In a recent interview with Rock History Music, original STYX singer Dennis DeYoung was asked for his opinion on the man who replaced him, Lawrence Gowan. Gowan has been in STYX for 22 years, which is longer than DeYoung‘s initial run with the band.
“I’ve said this a million times: Larry Gowan is the very best Larry Gowan on the planet,” Dennis said. “No one’s a better Larry Gowan than Larry. I’m the best Dennis DeYoung still to this day.
“Players — a dime a dozen,” he continued. “I don’t mean players [with] originality. But copying somebody? I just saw a four-year-old Japanese girl doing all the Eddie Van Halen solos in her bedroom. You can get people to play. They are a dime a dozen. They really are. But singers — they’ve got DNA, baby; they’ve got DNA. And if you confused me vocally with Larry, I would be perplexed.
“So, Larry, he took the job,” DeYoung, the voice behind such STYX classics as “Come Sail Away”, “Best Of Times”, “Pieces Of Eight” and “Babe”, added. “He knew what he was getting into. And he wears it well. He gets it. He’s not a denier. He never has been. In fact, I know people on the inside who have told me Larry wanted to play [the DeYoung-penned song] ‘Mr. Roboto’ 20 years ago. Larry has said it. Because he liked it when it first came out. And he’s not in that ‘I’ve gotta belong to a political party’ and have to have this dogma or this idealogy. No.
“So, Larry is the best Larry Gowan. Nobody even comes close to me as Dennis DeYoung. I search high and wide for that kid who appears on YouTube that just nails me. I haven’t seen him. A couple of people get close.”
DeYoung co-founded STYX as a teenager alongside his neighbors Chuck and John Panozzo in the early 1970s. James Young joined shortly after that, with Tommy Shaw coming on board in 1975.
DeYoung released his final studio album, “26 East, Vol 2”, in June via Frontiers Music Srl.
