The move paid off almost immediately, as REO found their niche by streamlining their sound and focusing on melodic rockers aimed at radio, as well as power ballads aimed at teenage girls' hearts. They named the band REO Speedwagon, from the REO Speed Wagon, a flatbed truck Doughty had studied in transportation history, and the initials are those of its founder Ransom E. Olds. Between 1973 and 1975, Murphy would go on to record three albums with REO. But it was a really important song for me, very personal. Gary Richrath reunited with REO one final time for a performance of "Ridin' the Storm Out" to end REO's set at the sold-out concert. Three bands were the undisputed arena rock kings of the early '80s -- Styx, Journey, and REO Speedwagon -- yet all weren't overnight success stories (in fact, each group initially pursued different musical styles -- prog rock, fusion, and straight-ahead hard rock, respectively, before transforming slowly into chart-topping mainstream rockers). lead singer of reo speedwagon. On his first night, he met another student, Alan Gratzer. When I got the call I was ready to go. Ridin' the storm out Waitin' for the thaw outOn a full moon night in the rocky mountain winterMy wine bottle's low watching for the snowThinking 'bout what I. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. I had a business manager even before the Hi Infidelity money started coming in. Mike Murphy, REO Speedwagon's lead singer from 1973 -1975 is still recovering after being hit by a car while riding his bike. Formed in 1966, the band cultivated a following during the 1970s and achieved significant commercial success throughout the 1980s. What did you think of these bands? [4] Paul Leka, an East Coast record producer, brought the band to his recording studio in Bridgeport, Connecticut where it recorded original material for its first album. Its kind of crazy. It just appeared there on the paper. REO Speedwagon continued to tour in the back half of the 2010s, often teaming up on bills featuring Styx and Chicago. Mike Murphy (musician) (1946-2006), American drummer for the Bee Gees and Chicago Michael Bryan Murphy, lead singer of REO Speedwagon Michael John Murphy, American folk musician Mike L. Murphy (born 1975), American film maker and animator Michael Murphy (singer) (born 1986), New Zealand Idol runner up AllMusic. That period of the group's history continues to be a . He is, however, still considered an official member of the band. Not all of those were big hits, of course. At 14 I was in bands with kids a few years older. At the end of the Doors song "Touch Me," Jim Morrison chants, "Stronger than dirt!" So when they fired me it was more of a relief than anything else. Mike Murphy is a former award-winning Canadian Football League fullback.. Career. There was plenty of collateral damage that came with our success. Yeah. Hi Infidelity would eventually go on to sell more than nine million copies -- catapulting REO to arena-headlining status. [9] On July 13, on the way to a show in Milwaukee, the band made a stop in Philadelphia to play at the US leg of Live Aid, which broke a record for number of viewers. REO Speedwagon continues to tour regularly, performing mostly their classic hits. #19). . [5] Ridin' the Storm Out was completed with Michael Bryan Murphy on lead vocal, and it featured Neal Doughty's "wailing storm siren" synthesizer intro on the title track. He was replaced by Kevin Cronin who recorded one album with the band, 1972s R.E.O./T.W.O. 112112 30 comments Share The Midwestern United States was the original REO Speedwagon fan stronghold and is pivotal in this period of the band's history. John Aldridge, Bryan Hitt's drum tech since July 2005, performed additional percussion parts live from around July 2005 until around February 2017. In a 2001 episode of VH1's Behind the Music series that focused on REO Speedwagon, Cronin and Richrath cleared up any misconceptions of ill will existing between either camp and voiced approval of a possible reunion in the future. The album includes a new composition by Stephen Stills, "Open Up", which was never recorded by Stills himself or any of his bands, although "Know You Got to Run" from Stephen Stills 2 is essentially an embryonic version of the song. The first track REO recorded featuring Bruce's vocals was Back On the Road Again from 1979, which was also a successful single. Did drugs and alcohol play a part in that? Do you think? Was there a pivotal moment in the making of Hi Infidelity? Mike Murphy version (From "Ridin' The Storm Out") = Left ChannelKevin Cronin version (From "A Decade of Rock and Roll - 1970 to 1980") = Right Channeli had t. The band released a self-financed album entitled Find Your Own Way Home in April 2007. Everything else was falling apart around us, so the band became our primary relationship. I still feel like Im trying to get that ultimate performance of Cant Fight This Feeling. The only thing that makes me a little crazy about that song is the vocal performance I recorded. Well, the thing about REO is we kept our personal lives private. On January 4, 2023, the band announced their sole original member Neal Doughty would be retiring from the band after 55 years. on which he wrote 3 tracks including Music Man. The members returned to school in the fall of 1967 and had their first rehearsal before classes started. Michael went on to perform with such noteworthy groups as Chuck E. Weiss & The Goddamn Liars, and Billy Vera and the Beaters. Maybe too much, Your lyrics in that song are at times venomous: You played dead/But you never bled/Instead you lay still in the grass/All coiled up and hissin. Kevin first joined REO Speedwagon in 1972 for the album R.E.O./T.W.O. Speedwagon) is an American rock band from Champaign, Illinois. We kept our eye on the ball. It needed that nasty guitar tone. The idea was to sound like a British kid on speed. "Son of a Poor Man" and "Ridin' the Storm Out" were featured on the live album Live: You Get What You Play For. The 1990 release The Earth, a Small Man, His Dog and a Chicken, with Bryan Hitt (formerly of Wang Chung) on drums, was a commercial disappointment. The members returned to school in the fall of 1967, and had their first rehearsal before classes even started. After I heard The Byrds and Mr Tambourine Man, I had to play a 12-string Rickenbacker. Daniel replies, "What kind of man doesn't!" Then I saw The Beatles and it all made sense. Was there a defining moment when you realised youd had enough of drugs? REO Speedwagon ultimately self-financed this effort, which failed to chart. Rather than pronouncing REO as a single word as the motor company did ("REE-oh"), they chose to spell the word out, pronouncing each letter individually ("R-E-O"). That record was made more on my terms than Garys. REO Speedwagon is an American hard rock band from Champaign, Illinois. They were riff-oriented, a hard rock band, like Deep Purple. It peaked at number 74 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1975,[3] It was the third and last album to feature Mike Murphy on vocals and features the single "Reelin'" written by Murphy. Its true there were a lot of bands making melodic hard rock, and we felt a kinship with them. I wrote the verses in 1974, but the chorus I had was just horrible. Hi Infidelity REO Speedwagon 2005.10.07. He also owned the The REO Motor Truck Company, which made a model in 1915 called the Speedwagon, a forerunner to the pickup truck. BA1 1UA. Gregg Philbin died on October 24, 2022.[27]. I was freaking out because I feared I would lose my voice permanently. Doughty started to follow around Gratzer's band, eventually sitting in on a song or two. By the early '70s, Doughty and Gratzer had welcomed aboard guitarist Gary Richrath, who would soon prove to be the group's spark plug (and one of rock's more underrated players), in addition to bassist Gregg Philbin and singer Terry Luttrell. Greg never recorded/toured with the band, but rehearsed. Don't care for Kevin Cronin's attitude anyway and don't listen to them anymore. He said his piece and Im glad that he got that out. Oh, no. In early 1989, Gary Richrath was fired after tensions between him and Kevin Cronin boiled over. Post Malone came up with "White Iverson" after getting braids in his hair and thinking they looked like basketball legend Allen Iverson's signature cornrows. He then recorded two more albums with them, Lost in a Dream and This Time We Mean It . And soon Lear and Joseph was replaced by Bryan Hitt (formerly of Wang Chung) and Dave Amato. On the last day of the university's spring semester, guitarist Joe Matt called the band's leader and told him that he and the other members (Gratzer and bassist Mike Blair) had decided to start a new band with Doughty where everyone but Doughty would sing. Thats where it all coalesced for us. ", A monthly update on our latest interviews, stories and added songs. The group's best-selling album, Hi Infidelity (1980), contained four US top 40 hits and sold more than 10 million copies.[1]. [4] The album was released in 1978 and has received FM radio airplay over the years, thanks to songs like "Roll with the Changes" and "Time for Me to Fly". We were in the midst of a four-night stand at the International Amphitheater in Chicago the biggest music venue in the city at the time. Ive got three teenage kids at home. REO had this power and I didnt want to mess with that. Gary didnt think that much of that song, but I heard something in it. The most important thing was our performances and making good records. But he was never a good fit for REO Speedwagon. For the first time in your life, you were making serious money. It took me 10 years to finish that song! It was right after Elton Johns Madman Across The Water was released, and there was a song on it, Holiday Inn, that I used to sing it in folk clubs in Chicago. 20032015 It peaked at number 171 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1981,[1] and reached platinum status in 1989. With interest at an all-time low, REO were set to pack it up for good until a sudden wave of renewed interest in classic rock bands of yesteryear began to sweep the U.S. during the late '90s, resulting in REO launching successful co-headlining tours alongside such acts as Styx, Fleetwood Mac, Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Bad Company, among others. But it bombed, peaking at No.159 on the US Billboard chart. And I was an only child till I was seven, when my parents adopted three children. 65. Freelance writer for Classic Rock since 2005, Paul Elliott has worked for leading music titles since 1985, including Sounds, Kerrang!, MOJO and Q. Hi Infidelity (1980) contained four US Top 40 hits and is the group's best-selling album, with over ten million copies sold. He is now walking in rehab and therapy. Though it did not chart as an album, it produced two singles which appeared on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart. Ridin' the Storm Out is the third studio album by REO Speedwagon, released in 1973. It peaked at number 171 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1981, [1] and reached platinum status in 1989. Your comeback was the REO album. Part of rocknroll is being irresponsible, experimenting and all that good stuff. [14] On December 2, the band released an online video game, Find Your Own Way Home, produced by digital design agency Curious Sense. 29. I dont know that there will be a next one. Richrath stayed on stage to help with the encore of "With a Little Help From My Friends" along with REO, Styx, Richard Marx, and others. The band was formed by Gratzer and Doughty, who were students at the University of Illinois. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [8] Hi Infidelity spawned four hit singles written by Richrath and Cronin, including the chart-topping "Keep On Loving You" (Cronin),[4] plus "Take It on the Run" (#5) (Richrath), "In Your Letter" (#20) (Richrath), and "Don't Let Him Go" (#24) (Cronin), and remained on the charts for 65 weeks, 32 of which were spent in the top ten, including 15 weeks atop the Billboard 200. All five of us suffered, some more than others. He also spent time touring with classic artists Johnny Rivers, Seals & Crofts, as well as the Blue Hawaiians. Nine Lives was another Top 40 album. That, I think, is what Im most proud of. He is the author of several books including the first biography of Guns N Roses and the autobiography of bodyguard-to-the-stars Danny Francis. The album title. Weve been able to sustain this band for 40 years, Cronin says. Theres a lot of emotion running through you, and we were all caught up in that energy. They grew in popularity in the Midwestern United States during the early 1970s and peaked in popularity in the early 1980s. What are you, Barry Manilow? Thats what the song sounded like at first. He is now walking in rehab and therapy. I said: I think The Beatles already did a song called that! But the chorus started with Take it on the run I said: Theres your title! And of course, that song had one of the greatest opening lines in rock history: Heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from another you been messin around I wish Id written that! [8] Original drummer Alan Gratzer left in September 1988 after he decided to retire from music to open a restaurant. When REO returned to the studio later in the 2000s, however, it was without Richrath. ", When he joined Guns N' Roses in 1990, Matt helped them craft an orchestral sound; his mezzo fortes and pianissimos are all over "November Rain. Epic agreed to let them produce the band's first live album, Live: You Get What You Play For, which was eventually certified platinum. The two held an impromptu jam session in the basement of their Illinois Street Residence Hall dormitory.[2][3]. Released in 1976, R.E.O. ", which was released that same year. Leon Huffman from Casey, Il I saw REO Speedwagon several times in the 70's and they were great. I was a guitar teacher. In early 1968, Terry Luttrell became lead singer, and Bob Crownover joined as the guitar player, replacing Matt. But as a band, we bought an oil well in Southern Illinois [laughs]. Champaign, Champaign County, Illinois, United States. After that, Miles Joseph and the back up singers were dropped in favor of former Ted Nugent guitarist Dave Amato (who was brought aboard in May 1989) and keyboardist/songwriter/producer Jesse Harms. The lineup on the first album consisted of Richrath, Gratzer, Doughty, Philbin, and Luttrell.[4]. Did you take much persuading to rejoin REO in '76? I often think: Hey, did you listen to the verses? But what I learned with that song was that the more you expose of your life, the more people will relate to it. REO Speedwagon frontman Kevin Cronin admits that the band made a major mistake at the start of the 1980s. Well, that record didnt do as well as wed hoped. I kept playing it over and over until, one day, Gary plugged in his Les Paul and hit these big chords. Did you see them as competition? I wanted to give him a chance to really vent his feelings about the present, the past, whatever. REO Speedwagon: Spotify Amazon: 2 : Throw the Chains Away. The first lineup consisted of Doughty on keyboards, Gratzer on drums and vocals, Joe Matt on guitar and vocals, Mike Blair on bass and vocals. The sessions started out with Kevin Cronin, but he left the band before the album was finished, due to creative differences. REO opted to soldier on, however, with replacement members Dave Amato (ex-Ted Nugent, guitar) and Bryan Hitt (ex-Wang Chung, drums) in tow, as their 14-track 1988 compilation The Hits proved to be a steady seller over the years. The lead singer on "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Then He Kissed Me," La La explains how and why Phil Spector replaced The Crystals with Darlene Love on "He's A Rebel.". In 1979, the band took a turn back to hard rock with the release of Nine Lives.[4]. We werent prepared for the level of success and how quickly our lives changed. Vannelli also performed additional piano, Hammond organ, and synthesizer on the 2007 album. Rumors began circulating around 2001 that Richrath would temporarily rejoin; however, nothing came of this. He also planned to return to the band in 2016, but stomach problems and his death on September 13, 2015, prevented him from returning to the group. This is the lineup featured on the quintet's 1971 self-titled debut recording for Epic Records. Kevin Cronin net worth: Kevin Cronin is an America musician who has a net worth of $25 million. Back up singers Carla Day and Melanie Jackson were also added. Bassist Bruce Hall stated that he would always be part of the REO brotherhood, and left open the opportunity for Doughty to appear at select dates. And Lou Gramm [ex-Foreigner singer] has one of the greatest rock voices in history. I spend half the year touring, and to come home and spend the next half year in the studio I dont think its on the cards. . Michael Murphy, Lead Singer, Guitar - REO Speedwagon show with Gregg "Regis" Philbin and Gary Richrath. But as the years went by, he wasnt back and the band started taking on a new momentum, with Dave playing guitar and Brian playing drums. REO Speedwagon continues to tour regularly, performing mostly their classic hits. R.E.O. But in defence of my over-use of the rhyme, I wrote that chorus in 15 minutes. The name "REO Speedwagon" refers to Ransom Eli Olds, the founder of Oldsmobile. Your second No.1 hit, Cant Fight This Feeling, came four years after Keep On Loving You. Lear had already been invited to join REO in September 1988 as Gratzer's successor and Joseph was brought in as a temporary stand-in for Richrath. Richrath was originally from the town of East Peoria which was damaged during the storm. I opened for The Eagles, and could carry an audience of 3,000 by myself. Speedwagon ), or simply REO, is an American rock band from Champaign, Illinois. Speedwagon, was released on Epic Records in 1971. Notably, these five band members have been together since 1989. Since 1995, the label has released over a dozen compilation albums featuring greatest hits, including 1999's The Ballads which features two new songs: "Just for You" (Cronin and Jim Peterik) and "Till The River's Run Dry" (Cronin). This becomes a bonding moment for the two characters, who were previously enemies in the "Karate Kid" movies. Paul Leka, an East Coast record producer, brought the band to his recording studio in Bridgeport, Connecticut where it recorded original material for its first album. Michael Murphy is the former keyboard player and lead singer for REO Speedwagon from 1973-76. And that chorus featured a rhyming scheme of truly epic proportions: I cant fight this feeling anymore/Ive forgotten what I started fighting for/Its time to bring this ship into the shore/And throw away the oars, forever And if I have to crawl upon the floor/Come crashing through your door/Baby I cant fight this feeling anymore. Seriously, Kevin, do you think you might have over-egged the pudding there? But creatively, it fuels the fire. signaled the beginning of the veteran group's winning streak, as both 1977's Live: You Get What You Play For and 1978's You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish were REO's first to earn gold and platinum certification. Mike Murphy is a tremendous singer, a redheaded Irishman with a feel for R'n'B, and a great guy. It was some years ago when we were touring in South America. Did you panic? I was around 12 years old when The Beatles played on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was never recorded or anything, but when I think back on it, it had some decent chord changes and it had a story. It was the first album to feature Mike Murphy on vocals. Bruce used to sing Back On The Road Again with his own band in Champaign. REO remains a popular live band which tours steadily throughout the U.S. and worldwide. But in your line of work, a turbulent love life helps the creative process. The REO portion of the show was released again under three separate titles: Live - Plus (2001), Live Plus 3 (2001) and Extended Versions (2001) (which was certified gold by the RIAA on April 26, 2006). What did the band sound like then? Still fronted by longtime vocalist Cronin, currently the only original member in the 21st century touring lineup is keyboardist Neil Doughty. They are from Champaign, Illinois. Richrath had driven 100 miles (160km) to see the band and become a part of it, saying "I'm going to be a part of that band whether they like it or not." Kevin Cronin was offered a job as an MTV VJ before the network went on the air, but he turned it down since there was no way to stay in the band at the same time. Both men begin nodding their heads to the song, and Johnny, with some amount of surprise, says to Daniel, "You like Speedwagon?" But the guys thought I was being a prima donna. I bared a lot of my soul in my song writing, and I didnt feel that the way we lived our lives was anybodys business. I never did then and I dont to this day. REO Speedwagon/Lead singers. Ridin' the Storm Out was completed with Michael Bryan Murphy on the microphone. Or why not treat yourself? but left the band during the recording sessions for 1973's Ridin' the Storm Out because of internal conflicts. And when I got the call from Gary Richrath about joining REO, I was driving a yellow cab in Chicago. They already had one album, and I didnt really see how my songs were going to fit into their approach. Another live album, Live Again, was also issued in 1978, followed up a year later by another gold . The concert was held on December 4, 2013, in Bloomington, Illinois. Richrath (the band) continued to perform for several years before disbanding in the late 1990s.

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