Dennis DeYoung (born February 18, 1947) is a pop musician, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Styx. Growing up in Chicago, Illinois, DeYoung’s career as a vocalist started with the band Tradewinds in 1963. The band renamed itself TW4 in 1968 before becoming Styx in 1970. Within Styx he acted as lead vocalist, keyboardist, and co-writer of many of the band’s songs.
In 1984 DeYoung embarked upon a solo career of modest success, producing four impressive solo albums – Desert Moon, Back to the World, Boomchild and 10 on Broadway, which celebrated the influence of such composers as George and Ira Gershwin, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. He participated in both the 1990 and 1995 Styx revivals. A disagreement with Styx bandmates Tommy Shaw and James Young resulted in a split in 1999, and Styx continues without DeYoung. DeYoung made his major motion-picture debut in 2005’s The Perfect Man, in which he plays the lead vocalist in a Styx tribute band.
DeYoung composed and recorded a musical based on Victor Hugo’s novel, Hunchback of Notre Dame, played Pontius Pilate in a touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar, and re-recorded the Styx hit, “The Grand Illusion” for Siegfried and Roy’s IMEX film.
