It’s a continuing conundrum for Classic Rock bands whose commercial peaks were hit decades ago: To put out new music or not?
For some acts, it’s a no-brainer. They want to in order stay creative and add something new to the live setlist. Others figure, what’s the point? Only hardcore fans will find it, it won’t get radio play, and record sales are a fragment of what they were.
The current incarnation of Styx falls squarely in the former category, having issued three solid records in the past decade: The Mission, Crash of the Crown, and last year’s Circling From Above. That last one is something of a concept work that addresses technology run amok, media saturation, and demagoguery. Themes familiar to Styx fans who have spent hours listening to The Grand Illusion or Kilroy Was Here.
Except in 2026, the negative effects of those topics aren’t just nascent ideas or future possibilities. They’re here.
“Each album takes on its own trajectory. You start out with a certain intention, but the songs will dictate what happens and unfolds,” says Lawrence Gowan, lead vocalist/keyboardist since 1999 when he replaced Dennis DeYoung.
As Gowan told the Houston Press in 2024, he’s the guy who usually pushes the band to explore the more Prog Rock sound found on their earliest records. And of the recent three, Circling from Above leans hardest toward that territory in songs like “Build and Destroy,” “It’s Clear,” and “Forgive.” While “Everybody Raise a Glass” makes for a lively pub singalong, “Blue-Eyed Raven” is a gypsy folk romp, and “We Lost the Wheel Again” a nod to the sound of the Who.
“The songs are adventurous, and to me that’s what Prog really is. It doesn’t hone to any specific category but follows its own path. This is the kind of ride I like to go on. So, I’m satisfied!” Gowan laughs. Though adding that the band has always dipped into heavy rock, ballads, and pop. You don’t need a math or music degree to interpret the Prog of Styx.
“Tommy [Shaw] had a song called ‘Only You Can Decide.’ And I thought if that closes the album, it would be a great album. So other songs began to emerge from that,” Gowan says.
The first word heard on the album is “wasteland” and the last “fate,” which also addressed another of the album’s themes of just the amount of stuff that mankind has made that’s on earth and in space, like abandoned satellites.
The current lineup of Styx is the largest ever in the 54-year history of the group: original members James “JY” Young (guitar) and Chuck Panozzo (bass), classic member Tommy Shaw (vocals/guitar), longtime members Gowan and Todd Sucherman (drums), and new boys Terry Gowan (bass, also Lawrence’s brother), and Will Evankovich (guitar/others).
Panozzo’s health means he’s onstage for only a couple of songs each night, and Evankovich has gone from behind-the-scenes songwriter/studio player/producer to full member status.
“Still having James, Tommy, and Chuck connects us to the roots of the band. Everyone onstage has earned their place,” Gowan says. “And Will has shown incredible abilities.”
Lawrence Gowan also has a parallel career as a solo artist in his native Canada where he’s popular and released six albums as Gowan between 1982-1995. He still tours occasionally in that capacity (with brother Terry in the group) and even noticed some fans at a recent Styx show in Indianapolis sporting Gowan T-shirts.
“What’s been great is that my whole time in Styx these past 27 years it’s amazing how many Styx fans from the U.S. come to these Gowan shows in Canada. It’s made my musical life have a tremendous connection,” he says.
“At concerts, you see this fabulous agreement between thousands of people. There’s a generousness of spirit, and that’s the world you’re aiming for. That spirit is there if we want to plug into it. So, let’s do that!”
Styx’s current tour is a co-headlining jaunt with fellow classic rockers Chicago. Dubbed “The Windy Cities Tour”—a nod to the town of both groups’ origins—each band plays a full set, packed with hits. Meaning Styx fans will hear “Come Sail Away,” “Mr. Roboto,” “Renegade,” “Too Much Time on My Hands,” “Lady,” “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights),” “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man),” deeper cuts, and a couple of newer tunes.
Asked which Chicago tune he thinks that Styx could to a great job on if they ever had a “song swap” night, Gowan mentions “Saturday in the Park” and “25 or 6 to 4”—before naming several others.
“The ‘Ballet for a Girl from Buchannon’ [suite] might be a bridge too far! But those songs have been a part of my life. I used to see Chicago all the time when they came to Toronto. But these two bands have never toured together before And it’s a great evening of classic rock.”
In fact, Lawrence Gowan is just as happy to talk about other bands he admires as Styx. When told that fellow Canadians the Guess Who’s reunion tour will stop in Houston in two days, Gowan notes that they were the first concert he ever attended. And remembers that when roadies rolled out singer/keyboardist Burton Cummings’ nine-foot Steinway piano, it started to clarify what his career path might be. He was equally enthusiastic about one of their recent shows he saw in Canada.
“The Guess Who set the bar for how great a band could be live. And I measured all the concerts I saw after by that show,” he notes. “Somehow, they sounded just like the records, but better. I don’t know how they pulled that off.”
But he may be a Beatles fanatic above all. And in fact, several songs on Circling From Above have some obviously “Beatlesque” vocal harmonies and instrumentation. The group also played a big part in his early music education.
“Revolver was the first album I had in my life,” he notes of the record released almost exactly 60 years prior to the day he’s speaking. “I won it in a music contest at Simpson’s department store with an original piece I played. The prize was any album, and that’s what I chose. The only drag was we didn’t have a record player!” Gowan laughs.
Assured by his mother that one would eventually grace the Gowan living room, he placed his prize possession on a basement windowsill high enough that his younger siblings couldn’t reach it. A year later when the music machine arrived, Gowan was excited to slit open the shrink wrap, pull out the disc, and finally hear it. Unfortunately…well, it had been sitting on a sun-drenched windowsill for a long time.
“You can see where this is going. When I pulled it out, the thing was all warped!” he says. “But in the child’s belief that nothing was insurmountable, I still put it on the turntable. And it was bouncing all over! I even went in the backyard to try and flatten it out between two pieces of glass, which of course didn’t work. I was devastated!”
So, while both Paul and Ringo are still with us in 2026 as octogenarians—and both still recording new music and touring‚ the day is nonetheless coming soon where the earth will have no living Beatle on it. Is Lawrence Gowan ready for this inevitability?
“I’m not!” he exclaims. “But you know, the world will never be Beatle-less. I never think of John and George as being off the planet. They’re just as vibrant. The life force is still there because the music is. And they will outlast us all.”
Styx and Chicago play at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 20, at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins. For more information, call 281-364-3024 or visit WoodlandsCenter.org. $55-$185.
For more on Styx, visit StyxWorld.com
