Dennis DeYoung fans know he’s got a great voice and that he’s still able to belt out “Come Sail Away” like he did when he first wrote it in the mid 1970s.
What they might not know, however, is how funny he is. In fact, he’s been told he’d be good as a stand-up comedian — and his Facebook pages shows off some of his comedic style.
But music is where his heart is at — and the music of Styx is what audience members will hear when he comes to Genesee Theatre Feb. 13.
He’ll perform “Babe,” “Lady, “Best of Times,” and all the classics as well as a couple of special treats just for his Waukegan fans.
Founding member and lead singer of Styx, DeYoung wrote nearly all of the band’s top hits. Today, he sings the music of Styx with another band — and continues to compose, record and produce. He’s toured as a singer/actor with “Jesus Christ Superstar” and wrote the musical, “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” which won a Jeff award for best musical.
He still lives where he grew up — right on the Cook County and DuPage county line in what he calls the Ridge of Burr (Brrr), aka Burr Ridge.
“Why I’m still here is a question I ask myself every January — and then I pick up the newspaper and look at (Mike) Madigan and (Bruce) Rauner and think, ‘please God, make it stop.'”
All fun and political commentary aside, DeYoung, now in his 60s, is a philosophical, grateful man with a desire to above all produce and write good music.
Early in his career, he taught music for Midlothian School District 143 while trying to get a record deal, he said.
And though the legend goes that “Lady,” which he wrote in the early 1970s for his wife of 46 years, Suzanne Feusi DeYoung, immediately catapulted him and his band Styx into fame, that’s not the case, he said.
“It failed completely when it was released as a single. A year or so later, WLS Radio, for no good reason, I could ever figure out, decided to play the record,” and it became a hit, he said. “If they hadn’t done that, I would have been a teacher for the last 40 years. Talent isn’t enough to be successful. You have to have perseverance, and once in a while, the universe smiles down on you.”
When asked how he maintains his good voice, he quips, “thong underwear, three sizes too small,” but in actuality, he said, he thinks it’s because, “I didn’t do drugs. I didn’t drink. I hired a large Ukrainian man to yell at my children.”
“I respected my voice and I knew to have something like that which I call dumb stupid luck, I really had to take care of it. Singing is something that has to be taken care of and cherished.”
DeYoung said it’s not often a hit becomes timeless — and he’s grateful for the staying power of songs he wrote such as “Come Sail Away,” released in 1977.
“I think the greatest joy is to be able to observe firsthand what those lyrics have meant to the people who heard them the first time around and what they seem to still mean to school and college kids. When they come and see me, when I play big outdoor festivals, these are people who weren’t even close to being born when the song was written. They lock arms and they sing the words. There seems to be a certain amount of reverence for those lyrics to a very large demographic.”
“A lot of people just relate to what I was saying. Those lyrics when I wrote them couldn’t have been more heartfelt. It was a song about me. ‘Come Sail Away’ is a song about yearning to be in a better place. It sets up the premise for the person singing who is really trying to encourage himself to find the courage in a difficult world.”
“I think cavemen could have appreciated that song. It speaks to the basic core of human nature — somebody help me get through this.”
He is also working on a new album — the last solo album he produced, “One Hundred Years From Now,” was in 2007.
“I have a recording contract sitting in front of me to make a brand new studio album,” he said. “I haven’t done it yet. I have to feel that I have something I want to say. There is no point to make a record just to complete the exercise. I just want to be doggone sure that I have something of value to say.”
He said he’s got eight or more songs written for the album — and when the time is right, he’ll produce it. In the meantime he continues to tour singing “Come Sail Away.”
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Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
Dennis DeYoung and the Music of Styx
When: 8 p.m. Feb. 13
Where: Genesee Theatre, 203 N. Genesee St., Waukegan
Tickets: $45-$95
Information: 847-782-2366; www.geneseetheatre.com