Rock ‘n’ roll and country music have often existed as two distinct categories with little overlap in their most loyal fans. The most fervent supporters of each musical category tend to have little to no tolerance for overlap of the two, but that’s rarely how these genres exist in the eyes of the musicians themselves. From behind the microphone or guitar, these musical worlds aren’t as different as a listener might think.
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Although one might not be able to tell based on songs like “Renegade” and “Come Sail Away”, Styx frontman Tommy Shaw always had one foot in the country camp and another in rock ‘n’ roll. The latter genre certainly gave him the most fame and notoriety, but it was hardly his first love. As he revealed during an appearance on Circle Country with Clint Black, he grew up around bluegrass and country music.
In fact, Shaw’s country music roots go all the way back to his childhood. Growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, the future rock ‘n’ roller lived only a ten-minute walk away from the final resting place of the Father of Modern Country Music, Hank Williams. According to Shaw, he and his friends were frequent visitors of this iconic grave.
Before He Was in Styx, Tommy Shaw Used To Pay Homage to the Late, Great Hank Williams
Tommy Shaw technically made his bluegrass debut with his 2011 solo album, The Great Divide. But that was hardly his first foray with country music. The Styx vocalist told Clint Black about listening to the Grand Ole Opry and frequently walking to Hank Williams’ grave site in Montgomery, Alabama. He would sit on a nearby bench, drink cheap Boone’s Farm wine, and “howl at the moon.” Shaw and his buddies would also sing Hank Williams songs in between sips of wine, looking up at the epitaph, “Praise the Lord, I saw the light” on Williams’ grave.
Styx fans might have noticed Shaw’s country music origins in 1979 as well, thanks to the release of “Boat on the River”. The song came from a new instrument Shaw bought while commuting 60 miles one way to and from Styx rehearsal. During one fateful drive, Shaw decided to stop into a South Bend music store and buy a mandolin. He eventually figured out how to play the instrument—which wasn’t quite as similar to a guitar as he would have hoped—and wrote “Boat on the River”, which would appear on Styx’s 1980 album, Cornerstone.
Although Shaw was certain his Styx bandmates wouldn’t go for such an Americana-influenced track (again, the whole “country and rock are like oil and water” thing). But after the band heard his demo, they decided to put it on Cornerstone. “That’s one thing I like about being a band that’s been so daring over the years,” Shaw told American Songwriter in 2021. “You get to try stuff like that.”
It’s likely that some of those first seeds of his bluegrass career were sown at the foot of Hank Williams’ grave, Boone’s Farm in one hand and a guitar in another.
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
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