Like I said in another post, I did not believe everything Dennis said in his interview with Andrew. The "ah shucks" kinda guy he came off as did not fit the person. Back in their hey day, I was of the opinion that Dennis had one the biggest egos in the biz (or at least that is how he came off on stage). His personality rubbed me the wrong way.

When Tommy left back in the mid 80s, i followed his solo work up until _Ambition_ (which was a huge disappointment for me). Looking back now, his early solo work while strong did not reach the same height as Styx.

I did not follow Dennis' solo work at all (though I did like when I heard _Deseert Moon_ on the radio). I recently bought Dennis' _Ultimate Collection_ CD and liked most of those songs. But as a sum of his best work since Styx broke up (ieTommy left) it does not surpass his work in Styx.

I heard a story back in the early 90s when Styx (with Burtnik) and Damn Yankees were touring and happened to be on the same bill. Tommy made an effort to drop in and say hey to Styx and he was turned away at the door, which showed how childish they were treating each other. At the time, I thought that it must have been Dennis with his huge ego that sent Tommy away.

Having wrote all of the above, I still think that Dennis is a key member of Styx and was in a huge part responsible for the success they obtained. Styx without Dennis does not work for me any better than Styx without Tommy. I do not plan to buy any future Styx album unless it has both Dennis and Tommy (which aint going to happen).

barking on,
Big Dog