Dennis DeYoung Quotes

We came along at a time when people were really focused on music. We were part of the second generation of bands after all of those great 60’s bands when rock was still in its’ infancy.

Nobody can beat those songs on ‘Abbey Road.’

If there’s a goal, you can’t stop me. I’ll put my head down. I’ll have tunnel vision and I’ll go until I get it.

If you think marriage is gonna be easy, don’t do it because when there are children involved, you screw up the rest of society.

Originally, AXS TV came to me last year and asked me if I’d be interested in doing an acoustic ‘Live from the Grammy Museum’ performance. But I was bound and determined to do an electric show with this great band to dispel any notion that I wasn’t a ‘rock guy’ in Styx.

I lived at the greatest time in the history of mankind to be a musician.

If you’re in rock ‘n’ roll, you’re not supposed to admit to liking theatre stuff, but I’m a big theatregoer.

My brother-in-law, Chuck, whom I have known since we were teenagers, is a disabled veteran who was wounded while fighting with the marines in Vietnam. I’ve been around to observe how the war affected his life and the problems that veterans have, and I knew for a long time that I wanted to write a song about Vietnam.

When I play the first few notes of a song and people start screaming, I think: ‘That’s why I did this. That’s why I wrote this song. That’s a good job.’ And it is a job.

Touring is real demanding. You swing between sadness and euphoria. But for us to cry about it isn’t fair.

If you are going to take me a to a musical, you’d better give me three songs that I’m gonna like. Nobody goes to the opera for the recitative. They go for the aria.

I’ve lived a charmed life.

I don’t understand the joy of sitting in my house with nothing to do.

I’ve tried to figure out ways to be less pleased other than the search for perfection. Talk about a thing that’ll make you have a miserable life. On that quest, on that journey, down that path, there’s a lot of feelings of, ‘Why am I doing all this?’

If you have talent and you work really hard, it increases your odds but it doesn’t ensure anything. But every now and then, the universe must tilt in your direction.

Is there anything in life more exhilarating than having 15,000 people absolutely ecstatic to be seeing your human form?

Heck, I feel guilty getting my senior discounts.

People always want to romanticize relationships within bands. Most of these relationships are based on music first.

Look, nobody is a bigger fan of Tommy Shaw than me. The day I met him in 1975 I knew he was going to be a great guitar player, performer and songwriter. I was his biggest fan, and I’m Styx’s number one fan.

All I ever thought about was music and being a musician.

When I’m not on the road I’m in the studio every day.

We were together; we were a group; we were a team; we wanted people to love Styx.

If you pretend to be somebody that you’re not when you write songs – and I did that on some of the early Styx albums – nobody cares about what you have to say.

Yeah, if anyone tries to tell you 60 is the new 40… don’t believe them.

Technology has made music ultimately more democratic.

People go to musicals because they want to hear some really good songs.

If you want your rock stars that are completely 100 percent serious about themselves and you want them to pretend like they’re 25, I’m probably not the guy for that. But if you want to come and say, ‘Hey, you know that guy right there, he’s just being himself. I kind of like him for that,’ you know, then that’s me.

I still see myself as the kid who plays accordion and tries to keep people happy for 45 minutes. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Every artist thinks his most recent work is his best. If you didn’t feel like that, you wouldn’t do anything.

The Beatles are here, and if you could see me my hand is on the ceiling. Styx is here, and my hand is in the basement.

When I wrote ‘Grand Illusion,’ I was making it up as we went along. I wrote this stuff and tried to do the best job I could.

I wasn’t a guy who grew up wanting to be in ‘Funny Girl,’ if you know what I mean. I wanted to be in the Beatles.

I formulated the theme behind ‘The Grand Illusion’ album after observing how American culture creates illusions through advertising and entertainment to convince us that our lives our lacking, in order to sell products.

I was lucky by birth.

As an artist you always want to challenge yourself, but as you get older you want to bring the audience with you while expanding creatively.

I never imagined that I would have a successful solo career, let alone one in musical theater.

I always say, when I play the first few notes and people scream… if you’re tired of that, you should try retail. What else are you looking for?

People always ask me: How are you? I say I’m the envy of millions. I’ve been a lucky guy.

I think a lot of bands would rather put mediocre rock tracks on their album to try to maintain some sort of testosterone badge of courage.

My voice doesn’t sound like anyone else’s. I wanted to sound like my favorite singers when I was young because when you’re young you don’t put much value on uniqueness. But later I realized I had something special to offer.

It was a song I wrote for my wife as a present, never intending for it to be a Styx song. ‘Babe’ was a demo. The demo became the hit record, including all the background vocals, which were done by me.

Over the years, I thought many times about how my life would have changed if I had been drafted and Styx never had happened. Even if I hadn’t been wounded or emotionally scarred, it would have changed my whole timetable.

Really, the amount of work I do on a project, I will torture myself.

When the Beatles broke up, I thought to myself, ‘Dude, seriously?’

Music is magic.

It’s always best when everyone in the group is on the same page.

When we started, there were no other distractions like the Internet and video games, so music was central to young people’s lives.

I’m proud of the body of work I was part of and I want people to enjoy it as long as they choose to.

Many musicals you can take and throw in the garbage can because no one took the time to write a song you can care about.

Music was everything. But what the digital revolution has done, with streaming services and downloads, is take the value out of music. When things lose value they lose their meaning.

What people fail to realize is that any album we did, really, 90 percent of it reflected the songs people brought in. If someone had brought in two great rock songs for ‘Cornerstone’… they would have been on that record.

Nobody can figure out why it does what it does to human beings. But there is no other art form greater than music.

Essentially I’m a melody person in a rhythm age, and that’s what Broadway is really about, the songs.

I think the music business is as crass and as unrewarding as it has ever been.

I never wanted to be a solo artist.

When it came time to do ‘One Hundred Years’ I had been encouraged to really make a Styx album without the guys. I gave myself permission to do that. I set out to get people who sang with me who could make those harmonies.

If you try to do a genuine rock musical, rock people will think you’re flaccid and Broadway audiences will think you’re too loud.

I’m very proud of it. ‘Hunchback’ contains some of my favorite music I’ve ever written in my life.

To be successful in your life, you have to be convinced in your own mind that you have the ability to accomplish your goals.

There is one thing in this world that I’m better that than anyone else and that is being me.

I am what I am. Whatever it was that made me what I am, I thought I should stay around and be that.

I gave my life for Styx and I’m really very proud of it and I didn’t want to perform that music and screw it up.

Sometimes your limitations become your strengths. It forces you to create your own niche.

There are all kinds of pretensions about art, but I’m just a guy who sings for his supper.

If you say ‘Domo arigato’ to people, they’re apt to go, ‘Mr. Roboto.’

I really believed it was important to explain to our young audience that expectations based on people who are trying to sell them things are unattainable.

Styx was always a theatrical band. In fact, we played City Center in 1983 with a rock opera, ‘Kilroy Was Here.’

I don’t see how ‘Hunchback’ could ever appeal to children. It’s a very adult story that deals with repressed sexuality.

Every artist wants to feel like they’re still valid in a contemporary way. But you can’t be so arrogant not to think that people who have thrown down their hard-earned money don’t want to see and hear the things they want.

A unique style comes from not being able to do things in a conventional manner. If David Byrne could have sung like Paul McCartney, he would have.