Q&A with Gowan ahead of the Styx concert in Kelowna

There’s less than a week to the arrival in Kelowna of rock band Styx, along with Nancy Wilson’s Heart.

The big acts with mega hits in the 1970s and 80s, team up at Prospera Place on Saturday, Oct.8.

Ara, from 103.1 Beach Radio, tracked down Canada’s very own Lawrence Gowan, the lead vocalist and keyboardist for Styx since 1999. He also has had a successful solo career, performing as Gowan.

Here’s some of the highlights from their conversation.

Ara: What can we expect at the show?

Gowan: It’s an epic rock show. We’ve got Nancy Wilson’s Heart opening up and you’re just going to see an epic classic rock show with songs that have been around, some of which for over half a century that are still being embraced by people half our age.

Ara: Will we hear some of those epic Lawrence Gowan solo numbers in the Styx show because you’ve had some monster hits.

Gowan: We’ve done a couple of live recordings of “A Criminal Mind” and I would say it’s highly likely that we will probably weave that into a Styx show. We played it in Toronto last month and yeh, that was well received.

Ara: I want to know: what’s the story behind your song “Strange Animal”?

Gowan: I can remember only fragments of what the inspiration was. I was reading a lot of Hermann Hesse books then. And sometimes what you’re reading can suddenly filter into what you’re playing. I remember I had that melody of [ hums “Strange Animal” melody], like a mantra, and a lot of the Hermann Hesse books were about mental telepathy or communicating with someone that you’re tuned into the same wavelength and yet they’re a fascination to you. So that’s the idea: you’re a strange animal that I’ve got to follow, meaning that you’re just captivated by this other person or entity.

We recorded it at Ringo Starr’s home in England, and Ringo was there, and he would pop in and say ‘ I like that “Strange Animal” number.’”

Ara: Was it ever used on the Muppets with Animal on the drums?

Gowan: I don’t know … I did see it used in a Telus commercial using some bopping birds. It’s been used in a lot of ways, I think it was used in Goon 2 … so, you never know.

Ara: When you guys are performing the songs live do you do things in a certain or different way or spice it up a little?

Gowan: A live concert, that’s when a song can either come to life or it can fall to the floor. Quite honestly, every Styx song takes a bit step up in the live arena. It just connects so well to that format, that way of entertainment we’ve come to hone over a fifty-year career. Obviously in every show you’re going to hear “The Grand Illusion”, “Blue Collar Man”, “Renegade”, “Too Much Time On My Hands”, there’s such a long list of songs in each show, but even those songs can get extended by a few bars here and there.

Ara: I can tell you love what you do. Do you wake up every morning excited to do what you do for a living?

Gowan: It’s the thing that I love to embrace in some way every single day, even talking about it with yourself. I just feel very fortunate just to see that at the end of the day there’s usually a few thousand people with their arms in the air with a huge smile on their face.