The members of REO Speedwagon had an epiphany of sorts earlier this year when they sat down to map out their summer tour.
Every June, as their kids are getting out of school for the summer, the guys pile into a bus and hit the road for weeks at a time. When they come home, it’s for a day or two, then back out on the road until early fall.
By then, the kids are back in school.
“A lot of times the families come out to visit us on the road, but that isn’t exactly the same as being home and doing things together,” said REO bass player Bruce Hall.
So this year when the band — Hall, frontman Kevin Cronin, lead guitarist Dave Amato, keyboard player Neal Doughty and drummer Bryan Hitt — mapped out the tour, they decided it was time to put family first.
Their 2015 “Family First” tour, which pulls into Desert Diamond Casino on Saturday, scales back the number of concert dates and the amount of time they are away from home.
“It just seems that everything is happening so fast,” said Hall, calling from his fishing boat in Florida. “They were just little not long ago. And we don’t want to miss out. It feels like we missed out some.”
Hall has two boys at home — an 8-year-old in elementary school and a 17-year-old who will finish high school next year. Cronin has twin boys at home and a daughter going off to college.
“We thought it would be a good time to start spending more time with our kids and our spouses, to be a little more plugged into the family,” Hall explained. “It’s time. Before you know it, kids grow up and you go, ‘Oh my gosh, I wish I would’ve spent more time at home.’ And we can do this because we don’t have to work all the time. We love to work.”
The downsized tour schedule does not mean the band, one of the most successful rock outfits of the 1970s and early ’80s, is downsizing its live show.
“We come out blazing. We play the songs that people want to hear,” Hall said. “We’ve added a couple new things; we’ve changed a couple of the old songs — not a lot, but we try to change up the songs once in a while to keep ourselves interested.”
The setlist will include all those songs that get stuck in your head, including “Take it on the Run,” “Don’t Let Him Go” and “Keep on Lovin’ You,” as well as new material — their most recent singles “Whipping Boy” and “Can’t Stop Rockin,’” which they recorded a few years ago with fellow ‘70s supergroup Styx.
REO Speedwagon’s “Family First” tour gets a two-week vacation after we see the band.
In July, they will hit the road for three or four shows at a stretch, with several days off in between.
“We’re just kind of slowing down our schedule. I don’t think we’ll slow it down much more,” said Hall, who took his family on a cruise when his kids got out of school in mid-June. “The hardest part of touring is the travel. But I have been doing it a long time, and it is what we know. I still like it.
“But I’m sitting right now out on a boat — I’ve been fishing all afternoon — and this feels pretty darn good.”
