Styx

TW4, Wooden Nickel and the arrival of Tommy Shaw

Styx came out of Chicago, where twin brothers Chuck and John Panozzo had been playing with Dennis DeYoung in a group called TW4. James 'J.Y.' Young completed the line-up, and the band took the name Styx on signing to Wooden Nickel Records in 1972 — chosen, by DeYoung's account, because it was the only one none of them hated. Four albums for Wooden Nickel followed before the band moved to A&M Records in 1975.

The line-up that mattered commercially arrived a year later. Crystal Ball, released in October 1976, was Shaw's recording debut after he replaced John Curulewski on guitar and vocals, and it brought a second writer and lead singer into a band that had been built around DeYoung's keyboards and voice. The album itself was modest — No. 66 on the Billboard 200, gold certification in the United States only in 1984, with 'Mademoiselle' reaching No. 36 on the Hot 100 — but its title track became a permanent fixture of the live set, played on every tour Shaw has been part of since. It turned fifty in October 2026.

Four multi-platinum albums in five years

The run from 1977 to 1981 is what the band still trade on. The Grand Illusion (1977) went triple platinum and carried 'Come Sail Away' into the American top ten. Pieces of Eight (1978) was certified three-times platinum and gave Shaw two of the band's most durable songs in 'Renegade' and 'Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)'. Cornerstone (1979) produced 'Babe', the only Styx single to reach No. 1. Paradise Theatre (1981) topped the Billboard 200 outright. Between 1975 and 1984 the band shifted more than 20 million records for A&M.

Kilroy Was Here (1983), with 'Mr. Roboto' attached to it, was the last of the big sellers, and the tensions inside the project helped end the band in 1984. They reconvened in 1990 with Glen Burtnik in Shaw's place for Edge of the Century; Shaw returned in 1995.

A line-up rebuilt around absence

The current band is the product of four separate departures. John Panozzo died in 1996. DeYoung left after 1999 following illness and has not returned; Lawrence Gowan, a solo artist in Canada before he joined, took the keyboard chair that year and has now held it for longer than DeYoung did. Chuck Panozzo scaled back his touring from 2003 because of HIV/AIDS-related health problems, and appears as a guest rather than a full-time player. Ricky Phillips, who had covered bass since 2003, left in March 2024.

That leaves a seven-piece: Shaw, Young, Gowan, drummer Todd Sucherman, guitarist and producer Will Evankovich, Gowan's brother Terry Gowan on bass, and Chuck Panozzo when his health allows. Circling from Above was the first Styx album to credit Evankovich and Terry Gowan as full members.

The late catalogue, and a record that charted on sales alone

Rather than settle into a hits circuit, the band have put out three albums of new material in nine years: The Mission (2017), Crash of the Crown (2021) and Circling from Above, released on 18 July 2025 through Universal Music Enterprises. Evankovich produced it; thirteen tracks run to a little over 41 minutes, recorded across Blackbird Studio in Nashville and three smaller rooms in California. 'Build and Destroy' preceded it as a single on 28 May 2025, with 'Forgive' following on 8 August.

Its chart life says something about where the band now sit. It reached No. 20 in Switzerland, No. 46 in Germany and No. 73 in Austria; in the United States it placed at No. 32 on Top Current Album Sales — a physical-sales chart — rather than on the main album chart. Reviews were warmer than the numbers. The Prog Report, writing on 14 July 2025, called it 'another solid album that continues to build on the band's creative resurgence', singling out the synth work on 'Build and Destroy', the guitar solo on 'King of Love' and the acoustic playing on 'Blue Eyed Raven'. Goldmine listed it among the eleven best prog albums of 2025. The ProgArchives user average sits at 3.94 out of five.

Lyrically it was written by Shaw, Gowan and Evankovich around dreams, the natural world and what artificial intelligence is doing to the rest of it — material that lands in a set otherwise built from 1977 to 1983.

Where they stand in October 2026

The most conspicuous gap in the CV remains the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Styx have been eligible since 1998 and have never been inducted. Asked about it in June 2024, Shaw said he hoped the band would 'all live long enough to find the answer to that question', while noting they have no say in the process and that it changes nothing about the writing. The honours they do have are regional: the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum Hall of Fame inducted them in 2022.

Work has filled the gap. The band have held a Las Vegas residency presence since 2017, and in January 2026 returned to The Venetian Theatre for five nights — 23, 24, 28, 30 and 31 January, all at 8.30pm — playing Pieces of Eight in its entirety alongside other material, having given The Grand Illusion the same treatment there earlier in 2025.

Then came a dense touring year. Announced on 17 December 2025, five Midwest dates with Cheap Trick ran from Little Rock on 16 May to Lincoln, Nebraska on 24 May. The Windy Cities Tour — 25 co-headline shows with Chicago, the first time the two bands have toured together — opened in West Palm Beach on 13 July and closed at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on 6 September. 'The idea of Styx touring with Chicago is a major thrill,' Shaw said at the announcement; Chicago's Lee Loughnane noted the two had never shared a tour in five decades.

A headline run picked up almost immediately after. October took in Selbyville, Pittsburgh and West Springfield in the first week, then the band's own Rockin' in Paradise weekend at Miramar Beach, Florida on 8–10 October with 38 Special, Tesla, Don Felder, the Marshall Tucker Band and Jefferson Starship. A Canadian leg begins with two nights at the JAG Soundhouse in St John's on 17 and 18 October, followed by Halifax's Scotiabank Centre on the 21st, Casino New Brunswick in Moncton on the 22nd, the Centre Vidéotron in Quebec City on the 24th, Gatineau on the 25th and Place Bell in Laval on the 26th. Dates continue through Waukegan, Welch and Carlton in early November to Billings, Montana on 4 December, with 2027 already on the board: Thunder Valley in Lincoln, California on 8 January with Cheap Trick, and the Palace Theatre in Stamford, Connecticut on 23 February.