Dennis DeYoung, after more than two decades away from Styx, is at peace — with their legacy together and with his own. “At 68, I don’t feel that cool,” he admits, but the same can’t be said for his rock-focused new DVD, ‘Dennis DeYoung and the Music of Styx: Live in Los Angeles,’ a concert that reminds anyone who may have forgotten that DeYoung was much more than just a sweet-voiced balladeer.

We caught up with him for a wide-ranging discussion that began with ‘Live in Los Angeles,’ a project that he took weeks to get just right, before touching on his career with Styx, dealing with misconception about his craft and the prospect of a new solo studio album:

It’s great to have this new package out with all of these songs in one place. It’s a good watch and listen.

AXS TV came to me last summer and asked if I would like to be part of a show called ‘Live At The Grammy Museum.’ Essentially, they play acoustically in this little room in the Grammy Museum. I thought about it and, my manager and I, we decided that since I already had a DVD with me playing the music of Styx with a fifty-piece orchestra, if I did the acoustic show, I wouldn’t really be doing what I really wanted to do all along — which was to show this rock band that I’d put together, and dispel any sort of mythology that’s developed about whether or not I was dedicated to rock and roll. It is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard in my life, but these tales are told enough times and people start to believe them. I thought it was imperative that people got a chance to see this band and to see me in that setting. I didn’t think an acoustic show would really do that. So, we talked to them and they said that they had done John Fogerty at the El Rey, and they did a thing there with Ringo [Starr] and I said, “I don’t know the El Rey, but I’m all for it as long as we can do the rock show.” So that’s how it came about. Then Frontiers Records, who was initially interested in doing the acoustic Blu-ray and CD package, was thrilled to be able to do this one.

You know, I’m very happy with the way it came out. I spent two and a half months almost, mixing the thing myself. You know, I’ve had this board for 17 years and it’s been a great board and I love it, because it’s an analog/digital board — both — but it was just crapping out on me and causing me all kinds of fits and stops and starts. They don’t make it anymore, and it’s so hard to get repaired. So, it took some extra time, but now that I finally listened to it, you know … I exhaled, because I said, “Hey man, that doesn’t suck!” I like the sound. So many live DVDs, they just don’t look and sound live and I can’t watch them. After the first five minutes, I look at it and I think, “That’s not a performance — that’s something else!” I was bound and determined to have this thing feel immediate, and just have the feeling that you’re seeing some sort of documentation of a performance. That’s really what I was shooting for.

Dennis DeYoung on Ignoring the Naysayers and Moving on Without Styx!