REO Speedwagon`s Kevin Cronin is an exuberant kind of guy who talks a mile a minute even when he`s discussing such relatively mundane matters as how long the band has been together (since 1976, with the current lineup), his exercise habits (he runs four or five times a week) or his taste in television (the David Letterman show, on the nights the singer is still awake when Letterman begins his late-night lunacy). But if you want to see him really shift into overdrive, just mention a certain ”sore subject”–specifically, radio airplay formats.
Actually, chances are you won`t even have to bring up the subject; Cronin will. An affable sort who generally tries to look on the positive side of everything, REO`s lead vocalist and principal songwriter notes that the matter in question probably will ”work itself out,” but still . . .
”Radio stations are getting pretty weird now,” complains Cronin. ”Yes, a lot of them are playing our record (”That Ain`t Love,” currently a Top 10 single). But some stations refuse to play us because we`re `not urban enough.` In other words, they don`t think our music would appeal to black people!
”That really upsets me. Who says it won`t? How can some programming guy foretell what kind of music a whole race of people will like? That sounds ludicrous to me. Why can`t radio stations just play the song and let their audience decide if they like it or not? If they don`t get any requests for it, fine, don`t play it anymore. But it bugs me when a station won`t play the record even once, because they predict that their audience won`t like it. What does race have to do with it? That infuriates me. It makes me crazy, dealing with that kind of prejudice.”
Cronin, who appears with REO in concert Saturday at the Rosemont Horizon, is particularly eager for the band`s new album of mainstream melodic rock, called ”Life As We Know It,” to get as much airplay as possible because, as he puts it, ”I can listen to this record and be entertained by it myself, which isn`t always true.
”You`re always really into it when you`re making a record, but you don`t know what the album is going to sound like to you until after you`ve been away from it for a month or two,” he explains. ”It`s like making a pie. You don`t know if you`ll like it or not until you taste it. Sometimes it tastes just great, and sometimes you wish you had put a little more something or other in it. But this time, I think we really got it right.”
Record-buyers seem to agree. ”Life As We Know It”–REO`s first release since 1984`s ”Wheels Are Turnin`,” which sold nearly 2 million copies and included a No. 1 hit single, ”Can`t Fight This Feeling”–is at No. 30 on Billboard`s Top Pop Albums chart and headed higher. (The quintet`s biggest-selling album to date remains 1980`s ”Hi Infidelity,” which sold 7 million copies in the United States alone.) The latest effort features a half- dozen songs written or co-written by Cronin, one by keyboard player Neal Doughty, two co-written by lead guitarist Gary Richrath and one co-written by bassist Bruce Hall (the fifth REO member, Alan Gratzer, sticks to his drums);
virtually all are about romantic relationships.
”All of the songs are about things that have happened to us in the last two years,” says Cronin. ”It really is `life as we know it.` These days, the mood seems to be that if you`re sick of who you`re with, you split. That`s different from our philosophy, which is that if something isn`t working the way you want it to, you try to find a way to make it work. These songs are coming from that point of view.”
Cronin is married, with two children; his wife, Denise, attended high school with him on Chicago`s South Side, and both studied at Loyola University before the singer joined Champaign, Ill.-based REO Speedwagon, which relocated to Los Angeles in 1976.
”But it`s not like it`s a cakewalk just because you`re married,” says Cronin, laughing. ”There are still days when I think `This is just not gonna work.` But I always like to think that every day is going to be better than yesterday. I`m always working to make my life richer. I`ve never gotten to a point where I say okay, this is great, I really feel satisfied and I`ve done everything I wanted to do and know everything I want to know. I always want to learn more and get deeper into things.
”As a result, I`m changing a lot, and as people change, their relationships with other people around them change, too. So . . . I wrote about my relationship with Denise on this record, but it`s also about other friends of mine.
”When I start writing, it`s usually because there`s one particular situation that kind of kicks me in the butt and gets me so emotional that I just can`t keep it inside of me anymore,” says Cronin. ”I have a tendency to kind of keep things inside, and then something will set me off, and the way I express it many times is to wake up in the middle of the night and start writing. So that`s how a song usually starts. But then, as soon as that first emotional outburst gets down on the page, you start relating your situation to something else that`s happening around you and get a little theatrical and it all ends up different from what you were originally writing about.”
In writing lyrics for ”Life As We Know It,” Cronin did something he had avoided in the past: He finished even the ”negative” songs.
”Before, if I was writing a song and it started to go in a negative direction, I just quit working on it,” he says. ”Maybe I was afraid to investigate those feelings because I was afraid of what I might find. But after a while, if you don`t express those negative thoughts, you build up a real backlog of them. I still believe that you should always find a way to make things work. I`ve always believed that if you look at the positive side of things, you`re going to make it through. But now I feel that you have to look at the negative side, too. If you run away from the negative side of relationships or anything else, then it`s like the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center, the self-appointed pop watchdog organization) wanting to ban certain records because they are afraid of people hearing those words. Maybe that`s how I was, in a way, within myself.
”Now, I accept anything that pops into my mind,” says Cronin. ”For instance, take the song `Tired of Getting Nowhere.` When I started writing that song I just had that first line, the idea of being `Tired of getting nowhere`. Not the most inspiring thing to write about, but I just let it flow. And the song really isn`t a downer song. Because when you`re tired of getting nowhere, that means you`re ready to go somewhere. It`s worked out good for me. I feel positive, but now I know why I feel positive. Before, I just thought that I was supposed to feel positive. And I wrote some nice tunes coming from that place, but now I feel like I`m coming from a better place.”
Speaking of banning records, though Cronin wouldn`t think of censoring his kids` taste in music, he admits there are limits to his tolerance.
”There are tons of things that I wouldn`t want my sons to buy,” he says. ”For instance, whenever the boys and I go to the record store, I usually buy each of them a cassette tape. Well, last time we went to the record store, my little guy, Paris, who`s 9, wanted me to buy him the Beastie Boys tape. I`ve heard that tape, and I don`t like it. The group does one song, `Girls,` that`s really crude, and I don`t think that young boys need to hear those bad attitudes toward women. So I would rather they don`t listen to the Beastie Boys, and they know why I feel that way.
”But at the same time, I can remember how I felt when I was a kid and my parents told me that all the British Invasion groups looked the same and sounded the same,” adds Cronin. ”The last thing I want to do is cut down my kids` music. If you say something negative about their choice of music, it`s like you`re saying something negative about them, and you don`t want to do that. So I said, `Paris, I don`t want to buy that for you. If you want it, you`ll have to spend your own money.` Where I differ with the PMRC is that the PMRC would say `ban the record from the stores or put a big warning sticker on it.` But I don`t think that`s right, either. It`s better to handle it with your kid on a personal level.”
