Ralph Chapman at Classic Rock Revisited caught up with former Styx frontman and founder Dennis DeYoung to discuss the 40th anniversary of the band's Crystal Ball album. The record featured the recording debut of vocalist/guitarist Tommy Shaw. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

RC: The interesting thing to me is, you didn’t just let Tommy in to the band, you let him have a big chunk of the record…

DD: "I said Crystal Ball should be the name of the album because I thought it was the best song. Tommy wasn’t the guy making that decision. So, I let him in to the band. Lennon needed his McCartney and McCartney needed his Lennon. Not that we were that. We were more like Max Lennon and Rudy McCartney. That’s who we were. Tommy was a good songwriter and I recognized it immediately. All boats rise with the tide."

RC: How quickly did you realize it was going to work?

DD: "I knew it would be better immediately, but then we got on stage and Tommy was one kick ass performer.  I looked across the stage that first night and thought 'Oh baby, we’re in the big money now!'"

RC: Styx was really a band that allowed Tommy to do whatever he wanted.

DD: "It was more than that. I knew Tommy Shaw was a star. ‘Crystal Ball’ he sings by himself upon my suggestion. Same with ‘Renegade’. I kept directing him to be center stage because I believed that he was a star. When I read stuff where people have said I was intimidated and envious of Tommy, that’s just absolute garbage. Were we competitive?  Did both us want to be the best we could be in the band? Yes. But I wanted Tommy to be the biggest star that he could possibly be. And it wouldn’t be wrong to want to be just a little bit bigger. What would that make me? Human? All the young girls loved Tommy. And I thought that was just awesome. But, if you look at Cornerstone, he and I wrote a bunch of songs together, and he had ‘Never Say Never’, ‘Boat On The River’, ‘Love In The Midnight’, we wrote ‘Lights’ and ‘Borrowed Time’ together.  You know, we were doing some stuff."

Go to this location for the complete interview.