Zan wrote:LordofDaRing wrote:Zan:
I am not as familiar with everybody's real names from the forums. Suite seems to be what I consider one of the more formible Styx people here, was she contacted about being in the book? Or Andrew? I have read some of Al Hirt's home page things.
Far as I can tell, the only real fans contacted were Allan and Andie (who is completely uncredible). Perhaps Sterling is a better person to answer that question. lol
I wanted to have at last some semblance of a fan perspective in the book, but I didn't want to solicit random fan opinions because, to the average reader, that would probably provide no value or interest. So I chose to contact a few select people whose fandom had led them into some kind of formal contact with the band members and who might have a bit of credibility.
Allan, of course, is recognized by virtually everyone who knows anything about the topic as the foremost Styx collector in the world. The guy knows more about that side of Styx' career than most of the band members. When VH1 doesn't have what they need, they call Allan, LOL. His stuff has appeared in BTM and a few other things. He also appeared in the "Mr. Roboto" True Spin episode. Allan is also a journalist who has interviewed Tommy, Dennis and JY ( on top of lots of others outside of Styx) and has a pretty balanced view of the past and present band. So I thought his presence provided a certain amount of fan perspective balanced with a certain amount of "in the know" credibility.
As for Andie, she published The Main Event, which prior to the fan base taking to the Internet for its primary interaction was one of the larger Styx fanzines. I was referred to her by another interview subject who used to work for the band and has corresponded with her. My only interaction with her has been in interviewing her and following up, and I can only comment that she didn't seem insane or anything like that, LOL. She was fine, perfectly lucid as far as I can tell. I've had a little bit of feedback that some fans object to her point of view or her inclusion in the book, but I honestly don't see the problem. It's not like her point of view colors a large portion of the book . . . most of what I included from her are the harmless and completely non-controversial recollections, from a fan point of view, about things like seeing Kilroy live, seeing JY live, seeing Hunchback live and such, none of it at all negative. The part I suppose some object to is her take on the Internet fan wars, but even in that I don't think she did anything but give a fairly straightforward account of what happened. She basically says in the book that the fans took it upon themselves to re-create the drama that was going on in the band among themselves (true), that it got really ugly (also true), that Tommy was in the middle of it (also true), and that it divided the fan base because being a Styx fan was no longer fun, because of the other fans. All of which is true. She just happened to be the one saying it, and since some people in the fan base were on the other side of the wars from her, they seem to be projecting those statements onto themselves and extrapolating that I wrote my book as a personal slam to them, which I certainly did not. I just want to point out, as diplomtically as possible, that no matter who I talked to, others would have challenged their credibility. I wanted to speak to another fan who also plays a large role in the fandom and was on the polar opposite side of the issue from Andie, and that person did not wish to speak to me . . . but if they had, the same things would be said about them as well. Each side wants to see the other side as wrong and say that the people on the other side are nothing but wacky, unstable stalker fans. I can't stop people from fulfiling their own emotional needs by taking bits and pieces of what I wrote out of context and applying it however they need to in order to justify themselves to themselves.
Let me just say in closing that there is no such thing as being truly "unbiased"; there is merely understanding bias and trying to control it through balance. I interviewed Tommy . . . hell, does Tommy Shaw not have a bias? How about Glen? Todd? Jim Vose? Derek Sutton? Well, duh! LOL, of course they all have a bias, that's human nature. There is nobody in the world I could ever interview that someone else would not see them as biased in some way, shape or form. Nobody's credibility is unimpeachable. That's why it's important to get as many perspectives as you can and try to edit them together in a way that presents multiple angles, which is what I did. I can't control how others take what I wrote and turn it to serve their own existing needs. There are always going to be people who disagree, and that's something you live with in this particular job all the time.
Thanks, I hope all is well.
Sterling
