Styx Bassist Becomes Spokesperson For Coming-Out Project
Now battling AIDS, Chuck Panozzo encourages
openness for gays and lesbians.
For more than 30 years, Styx bassist Chuck Panozzo has
helped rock fans escape through teary power ballads,
progressive-rock anthems and futuristic sci-fi concepts.
Now he's urging whomever he can to confront reality and
publicly embrace their homosexuality, as a spokesperson
for the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out
Project.
In his new role, Panozzo will speak with the press, work
to promote AIDS awareness and encourage those at risk
to get tested for the disease. He also hopes to help
closeted gay men and women open up and come out.
"Gays and lesbians need to know that
coming out is not such a bad thing," he
said. "In fact, it's the most liberating
thing that they could ever imagine. It's
something that can really touch their soul
and free their spirit."
Panozzo came out on July 28 at the
Human Rights Campaign's annual dinner
in Chicago. He also admitted he's been
living with advanced AIDS since 1999.
"I didn't want to be in denial anymore,"
he said from his Chicago home. "I had
seen my brother [Styx drummer John Panozzo] in denial, and he died of
addiction [in 1996]. My best friend was in
denial of having AIDS, and he died of it. I said, 'I can't be
that person.' I don't want to be a coward about this
thing and at the end of my life have somebody else say,
'Oh, well, he died of AIDS.' I didn't want that to be me."
Panozzo was diagnosed with HIV in 1991; he remained
untreated and symptom-free for eight years. Then the
disease hit hard. Despite immediate treatment, he was
intensely ill for the next 18 months.
"I had every condition that comes with having advanced
HIV," he said. "I lost 50 pounds and I had terrible
anemia. And my mother was dying at the time I was
starting to take my meds, which was really difficult. I was
prescribed protease inhibitors, which save lives, but
they're very difficult to take. I had to pull out of the band
for a while because I had a fight on my hands that was
more important than anything."
This year, Panozzo played 32 shows with Styx even
though he was still battling AIDS. He admits he has good
and bad days now, but stresses the importance of
staying active and not giving up.
"I really had to say to myself, 'Hey, your life isn't over yet.
You have other productive things to do.' And that's why I
feel so strongly about the HRC," he said. "I think I left
this glorious professional legacy, but my personal life
sucked because I never addressed my homosexuality. So
I needed to make another mark in my life.
"If I can make one person go and get tested and
question why they've lived in the closet as long as they
have, then I have succeeded, and my brother and my
friend will not have died in vain."
— Jon Wiederhorn
Source: Sonicnet.com; V-H1 The Wire