Dennis DeYoung

"I've gotten more notoriety in the last three months than I ever got in 12 years with Styx....I knew I could make a record. I was involved with the majority of production on Styx's records, and I wrote, as it turned out, the majority of songs. Still, no matter how many records Styx sold or how successful it was, the minute you're out there by yourself, the first thing people are gonna say is, 'Yeah, sure, what'd he have to do with it anyway?'"

"I'd prefer to go out and do a small, 1,500-seat room, and play my own music by myself. But in some ways, being the support act does take the financial burden and the pressure of going out and headlining for the first time off your shoulders. Being a support act is not an easy job. You have less time to develop your personality, unfold the whole character of your performance and play the music you want to play."

"I try to be honest in what I wrote. In the long run, it's the honesty of the lyrics that reaches people, that seems somehow to translate experience. If I put myself in the framework of a song, I can respond to it emotionally. Generally, if I get an idea, I'll go to the piano and fool around with it. but I won't just go to the piano every day of my life and try to write songs. To get any sort of perspective you have to getaway from it for a while then come back. Especially when you're doing something creative, you just can't be doing the same thing all the time."--Dennis DeYoung (Rock! December 1984)

I have only one thing to offer people through my music and that is my point of view. When you write from such a personal perspective, not everyone is going to agree with your views and not everyone is going to like your songs. Like a journalist, a songwriter has a style and some people like it and some people don't...that's life. Some people love my music and some don't, so I concern myself with those who do. Why do them and myself a disservice by trying to write something that's not really me for people who don't like what I doin the first place."

"It has been my experience that the more honest I am in my lyrics, the more successful the song is. Whether I am talking about politics or religion or love or the media, if I am expressing something that I really believe and feel, people respond."--Dennis DeYoung (Songwriter)

DeYoung wrote all seven of Styx's Top 10 singles. When Tommy Shaw (of Styx) wanted to do a solo album, Dennis DeYoung approached A&M Records which offered him a three album deal.

For Desert Moon, DeYoung told RPM, "Styx had decided to take a year off, and the record company (A&M) approached me about a solo album...then we took it from there.," and  "I tried writing the best songs that I could and then chose the best of those for the album."