Kevin Cronin is used to rolling with the changes over more than 50 years fronting REO Speedwagon. But the latest machinations in that world may be one too many storms to ride out.
“I don’t know what I want to do next,” Cronin — the midst of leading his Kevin Cronin Band through the summer’s Brotherhood of Rock Tour with good pals Styx and Don Felder — acknowledges to UCR.
“I’m really kind of a goal-oriented person, so the hard part is for the past 50 years, at the end of each tour, I’m used to already know what the next tour’s going to be, or the next album or whatever. At the end of this tour it’ll be the first time that I’m not in that situation, that I don’t have a real, concrete goal that I’m working towards. So I’m trying to steel myself to that and do as much work, personally, in advance of that so that I’m ready for when it happens.”
REO Speedwagon, you’ll recall, was ended as an entity last fall when keyboardist Neal Doughty, who retired from touring during 2023, and bassist Bruce Hall, who sat out during 2024 due to back surgery, voted 2-1 to bring the curtain down.
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“Irreconcilable differences” between Cronin and Hall over the latter’s return to active duty led to the schism, which has led to a considerable of acrimony expressed online and to Cronin pointedly not being invited to be part of an REO alumni reunion concert on June 14 in Champaign, Ill, where the band formed during the mid-60s.
Late last year Cronin announced he’d be touring instead as the Kevin Cronin Band, with the same musicians who played as REO Speedwagon during 2024 (guitarist Dave Amato and Bryan Hitt have both been in the group since 1989). The group is playing 1980’s Hi Infidelity album in its entirety along with REO’s other greatest hits this summer, but Cronin is finding that REO by any other name is apparently NOT REO as far as the business is concerned.
“This tour has been a delight, but not without its challenges,” Cronin explains. “It’s not easy going out as the Kevin Cronin Band, I will tell you. You can’t overestimate the power of the name REO Speedwagon and that ubiquitous, winged logo. They mean a lot to people. I can sit here and say that the Kevin Cronin band is doing the same thing until I’m blue in the face, but when people see the Kevin Cronin Band, there’s a question — ‘I wonder what this is gonna be?’ — whereas if you see REO Speedwagon and the winged logo on the bill, it’s ‘I know what that is.’
“Especially in these kind of tumultuous times that we live in right now, where people aren’t sure if they’re gonna have a job next month and the future’s a little less predictable…they don’t want something they don’t really have to think about. That’s the difference between the REO name and the Kevin Cronin Band name. As much as they are similar, they represent something to people that’s kind of different.”
As a result, Cronin is dismantling the band’s touring apparatus, which he describes as “heartbreaking.” Crew members have posted on social media that “the Kevin Cronin Band is not touring anymore after the current tour…we will all be available as of September 1, 2025” when the Brotherhood of Rock wraps in Aug. 24 in Milwaukee. Cronin says the band will likely play select dates, including the Rock Legends Cruise 2026 in February and private and charity shows, while he’ll do some solo shows as well, but keeping the machine together is not tenable.
“That is probably one of the most difficult parts about this whole thing,” he notes. “My plan was always to keep the organization together…but there are challenges around that are just overwhelming and I couldn’t promise the crew that I could afford to keep them. Again, as REO Speedwagon, no problem. For REO Speedwagon to book dates this coming autumn or winter would be no problem, but that’s just not available to me (as the Kevin Cronin Band). Believe me, we tried, and it’s way more challenging than I was hoping it would be.
“At this point (the crew) had no choice but to make themselves available, and they have my total love and my total support. They’re so great. They’re my family. They’re my brothers and sisters. Most of our crew has been with us 15, 20 years. Some of them already have great offers. It’s heartbreaking for me, but at the same time I love them and I want what’s best for them. I’ve told them all, ‘If you need a reference, you’ve got my number.'”
Despite all this, Cronin says the Brotherhood has been “a major success. The audience response to what I’m doing this year is no different from the audience response to what I did last year or any year prior. It’s the songs; people love the songs, and I think there’s some value in having the guy who sang those songs on the record up there on stage. And I love those songs as much as the fans do. It’s not like I’m out there playing my new solo album or something; what they get is basically the REO Speedwagon experience.”
Cronin also voices appreciation to tourmate Styx, who he feels stepped up to support him much like he did when during 2000, when REO teamed with Styx for the Arch Allies tour at the time Styx was transitioning from Dennis DeYoung’s departure to Lawrence Gowan’s arrival.
“The original plan for this tour was that it was going to be Styx, REO Speedwagon and Don Felder, and when that became impossible and there were doubts about what was gonna happen…In their minds I gave them a shot when they weren’t sure how the public was gonna react to this new version of Styx.
“I had kind of forgotten that was the case, ’cause we’ve done so many shows together since then. But they’ve never forgotten that, so when it came time to kind of, in a sense, repay the favor they had faith in me and saw what we were doing as REO Speedwagon in 2024 and dug it and decided to stick with me for this tour. It’s really a beautiful thing.”
While Cronin says he’s uncertain about what he’ll do next he does predict that he’ll hunker down to finish his long-promised memoir, which now has the working title Roll With the Change: My Life Within and Without REO Speedwagon.
“I’d never considered my life without REO Speedwagon before, so I need to address that,” in the book, Cronin says. “At the same time, I’m very cognizant of the fact that Bruce and I see this thing really differently; I see it as my point of view is the more valid point of view, and Bruce sees it as his point of view is the more valid point of view. I`ve given up on trying to promote my point of view as being the only truth; I have to respect what Bruce feels even though I disagree with it. I’m kind of letting go of that, even though it’s really frustrating to me. The best thing I can do is let go and just accept and just be open to what the universe brings my way.”
And, somewhat surprisingly, Cronin says that includes some sort of rapprochement with Hall and Doughty.
“At some point down the road,” he says, “when I’m ready to really say goodbye, that might be a time where I would be open to a reunion of every living person who’s ever been a member of REO Speedwagon and just have a big blowout. I’m not opposed to that. I think that could be fun. But it’s not what I want to do in the near future; I know that for a fact.”
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