December 25, 2003
Merry Christmas to all ! It is Christmas Day 2003 and here I send you all my best wishes for a happy one and also an advance "cheers" for a great new year as well. My thanks once again to all who have enjoyed this web site and to Marlene for creating it and running for another glorious year. I blush in gratitude. Through this month of December I've had a good time musically speaking. A bit of writing, a bit of playing: Jeff Healey's Christmas fund raiser was a grand success and I thank all of you familiar faces for attending and I hope you enjoyed yo'selves. I hadn't sung Strange Animal for a while and it was good to belt it out that night. Also on December 22 I performed at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto in John McDermott's Christmas Show and that too was a good and different time for yours truly... It's off to Los Angeles tomorrow and then Vegas for New Years Eve so I'm getting my licks in good this month all round. All the best to everyone, again, and here's looking to see your smiling-rockin-ever-lovin' mugs in the near future. HO HO ...

November 22, 2003
November 22, 2003 was a birthday like no other for yours truly. Styx had played the previous two nights to great audiences in Tampa and Boca Raton. Then we awoke in Orlando and headed for a pre-arranged private tour of NASA. Recently we had become friends with the son of one of the astronauts who flew the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. He gave us a view of the space program that few are afforded... and I loved it. I was able to step inside the Space Shuttle Discovery and witness some of the work being done to prepare it for its return to space. I'm still somewhat euphoric from the experience and so grateful to have had the opportunity. It was truly awe inspiring.
L Gowan

November 5, 2003
Greetings to all,
After reading your kind notes of support, I say thanks and may all good things come to you. (as they should)...
Styx have been touring to great effect all throughout this Year of the Carrot...(blessed be thy root vegetable,all praise and honour be upon it).

Lately we've been able to lengthen the shows, now that all time constraints have been erradicated. This we like. Just these past two weeks in both Memphis and New Orleans and other places we seem to have expanded our scope especially with our new boy Ricky Phillips entering the fold. We just completed our Canadian Tour, which consisted of two sold out nights at CasinoRama (north of Toronto) to a wonderful blend of Canadian and travelling American faithful. Great audience, Great venue, Great balls of fire...Also nice to see some folks who came in from Quebec (merci mes amis).

I have something rather shamelessly boastful to share with you now. The Gowan song "Moonlight Desires" is to receive the Classic Award from SOCAN, the performing rights society of Canada.
This is for radio air-play in excess of 100,000 spins. Very gratifying. The award show will be held in Toronto on Nov.24. Also being so honoured are the songs: Life is a Highway, Sunglasses at Night,
and Let's Give Them Something to Talk About...hip tunes to be in the company of. Yours Truly was asked and has recklessly accepted to MC this show as well...could a shot at game-show hosting
be far behind?..."Let's see what we've got for 'em, Bob..." I'm quite happy about all this and pleased that my solo songs are still kicking... and A Criminal Mind is a Styx song too!

The Cyclorama continues. May it's journey live long into the night....Vitamin A or as we Canucks call it:Vitamin Eh---(what a poor attempt at humour).
May all your Carrots be golden and bring more love... Lawrence Gowan

August 10, 2003
Hey Hey, My My
Rock n Roll will never die...(thanks Neil)
Truer words were never spoken as far as our recent tour will attest. The "Main Event" was how we billed the Styx, Journey, REO arena rock tour of 2003, and it was some event indeedy. Such large and enthusiastic crowds in some of my all time favourite NHL rinks. I thank the teams for the hockey jerseys (or sweaters to us Canadians) and the chance to use a hockey stick to fire beach balls out to the faithful... Oh yeah...the music was great too. Mixing the Styx classics with the new stuff was well received. "Waiting For Our Time" Fields Of The Brave", "These Are The Times" and "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye" all worked well. Using the giant video screen behind us, with all our special film bits enhancing the Cyclorama songs really helped reach everyone right to the back of the multitude. In LA, for example, Jack Black and Kyle Gas had everyone in tune with their manic vibe during "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye". Though for myself there were a few exaggerated antics that I plagued my body with which were quite blown up out of proportion...(little lingerie embarrassments which could happen to anyone)... Let's move on...
In Washington I had the good fortune, thanks to a pal, to get a tour of the White House. So There!...(pardon me). I also met with John Roberts of CBS News. He had recently returned safely from Iraq. Back in the 80's as JD Roberts of "The New Music" he was the first interview I had done for Strange Animal. It was good to talk with him again. One of the many rewarding aspects of touring is the opportunity to meet with those you've lost contact.
The Regis and Kelly show was very enjoyable for Styx, and a nice diversion from our usual performing circumstances. A great New York moment near the end of the tour.
My thanks to all those who came, who saw, who rocked all over the USA.
Coming up next we'll be extending the show and adding some new and old to shake y'all up a bit.
So get ready.
.....L Gowan

March 25, 2003
Hail good folk,
Styx have now completed our winter tour and released Cyclorama and travelled here and there and returned safely to our bunkers and will soon announce... wait for it... our summer tour 2003 and more... that's right, more. Now with 50% more love, and 50% more buzz!...
I love a good run-on sentence. So free from the laws of grammar. Set me free, baby...(now there's a strong lyric for you)...OK enough.
Thanks once again to all of you who experienced our new show. For your gratifying comments on this web-site and for your positive feed-back on the new album. All very appreciated by yours truly.
Now Brothers and Sisters let us bang our heads and rock...or at least find some escape in the form of a good musical awareness. May spinning piano's come your way...go see STYX.
Cheers, Lawrence Gowan.

February 24, 2003
Howdy Y'all
It has been a tremendous start to 2003 with the Superbowl, the Concerts, the release of Cyclorama and the world rocks along undaunted (but on high alert).It's a code orange.So, "What's with the Carrot?" you may well ask. "That's the bait my dear",some may well reply. Now go get it... or at least get on with whatever it is that motivates you. Singing a good song as you go tends to make the journey lighter. Also a hearty laugh to fine-tune the attitude. We're enjoying our new shows which at this point include new material and production, a splendid spectacular indeed. Off to North Dakota in a couple of days, and then to a town much like your own.
Looking forward to it. Rock hard my friends.

January 3, 2003
Welcome to 2003. Its been a good year so far and it seems like it just began yesterday... So caught up are we in the Cyclorama of it all. I had a very different New Years Eve having just returned from shows in Anaheim and Lake Tahoe to the familiar ground of Toronto. I was able to call Tommy Shaw from the future since our stroke of midnight preceded that of Los Angeles by three hours... it felt wonderfully dis-orienting to be phoning back to the year 2002 from the fabulously advanced and sophisticated 2003. Yes, small things amuse small minds as they say,but then again how many of us have time travelled? (it's over-rated, take it from me). These first days of the new year I'll be spending in private rehearsal for the songs of our upcoming tour of the universe.We actually debuted one "Fields of the Brave" from the new album at the last two shows. We were very gratified by the response it garnered and decided that a future in show biz is still in the cards if the gods continue to smile upon us in their benevolent ways. May they do the same for all of you who have given your spirit of encouragement to us so generously in 2002. Please continue to do so and know that our appreciation is sincere to the last drop, like a smooth espresso...mmmm you can almost taste it. Have a great 2003 y'all and look to see those STYX fella's in a town near you (or the town where you live, which is even more convenient) Aaaah,welcome to the future.