- 8 hours ago
Lawrence Gowan of Styx has spent nearly three decades helping carry one of classic rock's most enduring legacies--both onstage and in the studio. In a wide-ranging conversation on Joann Butler In Studio With... , Gowan reflects on the band's 54-year journey, their creative process, and what keeps their music alive for generations of fans. Gearing up to tour with Chicago on a major summer run, Styx continues to bring its signature blend of progressive rock, powerhouse vocals, and theatrical live energy to arenas across the country. For Gowan, the experience is less about nostalgia and more about continuity. 'We continue to try to exceed whatever we did last year, last week, last night,' he says. 'There seems to be an insatiable demand to see Styx and embrace classic rock. I don't think it's ever been stronger.' A highlight of every show remains 'Renegade,' a song Gowan doesn't sing, but closely watches from the stage. He describes how the performance evolves each night, shaped by both the band and the audience. 'It's a different song every day,' he says, likening it to a familiar work of art revealing new meaning over time. After more than five decades, Gowan says the power of music lies in its ability to unite people emotionally. Styx continues to thrive on that connection--proving that rock music remains a shared language that brings audiences together night after night. This is a LifeMinute with Lawrence Gowan...
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Were you always a Styx fan?
00:02I remember hearing Crystal Ball for the first time and cranking the radio up like crazy.
00:07You've been with the band for so long, but how did you come together?
00:10Like, who got you in?
00:11That year I was touring completely solo on piano, and the guys in Styx were kind of all
00:16standing side stage watching it, and Tommy made the comment to me when I came up.
00:20He said, we've got to work together again in the future.
00:22When they called in early 99, my assumption was that I get to open shows for Styx, but
00:29very quickly the conversation shifted to, no, we would like you to join the band.
00:35You guys have such a nice brotherhood too, besides having your real brother in the band.
00:40We all have this wonderful occurrence that happens at the end of our day.
00:45We join hands in front of thousands of people who are on their feet with big smiles on their
00:50faces.
00:50The way you guys move on stage is just amazing.
00:54When you hit the stage, you're kind of ageless.
00:56You're connected to yourself as a teenager immediately.
01:00That's what rock music, that's what it evokes in you.
01:04Cheers.
01:05Hi there.
01:05I'm with Joanne Butler in studio with Lawrence Gowen of Styx.
01:11Yeah.
01:13Thanks for joining us on Life Minute.
01:16Couldn't be happier to join you.
01:17Yeah.
01:17We spoke once before.
01:19The last time we spoke was several years ago.
01:21You're with Kelly from Foreigner.
01:23Yeah.
01:24And you guys did it together.
01:25That's right.
01:26That's right.
01:26We did.
01:27Yeah.
01:27Well, nice to chat with you again.
01:29It's good to have you back again.
01:31So catch me up.
01:33Okay.
01:34A lot's been happening since that point.
01:36Let's see now.
01:37Yes, a lot has been happening.
01:39A new album?
01:40There was a new album called Circling From Above.
01:43Circling From Above came out last year and we're still playing at least one, we played
01:48two or three songs from that record in the shows for this summer for the Styx and Chicago
01:53tour.
01:54We're pairing that down to one song from Circling From Above, possibly one from Crash
02:00of the Crown because that record was really successful for us.
02:03It got to number one on the Billboard Rock album chart.
02:06So we'll probably do one and then an absolute slew of nothing but Styx hits for the rest
02:12of the for the rest of the show.
02:14So that's musically, that's what's what's happened.
02:17I guess.
02:18Hmm.
02:18Let me think now.
02:19Yeah.
02:20I guess the last time we spoke was just when my brother Terry had joined Styx as our new
02:25bass player.
02:25Yeah.
02:26So he's not so new anymore.
02:27He's have a finer vintage now and we just continue to, you know, try to exceed whatever
02:35we did, you know, last year, last week, last night, as the band continues to forge ahead,
02:41you know, 54 years in existence now and seems to be an insatiable demand to see Styx and to
02:47embrace classic rock.
02:49I don't think it's ever been stronger.
02:52That's wonderful.
02:53It's amazing, isn't it?
02:54Yeah.
02:55Seems like you guys have such a nice brotherhood to besides having your real brother in the
03:00band.
03:00It just seems like you guys all get along well and well, here's the thing we're on the
03:07road together for nearly nearly 200 days of the year, quite honestly, and we play about
03:14100 shows.
03:15So something around there.
03:16We all have this wonderful occurrence that happens at the end of our day, and that is,
03:24you know, we join hands in front of thousands of people who are on their feet with big smiles
03:29on their faces and, you know, their arms in the air.
03:31And there's such a joyous kind of exclamation point at the end of the day that it's hard to
03:40let any of the little trivialities of life intercede on that or impose themselves on that
03:46for too long.
03:47Anyway, we have lots of, there's lots of disagreements and lots of, you know, moments that we have
03:53to patch over.
03:54But it's amazing how that shared experience on a daily basis helps us to forget those things
04:01very, very quickly, far quicker than we would if we were, say, guys in their 20s or 30s,
04:06you know, of which, by the way, there are no guys in their 20s or 30s in Styx.
04:10Today, I hate to disappoint.
04:13No, I think that's what's so great about it.
04:16You know, that's really nice.
04:18I think it is.
04:18I think that's one of the great things I love seeing about a band is that they kind of,
04:22that musical experience is shared by them.
04:25And so their, you know, their combined effort and their combined joy translates to the audience
04:31and then vice versa.
04:32And then the next thing you know, you've got a great rock concert going on, which is the
04:35greatest form of entertainment that I've ever encountered.
04:38Beautiful.
04:39Oh, I love that.
04:39And like you mentioned, Styx is going on tour with Chicago this summer, the Windy Cities
04:44tour.
04:45Tell us all about that.
04:46That starts in mid-July.
04:47And that starts in West Palm Beach, Florida, and concludes a couple of months later at the
04:53LA Forum in Los Angeles.
04:57Wowza.
04:58California.
04:59Nice.
05:00You'll be everywhere.
05:02We're going to be everywhere.
05:03I'm everywhere.
05:04I'm everywhere, man.
05:06Do you have a favorite song that you perform?
05:09Renegade.
05:10Because I don't have to sing it.
05:12Tommy gets to sing that one because of his song.
05:14I love because it's at the end of the night.
05:16I observe the audience and see just how emotionally they are putting it all out there by the time
05:25we get to that song because they've been through the full arc of the show.
05:27And wherever we've played around the world, you know, I often mention the audience in
05:32Japan and the audience in Sweden end up being very almost identical by the end of the show
05:38in an emotional state.
05:40And I love to see that because they're very different at the beginning of a show because
05:43the different personalities, just like, you know, a New Jersey audience is different from
05:47a Texas audience at the beginning of a show.
05:49They just have a different kind of overall collective character, but eventually they end
05:55up like, there's one of the things, it's almost like music funnels everyone into finally
06:01reaching this great, distilled it down to this wonderful connection that we have through
06:07music and I love to observe it.
06:09I love it.
06:10That's so good.
06:12So, so, so good.
06:13Oh, how is Chuck doing?
06:14I was meant to ask you that.
06:16He is doing well.
06:17Chuck is doing very well.
06:19He'll join us probably for most of the summer tour.
06:21Excellent.
06:22And he is the comeback kid if there ever was one.
06:25I mean, you know, if you've ever read his book, Grand Illusion, it's all about his, you
06:32know, band starting in his basement and then him going through all the years of phenomenal,
06:37you know, success with, with the band prior to my joining.
06:41And then when I joined, he was in the struggle of his life, which was, you know, against HIV
06:46and AIDS.
06:46And he has triumphed over that to the point now where they can't even detect it in him.
06:51So he is the, he is the Iron Man.
06:55That's wonderful.
06:56Yeah.
06:57Good.
06:57Good.
06:58What's your creative process like with you guys when you're writing?
07:03It's a great question because it's never quite the same twice.
07:06Honestly, it's like on the late, on Circling From Above, for example, Willie Vankovich, who's
07:12our producer and guitarist and singer, he, he might have a song that's completely formed
07:19or just a tiny little nugget.
07:21And then that nugget will go with a song that I've got that's either completely formed or
07:26just a nugget.
07:27You know what I mean?
07:28By nugget, I mean just a little musical phrase that hasn't gone anywhere yet.
07:31And we may find a moment after hacking through it and jamming through it for a day or so where
07:40they can connect.
07:41Tommy Shaw, obviously the same thing, you know, and then sometimes the three of us are in the
07:46room together staring at each other for the first two or three hours and then suddenly
07:51out of sheer boredom, suddenly something will happen that sparks our interest and we'll pursue
07:57it vehemently for the next few hours.
08:00And then voila, there's a, there's a brand new stick song.
08:04So as I say, Joanne, it's never, it's never the same twice.
08:07And it's just a surprising and almost, you know, almost miraculous when suddenly something
08:13emerges that you all look at each other and go, I think I like that because there's too
08:18many hours of like, I think I don't like that.
08:20Really?
08:21Yeah.
08:21Kind of, that's, that's a huge part of the whole way it works is, is sometimes you have
08:28to play through the things that you reject until finally something strikes you that sparks
08:35your curiosity and your, and your interest to pursue it, you know, to, to actually follow
08:40it through and the next thing you know, bang, you've got a song like, uh, circling from
08:44above or build and destroy or our wonderful lives, you know, things like that.
08:50That's cool.
08:51Yeah.
08:51How do you keep it fresh?
08:53What inspires you?
08:54Shower every day.
08:55Number one.
08:57As fresh as we can be.
08:59Um, honestly, music, it's a, there's a boundless destination or horizon, I would say that continues
09:09to kind of present itself.
09:11You go on a journey to kind of see if you can get there.
09:15That, that really is how it's fresh.
09:16As far as I, I know the, the flavor of the question is that like, how do you take a
09:21song,
09:21say, Renegade that you've played like thousands of times and keep it fresh?
09:27Well, the way I describe that, the way I feel is the, the closest thing to articulating an
09:34answer to that is that Renegade, although it's the same notes and the same words, et cetera,
09:39on every day, it's a different song every day because it's a bit like encountering your
09:45favorite, uh, painting or, or sculpture or something.
09:49You can look at it an infinite number of times and you'll still see something different there
09:54and you still will not have completely discerned or completely dissected every nuance of its
10:01meaning and just by the mere fact that you've lived another day, there's a new layer that
10:07can be applied to that song.
10:09I'll give you an example of that.
10:11When I first heard the song yesterday, okay, let's take that one.
10:14So I was a little kid at the time and yesterday, back then, all it meant to me was, uh,
10:22last
10:22night before I went to bed, right?
10:24You see what I mean?
10:25But as your life unfolds, yesterday takes on a much greater sense of meaning because it embraces
10:34far more of your life's experience and you can relate it to far more things.
10:39So if I heard Paul McCartney on his birthday today, singing yesterday, today, as opposed
10:46to yesterday when he sang yesterday, sorry.
10:49I got you.
10:50I know what you mean.
10:51You know what I mean?
10:51And I'll, I'll give you another example.
10:54Satisfaction, Rolling Stones, a song like that.
10:56You see, you can, there, there's an endless feeling of what, you know, what a person who's
11:03now in his eighties is singing that song, how he means the lyrics and how it, how it comes
11:07across than a guy in his twenties.
11:09So that's to me, how you keep it fresh.
11:11There are musicians who complain about having to play the same song again and again.
11:16And I would admonish them to say, you know, there are symphony, symphony players who are
11:20playing Beethoven and Mozart and Tchaikovsky pieces that are hundreds of years old, and
11:25they're leaning into them just as much now as ever.
11:30So buck up.
11:32I didn't know it was Paul McCartney's birthday today.
11:35So now I know who your influences are.
11:38Yeah, I think he's 31.
11:39And what about your new music?
11:41The way that you keep that fresh, yeah, okay, is by allowing, okay, first of all, lyrically,
11:49more, almost, more, almost more than musically.
11:53Lyrically, you need to, luckily with Tommy and with Will, we are very adverse to allowing
12:00cliches or the latest hip expression, unless it's something that's incredibly relevant
12:06to our time, creep into the lyrics or try to kind of use, you know, cliche phrases from
12:14the past.
12:15That's, that's the biggest danger.
12:16That's how you fall into a trap that I believe as a songwriter, you fall into a trap of disingenuousness,
12:24let's call it that.
12:25You know, there's an insincerity to that.
12:28So for example, we have a song on the new record called Forgive.
12:31I think it approaches that subject in a, in a nuanced way.
12:36I think nuance is the underlying goal is to try to find a new way to attack, to, to approach
12:44a subject that perhaps has been, has been kicked around since man first walked the earth and
12:50woman and child and beast and, uh, and see if you can provide some kind of new spin on
13:00it or something that, that, that connects to your life today.
13:03When you're doing that, it's almost like a natural progression that musically you'll begin
13:09to follow that in, in a musical sense as well, bearing in mind that we always want to kind
13:16of connect the music to that classic rock sound and that era.
13:19That's an easier thing to do in that.
13:21We just use a bunch of clunky old analog gear and play real instruments and don't rely on
13:27computers to piece it together for us, or, you know, the latest AI magic that can make
13:34it sound like you're doing something incredible when you're not, it's one of these endless
13:40pursuits.
13:41And by, by just committing to that, you can keep things fresh.
13:48Another good answer.
13:50That and the shower thing.
13:51Yeah.
13:53What about rock to the rescue?
13:55Tell us about that.
13:57Rock to the rescue came about after a few months after 9-11, it was initially to raise money
14:04for the families from the, entirely from the, the fire department from the New Jersey side
14:10that came over who lost, I believe 37 men.
14:16And in order to help their families, we put together this big rock festival type concert.
14:24And it was very heartfelt and very authentic and music is, is, has been utilized in all
14:32forms of life, all aspects of life.
14:35And so many musicians threw themselves into it, guys that we'd never met before and wanted
14:40to play with anyway.
14:41So it really worked.
14:43Then after we did that for, I think about three or four years, something like that, we
14:47moved away from it.
14:48But then we began to realize all these communities, cities, towns, you know, various places around
14:55the world, quite honestly, that the band have played, they've supported the band for, you
15:00know, nearly half a, over half a century now.
15:02But so we revived it somewhere, somewhere around 2009 in order to kind of raise some money for
15:10a local charity everywhere we went.
15:12That's, that's what rock to the rescue.
15:14So it comes down to like a few items are auctioned off every day, some guitars and drum heads
15:20and anything we can kind of dredge up that someone will pay an outrageous price for, for a good
15:27cause.
15:28Nice.
15:28And that's rock to the rescue.
15:29Nice, nice.
15:30Yeah.
15:31You play a lot of instruments.
15:33You don't just do, I've seen you play the guitar.
15:36Okay.
15:36Two.
15:37That's, that's, that's two.
15:38How many do you play?
15:39Just two?
15:40Oh, really, I play one well enough to be a member of sticks.
15:45And that would be the piano and keyboards.
15:47As a guitarist, I do play guitar in my solo gallon shows.
15:52Yes, I do.
15:52I do play guitar because I've got another really good guitarist on stage with me and I can get
15:56away with it.
15:57I like that because you're, I've written songs from a guitar perspective, particularly in
16:03the 1990s, I, I did and I had a number of, of solo hits with those songs.
16:08And, uh, you know, I also studied the clarinet and the, and the cello and I played a little
16:14bit of flute and the harmonica.
16:16Uh, what else?
16:18I, and I play all of those badly.
16:20And I saw you playing Rick Nielsen's guitar on your Instagram.
16:24Is that not the most iconic thing you've ever seen?
16:28I love it.
16:29That, that I played really well, but I just think, I just think the spirit was in that
16:33guitar and it kind of, it presented itself.
16:36And I just, I wanted to get as many chords in as I could before someone said, Hey, put
16:40that down.
16:43No, Rick Nielsen was great.
16:44I love when we do shows, the cheap trick, because they're great fellas, but it's how these
16:50things emerge.
16:51I had looked at some of his guitar, just checked out some of them.
16:54And then I went, went backstage and went out into the parking lot and he's just standing
16:58there, uh, kind of, you know, getting a little bit of, uh, fresh air before the show.
17:03And I said, I was just looking at some of your guitars.
17:04He goes, well, let's go look at them.
17:07And I was like, Oh, okay, I'll take another look.
17:10And when we went back in, he, he methodically went through about 20 of the most iconic guitars
17:19that people have known for decades now.
17:22And then he allowed me to put them on and make a fool of myself.
17:26I'm very adept at doing.
17:28You didn't, you did really well.
17:30Thank you, Joanne.
17:31That's very nice.
17:33Oh, those guys must be fun to play with.
17:35You still play with them a lot, right?
17:38Yeah.
17:39I mean, more this year than we have in quite a while.
17:42And, uh, some of the bands that we get to, we get to tour with, like the summer tour we're
17:46about to do with Chicago.
17:47This will be our first time with them.
17:49Oh, really?
17:50Yeah.
17:50Our first time ever with a, uh, uh, you know, co-headline bill and sticks in Chicago.
17:55But yeah, some of the Def Leppard and the guys in REO and, uh, uh, foreigner is the last
18:02time you and I spoke, these are all wonderful guys to, uh, to tour with, you know, we tour
18:07with Boston, uh, iconic, I can keep going and cheap trick are always tons of fun lover
18:13boy.
18:13I love those guys.
18:14They're my fellow Canadian band.
18:16They're great to tour with as well.
18:18I love it.
18:19Yeah.
18:19You were with your brother before that in Canada, right?
18:22Way back.
18:23Were you always a sticks fan?
18:26Oh yeah.
18:26I mean, I, growing up in the seventies, first of all, what came to my attention with sticks
18:32was they were the first band that were not from the UK, not from Britain that were putting
18:38progressive rock influences into their music.
18:41And because I'm classically trained and oriented and all that, I love Genesis and yes.
18:47And, and, and Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull.
18:50And I noticed, you know, they're all British bands.
18:52And then when I noticed, oh, sticks, they were the first ones that were doing it and doing
18:56it successfully.
18:57Like there were bands that were attempting it, but couldn't quite crack it as to how
19:02do you, and, and I love the, the Chicago kind of sensibility that they had in their lyrics
19:07was really relatable because I'm from Toronto and it's another kind of Great Lake City.
19:12And there's, there's some connection there.
19:14Sticks were extremely popular in Canada, uh, particularly, initially, particularly in Quebec.
19:21Uh, and so I would hear them all the time and then, you know, I, and songs that I really
19:26loved, but I remember hearing crystal ball for the first time and cranking the radio up
19:30like crazy.
19:31Cause I just thought what a great tune, what a great little journey it's taking us on.
19:35And, uh, and by the way, this year is the 50th anniversary of that song.
19:39I have to point that out to the audience every night.
19:41I mean, Tommy Shaw sings that song as well now, if not better than ever.
19:46Wow.
19:47Yeah.
19:47That's something to be on stage to, uh, embrace that.
19:50He's amazing too.
19:51Yeah.
19:51The way you guys move on stage is just, it's amazing.
19:55Yeah.
19:55It just keeps getting better and better.
19:58Because when you hit the stage, you're kind of ageless.
20:01You, you don't, you're connected to yourself as a teenager immediately.
20:06That's what rock music, that's what it evokes in you.
20:10And that's what it inspires.
20:12And then you pay the price for it the next morning.
20:14Right.
20:14Right.
20:15You've been with the band for so long, but how did you come together?
20:18Like who got you in?
20:20Was it Tommy?
20:21Yeah.
20:22Kind of in, in, in 1997, so two years before I, I've been in the band now.
20:27This is my 27th year in 97, I'd had quite a number of multi-platinum hits in Canada as
20:33a solo artist, never had a record released in the States, unfortunately, but promoter put
20:39us together in the new Montreal forum, which is, you know, I put an 18 or 19,000 seat hockey
20:45arena in Montreal.
20:47And that year I was touring completely solo on piano.
20:50And when the guys in Styx heard the audience singing all these songs, they came and they
20:55were kind of all standing side stage watching it.
20:58And they, Tommy made the comment to me when I came off, he said, man, that worked out great.
21:03We're, we've got to work together again in the future.
21:05And so when they called in 99 or early 99, my assumption was that, oh, I get to open shows
21:12for Styx, but I didn't want to do them in Canada because I was able to headline there.
21:16I was hoping that Tommy would say, can you do this in the US?
21:22Because my hope was that now that the internet was here, I could finally get some of my records
21:27listened to by an American audience.
21:31But very quickly, the conversation shifted to no, we would like you to join the band because
21:39you were suggested by the promoter.
21:41First of all, we saw you.
21:43Second of all, the promoter, that guy named Donald Kate Donalds, thinks that you're the
21:46right guy.
21:47And the lady that runs, Kim Roulette, who runs Tommy's website, she said, he's the right
21:52guy.
21:53So when I showed up at Tommy's house, which is really a true Hollywood story, because
21:59he lived at that time in Los Angeles, right, it was the closest house to the Hollywood sign.
22:05It was literally in eyesight from where we were singing together.
22:10When I came in, I was ready to play Grand Illusion and I think Crystal Ball and Come Sail
22:16Away, and I prepared those over a couple of days.
22:18And he stopped me before I played it.
22:20He said, don't play a Styx song.
22:22Play.
22:22There was one song I had called Criminal Mind, and I played that, and it was a hit for me,
22:29a big song for me.
22:30And he remembered it from the show, and I played it, and he said, okay, we should make
22:35that a Styx song now.
22:36So that's on a couple of Styx records.
22:38So I felt immediately kind of embraced by this band, and I just basically wanted to not
22:44think that they made a poor choice.
22:46No, I don't think they did.
22:48Well, thank you.
22:49I think they did good.
22:51Okay.
22:52And then you got your brother in, like you said.
22:54Well, I didn't get my brother in, funny enough.
22:56That came through Todd, because when I started playing my solo Gowan shows, between the Holy
23:03Stick shows, and I started playing them again in 2010 and have every year since, Todd came
23:08up and played drums.
23:09He's played more Gowan shows as a drummer than anyone, and Terry was the bass player.
23:15So they became a very formidable rhythm section over the course of those shows.
23:20So when we needed someone, they asked Todd first, do you have someone you'd like to be
23:24on bass?
23:25He said, Terry.
23:26And then I heard it the next day, and I said, actually, he's like a great choice.
23:31He knows the material.
23:33He, you know, I think he'll fit in really well with everyone, and he has.
23:37So it's been great.
23:39And tell us about your solo stuff, too.
23:41You do other stuff as well.
23:44Styx, as I mentioned, Styx play about 100 shows a year.
23:48And I get, in between those, I do about 20 to 25, last year I did 25 Gowan shows, just
23:56in my last day.
23:57I came out in the 1980s on CBS Records in Canada, and back in the 80s, as you know, you're
24:04only
24:04allowed one name, so it was just Gowan.
24:06So those records are still played on the radio there a lot.
24:12People grew up with those songs, and so I love going out and playing them.
24:15And I love, because I'll play the same venue with Styx a few months later, you know, or
24:19prior to.
24:21So it's a funny thing as I go along from coast to coast doing that as well.
24:25That's so cool.
24:27Yeah.
24:27How does it differ for you?
24:29Well, the great thing about being in a band, as it took me years to learn, is that you can
24:35lean on the other individuals.
24:38It doesn't all come down to you to answer every little question, because, especially at
24:43first, I loved the fact that to kind of infuse myself into a band mentality.
24:51That took a while.
24:52Yeah.
24:52It really did.
24:53But I eventually kind of got it, I guess, because I'm still in it.
24:58They didn't kick me out.
25:00And that's a great thing to be around.
25:02And on the other hand, the counter to that is that when you're a solo artist, you've been
25:08involved in every single note to some degree.
25:12I've had tremendous musicians on my solo records, and I get to kind of connect with
25:19that again.
25:19I mean, Alex Lifeson from Rush was the guitarist on one of my albums for the entire record.
25:24John Anderson from Yes is on one of my records.
25:26Even Robert Fripp did a little bit of an intro on one of the songs.
25:31Who else can I mention?
25:33Of course, Jerry Morata, who is the drummer from Peter Gabriel and Paul McCartney for one
25:37album.
25:39He's been a tremendous part of my solo records.
25:42Tony Levin, of course, who's from Peter Gabriel and King Crimson and Paul Simon, John Lennon.
25:52So these are some of my favorite, I had the opportunity, the blessing, blessed opportunity
25:59to work with some of the musicians that I really admired growing up.
26:03And so having them on my solo records and having such a faithful audience that's been
26:08with it for years, I have to address that to some degree at this point in my life.
26:13I don't want to let that go either.
26:15And I don't have to.
26:16It's so nice that you don't have to.
26:17Yeah, it's great.
26:19Great for us, too, that you're able to do both.
26:21It's great.
26:22I love it.
26:23I love that.
26:24What does music do for people?
26:26That is a question that even Beethoven couldn't answer.
26:30There's a great letter he writes that he doesn't really understand what music is, why it affects
26:36people.
26:37So I'm not going to presume that I can fully answer that.
26:41I would say that over the course of my life, first of all, it has this unbelievable ability
26:48to emotionally engage human beings.
26:51And we don't exactly know why, because it's just vibration.
26:54It somehow communicates with us on a very profound and deep level.
26:59And it inevitably enriches our lives.
27:02And if it enriches your life enough, you'll never go through a single day without embracing
27:06it, at least to some degree.
27:09And if you're as connected to it as musicians are, have to be, you'll find that it's just
27:17incredibly addictive.
27:18I mean, look at how we end our day, as I mentioned before, with thousands of people with the biggest
27:25smiles on their faces, arms in the air, and in this joyous state.
27:28And all we did was really make some noise for a few hours.
27:32And it's elicited this phenomenal response that's, you know, it's a language, a language
27:42that we cannot fully comprehend, we can't completely decipher.
27:46It just does the most wonderful things to people.
27:49I highly recommend it, because as I mentioned, the great rock show is the greatest form of
27:54entertainment I've ever encountered.
27:57All of the friends I know, even from high school, who've stayed connected to the music that
28:01they've always loved and found new things, they seem to have lived better lives.
28:06I'll go as far as to say that.
28:08So I'd say it does that for you.
28:10That's good.
28:10You did good.
28:12Better than Mozart.
28:14All right.
28:14I love it.
28:15Anything else you want to tell me that we didn't cover?
28:18Oh, there's lots, but we can cover it next time.
28:21Next time we have to do it in person.
28:23We're in Times Square.
28:24That would be a great place to do it.
28:26I know.
28:27Let's definitely do that.
28:29Well, thank you so much.
28:30You're a pleasure to speak with.
28:32Well, great to talk to you again, Joanne.
28:34And I look forward to our Times Square rendezvous one of those days.
28:38Yes.
28:38Let's make that happen.
28:40I love that.
28:40There'll be plenty of characters around to chat about.
28:44Yeah.
28:45Not just us.
28:46I can't wait to talk to you again.
28:47I look forward to that.
28:49And I'm impressed with the fact that those butterflies didn't fly away.
28:53For the whole interview.
28:54I'll let them go now.
28:56Yeah, let them go.
28:57Set them free.
28:59Set them free.
28:59Like the starlings.
29:01Didn't ask you about those.
29:02Sorry.
29:04Ah, the starlings.
29:06Next time.
29:06It was good.
29:07Yes.
29:07The starlings of Times Square.
29:10All right.
29:10Bye, Joanne.
29:11Bye, Lawrence.
29:12Bye.
29:13Bye.
29:14Bye.
29:14Bye.
29:14Bye.
29:14Bye.
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