Having co-founded Styx in 1972, keyboard player and singer Dennis DeYoung wrote many of their finest songs, including Come Sail Away and The Grand Illusion, as well as the US chart-topping ballad Babe. Styx broke up following 1983’s poorly received concept record Kilroy Was Here, and although he was part of a reunion in 1990, DeYoung was controversially replaced by the band nine years later when a medical condition prevented him from touring. In 2019 he released 26 East, Vol. 1, the first of two farewell albums, and told Prog about his life and times.
How did you fall in love with music of an adventurous nature?
The vast majority of prog influences in Styx, when we had that going on, came from me. It had begun with Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes, but earlier than that there was The Moody Blues and some of the things The Beatles did. I was playing my Hammond organ, trying to be Jon Lord or whoever. That style of music gave a keyboard player a chance to show off like they were a guitar player – and of course I wanted some of that.
Do you consider your music to be progressive?
We brought some of that into Styx, but we were an American rock’n’roll band. I want you to write this: ‘The next prog rock lyric I understand will be the first.’ And also write: ‘He laughed’ afterwards! But we were never a fully-fledged prog band. I’d say we were a hybrid.
In the 1970s when Styx were labelled as pomp rock, did that bridle with you?
It all depends on the context. Rock critics have an impossible job: how do you describe music? It’s organic and touches our souls, so summing that up in words is pretty much impossible.
Styx – Come Sail Away – YouTube 
Save for Vol. 2, which will follow, why is 26 East your final album?
Have you noticed that rock music is dead? Or that there’s no radio anymore? Not to say that people aren’t still trying to play it, but it’s gone. The internet has ruined it, or maybe rock’n’roll played its part – I don’t have those answers. Anyhow, I had to be talked into making a new record by Jim Peterik [formerly of Survivor] and Frontiers Records. They wore me down.
When somebody needed to yell at the children I hired a large Ukrainian woman. A voice is finite
Peterik played a massive part in that decision.
Yeah. Jim sent me a song called Run For The Roses that made me think, ‘Okay, you got my attention.’ And slowly it came together.
Even at 73 years old your voice still stands up magnificently.
Because I knew early on that I had got lucky I did everything possible to avoid screwing up my gift. I wasn’t a drug taker, an alcoholic or a smoker, and when somebody was needed to yell at the children I hired a large Ukrainian woman. A voice is finite – singers must respect that.
“To The Good Old Days” Official Music Video Ft. Dennis DeYoung (Formerly of Styx) & Julian Lennon – YouTube 
The album offers some definite reminders of Styx, notably its Paradise Theater-style finale of AD 2020.
I’m most noted for being in Styx – shouldn’t I give people what they want? If you listen to East Of Midnight [a throwback to the band’s classic era] and don’t know what this is, then I can’t help you. I had that ending [AD 2020] in mind right from the beginning. I wanted to say goodbye in those last notes that you hear.
I really don’t care whether or not people remember me. The music is so much bigger
To The Good Old Days is a song you wrote as a duet with John Lennon’s son, Julian.
It’s important for me to say that The Beatles changed my life. I had never met Jules, and I never expected a response to my email, but he wrote back and said he’d love to do the song. He sang the shit out of it and I harmonised. And cooler still, Jules told me that he wasn’t doing music when I contacted him, and now he’s back in the studio.
In the album’s biography you say that To The Good Old Days is about “the sweetest days of my past with my fans, friends, family and forgiveness” – does that last part extend to the current Styx line-up?
I don’t believe that I have to forgive them; I’ve never said that. They replaced me when I was sick and then had to convince the fanbase that they hadn’t fired a sick colleague. They even said I had ruined the band, though why is still beyond me.
Nevertheless, I still believe that we should do one last tour for the fans. They’ve said a thousand times that they’re not interested, so what can I do? That reference to forgiveness was a more general one. All human beings are flawed.
Should these two albums turn out to be your grand finale, how would you like to be remembered as an artist?
Look, it’s very simple: I really don’t care whether or not people remember me. The music is so much bigger. If in 50 years’ time people are still getting what they need from what I have created then I’ll be very happy with that.