STYX - An Embarrassment Of Riches Page 4
By Martin Popoff

And finally, I asked Tommy about the absurd monster carrot cover art used for Cyclorama. "The thing about this one, is that it was able to read on that smaller four and a half by whatever inch format. I've never seen anything that Storm (ed. Thorgerson - Pieces Of Eight, Pink Floyd, recently Anthrax and Audioslave) has turned in that wasn't absolutely out of this world and just slightly twisted. The carrot was the most twisted of all though. That was funny, because he sent each of us a little packet of sketches. And we were all going, 'What's that, what's with the carrot? I kind of like that. It's got me thinking about stuff.' So we all, one by one, signed onto the carrot concept and he just took it to the wall."

Does Storm ever offer any of the philosophical meanings behind these things?

"Well, he used to when we first met him, but he knows now that we know. You can kind of guess what he's going to say. It's just how Storm thinks. For the carrot, you know, we never even went there. There was just a lot of laughing and giggling going on."

Look for Styx to tour and tour hard. In fact, as you may have noticed, they already have been. "We've played about 35 shows so far for the new CD and we've been playing Waiting For Our Time, These Are The Times, Fields Of The Brave and Kiss Your Ass Goodbye. We were out with Kansas and John Waite and we're just finishing up a run with REO Speedwagon. And for the summer, there's a rumour there's going to be Styx, REO and Journey, doing an arena tour."

Sheds or arenas?

"If you have the three of us, it's got to be arenas. Because we all need the benefit of darkness to do our show (laughs)."