Ladies and gentlemen, meet your grand marshal for Stonewall 2018—LGBT activist, local resident, and founding-member of Styx, Chuck Panozzo. 

How long have you lived in South Florida?  For 12 years.  Why did you move here?  I moved to Miami first.  I had a friend that lived there.  I lived in Miami for five years.  I wanted to buy a house, and I wanted to be near the gay community, so I choose Wilton Manors.  What part of South Florida do you live in?  In Wilton Manors.  What do you like most about living here?  I know it’s a rainy day today, but, besides that, it’s an easy lifestyle here. The traffic is never a problem—you can get around.  Also, the conveniences are close—it’s a walkable town.  What South Florida venue do you miss that’s gone?  There was something called the Davie Casino in Davie, but I don’t think that’s it’s around anymore.  We played there a few times.  It was a good venue.  I’m also glad to see that Tropics is opening up again.  Where do you hang out in South Florida, and why?  In my house (laughs).  I think that there’s a certain time in your life when you just say, enough is enough.  When I go out now, I say to myself, “why does everyone look like my nephew, and why do I look like everyone’s father?”  We used to say that a good test was, “Would my parents be here?” But then again, they never went anywhere.  Also, if you’re looking for romance, you’re not gonna find it in the bars.  If you want to find the drunk of your dreams, go to a bar (laughs).

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What was your recent performance in Key West like?  It was raining in the morning, and then it was cloudy in the afternoon, but the evening was great.  But we play rain or shine, regardless.  We were coming straight from a gig in Orlando, and the tour bus didn’t get to Key West until 6:00 a.m., so that part was hard.  But they were so gracious to have us there that it made all worth it.  Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it’s important for a major act to play in an area that’s been negatively impacted by a hurricane.  Maybe we didn’t bring a lot of awareness to Key West itself, but probably to the smaller neighboring islands.  How did you get involved with the Stonewall Festival?  Well, I feel strongly about Stonewall and how that event changed our lives.  I remember when it first happened, but I educated myself about it more by reading about it.  As far as the festival goes, it’s an honor to be asked to be the grand marshal for it, so I made it happen.  I’m leaving the tour two days early, and they’ll have a replacement for me (they had to do this for some of my illnesses as well).  I feel that the Stonewall Festival is an important event, so we need to do things as a community to keep getting the message out there.  After all, we all want the same things in life.  A better life, to live in peace, and to enjoy ourselves, so that message needs to be reiterated, because it seems like some are trying to take it away from us.

How will you celebrate after the parade?  I’ll probably be asleep (laughs).  I’ll be coming off a three-week tour, and I’m flying in on Friday so I can make it to the pre-Stonewall event at The Manor on Friday. If you had to pick one of your songs to be included in a welcome package for aliens, what one would you choose?  “Come Sail Away.”  And sometimes I dedicate the angels part of the song to people who are in trouble.  But, speaking of inviting aliens to earth, we better be careful what we wish for. Assuming that they’re even physical, who knows what me might get?  They might have some pathogen that could wipe us all out.  What do you attribute Styx’s longevity to?  If anything, I think that Styx has survived because we’ve been able to evolve after every tour.  But rock and roll has become generational.  Everyone knows Elvis, but when you say Guy Lombardo, they say, “Who?”  Many bands are only around for five years, but we’ve been around for the 70s, the 80s, the 90, the 2000s, and now this decade.  That’s five decades, but I’m just glad that we’ve been able to do it.  And after all that, we’re still learning as a band.

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What’s touring like?  The traveling is a nightmare.  The show is the easy part.  If it wasn’t for the show, I would never do it!  What’s are your future plans with Styx?  To live to 75 (laughs).  If I make it to 75, Styx will have been together for 50 years!  I always joke that I’ll live until 75, just so that I can reach that goal with Styx, and then I’ll drop dead an hour later.  What award do you cherish the most, and why?  Every year I get invited to speak to a gay youth group in Canada, and they named the award after me.  I said to them, “I thought you had to be dead for that to happen?” (laughs).  But seriously, it really is a great honor to be able to help people.  For them to see someone who’s gone through the same things that they’ve gone through tell them, “don’t give up hope.  It will be okay.”  A lot of it is overcoming the negative things that we learned in our youth.  If you wrote a sequel to your book, what would it be called?  Maybe Touring 101?  But I might just publish something like that online.  It might just be my own personal travelogue.  I go to so many places.  Other than your bandmates, what musician do you admire, and why?  The one who impressed me the most was Barbara Streisand.  Oh, Bette Midler, as well.  I talked with her for quite a while, and she’s so down to earth.  It’s funny but the ones who you think are gonna be the biggest snobs end up being great.

Who would play you in a movie?  Anyone but Scott Baio.  What kind of music do you listen to that might surprise someone?  I like classical music a lot.  What dead musician would you like to have lunch with, and why?  I might pick my dead brother.  What’s the best concert you ever went to?  I saw Boy George recently, and he was really good.  Sometimes, when they’ve been gone for so long, you don’t know how they’re going to be.  But he didn’t disappoint.  What gay activist do you admire?  I’m from the Harvey Milk generation, so I would say him.  I was at bars with him as well.  How would you like to be remembered?  I want to leave two marks: I’d like to leave one for my music, and one for my gay life.  But I never thought that in a million years that I’d still be performing after all these years.  Look at me—I’m a gay man living the American dream.  And if I can do it, you can do it.  Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it, or that you have to be lucky, or that you have to be in the right place at the right time.  That’s all nonsense.  If you keep plugging away, your dreams will come true.  Will you ever retire?  No.  I told someone once, “the person who leaves their own band, a band that they helped form, is an idiot.”  As long as I can keep doing it, physically, I’ll keep doing it.  Even if you have a chronic condition, you can manage it and still work.  What am I gonna do?  Stay at home and watch TV?  I wanna be the rock star on TV, not the one at home watching them on TV.

What’s the weirdest question that a fan has asked?  I was talking with a fan once.  He left after the conversation was over, but then he came back to me.  He started talking with me again, but this time, he thought that I was my brother John, who had already died!  I guess he didn’t know that John had died.  He said, “Don’t you have a twin brother?”  What celebrity did you act like a “fan” around?  Barbara  Streisand.  What’s the last thing that you watched on TV?  Judge Judy, just this morning, at 6:30 a.m.  What’s the craziest thing that you ever did?  A few years ago we took my nephew to an amusement park and we went on all those roller coasters.  What’s your favorite book?  How about, “what’s my favorite magazine?” (laughs).  I try to read something light when I’m on these airplanes.  I’ll flip through the magazines that are on them.  But I do try to get as much information from as many sources as I can.  I also read The Wall Street Journal every day.  What’s the last thing that you looked at online?  My email.  Do you like Facebook?  Not really.  All they seem to do is argue on there.  They’re arguing with each other, about politics and other things, but they’re not really hearing each other.  At first, I thought that social media was going to bring us closer together, but I think that it’s made things worse.

What’s the best place that you’ve visited, and why?  I’m looking forward to going back to Quebec, San Francisco and Denver.  You look forward to seeing your fans in all of the various cities, but in these cities, particularly.  It’s funny, but people remember the last time that they saw you perform.  They remember the exact time and place—they keep it in their consciousness.  It’s amazing to me, and it means more to me than everything.  What’s something that you learned in life only when you got older?  That you shouldn’t let the government, your religion or your family stop you from your dreams, because if you listen to them, you might give up.  What did you learn from your parents?  Hard work and love.  When my father got cancer, I went through all the histrionics with God, such as, “Take me instead.”  He died when he was only 56, so I didn’t get to spend as much time with him as I would have liked.  Who knows what more I would have learned from him?  What’s your best characteristic?  That I’m a loyal friend.  What celebrity do you have a crush on?  Everyone in The Avengers movie (laughs). I don’t know.   I’m more attracted to someone’s personality rather than to some guy who thinks he’s so great looking.

Who do you admire, and why?  I admire my brother’s love of music.  I also admire my sister, Emily.  She has MS, and she’s totally paralyzed from it, but she never complains. She still has a great sense of humor as well.  I talk with her every day.  I have a deep love for her.  Where would you go in a time machine, and why?  I wouldn’t go backwards.  If I did, they’re probably curse me as witch.  But I’m also afraid of the future.  All this technology, with the iPhone, and what-not.  And I’m NOT ready to see myself as a hologram yet.  I’m more worried about the hear-and-now and how to keep the planet safe for future generations.  But I think that there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done here first.  And if we’re going to colonize space one day, the last thing that we want to do is bring the problems that the world is having right now up there (laughs).  What would your last meal be?  Good fried chicken.  If you were a musical instrument, what would you be, and why?  I wouldn’t mind being a big double bass in a symphony.  Are you more like a sheep or a wolf?  I think that I’m becoming both of them.  I’ve learned some boundaries, so I’m not such as easy target as I used to be.  Who depends on you, and for what?  No one in particular depends on me, but I think that a lot of younger gay people are interested in hearing the experiences of an older guy who’s gay.  Older people have the history behind us, and that can’t be replace.  But the kids will have that one day, too.

Who are you closest with?  My sister, Emily.  It’s hard to put the emotions into words.  I’m still alive—I had two bouts with cancer, so I’m supposed to be dead.  But she went from being this very attractive woman, to being confined to a wheelchair full time.  Life is hard, you know?  I’ve yet to meet the person who hasn’t been beaten down by it in some capacity, so I just try to be thankful for each day.  What’s on your bucket list?  I’d like to go back to Southern Italy, to Pompeii.  That’s where my mother’s from.  To think that there are things there that were locked in time 2,000 years ago blows my mind.  Do you think that you’ll ever find romance again?  I’m married to my music.  And if that’s how it is for the rest of my life, I’m okay with that.  What’s your greatest regret in life?  Not coming out sooner.  I didn’t come out until I was almost 60.  If I came out, I thought that it might hurt the band in some way, but it was foolish of me to think that.  I officially came out at a human rights convention in Chicago, and it immediately changed my life—for the better.  What’s something that you never told anyone else?  They always say that you shouldn’t give away your beauty secrets (laughs), so the same stands for this question.  You have to keep some things private.  Where can we see you?  You can see our tour schedule on our website, and you can also see me as the grand marshal at the Stonewall Festival in Wilton Manors on Saturday, June 16!