Honoring the Legacy of REO Speedwagon

I suppose I should have known the saga of REO Speedwagon couldn't end with a whimper. Before I get into the latest developments, here's a brief review of what's happened so far:

• In September 2024 came the announcement that the band was effectively breaking up at the end of the year. Apparently, frontman Kevin Cronin ruled that bassist Bruce Hall was no longer fit to continue touring following back surgery in summer 2024. Hall felt otherwise. Here we learned that REO had essentially become a three-way partnership between Cronin, Hall, and Doughty (who retired from touring in January 2023) following the departure of original members Alan Gratzer and Gary Richrath in 1988. Doughty sided with Hall, so Cronin was outvoted 2-1. No Bruce Hall, no REO Speedwagon.
• In December 2024 Cronin revealed he would continue performing REO Speedwagon songs with the two musicians who replaced Doughty and Hall, as well as Brian Hitt and Dave Amato (who replaced Gratzer and Richrath), with the only difference being the name; indeed, the setlists for the band's last show as REO Speedwagon and their first as the Kevin Cronin Band were nearly identical. The band announced plans to tour in spring and summer 2025 with Styx and Don Felder.

It wasn't necessarily simple, but it was a quiet end. And I honestly thought that was it. I should have known better. In the summer of 2019 I took on the task of learning about REO's entire history, and writing about each of their seventeen albums, from 1971's self-titled debut through 2007's Find Your Own Way Home (the two records, tellingly, feature only one player in common, and even then just barely; Neal Doughty appears on one track on the 2007 album). If I learned anything from the project, it's that REO never did anything the easy way.

To that point, in March 2025 came a mysterious announcement of a show to be held in June at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois, the college town where REO began. The poster for "Honoring the Legacy of REO Speedwagon" featured six names: Neal Doughty, Alan Gratzer, Bruce Hall, Terry Luttrell, Mike Murphy, and Steve Scorfina. In other words, every living significant member of REO Speedwagon except Cronin, Amato, and Hitt (Richrath died in 2015; original bassist Gregg Philbin in 2022). I was intrigued by several things. One was that the event was using the band name. Another was that Cronin was now the odd man out. And yet another was the question of just how exactly they could pull this off.

I bought a ticket - this wasn't something I felt I could miss - but kept my expectations low. This is a bunch of guys in their '70s, most of them with significant rust built up over the years; only Luttrell, Scorfina, and Hall had continued performing on a regular basis. They would be without the most recognizable voice in the band, and they'd be without a guitar player who knew their most recognizable songs (Scorfina left REO before they even recorded their first album). 

The State Farm Center is the arena where the University of Illinois basketball team plays, and as a concert venue has hosted the likes of the Rolling Stones, Prince, and U2. It's no small potatoes venue. Since this concert was created as a charity event benefiting the Moffitt Cancer Center, apparently the U of I donated the use of the space, which is amazing. And I was immediately impressed by the stage set-up. One huge screen in the middle with two smaller ones flanking it, multi-level risers with built-in LEDs. Again, they didn't scrimp on this. Once I realized the reason the band members had decided to do this concert, it all made sense. It was a farewell.

"This event was created to provide the founding fathers, original singers and classic REO lineup a chance to reunite and say a proper goodbye, [and] a chance to honor Gary Richrath and Gregg Philbin's memory." Hall told the website Ultimate Classic Rock. 

That this concert was to be a celebration was clear from the start. Proceedings began with an acapella rendition of the national anthem by the Nashville-based three-piece Levon, whose harmonies were goosebumps-inducing. Then, the REO Classics Band took the stage. Led by 78-year-old Terry Luttrell, the polished group ran through four songs from REO's early days as a boogie woogie protest band - "Son of a Poor Man," "Gypsy Woman's Passion," "Anti-Establishment Man," and "Golden Country." Each was accompanied by some storytelling by Luttrell, and "Gypsy Woman's Passion" featured guest guitarist Scorfina. While his voice didn't have the power it did 50 years ago, Luttrell still had all of his frontman moves. 

Next were two nicely-produced short video tributes to Philbin and Richrath. The latter included a priceless interview clip from the early '80s in which Richrath talks about the wild success of the Hi Infidelity album. When the interviewer asked if they had a big party when the album went to number 1, and Richrath quickly responded with a single word, a boyish "yes" that told the whole story. The crowd loved it.

From there the real event began. Hall, Doughty, Gratzer, and Murphy took the stage accompanied by the three members of Levon, the latter being the answer to my question about how the band would solve the guitar-and-vocals dilemma. The seven-piece group launched immediately into "Ridin' the Storm Out." Murphy took lead vocals (as he did on the 1973 album version), with significant support from Hall and the three Levon guys. Honestly, it sounded a bit sloppy, and I worried that was going to be indicative  of the rest of the evening.

But it only got better from there. The group ran through some surprising song choices, including two Richrath-penned tunes - "Sing To Me" from 1978's You Can Tune a Piano... album and "Only the Strong Survive" from 1979's Nine Lives - and the Hall composition "Let's Be-Bop" from 1982's Good Trouble. These tunes were bolstered by support from Gary's son Eric Richrath on guitar and Hall's daughter Sara "Sass" Siders on vocals. Most unexpected, but quite welcome, was a rendition of 1974's "Lost in a Dream," which was cowritten by Murphy and Hall before the latter was even in REO. Here, Murphy took lead vocals for the final time, though he'd stick around to play keys on several subsequent songs.

From there the setlist was fairly predictable - "Time for Me to Fly," "Can't Fight This Feeling," "Take It On the Run," "Keep On Lovin' You," etc. - with one exception. About halfway through the show, Alan Gratzer took the mic and talked about how he and Doughty started the band in 1967 as students at the U of I. They began, as many did, as a cover band, and they started by learning the Doors' first album. In tribute to those origins, they proceeded to perform "Twentieth Century Fox" with Gratzer ably taking lead vocals. It was a signature moment for Gratzer, who despite having been retired for 37 years looked and sounded like he'd never left. And he clearly enjoyed it, remarking, "I can't believe I had to be talked into doing this."

The hits sounded great, with the Levon guys taking turns on lead vocals and providing heavenly harmonies. Ryan Hollady more than did Richrath's guitar parts justice. A particular highlight was Bruce Hall's transcendent "Back on the Road Again," for which Hall's son Timmy joined on drums and vocals. If it hadn't been apparent before, it became so during this song: The night belonged to Hall. 

Not only did Hall seem to have been the mastermind behind the event, the proceeds were going to the cancer center that saved Hall's son's life in 2017. Every time he took the mic between songs, the fans yelled out support and/or screamed his name. Though never getting into details, he alluded to the situation with Cronin a few times acknowledging the sadness of the fact of "in all reality, this is REO’s last show." But he let optimism win. "I gotta tell ya something," he said a bit later, "As hard as it's all been for everybody, including me, don't forget that love will cure you. I'm counting on that." As the concert went on it became clear the healing effect the experience was having on him. "I don't want this night to end," he added at another point.

The show culminated in a rousing and fitting "Roll With the Changes," for which family members of the band streamed onto the stage to dance and sing along. That was followed by an all-hands-on-deck encore of "157 Riverside Ave" the band's 1971 ode to where they stayed while recording their first album.

So, yes, I enjoyed the show quite a bit and I'm very glad I went. I only have three complaints, really. One is the A.I.-generated artwork that accompanied several of the songs on the big screen. It was garish and distracting. The other is that the band didn't find a place for at least one post-1984 song. I'm guessing this was because the last four albums were so heavily dominated by Cronin, but "I Don't Wanna Lose You" or "Can't Stop Rockin'" might have been nice.

The third complaint is the most complex. As touching as the show was, and as unique of an experience it was for fans, I can't call it an unqualified success because Cronin wasn't involved. Yes, they performed some of his songs, and yes I understand that this concert wouldn't even have been necessary if not for Cronin's questionable decision-making. But I can see both sides here.

On one hand I definitely believe a band is more than its songs. One guy backed by players replicating parts they didn't create flies in the face of the authenticity we hope for in rock music. But at the same time, when Gratzer and Richrath left, Hall and Doughty had no qualms about continuing to use the REO name. Hall, who himself was a replacement for original bassist Greg Philbin, remarked at the time, "as long as we had Kevin, then we had the man whose voice was the most identifiable part of the band."

Hypocrisy aside, this concert cemented for me that I'm more against Cronin than I am with him. For one thing, it's very telling that every single one of the former REO members took Bruce's side in this. For another, Cronin never gave a proper explanation for declaring Bruce unfit to perform, leaving it to seem like it's ageism (despite the fact that Cronin is a year older than Hall) or egotism or both. The final nail is that Cronin was indeed invited to participate in the concert  - virtually because of his commitments to his tour with Styx - but declined. In a Facebook post he wrote that it was all a set-up designed to make him look bad. "I am deeply disturbed and hurt by all of this," he said.

If this really is the end of REO - and one would be wise to be wary of that - it's kind of sad, but in a way both sides get what they want. Hall and company got to have their glorious farewell, and Cronin gets to continue to go out and keep pushin' on.