According to Styx manager Charlie Brusco, the band hasn’t spoken to former singer Dennis DeYoung since he was fired in 1999.
During an appearance on The Bob Lefsetz Podcast, Brusco detailed DeYoung’s ousting from the group.
“Tommy (Shaw) and J.Y. (James Young) came to me and said, ‘We got a new album coming out. Dennis can’t tour. We want to go out there without him,’” the manager recalled. “And I said, ‘Alright, if we do this – it could work, it might not work – but I’m not gonna go backwards. We’re not gonna go do this for six months and then turn around and go back [to DeYoung].”
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According to Brusco, the rest of Styx could no longer handle DeYoung’s demanding ways. “Dennis likes to be in control of everything,” the manager matter-of-factly noted. Similar personality clashes had led to Styx’s two previous hiatuses, but in this case the band decided to simply fire their frontman. The job of telling DeYoung fell on Brusco.
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“I called him on the phone and told him, and the reaction was not good,” the manager admitted, detailing his uncomfortable conversation with DeYoung. “And he said to me, ‘You know that no one will come to see them without me.’ And I go, ‘We’ll see. We’ll find out.’”
DeYoung was replaced by Lawrence Gowan, and the band has continued touring and releasing new music ever since. According to Brusco, Styx’s ties to DeYoung remain completely severed.
“I’m pretty sure of this: I don’t think me, Tommy or J.Y. have ever spoken to Dennis since I let him go,” he noted. “I don’t think the three of us have ever had a word with [DeYoung]. A good word or a bad word – nothing.”
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