Rolling with the Changes

Self-awareness: Every famous person needs it. The lack of it has destroyed Madonna's appeal to the craven sarcasts of Generation Y. The overabundance of it helped kill Generation X's prime icon Kurt Cobain, literally not figuratively, by heaping expectations onto his suicidal soul.

Sometimes, people eventually have the self-awareness to know they used to not have self-awareness.

One of those people is REO Speedwagon singer Kevin Cronin. Back in the 1970s, when he was singing "Time for Me to Fly," Cronin had no self-awareness, he tells me.

"When I look back at the outfits I used to wear -- the hair I used to have, the amount of partying we did -- it was absurd," he says.

But I tell Cronin the band's earnest-ego style and monster parties fit the era since documented by VH1's "Behind the Music." He does agree with that.

"It was so over the top at the time, it made perfect sense. But looking back on it now, it's hilarious. At the time, we just thought we were cool, we were rock stars, and we were doing what rock stars do and dressing the way rock stars dress."

Here's the funny part you don't want to miss:

"The girl that made my clothes, I met her because she made Freddie Mercury's clothes -- and this was when Freddie Mercury was still claiming to be heterosexual."

The great Freddie Mercury was very, very not heterosexual.

"So I basically thought that's how rock stars dressed. I wore some pretty outrageous outfits back in those days. And I look at some of those pictures, and I think, 'What in the world was I thinking about?' "

Cronin laughs. He swears he has self-awareness now. In fact, he just saw and dug the Broadway play "Rock of Ages," which lovingly mocks while embracing the stars and songs of Cronin and his ilk (REO, Styx, Pat Benatar, Warrant, Foreigner, Whitesnake and so forth).

"It was a hoot to sit out there and watch it," he says. "As the English would say: It takes the piss out of the whole thing. It's funny. It's great."

Then again, maybe Cronin would have liked "Rock of Ages," because afterward, he and Styx guitarist Tommy Shaw went onstage for "Rock of Ages' " encore and played their first duet, "Can't Stop Rockin'." So they got mocked, but then they rocked.

"We brought the house down," Cronin says, hopefully with the self-awareness to be correct. "One of the things I had never done is play Broadway. So now I've got that going for me."

There's a cross lineage of culture between Cronin's and Shaw's bands: REO and Styx both came from the Chicago area in the 1970s and approached rock similarly.

"I used to play in battle of the bands against (former Styx singer) Dennis DeYoung and the (Styx musicians) Panozzo brothers when I was in high school. So it went back a long way for us," Cronin says.

"Tommy and I had met each other a couple of times over the years. As a matter of fact, we almost started a band together back in 1974, believe it or not.

"And then, within the next three weeks, Tommy joined Styx and I rejoined REO, and it kind of interrupted our little plans. But here we are all these years later, playing our song on Broadway together last week, so that's pretty cool."

Still, it's odd that Cronin and Shaw didn't run into each other much, or hang out, until around 1999.

"Tommy and I -- we met backstage at a VH1 game show. We hit it off, we took our wives to dinner together and hung out."

So, REO and Styx -- despite coming from the same place, and hitting rock radio at the same time with power rock ballads -- have been truly friendly for only about a decade of their four-decade run.

But, Cronin says, "It's a beautiful thing" for "those of us who have survived the craziness of the '80s, and the doldrums of the '90s."

Here's where the self-awareness gets wrapped up in song titles.

"We come from the Midwest work ethic, where you take care of business Monday through Friday, and when the weekend comes, you come out and rock and roll," Cronin says.

"Our music is all about you keep pushin', you're riding the storm out, you roll with the changes, and here we go, let's have some fun."

What do you think? Tell me at delfman@reviewjournal. com, or post your reviews and rants at reviewjournal.com/elfman.