The Grand Delusion: The Unauthorized True Story of Styx [Paperback]

Sterling Whitaker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 8, 2007

Culled from the author's personal interviews with band members, record company executives, management, friends and fans, 'The Grand Delusion' is the first biography of the superstar rock group Styx. Beginning with 'Lady' in 1974, Styx delivered a string of hits including 'Come Sail Away', 'Fooling Yourself', 'Miss America', 'Renegade', 'Blue Collar Man', 'Babe', 'The Best Of Times', 'Too Much Time On My Hands', 'Don't Let It End', 'Show Me The Way' and 'Mr. Roboto'. Styx has sold more than 35 million albums in a career that spans three decades. 'The Grand Delusion' tells the unauthorized story of one of the true superstar acts of the rock era.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Grand Delusion is a gripping tale of rampant egotism, backstabbing and jealousy that provides fascinating insight into the Chicagoans' flawed machinations." --Classic Rock magazine

Review

"The Grand Delusion is meticulously detailed as Whitaker includes comments from not only many of the band members themselves, but also anecdotes from many former friends, managers, promoters, tour managers, crew members and record company representatives. These accounts are the strength of the book."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 382 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing; 1st edition (March 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419653539
• ISBN-13: 978-1419653537
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #501,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #66 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians > Pop

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Exceeded My Expectations And Then Some!, April 24, 2007

By 

K. Palmer (Illinois) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Grand Delusion: The Unauthorized True Story of Styx (Paperback)

As it is said in several of the excellent customer reviews of this book, I wasn't expecting much when I found that only one member of the "classic" Styx lineup participated in the book (Tommy Shaw in an interview done in 1993 - he refused the author's requests for further discussions over the years). But I have to say, Sterling Whitaker has pulled together a fascinating summary of a band whose story needed to be told. Using primarily band managers, tour managers, crew members, record executives along with very good interviews with more recent band memebers Todd Sucherman and Glen Burtnik, Whitaker tells a fascinating story that was hard for me to put down (and I am as plodding a reader as there is).

Whitaker tells the story from day one when Dennis DeYoung joined up with John and Chuck Panozzo in the mid-60s to their struggles to gain attention, plus the sudden rise to fame from the sudden popularity of "Lady" (two years after it was first released), to mega-stardom with four straight triple platinum albums to the demise of the band due to the "Kilroy" debacle, to less-than-successful solo careers to reunion and more dramatic dysfunction. If you are reading this, you probably already know the story.

Whitaker plays no favorites in the Shaw/DeYoung/Young debate that cropped up after the band got back together in the mid-90s. You get the impression that all of them let their egos just get the better of them and the price was the fracture of what could have been a baby boomer juggernaut. I think Glen Burtnik gives the best take on the entire situation by saying that in the end, all the bickering was just silly. That's been my take on it as well. I will say that the person who comes off the worst in the whole book to me is DeYoung's wife Suzanne who is pretty much portrayed as insufferable by everyone involved.

Whitaker spends a great deal of time on the solo careers of the above three artists, which I think is actually the strongest part of the book. I followed all three solo careers and after reading this passage, I'm starting to think I was the only one! It definitely shows that Styx was bigger together than its individual parts.

I also was fascinated to learn how poorly Styx' records from the 1990s on have sold. It's just amazing that a band that sold tens of millions of albums in its heyday can't sell 50,000 copies of their newest releases.

Chuck Panozzo has a book coming out in the near future and I have a feeling it is going to pale in comparison to this terrific effort. I'm looking forward to Whitaker's next book on Van Halen, which should be even more fun!

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sterling effort and a Grand Book, March 26, 2007

By 

Todd Perego (Kentucky) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Grand Delusion: The Unauthorized True Story of Styx (Paperback)

The first tape I purchased as a kid with my own money was "Kilroy Was Here" by Styx. I can still remember singing "double all I gotto, Mr. Roboto" with my sister before we knew what the words really were. Little did I know this was the record that tore the band's classic line-up apart, basically for good! Since then I have been a huge fan of Styx, particularly Dennis DeYoung. I have followed the reunions and the re-break-up and the replacements and the lawsuits and the bad blood. Throughout that time I have always wondered, What REALLY happened? And also, How did it all start?

This book tells you all of it. From their South side of Chicago beginnings to the current status of all the members (past and present). The author undertook a monumental effort to painstakingly interview many folks who were close to the band. From managers to agents to road crew members to members (like Tommy Shaw and Glen Burtnik) to fans, Sterling Whitaker got everyone who would participate to give their honest, sometimes angry, feelings about the band and their experiences with Styx.

The book is filled with narratives and point-counter point perpectives and the reader is left with a sense of completeness through every phase, high and low, of the band's legacy. If you are fan of Styx or any of the members...If you are a fan of classic rock and roll...this is a must read biography.

You will be exposed to the underside of the music industry and the lives behind the memorable music that is still a staple of classic rock stations all over this country. If you ever wondered about anything regarding Styx...the answer is in this book! Though you may not come away from this experience liking certain people as much as you believed you would, the result is an in-depth profile of rock superstars who were and are just regular people. They have the same hang-ups and problems every one else has, their's were just magnified by star power, ego, influence, and money.

Read this book. It was not an easy story to tell and equally not an easy book to write. Sterling Whitaker does both with amazing effectiveness.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very well presented, March 26, 2007

By 

Ron Stevens (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Grand Delusion: The Unauthorized True Story of Styx (Paperback)

Many rock bands self-destruct after having success, and Styx is no exception. But the explosive arguments are only a small portion of the story. The Grand Delusion takes you on a journey following a band from Chicago that made it big. From their beginning to mega-stardom, to solo careers, reunions, and on to today Whitaker presents the group and those that worked with them along the way.

Whitaker has really done his homework for this book: There are extensive interviews with people that worked with Styx, as well as some band members (several people, most notably Dennis DeYoung and James 'JY' Young, declined to participate). In these interviews you get the story from the people that were there, along with their emotions and reasoning for why they did what they did. In what could have been a story full of mud-slinging and name-calling, The Grand Delusion is so much better by presenting honest quotations by those that were interviewed. It is the most complete story about the group Styx available.