Styx

• Genre: AOR
• Hometown: Chicago
• Styx Website

About

Who exactly was Mr. Roboto, and did he understand Japanese? Why was the Renegade sentenced to hang? How come Paradise Theatre went out of business? Was Tommy Shaw a boy or a girl? Were there really enough admitted fans for a reunion? And who in the name of Desert Moon was Kilroy, anyway? These are all unanswered mysteries, and to a large extent Styx remain a mystery as well. They were one of the biggest stadium-packing progressive rock/arena rock bands of the '70s, with a maniacal cult following, concept albums, and even a concept video/short film for their synth-laden Kilroy Was Here. Their epic songs and Rock Opera sensationalism, as well as the elastic falsetto singing of Dennis DeYoung and androgynous charisma of Tommy Shaw, gave Styx an odd hit-or-miss chemistry that overwhelming amounts of music listeners either didn't understand, or to which they completely identified.

- Charles Hodgkins