Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades have sold more than 50,000,000 albums with their three bands (Shaw in STYX, Blades in NIGHT RANGER and both in DAMN YANKEES), scored 12 US 'Top 10' singles, debuted 16 albums in the US 'Top 200' albums chart, and share joint songwriting credits for artists like OZZY OSBOURNE, AEROSMITH and ALICE COOPER. Is this the kind of success? For this certain music style, it fuckin' is!
Both musicians decide to pay homage to their own heroes in this album. And - for sure - the tracklist goes way back to the 60s/70s Pop/Rock classics! Hence: 'covered' more in the STYX (than the NIGHT RANGER) way, eleven diamond cuts - most of them known to the vast majority of music fans all over the world - depict the true adornment of both musicians to the melody of two decades long now gone. Personal faves sum it up to a hardrockin' version of I Am A Rock, a STYX-wise update of Lucky Man and an excellent remake of For What It's Worth. The chemistry of Shaw and Blades is now long known, and - added by the appropriate instrumentation of their friends (NIGHT RANGER's Kelly Keagy and GREAT WHITE's Michael Lardie are featured in this album, too) - this album rolls on rather smoothly.
CDs like Influence do show the transfer of knowledge between music styles and respective eras. Noel Golden (SAMMY HAGAR, TRIUMPH, MATCHBOX TWENTY) has done a tremendous work in mixing this collection and if you feel weird enough singing to an 'alien' (to your current likes) tunes from the past, it's albums like this that can provide you with a fair explanation.