00:00Hi, this is Kelly Hanson from Forerunner, and this is Lawrence Gowen from Styx, and you're watching Life Minute TV.
00:12Two legendary groups, Styx and Forerunner, have joined forces this summer and they're bringing special guest John Waite
00:19along for the ride. The Renegades and Jukebox Heroes Tour will make stops all across the country through the end of August.
00:26VIP packages also available with meet and greets and other fun things on the band's websites.
00:31They're also releasing a special limited-edition
00:34collector's album that you can get only at the shows until it hits stores and online on July 12th.
00:39We caught up with Forerunner's Kelly Hanson and Styx's Lawrence Gowen recently to hear all about it.
00:46It's been 10 years since we toured with Styx and when I found that out, I was kind of mind blown.
00:50It's been a while, you know, so it's really great to be back together with these guys. These guys are so amazing,
00:55so great on stage, super crisp on-point vocals. It's really a great show to see.
01:02There's no stopping that double bill. I mean, it's quite astounding and honestly,
01:07what I loved about the last tour we did, Kelly, was that we each band, you know,
01:12there's an underlying competitive spirit that we really want to be great on the night.
01:16But as the tour goes on, you become kind of the best cheering section of the other band because the overall experience of having
01:23nearly four hours of classic rock, you know, with John Waite opening and then with Styx and Forerunner,
01:28you've got so much music that has touched so many lives and been the soundtrack of their experience.
01:34You really get caught up in it yourself and I love watching Forerunner perform.
01:38They're an astounding band to watch perform and just those songs, one after another,
01:44it's just bang, bang, bang and I have as good a time as anybody in the audience.
01:53What I enjoy about doing these shows is they got many good singers, lead singing songs in Styx
02:00and it's great to be around so many singers because in my life, I don't really know too many singers
02:06or interact or kind of socialize with singers. It's usually all these musicians and there's a little bit of a difference
02:12between a musician and a singer when a singer is not a musician. I mean, Lawrence is both.
02:17I like that energy because singers, you know, they get each other, they get it and it's nice to be around someone who gets it.
02:23About 10 years ago, when we did the tour, which was one of our most successful tours ever
02:28and already the ticket sales have exceeded that for this summer tour.
02:32But I would see Kelly come in mid-July with a scarf around his neck and it's like, good idea.
02:39Now, there's nobody else who would say that to, you know, other people,
02:43when you commiserate with all the various things that conspire against someone who has to deliver vocals
02:48and especially what he's got to do every night where he's up in the clouds, you know, and at the top of his lungs.
02:54But man, that fella delivers.
03:14How do you guys hone your voice?
03:18You know, it's funny because I've been doing this professionally for almost 50 years.
03:23I think you tend to forget and tune out the myriad things that you do to take care of your voice.
03:30I mean, so much for me is just like automatic. Like when I'm on the road, I'm not speaking a lot.
03:36I'm not yelling. I'm not laughing too hard. I'm not staying up late telling rock stories.
03:42You know, drinking beer in the middle of the night.
03:45And all of these things just become an automatic part of your life.
03:48And it isn't until the end of the year when we have a little bit of a break, like a two or three month break.
03:53And you kind of go, oh, I'm a little bit more socially involved and I'm actually partaking in the energy of social experience
04:02because I can kind of let go of my voice a little bit.
04:05But during the year, it's like I have to tell people who are close to me.
04:08I have to say, if I sound like I'm monotone and if I sound like I'm unhappy, just know I'm not.
04:13I'm just taking care of my voice. And it's a constant 24-7 thing, at least for me, that is.
04:19I mean, Lawrence probably doesn't have to think twice about it, but I have to think about it all the time.
04:23I would go along with the fact that if you don't get to bed, you know, first in the band and stay up drinking and, you know,
04:31you're having a great time on the tour bus, which, of course, we're doing.
04:34I don't want to spoil the myth and the fantasy of it, but I actually look at it like the early part of your career.
04:43And we've had this discussion. It's like if I compare it to an athlete, you're in a sprint.
04:48So it's a sprint to where you've got to get to the finish line as fast as you can.
04:52And you can burn every candle at every end that you wish to.
04:56But as a career goes on, you have to look at it more like it's a marathon, particularly if you're one of the singers.
05:02And in order to do that, you really have to address every single little domino that has to be lined up just the right way in order to fall in your favor when you hit the stage.
05:14And look, when there's 15, 16, 17,000 people there, there actually is.
05:18And I know this word isn't used often in rock, but there is a kind of a responsibility that you want to put the best version of what you can do with your voice on stage every night.
05:29As we tour with classic rock bands, there's only, when I try to count in my head, I get to maybe 12 classic rock bands that are touring on the level that Foreigner and Styx are to this day.
05:40And to every person, Heart would be another example.
05:42You can see just how they address their overall health and their overall condition is part of continuing on this marathon that we want to go on forever.
05:52Unlike marathon runners who probably want it to end immediately, we just want it to continue on.
05:57And how did this tour come together?
05:59Like, how did you guys say, let's do this again?
06:01It worked really well last time.
06:04I think that was probably at the top of the equation.
06:08I think, you know, look, we've also become such good friends with these guys.
06:13You know, Jeff Pilsen and other guys, you know, Michael Blustein and stuff.
06:17We send messages every once in a while.
06:19I hear from these guys at least once a year about how things are going or more often.
06:25And we love, you know, the fact that we have survived this long and the fact that people just in droves want to keep coming and seeing it.
06:34What it comes down to is we know we're going to have a great summer just with each other's company anyway.
06:39And then there's going to be several thousand people there night after night after night with great big grins on their faces and their arms in the air and just enjoying what this music has done to their lives.
06:48So that's a pretty easy thing for the agents and managers and accountants and all of the professional scientists to go into this equation.
06:57Right, right.
06:58And two things.
07:00It is not lost on anybody involved how fortunate we are and how wonderful it is to have these shows and people still coming to see this band and still having the excitement and the energy.
07:12Because you could play a crowd where the audience is deadest doornail and it becomes a lot of work.
07:18And our audiences are really interactive and that's really great.
07:21But the second thing is when you see friendly faces backstage and there's an ease that settles over you backstage.
07:28And that I think is then reflected on stage because you're having an easy time backstage.
07:34Because you can play with bands who are really unfriendly or full of ego or really a problem.
07:39And it makes it a more tense vibe.
07:41But when you can walk around backstage and you see ease on everybody, it makes the show better.
07:46And I think that's another reason why we decided to do this again.
07:50And because it had been so long, because both of us are doing so many things, it's nice to be able to converge once again.
07:56You know what?
07:57And the thing is it's time.
07:59It's not like we did this last summer together.
08:01So it's been a while.
08:03So it's a really good time for us to come back together, especially when we're doing our farewell tour.
08:12What are fans going to get when they see this show?
08:15There's going to be an unbelievable number of songs that everybody in the audience knows.
08:20And that's one of the incredible elements of it.
08:22In the 1980s, both these bands had some hits.
08:26But now all these years later, the cumulative amount of hits that are going to be on stage,
08:32almost every song is going to be something that everybody knows.
08:36Yeah, that's what it is.
08:38It's about four hours straight of music that, you know, another point I have to say,
08:43classic rock is the great musical statement of the last half of the 20th century.
08:48That's indisputable now.
08:51Yeah, that's what it is.
08:52It's about four hours straight of music that, you know, another point I have to say,
08:57classic rock is the great musical statement of the last half of the 20th century.
09:02That's indisputable now.
09:04And its value is even further amplified by the fact that half the audience on any given night
09:13are usually under 40 years of age.
09:16They weren't even born when some of this music came into the world.
09:19So they want the experience that we who grew up with it,
09:23they live it as if it's concurrent with their existence.
09:26So it really has to be held to the highest standard.
09:29That's what we push ourselves to do.
09:32What are your favorite songs to play live?
09:34I love Renegade so much because Tommy Shaw, you know, it's his song and he sings it.
09:39It's one that I don't have all that much responsibility for in the vocal department.
09:43There's only a couple of areas there.
09:44Usually by the time we get to Renegade,
09:46what I've observed is, it's usually the last song,
09:49wherever we've played around the world,
09:51I am amazed at how different audiences are at the beginning of a show.
09:55If we've played in Japan, the audience has a certain tenure,
09:58a certain personality to it.
10:00If we're in Sweden, if we're in England, or if we're in America, or even if we're in Canada.
10:05It's amazing how different they are at first and how alike they are at the end.
10:10This has been my kind of my global observation is just how alike people are at the end of a show.
10:15And you see thousands of them with this same euphoric sense of shared experience.
10:22I might sound too lofty, but it's such a uniting moment that you feel.
10:29And I'm able to observe that from my spinning keyboard stand
10:32because Tommy has a big responsibility on that song.
10:35And I get to observe that.
10:37So that's become my favorite moment on stage.
10:40And I have my favorite foreigner moment too, but I want Kelly to tell me what his is.
10:44I think I'm slightly different than a lot of people in this way
10:47because I get asked this question a lot.
10:49And I realized that I'm not a favorites type person
10:52because the philosophy of best, worst, favorite, least favorite
10:58tends to say that one thing is less than another.
11:02And I like to look at these things as individual things.
11:05This catalog of songs is so good that there's not one I'm trying to skip past.
11:09There's so many variables in a night on stage.
11:11Is it indoors, outdoors, large crowd, small crowd, humid, dry?
11:14Do you hear yourself really well?
11:16Is the stage cement or is it wood?
11:18All those things affect how you feel about a particular song every night.
11:22So one night will sound really great in my ears for this song
11:25and another night sounded great on this song, but they're both great songs.
11:28And so that's what I take out of it.
11:31I've been asked a similar question.
11:33It reminds me of your favorite pieces of art.
11:36One day you happen to be looking at one
11:38and you're getting something from it on this day that's vibrating with you
11:42or resonating with you in a way that it didn't yesterday
11:44because it was that painting over there that was doing it for you.
11:47But in this case, you're not just the observer of it.
11:49You're living in it.
11:50You're living inside that song as it's being delivered.
11:54And all of those things, Kelly, that you just outlined
11:57are all participating in that part of that 24-hour experience
12:02that you're connecting with.
12:04So yeah, I would say Renegade is my favorite moment on stage.
12:07But to your point, yeah, it's a moving target.
12:11Every night is different.
12:13And you said you had a favorite of Farner's.
12:15What's your favorite Farner moment on stage?
12:18Well, there's two of them.
12:20I love Cold As Ice.
12:22Cold as ice
12:27You know that you are
12:30When I heard that song the first time,
12:32it had so many Beatlesque elements to it.
12:36And the last time we toured together,
12:38I think you might remember, Kelly,
12:39when we were doing a promotional tour together,
12:41Mick Jones told a great Beatles story about Young and his career.
12:45And so that kind of elevated Cold As Ice again in my mind
12:49as to that kind of Beatlesque connection
12:52that I love in so many bands, and particularly in Farner.
12:56I wanna know what love is
13:00I wanna know
13:02I want you to show me
13:06Where I will feel
13:08But I wanna know what love is.
13:10It's such a high point every night.
13:13They do something, I don't wanna give it away,
13:15but they do something every night that is just,
13:17it's goosebumps, so there you go.
13:20I have to ask you about Mick.
13:21How is he doing, and will he be taking part
13:24a little bit in the production or the planning?
13:26Well, you know, Mick is always visionary
13:29at the top of what we're doing.
13:31And, you know, the great thing that he and I have had
13:34for these 20 years is that we feel so similar
13:38about certain things.
13:40Like, he has always been a very much like
13:43show must go on kind of guy,
13:45and when I thought a show was gonna be over
13:47because it was raining, he steps up front and plays,
13:50you know, the next song, and I'm like,
13:51what, we're still, okay.
13:53And he always is like that,
13:56and his musical taste and choices and his ears
13:59are beyond reproach, and he's always been that way,
14:01and he always wants to be on the road with us.
14:04He's doing great.
14:05He's scheduled to be with us whenever his doctor says
14:08it's okay for him to be with us,
14:09and absolutely, I'm hoping to see him out with us
14:13as much as he can be.
14:15And of course, Farner will get inducted finally
14:18into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
14:21The reality is the induction is for the original members
14:24of the band.
14:25It's nice for a successful classic rock band
14:28that came out in the 70s to be recognized,
14:31just like sticks should be,
14:33and the thing is is that you have to remember,
14:36back in the day, if you were a popular,
14:39commercial, pop rock band,
14:43you were not a favorite of the critics.
14:46They always put you down because you weren't artsy enough
14:49or different enough or off the wall or small enough,
14:52you know, because when you're small and unrecognized,
14:54only you know about it and you're cool,
14:56but as soon as they become popular,
14:58you're not good anymore.
14:59But the fact of the matter is,
15:00is that if you're touching people and communicating
15:03to people more than that hidden band in the corner,
15:06that says something about your influence.
15:08That says something about the power of what you're doing,
15:11and I'm glad to see that be recognized.
15:14What does music do for people?
15:16Beethoven, toward the end of his life,
15:18you know, because I studied classical music,
15:20I love reading about composers,
15:21and he even questioned, what is music?
15:24What does it, why does it affect people?
15:26What exactly is it?
15:27He didn't even know.
15:29So over the course of my life,
15:31it's the one thing I think lacks the capacity
15:34to ever let you down.
15:35It's just, it's not in there for it to let you down.
15:39It's always going to kind of give you something
15:42in the worst moments of your life
15:44and in the greatest moments of your life
15:45and in the kind of the mundane moments of your life.
15:48It's always got something to contribute
15:50that just lifts you to a place that, you know,
15:54humans can attain.
15:56And I've only seen attained really
15:58through the inspiration of music, so.
16:00Yeah, you know, that's an interesting point you make,
16:02you know, what is music?
16:03Because if you have a meditation bowl,
16:06it makes one tone, you know,
16:09and that's singing a song, in a sense.
16:13And it's something that we haven't deciphered.
16:16It's one of those things that we don't know why,
16:18but we're all just trying to feel our way
16:20into something that does connect
16:22when we're doing what we do.
16:24And that's the magic and the mystery of what sound is.
16:30And all we're doing is a combination of those things
16:34in a way that touches us first.
16:36And if it does, then we hope other people, you know,
16:39get on the bandwagon with it
16:40and they get something out of it too.
16:41It's just a very mysterious, wonderful thing.
16:45I've also observed audiences and with friends
16:48that I've had that I've grown up with,
16:50the ones who've stayed close to music
16:52and kept it in their lives,
16:53whether they're, you don't have to be a musician,
16:55just the fact that you engage with music
16:57in some way every day,
16:59it's one of the most revitalizing things.
17:02I mean, I speak to guys
17:03that are still listening to music all the time
17:05and we pick up our conversation as if we,
17:08as if it was just, you know, very recent.
17:12Unfortunately, I've met other people that I knew so well
17:15who were once like that,
17:16who've lived lives that have had to kind of
17:19maybe check their soul at the door
17:21or whatever phrase you want to use
17:23where they become disengaged or, you know,
17:25they departed from that kind of musical connection
17:28that they had in their life.
17:30And I observe not good things.
17:33So I think there are health benefits.
17:35I do know now that there's musical therapy
17:37and things in hospitals, et cetera.
17:39What a phenomenal, fantastic thing it is.
17:42And to be part of that and to bring that out,
17:45you know, on stage and celebrate it
17:47with thousands of people,
17:49I can't think of a better life.
17:50I mean, I really can't.
17:52To hear more of this interview,
17:53visit our podcast, Life Minute TV on iTunes
17:56and all streaming podcast platforms.
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