Guitarist James Young of Styx shares his Chicago roots, his dual allegiance to the White Sox and Cubs, and his thoughts on the changes in the music industry over the years with Nestor Aparicio before a 2003 show.
Nestor Aparicio and James JY Young discuss their shared love for classic rock bands and the upcoming concert featuring Journey, Styx, and REO Speedwagon in Chicago. They reminisce about their teenage years, attending concerts, and the impact these bands had on them. JY shares his Chicago roots, his dual allegiance to the White Sox and Cubs, and his thoughts on the changes in the music industry over the years. They also touch on the current state of sports in Chicago, the demolition of historic stadiums, and the ongoing Kobe Bryant case. Nestor expresses regret about missing the concert due to his upcoming wedding.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Chicago festival, classic rock, White Sox, Comiskey Park, wedding plans, concert tour, band rivalries, sports passion, music evolution, touring challenges, fan base, concert tickets, sports stadiums, Chicago sports, wedding music
SPEAKERS
James JY Young, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
These pals in the in the music business from time to time. And you break out these classic rock albums, and then I got a good beat, a fool that goes and gets married the week that sticks journey and Ario Speed Wagon is actually in town, which, by the way, we already saw, right? We saw him in Vegas. That doesn’t mean you can’t see him twice. Sticks is worth seeing twice. So is reo and journey
00:25
I like them all
Nestor Aparicio 00:26
calling Live from Chicago, Illinois, where they’re playing. And I know this because I was in Chicago all week. Sticks is playing with the journey night Ranger, REO hearts, all these bands playing in Chicago. Huge this weekend, yeah, big festival going on out in the Chicago area for JY, my pal from Styx, it is home and has been home for the better part of years. I know how many years exactly, but JY, my man, how’s it going? Nasty, man, I’m great here. You’re in Chicago.
00:55
I’m in the great city, Chicago, my friend,
Nestor Aparicio 00:58
what part of Chicago you from? I grew up on the south side, South Side. Sox fan,
James JY Young 01:03
yeah, I suppose that you know when the to do is as much as I cheer for both teams. And actually, I tell people these days I pray for both teams Well, right?
Nestor Aparicio 01:13
And there’s a lot of that going on too. Their Hail Mary’s being said all over the Windy City. For those who
James JY Young 01:18
are when the to play each other there, there’s a part of me that likes it when the Sox, who are sort of the, you know, the unfavored step children, at least of the national media, if they they lay whooping on the Cubs every now and then, it’s, we get a kick out of it on the south side.
Nestor Aparicio 01:36
Well, right? And I would think that that that a lot of people deep down, unless you’re a fuzzy cubby fan, the White Sox are very under appreciated. Jim, I was out there for the all star game, and I to a man, I still do not understand what the problem is with Comiskey Park, why people hate it so much. And I guess it’s because it was the last old school stadium that looks like a stadium and not like some throwback to Ebbets Field, but I love Comiskey Park. I love the new Comiskey and he has so many great seats down on the lower bowl. They got the delicious corn thing they got going there. Great concessions and sausages and stuff, and easy and easy at you get off the subway, you’re right there. No fuss, no muss. I don’t have a problem with Comiskey Park.
James JY Young 02:17
Well, you know, at the mayor Richie Daly here, he takes train, takes care to people at a Bridgeport on the south side of the great city of Chicago. You’re
Nestor Aparicio 02:26
going back to your roots now. But you know what the White Sox and stuff? I mean, every time I’m in Chicago, I see it and I feel it. They are like the red headed stepchild, you know, they get kicked around, and the Cubs get all the love. And the bottom line is, the White Sox have done a whole lot more women than the Cubs have done over the last 2030, years. 2030,
James JY Young 02:43
years. I mean, obviously, ownership of the White Sox owns the bulls, which there are certain period of time, won quite a few championships there.
Nestor Aparicio 02:52
Well, some would say Michael Jordan won the champion. Well,
James JY Young 02:54
I mean, and then I’m, I’m standing next to those people, but they still, they still managed to assemble a team run them and keep them together and make it happen. And so they can find a Michael Jordan for the White Sox. They got it made.
Nestor Aparicio 03:07
JY, from sticks joining us. JY, what are you guys in here? I mean, look my beautiful fiance, Jens. Jen say, Hello. JY, nice to see you know we’re getting married a week from today. I know it creeped up on us kind of quickly, but you guys are coming through the week. We’re not here, which is why we came out to Vegas, which is why we were there for the sound check and all that stuff at the beginning of the tour. And, you know, I’m bumming, Ray’s getting to go to the concert. And you know, we’re gonna be, you know, probably like half naked, half drunk, laying on the beach. It’ll probably be 90 degrees. We’ll have a lot of cocktails and food. I mean, we’re just gonna be miserable not seeing the band when you guys come through this week,
James JY Young 03:41
you know? Well, I guess it were Wednesday night at the MCI. MCI,
Nestor Aparicio 03:46
yeah. And, you know, this tour is amazing, because when we went out to Vegas, like I’m asking, who’s the headliner, who’s the open i You never know. I mean, it’s journey sticks and reo and I’ll be honest to God with you, I camped out for every one of these bands. I mean, overnight, back when I was, you know, 1213, 1415, I was in that rebellious teenage period. Every one of these bands I went to see on my own to sold out capital center, if you guys, did two, three nights on the Paradise Theater tour journey, same thing on the escape tour in frontier God, when REO came out with high infidelity, it was, you know, I mean, maybe the biggest success out of all the bands, most albums sold, would keep on loving you and all that stuff. And now all three, you’re in the same place at the same time. I mean, to me, this is must see concert going. You know, all three
James JY Young 04:32
bands had a number one album in 1981 as you say, That was back in the heyday. And we were rivals back then. But, you know, people say, How do you get along these days? And it’s really sort of like you see a foreman Frazier and Ali. And that’s not to really make too many sports analogies here,
Nestor Aparicio 04:49
but make them make a more sports show. Jay, why they all, you know,
James JY Young 04:53
all those guys, they saw the world from unique vantage point that very few people share. And so they. Of a unique connection to one another, that when they’re sitting in the room, they can talk about things that nobody else will have ever experienced, and kind of a similar vibe for these three bands on the road. We, you know, we’ve, we’ve worked with a lot of people, done a lot of things, but, you know, we’ve seen the top of that mountain at one point in time, and not everybody gets there.
Nestor Aparicio 05:17
It’s funny, you bring up a boxing reference, because the last time you sat with me, you’ll never forget that, will you? I mean you and I known each other I haven’t seen yet, but I mean you and I’ve known each other like a dozen years, and this, this whole Don King thing. JY was with me at Super Bowl, at the Super Bowl, and we’re sitting in the media center. And you guys, of course, played the Super Bowl like two out of last three years, right? Yes, we did, yeah. So you guys do like the halftime
05:44
Tampa Bay, when the ravens,
Nestor Aparicio 05:50
what a great days up until my wedding.
05:54
No, no. Brandon still plays behind me. Catches a touchdown. Bed, yeah, I’m getting
Nestor Aparicio 06:02
missed. Misty. Don’t get me Misty like this. Jay, why don’t do this to me? But it’s gonna be enough of it next week when he gets married. I know. Yeah, that’d be the second greatest day. Well, maybe it’ll be a tie one and one a but JY sitting with me at the media center six months ago. We’re in in San Diego. Nice weather day, by the way, and Don King can only do my show now, so I sit Don King down with JY and I, and JY, you wanna pick the story up as to what happened? Because it was, it was classic radio. And, I
James JY Young 06:31
mean, I had never met Don King before in my life, and
Nestor Aparicio 06:34
you’re a boxing fan, right? Oh, I’m
James JY Young 06:35
a huge boxing right? But you know, ultimately, you know, you’re saying, oh, Don you know JY from six, you know Chicago? Oh, sure, I know JY from six. We go way back, you know, and he’s waving his two American flags there. And he just went on and on and on. And he eventually steered the conversation around to whatever fights he was promoting at the time, and nothing to do with the Super Bowl, but only
Nestor Aparicio 06:55
in America get JY the great sticks band.
07:00
You’ve got to send me that tape. Oh, you know, I
Nestor Aparicio 07:02
got to send you the pictures, because the pictures even more price, because you have this, this look of derangement in your eyes. Didn’t believe that it was actually happening, but only in America. Good journey. Ariel, Speed Wagon and the great six band come together, the greatest on a base city and the Windy City coming together have been pretty good. You guys should hire Don King to be your, your spokesperson for the tour. Man,
James JY Young 07:24
oh, man. Well, I know that one point in time he was Michael Jackson’s back in the victory tour days, almost 20 years ago. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 07:30
I do remember that he got into the concert business for a period of time. For you guys with the bands getting together, let’s, let’s get on this. Because REO was a Illinois thing. Sticks was an Illinois thing. Clearly, journey was what, you know, West Coast Bay Area, Santana kind of Neil shown spin off jam band kind of thing going on before the success game. Were you and REO really rivals? Means that is that, would that be fair to say that you didn’t like each other? You wanted to one up each other back in the day when you had your hair, well, your hair is kind of still long, but back in the day when you were let me exactly,
James JY Young 08:01
well, I think we felt like we were in competition with everybody. And, you know, the more we get painted with the same brush. And some, some writer in New York, you know, is trying to paint every band that comes out of the Midwest, big, surreal, Cheap Trick, blah, blah, blah, you know, it’s like they all sound the same to this guy sitting in New York City, and, you know, and we were busy trying to differentiate ourselves from them, and, you know, and granted, there are a lot of similarities, but there are also a lot of differences. And so, I mean, when you’re young, you want, Hey, you want to, we want to be noticed for who you are and what you do, and comparisons, you know, if we’d rather been a bit compared to the WHO than REO Speedwagon in our day. But, you know, in retrospect and in hindsight, you know, the bands do have, you know, a number of similarities. There still are plenty of differences, but we share, we share an amazingly common fan base, which I was really unaware of till we started touring together, back with those guys and guys in about four years ago. That was reo, right? Like, you know, when these two bands are together, one on one makes five, it’s pretty amazing. Well, it
Nestor Aparicio 09:10
really is amazing. Guys. He did DVD together, you did albums together. You would get on stage at the end shows and do mutual songs together, kind of like a symbiotic thing that Billy Joel and Elton John have created over the last 10 years, where they tour together now. And, you know, hey, if the wife likes Billy Joel and the husband likes, you know, there’s something for everybody, or a couple to go see journey, Ario and sticks and and now, even at Chicago this weekend, and Jay, why? I heard it on on the loop. I think I had the loop on for three straight days when I was in Chicago. And every five minutes they were promoting this thing you got going this weekend, because not only your bands, but 38 special, I love night Ranger, who, of course, has some ties with Tommy from right, from the band that they put together with Ted Nugent and Damn Yankees. You got heart in there this weekend. I mean, all these bad it seems to me, you guys should do a don’t take offense all the police. Saw, you know, 80s Palooza or something, that if you guys all got together in Barnstorm, maybe you’d sell even more tickets, and there’d be more of a festival thing or whatever, for geezers like myself and half geezers like my future wife, to maybe come out and see seven or eight bands. You know what I mean? Well,
James JY Young 10:15
I mean, the amazing thing is, is that we just did about 10,000 tickets up at Buffalo, where the sabers play hockey, and the Lollapalooza down the street in Syracuse had 2000 tickets sold to cancel the show.
Nestor Aparicio 10:25
It’s amazing because, yeah, Lollapalooza is in trouble this year. Yeah, and you guys are doing big business. Hey, the night out in Vegas, you couldn’t even get me a ticket. I mean, it was
James JY Young 10:33
so packed, sold out. We sold out. Joe Lewis here a few weeks ago, we’re gonna have 15,000 people tomorrow night in Chicago, sold out the place where the Timberwolves play basketball up there. And Philadelphia is going to be, you know, probably 10, 12,000 people. And I think MCI center, we’re gonna have eight, 9000 people. So it’s, yep, the the, it’s a geezers with marshals. Here we come.
Nestor Aparicio 10:54
Well, yeah, I mean, for changes for you. And I guess this is something that I find fascinating. JY, I mean, you know, I’m a sticks fan. You know, I’m a journey fan. Are you? And I’ve already admitted that I camped out for concert tickets, but like, you guys were like it when I was, like, 11 years I mean, when paradise came out, like, I was like, 1213, years old. You my favorite band the whole world, sticks and rush. Those are my bands and and, you know, to get older and to have a chance to know you and hang out and see the band and see the bands come around, and what I often wonder, have such a romance. The first concert I ever saw was a sticks concert. It was at the Baltimore Reen the babies were supposed to open up for whatever reason they had disbanded or they were sick. I don’t even know what the deal was. Was in 79 was on the cornerstone tour. I bought a tour shirt. I bought a poster. Babe was the number one song in the country when you guys came through in the winter that year, and it was the first concert I ever saw. And then I camped out for the Paradise Theater and all that stuff and in and I always have this romance about what it must have been like to tour in that era. And I see these movies, like the one that Cameron Crowe did about the rock stars, and I see Led Zeppelin, and the song remains the same. And you know, the old videos of what it was like to tour being a rock and roll band and kiss does a lot of stuff with their stuff in the 70s. How much has it changed in 25 years to put a bus out to be a band that’s out on the road right now and certainly a little older, you know, maybe not the same kind of energy you had at that point. But what was it like, and how much has it changed over 25 years touring and being in a rock band that plays concert arenas and people line up for your tickets and autographs and all that stuff.
James JY Young 12:26
Well, I’d say, you know, there was really, for us, particularly when your audience is teenaged and college age, there truly can be, like a mania thing. But I think, I think those kind of mania moments are a little bit less prevalent now, because music back then was the only real art form that was sort of there for young people. And movies are really made with older people in mind. They had, they hadn’t really until MTV, in a way, they almost didn’t get into sort of targeting, you know, stuff like that.
Nestor Aparicio 13:00
Anyway, let’s be honest. I mean paradise, theater and cornerstone. I mean your heyday, so to speak. There were no video games. There were barely arcades. They were just getting started up. There was no Internet, yeah, no cell phones, none of that kind of stuff. So music
James JY Young 13:12
was at the center of almost every young person’s life. And pop music, rock music, what have you. So it was an incredible time and so, so there, I mean, now there’s tons of things compete with. And I’ve got a friend who’s a huge music fan. Grew up in the South Side of Chicago. His 12 year old son really isn’t in the music he kind of, you know, plays his video games, got his computer on, he’s on the internet and, and that’s what he’s into. You know, it shocks me that. But it may just very well be that there is no you know, that maybe, you know, I to me rock at its core is about starts with teenage rebellion, and ultimately, you know, it always has to get back to them. That’s why I think rap music was so successful, because it was the next most radical thing after what we did in the 70s and 80s. And then this is anger met rap metal, kind of a thing that’s sort of come along. I mean, it’s, it’s all, I think a lot of people just can’t connect with all that anger. I mean, it’s certainly there, but it’s when it’s so over the top. I think it said, Well, I’m, you know, I’m angry, but I’m not that angry, right? Kind of a thing. So I think they turn their interest to other places. Probably, you know, they just something else is speaking to them louder than the music is
Nestor Aparicio 14:29
for you, with the thought of going on the road and getting on a tour bus at this point, could you imagine 25 years ago that you’d be doing it and doing it with bands that you clearly admitted were rivals of yours at that time, and they were, you know, you walked in, you had $10 or $8 to plunk down on an album. You could buy escape, or you could buy high fidelity, you could buy Paradise Theater. Some people bought all three. But at the end of the day, if you only had money for one, you had to pick
James JY Young 14:52
one. Well, you know, we’ve got, there’s some hated rivalries here, and to think that someone can go from playing for the Chicago bear. And and then the next year, they wind up playing for the Packers in the in the era of free agency. Now they sure as heck are entitled to do that. We want to see, you know, people be able to better themselves economically if someone’s willing to pay them more. But it destroys that feeling that we used to have of, you know what? And you know the kill those cheese heads. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 15:22
I would say for you, like I said, with the touring and getting around, is it easier today than it was 25 years ago? I mean, putting a show on for people and and really your shows all about the music at this point. I mean, there are no skyrockets or bombs or not too much with the video or and if you do it, it’s a lot easier to do. You guys always drop the disco ball during Come Sail Away. Been doing that for 25 years. Is it easier getting around and playing now?
James JY Young 15:47
Well, you know, not that we’re in our very late 40s. It, you know, it takes a little more energy. You have to basically conserve your energy after the show in ways we didn’t have to worry about 20 years ago. But, you know, there’s still nothing like those two hours I spend on stage every night. There’s, you know, it’s like you’re scoring, you know, you use get the winning touchdown at the Super Bowl every night when we take that stage, that’s how the crowd treats us.
Nestor Aparicio 16:17
So people want to know, who’s the opener, who’s the closer, who’s the I mean, who’s the star? The Oreo sticks journey show,
James JY Young 16:24
I think you know it. Journey has overall sold the most albums. And I think their success sort of went later into the 80s, when people were selling more albums, because we sort of broke up in 83 and I think Ario, after high in fidelity, did sort of paper it off pretty quickly as well. So journey, journey really legitimately, I think, closes every show because they’ve sold more records and and honestly they, they said, hey, you know, journey was having a hard time finding, you know, a package to put together that that the promoters would get excited about. And when we finally were added to the package, and we exacted a very large price from them to add us to this whole thing, you know, that’s when promoters were very interested in saying, Okay, now you’ve got the thing that you really need any journey and stick together and REO thrown in for good measure. So it’s, you know, I’m happy to let journey try and follow these two great bands every night. They’ve got to, you know, they’ve got to go on after people whose average age in the audience is probably 35 to 40 years old, they go on the stage at, you know, the earliest, maybe 10 o’clock at night, and try and keep people’s interest on a Thursday night or Tuesday night or Wednesday night, like it’s going to be next week, they got a tall order,
Nestor Aparicio 17:44
and folks got a few few cocktails in, and probably at that point too. Jay why from sticks hanging out. Let me just get a little news out here. Kobe Bryant, charged today with rape out in Colorado, or sexual assault. Excuse me, I guess that’s a politically correct term for it. He now has admitted that he was guilty of adultery, but not of rape. We just spoke with the Lakers. PR, the team is preparing a general statement you’re going to be hearing reading about this for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks to come. JY, it’s almost like a whole like, and I know you’re an NBA guy too, being in Chicago. I mean, this is a whole, OJ, thing going to happening. I mean, this, the media is going to get a hold of this, and it’s just this thing’s going to get ugly before it’s all over with. Well,
James JY Young 18:21
you know, I think that, you know, who knows I’m there’s two sides to every story and and we’re
Nestor Aparicio 18:29
gonna get 100 sides once immediate. I
18:32
don’t think the mailman can help him out here. So, yeah, I
Nestor Aparicio 18:34
don’t think there’s a question about that. JY, last thing for you, I was at Chicago All Star game the whole bit during the course of the week in Chicago, being a great sports city, and every time I spent time out there, it always amazes me how rabid sports still is there, and especially the rabid nature for baseball. Because, I mean, in Baltimore, it’s it’s kind of weaned off, dying off a little bit with the losing and that sort of thing. Yet the cubs are famous for losing. The White Sox, to some degree, are famous for not winning, and and yet it continues on every time I’m there, Hope springs eternal. And I see this just incredible passion for sports, and I hear the outcry of what’s happened to Soldier Field. Now, I’m not even from Chicago, and I got no use for the bears, but what they did to that stadium, who put the spaceship in the
19:16
middle of flying saucer land in the middle of Soldier Field, it looks like
Nestor Aparicio 19:21
aliens are about to come out onto the field. It’s crazy. But for you to speak to that a little bit being an old line Chicago sports fan and a guy who you know follows the teams and has a real passion for all things Chicago,
James JY Young 19:32
well, you know, we, we were the last day at Comiskey Park. We were we were there. And I know you’ve already said good things about it previously to me getting on the air here, but we were there the last day, and we sang, Take Me Out to the Ball game of the seventh inning stretch, or whatever we did. And you know, the park seemed so beautiful that day, and the idea that they were tearing it down just blew my mind. And see the spaceship land. And so Jeff field it,
Nestor Aparicio 20:04
you know, I mean, and it’s easy Chicago stadium come down to, I mean, the whole thing.
James JY Young 20:07
I mean, I still have this mental picture in my mind, because we rehearsing right near the Chicago stadium of that thing being knocked down. And such incredible things happened there. You know, there’s political conventions going back to the, you know, to 1896 that happened at the Chicago stadium, they’re knocking this damn thing down. It just, it’s sad, and it’s sad what happens in the name of progress? And
Nestor Aparicio 20:31
it’s really the changing of the guards, unbelievable there. I mean, when you know, 15 years ago, you walk in, there’s the stadium, there’s Comiskey, there’s Wrigley, and there’s the old soldier. Now you go in, it’s a whole different gig now, is it not?
James JY Young 20:42
Yeah, it is. Well, I guess, I guess, who’s ever tried to stop it? You know, there’s lots of things we try and stop that we can’t stop these days. And so, yeah, you got a rule with the
Nestor Aparicio 20:54
change is, baby, there you go. The best of times are yet ahead Absolutely. Hey, Jay, why it’s always a pleasure. I’m so sorry. We’re gonna miss the show, but we, you know, we’re gonna do we’re gonna take some sticks Mario, some journey. We’re gonna crank it up right there in the room as as maybe some most tribute attribute to you guys while we’re on vacation. What do you think of that sounds like a wonderful, wonderful and by the way, the best of times is a part of our wedding, just to let you know. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Well, yeah, we really appreciate the friendship. And you coming on, and we’ll see you somewhere down the road. Man, you got it, right? You got it? Give our best to the sticks band. All right, tell Glenn. I said, What’s up? All right, see you later. Man, all right. JY out, and we got to go get Melvin Moore, because Melvin’s in at the ballpark. Jeter standing by with the all star. Melvin Moore, you.
