BETHLEHEM, Pa. (WFMZ) — Longevity is not lost on Ronnie Platt.
He has spent more than a decade fronting Kansas — a milestone Platt is still trying to wrap his head around.
“It’s crazy. When I got the job, I was thinking to myself, oh if this could last two years, three years, it would be a dream, oh my god, three years, and here I am approaching 12 years,” Platt told 69 News. “I mean, it really is, it’s a dream. It’s a dream come true.”
Platt said the band is playing better than ever. On Friday, May 29, Kansas will headline the Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem.
“I call this band the all-star team of rock ‘n’ roll, because it really is. When you look at the resume of the people in the band, it’s just insane,” Platt said. “We’re just such a well-oiled machine right now and it really shows.”
Platt said the band works hard to maintain that level of musicianship. He feels people already have high expectations when they come to see Kansas in concert.
“We tweak constantly. We’re constantly going over songs we’re doing in the show now and introducing new ones for down the line,” he said. “There’s so much continuity between all of us on stage that it just goes so smoothly and there’s a confidence in the band that I think the audience picks up on.”
He added, “Everyone’s under pressure because no one wants to be the weak link, right?”
Learn more at WindCreekEventCenter.com
Platt said he was a fan of the band long before becoming its front-man in 2014. He remembers picking up a copy of Kansas’ 1976 album, “Leftoverture,” after hearing “Carry on Wayward Son” played repeatedly on the radio. Platt said it was the diversity of Kansas’ music that appealed to him.
“You look at ‘Carry on Wayward Son’ and ‘Dust in the Wind’–– you can not put those two songs in the same genre. It doesn’t fit,” Platt said. “You’ve got the really super progressive stuff — ‘Miracles Out of Nowhere,’ with a flugelhorn in the middle, but then you got songs like ‘Got to Rock On,’ or ‘Fight Fire with Fire,’ that are straight-ahead rock songs. I always liked that diversity in bands because it really shows their talent.”
Platt jokes that even now, fans need to see the band multiple times to fully and appreciate what they are hearing — and seeing — on stage.
“If you’re watching Eric, you’re going to miss what Joe’s doing. And if you’re watching Joe, you’re going to miss what Scott’s doing. There’s just so much going on and the players are so great,” Platt said. “Those intrical parts that, as different as they can be, they can still seamlessly connect together and that’s a really cool thing about Kansas music.”
Before joining Kansas, Platt fronted the band Shooting Star. But he said that experience was not enough to prepare him for what was about to come.
“Shooting Star, maybe in our busiest year, we did 15 gigs. I didn’t even quit my job driving a truck for the Corrugated Company,” Platt said. “I had no idea what I was in for.”
Before Platt had a chance to get his feet wet, he was learning to swim in the deep end.
“They said they wanted to do 45 to 60 shows a year and my first full year, which was 2015, we did 98 shows and then we had our Christmas break, then went right into the studio,” Platt said. “In 2016 we recorded ‘The Prelude Implicit’ and I lived in Atlanta for six weeks while we were recording that. Right when got finished with that, we went right back out on the road.”
Since taking over at the helm, Platt has watched Kansas’ fanbase become as diverse as their music. Platt said it’s not just longtime Kansas fans who are coming to see them, it’s their children and grandchildren, too.
“When I first joined the band, it was an older audience. I remember those first two, three months that we we played, we were doing some modest casinos. Think about it: ‘Leftoverture’ came out in ‘76. If you were 18, 19, 20-years-old in ‘76, well, how old are you in 2014? Do the math. You’re not exactly in your 30s,” Platt joked. “It’s been so gratifying, to me, to see the audience get younger and younger, and I don’t mean because I’m getting older.
He attributes that multi-generational appeal to the band’s music being featured in television and films – pointing out Will Ferrell’s “pristine rendition” of “Dust in the Wind” in the 2003 comedy “Old School” — and inclusion in the popular “Guitar Hero” franchise.
But he said the biggest shot in the arm was the T-V show “Supernatural” unofficially adopting “Carry on Wayward Son” as its theme song. In 2017, the band surprised fans during a “Supernatural” panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego, performing the song to an exuberant crowd inside Hall H.
“When that room filled up with those kids, and those kids were singing, I couldn’t hear my monitor at all,” Platt said. “It restores my faith in the youth of America, to see kids get into this music, because it’s intense music and especially if they’re influenced enough to play an instrument, boy, you couldn’t pick a better band that’s going to really stretch you to the limits of your talent.”
Kansas will perform Friday, May 29, at the Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem. Doors will open at 6 p.m. Showtime is 8 p.m.