By: Wizard Of Roz
John Panozzo played drums for the rock band Styx. He was born on September 20, 1948, 90 minutes apart from his twin brother Chuck. He along with his brother and Dennis De Young formed Styx in the late 60’s. For three decades they made incredibly diverse successful records. John Panozzo died on July 16, 1996 from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Naturally I was devastated. I felt so lost and hurt that I would never get to see him in action again. In my personal grief, I decided to write many different magazines to see if they would write a fitting tribute. I realized that no one recognized just how brilliant a drummer he was. To my disappointment I haven’t received any response to my letters, now I have the opportunity to write my own tribute to a true giant.
John Panozzo was a musical genius. His energy and incredible creative style have bought Styx to the map. Earning him and his band mates four consecutive triple platinum albums and selling over 20 million albums world wide, securing their place in rock history. For me personally they were one of the quintessential progressive bands of the 70’s,80’s and 90’s. John’s drumming was just insane. It’s like the guys in the band would give him a song and would go “do what you think is right or what ever you want”; and boy would he ever.
From Dennis De Young’s beautiful ballads and his power house rock songs, including “Lady” from Styx II , to J.C. and Tommy Shaw’s melodic acoustic rock songs including “Cold War “ from “Kilroy Was Here” to the metal madness and excitement of J.Y.’s songs including the best drumming songs ever: “Queen of Spades ” and ‘Great White Hope” from “Pieces of Eight” and “Heavy Metal Poisoning” from “Kilroy”.
John Panozzo had absolutely no problem keeping up with four very different prolific songwriters andto top it off, had no problem keeping up with his amazing bass playing twin brother Chuck. Chuck and John, in my view, were the best rhythm section of all time, and certainly deserve a place in rock history. I discovered Styx in 1980, when I was discovering that women could play drums too.
I found everything in John that I was looking for in a male drummer.(God knows, I didn’t find any other male drummers as interesting till much later.) He didn’t sing or write any of their songs, but if you listen carefully to their material you’ll find that none of the other guys told him how to play the drums or write those incredible fills. That to me is a songwriter, even if his name doesn’t appear on the writing credits, it should have been there. He was happy and showed it. He was never worried about what show-off fill he could use to show him up. He was one of the very few drummers out there who really love drumming and the drums. He didn’t just think of it as his job (like Charlie Watts) and he didn’t just play that day because it was his job.
John was a smooth , creative and powerfully distinctive drummer. I challenge anyone to take his music on. As for my music, he has been a total inspiration and will forever be one of the all time greats. In 1991, when Styx played the Beacon Theater here in New York, I had the absolute pleasure of meeting John and Styx .Meeting John that day, made it one of the greatest days of my life, and for that brief moment I was in heaven. I was so nervous finally meeting my hero , that I didn’t get to tell him exactly how much of an inspiration he was to me. I did however, make sure that he knew that I knew he was the best. For anyone out there who doubts his ability, they should look for the “Caught In The Act Live “ double album and video, which includes the “Kilroy Was Here” movie they did for the album. This movie was his acting debut. Seeing him act in this movie, you knew he had a great sense of humor. He wasn’t one of those “stuck- up”, serious drummers that never smile, (I hate that).
John Panozzo was a beautiful man and he knew exactly what the songs needed. I’ve lost my hero and I will never ever get over that. I will never , ever forget John for giving me my extra start. I have been playing drums for 17 fun and mad years. I still have difficulty with some of his songs. There are a lot of bands that I play, including the so called “best bands” out there. None of them ever present a challenge for me like Mr. Panozzo’s music has . For this, I am saluting him by trying to live up to what he represented. I’ve never felt so awful and saddened by any one’s passing. I truly feel that I’ve lost a real “hero and legend” in my eyes (as Styx said in their 1990 hit “show me the way”) unfortunately I know I will never hear Styx the same way again but I’ll always think he’s the greatest. I know “he’s Rockin’ in Paradise”. My heart goes out to his brother Chuck , Styx and his family.
I loved him to death and always, and will truly miss him! - Wizard Of Roz
