Melodic Rock has Chapter 3 of the new Styx bio "The Grand Delusion". Included is this interesting piece from Tommy Shaw:"Tommy Shaw: They were very impressive. Very articulate, educated, thoughtful, serious. Exactly the opposite of the band I'd just come from. (Laughs). Although those guys were educated, we were rock and roll dudes, we were a band, you know, we drove around the country and we paid dues. These guys had money, they had a plan, they had a deal . . . all totally foreign to me. It was their fifth album. So I was quite a few years younger than them, and I was the new kid. They took me in and I knew nothing, other than I knew how to kick ass on stage, and I knew how to write songs, and that's what I did. I was this insanely energetic new guy in the band.
I never felt totally comfortable amongst the other guys. I felt totally comfortable on stage, always, but never really was made to feel like an equal member. I still don't understand that one. But you know, they all grew up together, pretty much, and I don't think they related to my lifestyle or my upbringing, or just because I was younger than them, my approach to things.
I was intimidated by their intelligence, their education. I was a high school graduate, and you know how some people can make you feel "less than" by their education. Some people like to hold it over your head, and it may have just been my own insecurity, but I always felt like they were a little bit ashamed at having someone in the band who wasn't a college graduate, because in interviews JY would say, "We're all college graduates." I would think, 'I never went to college,' but I just kept my mouth shut about that. That tended to hurt my feelings a little bit, but I was not ashamed of the fact. I already knew what I wanted to do, and I was educated in the streets and the clubs and on the road, and I've done well for myself. But that part obviously baffled me. "
Full chapter at:
http://www.melodicrock.com/interviews/StyxPartThree.html
