Oregon Music News

STYX 2011 from left to right James “JY” Young (seated) , Chuck Panozzo, Tommy Shaw (seated center), Ricky Phillips, Lawrence Gowan (seated), and Todd Sucherman. Photo by Ash Newll.

Ricky Phillips is known for his role as songwriter and bassist in bands such as Bad English, The Babys, and the Coverdale/Page project with singer David Coverdale and guitarist Jimmy Page. Phillips has performed and recorded with the likes of Joe Cocker, Roger Daltrey, Mick Jagger, Sammy Hagar, Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, Julian Lennon, Ted Nugent, Eddie Money, Steve Stevens, Glenn Hughes, Joe Lynn Turner, and Steve Lukather.

He joined Styx in 2003 and hasn’t looked back.

He’s found a home in Styx after having grown disillusioned with the music business. Oregon Music News caught up with Ricky Phillips as Styx hit the road for a summer jaunt with fellow progressive vets Yes. Phillips is ecstatic to have found a home in Styx and you can’t help but pull for him and the band.

You came on board with Styx prior to the recording of the album, Big Bang Theory, which was released in 2005. Prior to joining the band were you a fan as well?

Right, I got involved with Styx in 2003. I met the Styx guys in 1979. Jonathan Cain (Journey) and I joined a band called The Babys when they came over to the States from England. I was a fan of Styx; they have three singers, they had this progressive rock side to them, and they used three-part harmonies. They have a distinct sound.

Tommy Shaw (Styx guitarist) and I remained friends. Years passed and he formed a band called Damn Yankees and I was in a band called Bad English; we crossed paths several times on various tours and appearances. Later with Bad English fell apart I went on to do an album with David Coverdale (Whitesnake) and Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) called Coverdale/Page. After that album I had basically thrown in the towel as far as being a band guy. The flannel brigade moved in and eliminated all the spandex-wearing bands; it was hard to tell one band from another as far as I could tell. There needed to be a good cleansing and grunge was it. After that went down I leaned heavily on my song writing and producing and was doing that when I received a call from Todd Sucherman (Styx drummer), who I had done sessions with in the past. He said, “Tommy (Shaw) is going to call you in a little bit and he’s wanting to know if you want to be in the band (Styx).” Tommy called me up we talked for a while and he said, “I take Styx very serious; I protect it. I don’t want any more changes in the line-up–we’ve been meticulous about finding people who protect it too.” The next thing I know I’m doing shows with the band–it seems like I joined yesterday. I’m finishing up my 8th year but it feels like I’ve only been here a couple of years.

With the album, Big Band Theory, you did something very different for Styx. You recorded a series of covers and recorded a new version of “Blue Collar Man.”

It’s kind of crazy how that all came about. We were invited to do a 20-minute acoustic set to kick off Eric Clapton’s first Crossroads event in Dallas, Texas. We’re not a blues band obviously, but we wanted to do something that no one would expect from us. We did “I Am the Walrus;” we had been doing some of that during our sound checks just so our sound man could get a feel for the room. So we decide to do “I Am the Walrus” along with a bad as version of “The Thrill is Gone” with Tommy on vocals and of course some Styx tunes. We then added “Walrus” to the live set. It’s funny because that song was recorded live in Oregon and it ended up getting on 200 major stations inside a month. The album Big Bang Theory was recorded to give the song “I Am the Walrus” a place to live. We decide to use songs that influenced the band Styx and made us the band that we are. So that was the premise and the title is in reference to the beginning of our universe, so to speak.

Watch a live version of “Blue Collar Man:”

A few years ago Styx released an EP entitled Regeneration, Volume 1 with a handful of re-recorded Styx classics and a new track, “Difference In The World.” Aside from having the masters of these tracks for your own use, what was the intention behind re-recording the classics?

We have a mixed fan base. We have the fans that have been with us for years, fans that discovered the band 20, 15, and 10 years ago. We have a lot of young fans and we are the only members of Styx that they’ve known for the past 10 years. This band has been very careful and meticulous in keeping true to the Styx sound—we don’t want to change it. Some of my musician friends have coined the phrase “muscled up.” They’ve said to people, “Hey have you seen Styx lately? You should–they’ve muscled up!” I agree with that because as we keep playing together we get better, and we wanted to showcase that in the new recordings. It was also coupled with the fact that there were some masters that we were having trouble finding when we were approached to do ‘Guitar Hero’ and ‘Rock Band.’ We found some of the old tapes but we weren’t able to isolate tracks which was a problem for us.

Tommy wrote “Difference In The World,” which to me was a modern-day version of “You’re Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man).” When I heard that I just flipped out. I said, “We have to add that to the record.” We cut the song and added it as a bonus track to Regeneration, Volume 1.

We have great reverence for the original masters. Anything we do with re-cutting classic material we do very carefully as to not abuse it. One thing that I personally hate is when I go to see one of my favorite bands and I’m waiting for a line in the song and the singer decides to sing it a different way. I’m 15 when I’m hearing these songs! I want to hear them the way I recall them, I want to hear the signature lick from the guitarist the way it’s meant to be played. We are not presenting new arrangements or new interpretations of these songs—we’re very careful.

You have the second installment, Regeneration, Volume 2, on its way. What can you tell us about that?

Yeah, this one is interesting because as it turns out, one of my favorite tracks on Volume 2 is “High Enough,” which is a Damn Yankees tune and is the bonus track. It’s fun to continue to release these things and it’s a lot of fun to be able to do these bonus tracks.

Dennis DeYoung is out touring playing the classic Styx material this summer. Money is tight and people have little money to spend on entertainment. Why should they come see Styx with Lawrence Gowan? Granted, Styx isn’t a one singer band.

Good question. There’s a little bit of a misnomer there. James Young was a ballsy Ian Gillian-like type rock singer when I was introduced to the band, and Tommy Shaw’s voice is something that I was always drawn to. The first time I saw Lawrence was when I caught Styx at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. My first reaction was, “Where did they find this guy?!” I was truly blown away. He sat down on the piano and played a Beethoven piece before launching into the next song. It was incredible. It comes down to this: If you’re a fan of one guy in the band, go see him. We’re not trying to get in the way of any of that. Tommy and J.Y. have been keeping Styx true to what it always has been, and that is why they got a guy like Lawrence Gowan who can present the wonderful catalog of songs. I don’t want to talk anyone out of going out to see Dennis because he is a talented singer, songwriter, and performer in his own right. I wasn’t around for this, but they tried to do this and there was a difference in direction and it was just that simple. Styx still has Tommy Shaw, J.Y., Lawrence who is fantastic, and drummer Todd Sucherman is great. You’re not going to see any weak spots in this band.

Styx has been on great package tours in the past with Def Leppard, Foreigner, then REO Speedwagon and .38 Special. You’ll be out with Yes who has a great legacy too. How did this tour come together?

I’m a huge Yes fan. People think that the bands come up with these ideas for pairing bands up together but the truth is it’s management. So managers get to it first then they’ll ask for our approval. This was run past promoters by our management and there was a good response so for us this is an awesome package.

I get to hang out with Chris Squire (Yes bassist), who I go way back with. He’s a guy I look up to. When I was growing up I would put on my Yes albums and try to get the tone that he got on those albums. He has a very unique style and tone to his playing. Alan White I used various times when I was producing, he’s also known for playing on John Lennon’s Imagine album. He’s got great history and he’s an outstanding drummer. Yes was a mainstay in my collection growing up. I have a huge amount of respect for these guys and to get to tour and hang out with them this summer is incredible.

How much time can we expect from Styx on this tour, and will the set be mainly the hits?

Ricky Phillips. Photo by J. Powell.

We went on tour last fall and we did a 22-date theater-show run; it was primarily on the East Coast. We went out to re-create the vinyl experience by playing The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight albums. We had a huge LED wall that played along with the music. That was an interesting tour because it wasn’t your typical tour where you held on to your hits till the end. We played one album, took a short intermission, and back out and played the other album top to bottom. So for this tour we ended the night with some deeper cuts, and this took some thought on our part, because we didn’t want to let the fans down so we really needed to pick the right songs to end the night.

Getting back to the question, doing that tour helped us rediscover songs like “Queen of Spades” and “Castle Walls,” which have been making their way into the set. We open to keeping the set list fresh; we aren’t happy with regurgitating the hits night after night. We can’t allow ourselves to do that. It’s worked out well; the fans like the deeper cuts and of course there are songs that you have to play. The fans love it and it’s making the set much more exciting for us.

I would be out of my mind if I didn’t ask you about a couple of bands that you were a part. You were a part of Bad English with Neil Schon (Journey), Jonathan Cain (Journey, The Babys), John Waite (Journey, The Babys) and Deen Castronovo (Journey, Ozzy Osbourne). You had a hit with the Bad English album, but your sophomore album, Back Lash, was appropriately titled because it didn’t fair as well. What happened?

[Long pause] You know, it’s funny what happens…my grandmother had this saying: “The road to hell was paved with good intentions.” Back Lash came out before the flannel shirts had completely taken over but we could see the writing on the wall. I remember saying to myself, “This is going to force us to go in a direction that we don’t want to go.” I don’t know that any of us verbalized that sitting as a band in a room together. If you listen to the first Bad English album it’s hit after hit after hit. We had something like six top-30 hits off that record. The second album has somewhat of a commercial appeal but there are no hits; it’s dark and mirrored the tension within the band. We were in a tough position and we strayed from what had worked previously, and it wasn’t us.

You took part in the writing and recording of one of the most underrated rock albums of the past 20 years, Coverdale/Page. At the time of its release in 1993, the industry considered it a commercial failure, but it sold 500,000 copies. How did you get involved with that project?

Bad English had opened for Whitesnake and I got to know David Coverdale very well. Toward the end of Bad English I received a call from David asking if I wanted to be involved in a project with him and Jimmy Page. He didn’t know at that time if it was going to be a band or simply he and Jimmy, with a band around them. David invited me up to his place in Lake Tahoe to work on songs with David and Jimmy Page. I’d fly in and we’d work on songs and then fly back home. We really hit it off and continued this process for about 4-5 months. I wrote all the bass parts and the majority of the keyboard parts for the album. We started recording the album at Little Mountain Sound in Vancouver, B.C., but then the recording was moved to Florida. People were getting sick so it was moved. They selected Florida because Jimmy was buying a house there at the time. A year passed before the album was completed after that. During that time Jimmy had started to replace guitar tracks, which were different than the ones we recorded initially in Vancouver. Since things didn’t match up with my bass tracks and they couldn’t put me up in Florida for a year so they brought in Jorge Casas (Miami Sound Machine) to cut those tracks. If you read the credits it doesn’t read correctly—nevertheless it was a very cool experience and it was so much fun putting that together.

It was a great time that I can look back at now with fond memories. Denny Carmassi (Montrose, Heart) was the drummer on that album. He’s such a great guy, and working with David and Jimmy was wonderful. I hung out with Jimmy the most. Growing up I was a huge fan of The Yardbirds; we’d go out to clubs at night and I would drive him crazy with questions about The Yardbirds and of course, Led Zeppelin.

Coverdale/Page didn’t tour much as a result of the lack of sales of the album. You explained what happened during the recording of the album but why were you not part of the touring line-up? You were featured in the video clip for “Pride & Joy.”

Jimmy called me up one day and said, “He we are getting ready to make a video, are you available?” I went ahead and did the “Pride & Joy” video clip with them and I can’t for the life of me remember what I had going on at that time, but I wasn’t able to do the tour. At that time I was doing a lot of studio work and all I recall is that I wasn’t around. I can’t recall if I played on the final version that made the album. They headed out to Japan and played a couple of weeks worth of shows, I believe, and a few others and that was it. I remember Jimmy pulling me aside during the video shoot for “Pride & Joy” and he said, “Hey I just got together with Robert (Plant) and we’re going to work together again.” He was very excited. It was then that I knew it was over.

Styx and Yes will play at Maryhill Winery on Saturday, July 30th, 2011. Gates open at 5:30pm, show at 7:00pm. Tickets: Reserved $85 – $105, General Admission-Lawn $49.50. YES Meet & Greet Package $305.