work with a guy like Jimmy Page in the studio in production and writing and creating arrangements. I played all of the keyboards on our demos. Most of my keyboard parts ended up getting copied and performed by more proficient keyboard players for the record. I was deeply invested in that project from the very beginning. I learned a lot of stuff from both David and Jimmy. We had a blast.
HRH: Is there anything else that you want to say about the Styx Grand Illusion/Pieces Of Eight Tour? I know you are hitting the area up in Lowell, Mass at the Tsongas Arena on November 3rd.
Ricky: Yes, we are just looking forward to everybody coming out and checking out this experience. If you want something that you may not expect. A little something different, a introspective but still exciting and fun and a lot of hits. C’mon out because it is maybe a one time thing. We don’t know at this point. But if anything to gauge it on such as the first show, it has proven to be a little bit bigger than we expected. We are having a blast doing it.