Tommy Shaw, James “JY” Young and Lawrence Gowan of STYX sit down with Dan Rather for a revealing conversation as they open up about the driving force that compels them to continue touring and performing in an all-new episode of “The Big Interview”, airing Tuesday, April 17 at 9 p.m. EST / 6 p.m. PST on AXS TV.
In addition, Shaw and Young explain to Rather their rocky relationship with former STYX frontman Dennis DeYoung. Though many of the band’s biggest hits were written during DeYoung’s tenure, creative differences ultimately led the band to shake up the roster, causing DeYoung’s official exit in 1999. On the possibility of DeYoung rejoining the band in the future, both Shaw and Young are a firm negative, with Shaw likening their relationship with DeYoung to a divorce. He says: “You get married when you’re young and everything’s rosy. Then, as you start to get a little older, you realize you didn’t have that much in common and then you go through a tough divorce… We still have songs that we co-wrote together, and those are our children, and we’ve managed to find a way to keep those things in play.”
Shaw is content to let the past remain in the past, choosing instead to surround himself with positivity as he enters the next part of his career. He continues: “Personality-wise, at this stage in my life, I want to be happy. I want to be around people who love me and that have my best interest at heart, and I don’t have to fight with. There’s just not enough years left that I would want to risk not having that again.”
