Styx Guitarist Discusses Divisive ‘Mr. Roboto’

STYX guitarist James Young says the band’s 1983 single “Mr. Roboto” killed a whole lot of people’s interest in their music, but spawned a second generation of fans.More »

By mcarthurtiptoptux@comcast.net on January 8, 2019

STYX guitarist James Young says the band’s 1983 single “Mr. Roboto” killed a whole lot of people’s interest in their music, but spawned a second generation of fans. “Pre-teens and early teens, whoever made that a gold single. Our merch guy would tell us, ‘People are wondering why you don’t play ‘Mr. Roboto.’ And I would say, ‘Well, that’s Dennis’ song. Let Dennis have that.’ But this is our 20th concert season without Dennis, And if this is what the fans want, then let’s do it, but let’s do it up right,” he said in a new interview. Young said that he had warned when former STYX singer Dennis DeYoung came up with the idea about the robot music that the band risked alienating its male audience. “And it all went bad. It cut our album sales in half because the male audience was absolutely alienated by ‘Mr. Roboto.’ Not all of them but a large chunk. And our concert tickets were down from sold-out arenas in 1981,” he told AZCentral. Copyright(c) 2019 RTTNews.com. All Rights ReservedLess «