"Come Sail Away" - With Dennis DeYoung"

Ciao a tutti,

For years, like so many of you, I have had this strong admiration for the music of STYX, not to mention the amazing voice of Dennis DeYoung. Of course, I like the love songs, (written for his wife Suzanne by the way), and as a singer I like to sing them myself. But my admiration went so much further. Being a "word" man all my life I have always really listened to the words of songs. As a child I could listen to a song once and come away with many of the words and the melody.

Some specific songs of STYX really "stuck" to me, especially "Come Sail Away," and my all time favorite STYX song, "Show Me The Way."

To me the words of the song "Show Me The Way," ring even truer as the years pass and as I mature. It takes a special person to write a song like that and I have long wanted to meet and know that person. That person is Dennis DeYoung. Dennis not only sang the songs of STYX but he wrote most of them, words and music, at least the ones that really spoke, and still speak to me.

So, here I was checking into my hotel room before going to the Milwaukee Festa Italiana grounds for rehearsal and I see what looks like a fellow musician checking in right next to me. I asked him if he was going to be performing at the festival and if he was Italian. He said yes, he was Italian, and that he was the keyboardist for Dennis DeYoung. My eyes lit up. Dennis DeYoung was singing in Milwaukee at the same time I was here? I could actually perhaps meet him and even maybe interview him for my show? And here was my angle, I could interview Dennis DeYoung for the Filippo and the Chef Show because the keyboardist in his band is Italian.

I made up my mind that I was going to interview him and that was it. I was too busy with my own performances and other interviews to even think of contacting his management team to run it by them and to check his schedule etc. But late at night, back in the hotel when I was doing my research on all the interviews I was conducting I researched Dennis DeYoung.

Music itself has no nationality as far as I am concerned, though I say, I like an Italian song or a Spanish song, etc. So I never cared if there was any Italian connection to STYX, but now because of the show, it is fun to seek and find those connections, and find them I did. It turns out that STYX started out as "The Tradewinds," and two of the original members were Italian-Americans from Chicago, brothers in fact, John and Chuck Panozzo.

Now I had the current keyboardist being Italian, and the original members of the band having been Italian, what more did I need? So I marched myself up to the backstage area the evening of the concert. In fact, the concert had already started but it was the soonest I could get there because of my show etc. I walked up to a gate agent and told him who I was and what I was there to do and he told me no one was allowed backstage.

I bet you are wondering how that sat with me? So I proceeded to tell him again, politely of course, until he referred me to someone above him. That person told me the same thing. I racked my brain as to what I was going to tell these people to make sure I got in and did what I knew was my "God given" duty to do, he, he.

For some reason, I thought of Paul Ianelli. He is the man who must have booked Dennis DeYoung, he booked me and he likes me, he is one of the people running the festival, and so, there it is. So, I asked the gentleman if he could contact Paul Ianelli on his radio. He looked at me like, "we don't disturb Paul." In fact, his radio didn't even have the authority to dial into him so he had to contact someone above him to see if he would call Paul on my behalf.

That person looked at me as if to say, this better be good otherwise we are all going to be in trouble. Well, he dialed Paul and I heard the man destroy my name and I could hear Paul over the speaker say, "no, no one gets backstage." My heart sank and then I asked him to repeat my name only saying it slower, "Filippo." I heard Paul say, "who?" and I thought I thought it was over. And the guy repeated it in case Paul hadn't hear because of the static. And then Paul said the most beautiful words I have ever heard, "Oh, Filippo, yeah, anything he wants!"

It was like the sky opened and God's light shown down on me and the angels sang. But I didn't have time to listen to the angel's song because I was being escorted backstage to hear Dennis DeYoung sing and eventually interview him. And hear him I did, from the backstage, to the front of the stage right at the bottom in front of him, to the side of the stage. I just enjoyed every angle of the concert, all except being on stage with him myself.

But at one point, as I waited backstage I realized "God" had not spoken to Dennis' manager and I had another yet another hurdle. But the manager was really nice and said, Dennis is headed to the airport right after the concert but he would get the interview in if I kept it short. So here I was about to get my interview, but that wasn't enough for me. Before the manager left I just had to ask, "is there any chance that Dennis is Italian?" I don't know why I did that, but Dennis was joking about Italians on stage, and it was an Italian festival, and I thought it was a good question.

His manager looked at me and smiled like he knew he was going to make my day and said, of course he's Italian, and so is his wife who's out there singing with him. All of a sudden I heard the angels sing again. Life is good. I am so dramatic, aren't I? I am having fun, in case you can't tell.

And the fun had just started, Dennis and his wife Suzanne walked off stage after an encore, and as promised, his manager directed them both to me so I could conduct my interview for the show. WOW! He was so great and so was his wife and I can't wait to share the interview with all of you on radio. We talked about Dennis' new CD and musical coming out, about The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I also learned about Suzanne's new book called "A Love Foretold," which includes a new song by Dennis written for the book. And I got to learn about their favorite Italian recipes.

Yes, they are both half Italian and they harold from Chicago and that's where STYX got started. But that is only where they got started they went all over from there and for Dennis, it looks like there is no end in sight.

Besides the successes of the former band, among other awards and records, STYX is the first band to have 4 consecutive albums certified Multi-Platinum, Dennis is now on his own setting records solo. His latest CD has hit #1 of the top 100 in Quebec, and it hasn't even come out in the U.S. yet. And his latest single sounds just as anthemic as the songs of his that I have liked all this time. Called "100 Years From Now," it has promise to be one of those that has more meaning as the years progress. May we progress along with those years and these songs.

Thanks Dennis for the foresight, inspiration and years of music and good feelings.

Filippo

P.S. Speaking of interviews, here is an interview of Dennis I found on Youtube.com in which he talks about his songwriting process. Here is an insight into the mind of an artist. (In English)