We must make a stand

As it turns out, I was on tour — visiting Virginia and Maryland — when REO Speedwagon announced earlier this month that they would stop touring in 2025.

That news caught me by surprise, if only because I always thought I’d get around to seeing REO Speedwagon someday.

Though they’re one of those great Illinois rock bands that has toured the Midwest seemingly forever, I’ve never seen REO Speedwagon despite many opportunities to do so.

I’ve seen Cheap Trick twice, once in a small hotel ballroom where Rick Nielsen knocked out ceiling tiles when he fired a KISS record over the crowd during “Surrender.” Styx is another. I saw them in 1975, my first rock show. I saw Starcastle — then fronted by former REO lead singer Terry Luttrell — in 1978. Head East is another. I saw them in, uh, 1990?

But never REO Speedwagon, even though they’ve played arena shows in Green Bay in every decade since the ’70s, the first time in 1974, the last time last fall. REO has been playing gigs in Wisconsin since lead singer Kevin Cronin joined the band in 1972.

“Back in those days, the drinking age in Wisconsin was 18. A lot of action, a lot of fun in Wisconsin. We used to play all the little towns,” Cronin told the Green Bay Press-Gazette last fall.

“We used to travel in a green Chevrolet station wagon with our tour manager and the five band members and the luggage in the back, and we drove the roads of Wisconsin. We crisscrossed your state a million times.”

Oh, I still have some chances. Their tour resumes Oct. 23. But to see REO, I’d have to tour the Midwest as hard as they have over the years. Of their eight Midwest shows before year’s end, the Nov. 22 gig in Rockford, Ill., is the closest, 200 miles and 3 hours away. Mostly already sold out, though, save for the nosebleed and side stage seats.

I think I’ll be OK with not seeing REO Speedwagon. I came in when they were staples of late-night free-form FM radio in the early ’70s, and it’s that oldest stuff that I still dig the most.

Here’s one of those deep album cuts, a protest song that remains relevant — and a staple of REO’s live shows — all these years later.

“Golden Country,” REO Speedwagon, from “R.E.O./T.W.O.,” 1972.

This was written by lead guitarist Gary Richrath, who gave himself a tremendous guitar solo. He and Cronin were the creative forces behind REO Speedwagon for almost 20 years. Richrath left the band in 1989 after a falling-out with Cronin. Richrath died in 2015 at age 65.

Golden country your face is so red
With all of your money your poor can be fed
You strut around and you flirt with disaster
Never really carin’ just what comes after
Well your blacks are dyin’ but your back is still turned

Another falling-out is why REO is retiring from the road. Bruce Hall, 71, REO’s bass player since 1977, apparently was deemed not fit enough to return to action after back surgery in late 2023. “Irreconcilable differences” are said to have developed between Hall and Cronin, who’s 73.

And your freaks are cryin’ but your back is still turned
You better stop your hidin’ or your country will burn
The time has come for you my friend
To all this ugliness we must put an end
Before we leave we must make a stand