In college and high school Ricky Phillips set out on a journey to discover Muddy Waters and Howard Walsh and Willy Gibson - "the predecessors to rock 'n' roll."
A psychology major at San Francisco State University, his true passion had always been music, he said.
"I used to go to concerts and all my friends would punch me in the arm and be like, 'come on loosen up and have fun,' but all I wanted to be was what they were doing on stage," he said.
"I was studying and examining and watching and soaking in everything I possibly could, whether it was Jimi Hendrix or the Kinks or any band that would come through San Francisco at the time."
Styx's bassist Phillips and the rest of the band, along with special guest Kansas, will greet old and young audience members alike when they take to the John R. Emens Auditorium stage at 8 p.m.
Styx, formed in Chicago in 1972, reached prominence in the '70s and '80s with such hits as "Come Sail Away," "Mr. Roboto" and "Renegade." The group released four consecutive multiplatinum albums between 1977 to 1981.
Phillips joined the band in 2003 to fill in for bassist Chuck Panozzo and said he was surprised to be greeted with banners and cards from fans.
"I wasn't sure how that was gonna go down because I never had to do that before when I was replacing someone," he said.
It was in his senior year of college during the '70s that Phillips realized he wanted to see if he could make it in the music industry, he said.
"I wanted to be there. I wanted to be that guy up on that stage," he said. "I wasn't the guy jumping up and down screaming and yelling. I was the guy examining under a microscope what was happening up there."
He set out and traveled around the country playing in bars and eventually ended up in Los Angeles in 1978 with a suitcase, a bass, a guitar and 20 borrowed dollars in his pocket.
After trying to find his "big break" in Los Angeles for eight months, Phillips's bass playing talent was discovered by the Babys, who at the time had just come over from England.
The next thing he knew he was touring across Europe and playing in the states, he said.
"I was fortunate my career blossomed so quickly," he said.
From there he and the band went from playing at pizza parlors and small clubs to headlining shows and playing with headlining acts, including White Snake.
"That was huge at the time," he said.
The Babys disbanded three years later and eventually he and Jonathan Cain of Journey decided to put another band together, which would become Bad English, most known for its 1988 power ballad "When I See You Smile." The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 single chart from Nov. 11-18, 1989.
Compared to other '80s hair bands like REO Speedwagon and Journey, Phillips said each was competitive, but it was with great respect.
"The press threw out this term 'arena rock' and Styx, Journey... became labeled as arena rock bands," he said. "But that was the era of the arena rock band. Everyone was vying for those top 100 spots
TIME8 p.m. Friday
VENUEEmens Auditorium
PRICES Tickets are $69.50 for pit and gold circle, $59.50 for Zone 1, $49.50 for Zones 2 and 3, and $39.50 for Zone 4.
Thoughts on VH1, MTV
Phillips said the turning point for youth culture and accelerating musical genres developed soon after MTV debuted in 1983. The band made its televised debut within the first hour of the live launch of the network.Phillips said he still watches VH1 (he described the Styx episode of "Behind the Music" as a family album, but doesn't watch it often) and MTV, but that the youth culture has changed.
Greatest Hits
Styx classics include "Come Sail Away," "Renegade" "Blue Collar Man" "Fooling Yourself"
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