Top 66 Dennis DeYoung Quotes

A unique style comes from not being able to do things in a conventional manner. If David Byrne could have sung like Paul McCartney, he would have.

My voice doesn’t sound like anyone else’s. I wanted to sound like my favorite singers when I was young because when you’re young you don’t put much value on uniqueness. But later I realized I had something special to offer.

My views are simple. If you’re gonna make a commitment, particularly marriage, stick to it. If you can’t compromise, you’ve got no chance.

People always want to romanticize relationships within bands. Most of these relationships are based on music first.

If you say ‘Domo arigato’ to people, they’re apt to go, ‘Mr. Roboto.’

If you want your rock stars that are completely 100 percent serious about themselves and you want them to pretend like they’re 25, I’m probably not the guy for that. But if you want to come and say, ‘Hey, you know that guy right there, he’s just being himself. I kind of like him for that,’ you know, then that’s me.

It was a song I wrote for my wife as a present, never intending for it to be a Styx song. ‘Babe’ was a demo. The demo became the hit record, including all the background vocals, which were done by me.

Many musicals you can take and throw in the garbage can because no one took the time to write a song you can care about.

I was damn lucky to choose this profession. I had no idea when I started out that I was really an illusionist and a magician.

Anyone in showbiz rock ‘n’ roll who says they’re so tired of playing their hit songs, I want to smack them. I think it’s an act. Because, look, you work your tail off to get people to validate you.

The Beatles are here, and if you could see me my hand is on the ceiling. Styx is here, and my hand is in the basement.

Heck, I feel guilty getting my senior discounts.

I still see myself as the kid who plays accordion and tries to keep people happy for 45 minutes. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

I can do anything onstage. Here’s the misconception: You could record an album called ‘The Best of Styx.’ And all you would have to do is pay the individual songwriters a mechanical royalty.

All I ever thought about was music and being a musician.

If you are going to take me a to a musical, you’d better give me three songs that I’m gonna like. Nobody goes to the opera for the recitative. They go for the aria.

I think the music business is as crass and as unrewarding as it has ever been.

Back in 2000, I had come to a crossroads in my life, unsure about what career path I should pursue. Shepherd, bouncer, philosopher king, ventriloquist or perhaps man on the flying trapeze. Fortunately, I was guided back onto the path of the magical world of music.

I was ill in ’98. By the end of ’99 I was recording and recovering.

Radio stations provided a service. They weeded out the stuff that no one should ever have to even think about. Now, they made mistakes and they made mistakes with me even but, by and large, they provided a service. They were an editor.

Really, the amount of work I do on a project, I will torture myself.

People go to musicals because they want to hear some really good songs.

I’m very proud of it. ‘Hunchback’ contains some of my favorite music I’ve ever written in my life.

When we started, there were no other distractions like the Internet and video games, so music was central to young people’s lives.

When I wrote ‘Grand Illusion,’ I was making it up as we went along. I wrote this stuff and tried to do the best job I could.

I’m proud of the body of work I was part of and I want people to enjoy it as long as they choose to.

Americans are really good at throwing their hands up and walking away from things.

My brother-in-law, Chuck, whom I have known since we were teenagers, is a disabled veteran who was wounded while fighting with the marines in Vietnam. I’ve been around to observe how the war affected his life and the problems that veterans have, and I knew for a long time that I wanted to write a song about Vietnam.

I’ve tried to figure out ways to be less pleased other than the search for perfection. Talk about a thing that’ll make you have a miserable life. On that quest, on that journey, down that path, there’s a lot of feelings of, ‘Why am I doing all this?’

I really believed it was important to explain to our young audience that expectations based on people who are trying to sell them things are unattainable.

I could forgive anybody.

I don’t wanna be a solo artist. I wanna be in Styx.

I wear sunglasses almost all the time except when I’m on stage.

It’s a good job when you get to have fans come up to you and thank you for writing your songs.

Styx was always a theatrical band. In fact, we played City Center in 1983 with a rock opera, ‘Kilroy Was Here.’

I always say, when I play the first few notes and people scream… if you’re tired of that, you should try retail. What else are you looking for?

Originally, AXS TV came to me last year and asked me if I’d be interested in doing an acoustic ‘Live from the Grammy Museum’ performance. But I was bound and determined to do an electric show with this great band to dispel any notion that I wasn’t a ‘rock guy’ in Styx.

If there’s a goal, you can’t stop me. I’ll put my head down. I’ll have tunnel vision and I’ll go until I get it.

When the Beatles broke up, I thought to myself, ‘Dude, seriously?’

How lucky am I? I’ll go to Naperville and people will come up to me and thank me for coming to Naperville. That’s how much music means to people.

If you’re in rock ‘n’ roll, you’re not supposed to admit to liking theatre stuff, but I’m a big theatregoer.

Is there anything in life more exhilarating than having 15,000 people absolutely ecstatic to be seeing your human form?

101 Dalmatians’ espouses virtues good to revisit: In times of crisis, families must pull together through love and commitment to overcome obstacles.

Our music did not sound like the Beatles in any way, shape or form. I could never find it in myself to use those Beatles tricks in Styx records because they were sacred to me. But what they did always influenced my thinking.

Sometimes your limitations become your strengths. It forces you to create your own niche.

There is one thing in this world that I’m better that than anyone else and that is being me.

I never wanted to be a solo artist.

What people fail to realize is that any album we did, really, 90 percent of it reflected the songs people brought in. If someone had brought in two great rock songs for ‘Cornerstone’… they would have been on that record.

Yeah, if anyone tries to tell you 60 is the new 40… don’t believe them.

When I play the first few notes of a song and people start screaming, I think: ‘That’s why I did this. That’s why I wrote this song. That’s a good job.’ And it is a job.

I lived at the greatest time in the history of mankind to be a musician.

I love Styx as much as I could love anything in my life. I started playing in the band when I was 14 years old. You become so involved in something when you start in it that young; you’re doing it purely out of love of what you’re doing and a belief in it.

I am what I am. Whatever it was that made me what I am, I thought I should stay around and be that.

When I’m not on the road I’m in the studio every day.

Over the years, I thought many times about how my life would have changed if I had been drafted and Styx never had happened. Even if I hadn’t been wounded or emotionally scarred, it would have changed my whole timetable.

I’ve lived a charmed life.

Music was everything. But what the digital revolution has done, with streaming services and downloads, is take the value out of music. When things lose value they lose their meaning.

There are no electric guitars. ‘Hunchback’ has arias; it’s operatic.

I think a lot of bands would rather put mediocre rock tracks on their album to try to maintain some sort of testosterone badge of courage.

I never imagined that I would have a successful solo career, let alone one in musical theater.

I don’t see how ‘Hunchback’ could ever appeal to children. It’s a very adult story that deals with repressed sexuality.

If you have talent and you work really hard, it increases your odds but it doesn’t ensure anything. But every now and then, the universe must tilt in your direction.

Nobody can beat those songs on ‘Abbey Road.’

When it came time to do ‘One Hundred Years’ I had been encouraged to really make a Styx album without the guys. I gave myself permission to do that. I set out to get people who sang with me who could make those harmonies.

When I’m onstage the joy is to try to be the best I can be, I’m there because I want it to be perfect.

People always ask me: How are you? I say I’m the envy of millions. I’ve been a lucky guy.