REO Speedwagon: Wheels Are Tumin'

Retort—May 15, 1985—Page 6 REO Speedwagon: Wheels Are Tumin' In . Rory Kremer REO's members found 01 the Retort stall themselves looking through On the night of April 23, the windshield at a forest of REO Speedwagon rocked the cornstalks. But REO did Metra. I had the opportunity become the biggest band in Il- to spend the night backstage linois. with the band. Among their friends, REO "Our next goal," Richrath Speedwagon's Kevin Cronin, recalls, "was to be the biggest Gary Richrath, Alan Gratzer, band in the midwest." The Bruce Hall and Neal Doughty midwest is a big place and get- had been known for years as ting around can be a problem. the Marx Brothers of Rock and One day the band was late for a Roll. Their comic capers had gig—so they rented a private gotten then banned from the plane and packed themselves, a entire Hyatt Hotel chain, had roadie, and all their guitars in- perplexed policemen in the to a six-seat Piper Cub. "The deep south, had appalled little pilot was a real straight guy old ladies in the midwest, and with a tie and a short haircut," had turned LA's disastrous says Cronin. "He through we floods into fodder for gags. But were crazy. But he came to our in the summer of 1983, there concert that night, and it turn- was little humor in REO-ville. ed him into a new man." The The band was suffering from a pilot voluntered to quit his job strange malady... success. and "join" the band. Gradual- "For years REO had a goal," ly, REO and their new private Gary Richrath explains, pilot—who grew his hair long niture out of their motel rooms "When we started out playing and took to flying with a can of into the parking lot, beds and The members of REO Speedwagon: from left - Bruce Hall, bars in Chamaign, Illinois in beer in one hand— conquered all, and proceeded to lay out a Alan Gratzer, Kevin Cronin, Neal Doughty, Gary Richrath. 1970, we wanted to be Cham- cities from St. Louis (where in feast. An irate neighbor called paign's biggest band. We the mid-seventies REO started the police. But as the police recalls, "the next goal was bed with an arm injury, it have struggled...and we made it. regularly beating concert at- cars pulled up, a helicopter clear. We wanted to be the big- me time to think. I realized Our next goal was clear...to tendance records set by the descended from the heavens gest band in the U.S., then the with all the changes around become the biggest band in all Beatles) to Cleveland. and helped REO escape the biggest band in the world." To me, my feelings were the same of Illinois." To make it, REO puzzled arm of the law. The achieve their goal, REO Speed- as they've always been. I have Speedwagon's band's pilot, sensing trouble bought a used limousine for REO wagon moved from Illinois to a basic need to express myself $50 and began to tour the lighthearted sense of adven- when he saw Kevin and Gary the capital of the music in- through my songs." Kevin's state, sometimes playing as ture won them fans as much as lugging the televisions out of dustry—Los Angeles. advice to other musicians is many as three towns a night. their concert performances. In their rooms, had driven to the But success was not the this, "You have to keep on The days of limousine luxury Johnson City, Tennessee, for nearby airport and rented the gratifying experience it's practicing and chasing down ended one night near dawn example, they decided to throw chopper just in case. cracked up to be. For years leads that are going to help you when the rear axle fell off, the a picnic the night after the con- "When we were the biggest REO had pursued a goal; now be a success. STAY WITH IT, car careened into a ditch, and cert. So they hauled the fur- band in the midwest," Gary they've achieved every aim and NEVER give up." they'd ever mapped out. "We It's not surprising, then, looked around for the next that REO Speedwagon's thing to shoot for and it wasn't Wheels Are Turnin' is filled there," says Cronin. Kevin with optimistic songs about WE'RE OPEN!!! Cronin, who had one been the value of persistence and the regarded as the Groucho Marx value of being oneself. It's not of Rock and Roll, did not ad- surprising that it's filled with just well to success at all. It simple, unpretentious songs threw him into the worst about human relationships and depression of his life. "All my songs with marvelous SON oc) life," he said, "the enemy had melodies. After all, optimism been the guy in the plaid suit, and genuine emotion are what the Cadallac and the big cigar, allowed REO Speedwagon to a\) the guy who tells you how to succeed in the first place. And run your life. Now that I was optimism and genuine emotion successful, I was afraid I had are what helped REO overcome become that guy. But laying in success. 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