Styx kicks off a U.S. tour this month, coinciding with the release of the band’s 17th studio album, Crash of the Crown.
The outing, which begins with a June 16 headlining show in St. Augustine, Florida, marks Styx’s first tour since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and frontman Tommy Shaw tells ABC Audio that he’s excited to get back on stage.
“There’s just something about being in front of our fans that just really lights every one of us up, and we haven’t had that,” Shaw notes. “[T]here’s just nothing like being all in that room together, lights go down, the stage lights go on, a song starts and, boom!, you’ve lit the fuse and you run it all the way to the end.”
Tommy says the band’s set will feature a few songs from the new album, which arrives on June 18.
“[W]e’ve got three that we think will be easy for people to comprehend and accept,” Shaw shares, without revealing the songs’ names.
Also on June 18, Styx will begin a run of eight joint concerts with veteran alternative rockers Collective Soul.
“I’ve been a huge Collective Soul fan ever since [the group’s 1994 hit] ‘Shine,"” Tommy says. In addition, Shaw tapped Collective Soul frontman Ed Roland to contribute vocals to his late-’90s solo song “Ocean,” while Tommy lent his vocal and musical talents to the band’s 2019 tune “Porch Swing.”
About Roland, Shaw gushes, “Ed is…almost like a preacher, but not like a religious preacher…like a soul man. He writes from his soul and it comes off. And…as a frontman, he’s unlike anyone I’ve ever seen.”
Tommy adds that the joint shows will be “a fun night of music.”
Check out Styx’s full tour schedule at StyxWorld.com.
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
