Kansas carrying on musical legacy in Palmetto
PALMETTO – The classically-influenced progressive rock band Kansas is coming to the Bradenton Area Convention Center and they’re bringing The Outlaws with them.
The Friday, May 2 Kansas/Outlaws concert is sponsored by The Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, The Center of Anna Maria Island and Cedar Cove Resort and Cottages. Tickets start at $55. The most expensive floor seats are $105 and VIP packages are $285. Tickets can be purchased at The Center website.
After releasing their debut album, “Kansas,” in 1974, the band from Topeka, Kansas began experiencing widespread commercial success with the 1976 release of “Leftoverture,” their stellar fourth album that kicks off with the band’s first big hit, “Carry On Wayward Son.” The hits continued with the “Point of Know Return” album in 1977 that featured the title song and the Top-10 single, “Dust in the Wind.” The band’s live sound was captured on their 1978 double-live album “Two for the Show” and they closed out a successful decade with 1979’s “Monolith,” which included “People of the South Wind.”
As musical styles and band membership began to evolve in the 1980s, the band’s later hits included “Hold On,” “Play the Game Tonight” and “Fight Fire With Fire.” Decades later, Kansas continues to write and record new music, including the “The Prelude Implicit” album released in 2016 and “The Absence of Presence” album released in 2020.
Formed in Tampa in 1967 and currently led by classic-era member Henry Paul, The Outlaws’ best-known songs include “Green Grass and High Tides,” “Hurry Sundown,” “There Goes Another Love Song” and their 1980 cover of “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky.”
Kansas today
Chicago native and former Shooting Star lead singer Ronnie Platt joined Kansas in 2014 after lead singer/keyboardist Steve Walsh retired. With Platt also playing keyboards, the current Kansas lineup features founding member and guitarist Rich Williams, guitarist Zak Rizvi, keyboardist/vocalist/musical director Tom Brislin and violinist/guitarist Joe Deninzon.
Original drummer and founding member Phil Ehart is still recovering from a major heart attack he suffered in 2024 and his longtime drum tech and protégé Eric Holmquist is currently handling the drumming duties. According to the band’s official Facebook page, bass player Dave Edwards is filling in for bassist Dan McGowan for a few weeks as he and his wife welcome a new baby.
During an April 15 phone interview with The Sun, Platt described what the audience will see and hear at a Kansas concert in 2025.
“Some of the most amazing musicianship you’ll ever see. Tom was Meat Loaf and Debbie Harry’s keyboard player and he toured with Yes. He’s a great songwriter too. Zak is an amazing guitarist, an amazing producer and he wrote the motherlode of the music on the last two studio albums. The audience will be mesmerized by Joe Deninzon on that Viper violin. We have Dave filling in for Dan, and he’s a smoking bass player.
I’ve known Eric my entire life. I was in a band called Drama with Eric’s father and we played all Yes music. He’s a great drummer. And Rich has been there more than 50 years. In my opinion, Rich is one of the most underrated guitar players of all time. This is what people are going to see: the best musicians playing incredible music. It takes a certain level of musicianship to pull off this music and the guys in Kansas do that with flying colors.”
Although he’s currently not drumming, Ehart still plays a vital role in the band operations.
“Phil’s the CEO. He’s been managing the band for probably 40 years now,” Platt said. “Phil kept the band together through ‘the dark ages’ in the 90s (when grunge took over the music scene). Things got pretty lean in the 90s and then classic rock made a resurgence. I’ve seen our audiences get bigger and the response gets bigger. It’s nice to see so many people in the audience that were original fans of the band back in the 70s and now their kids are coming – and dare I say, their grandkids.”
The Kansas website bills the Palmetto show as a “Kansas Classics” show.
“Of course you going to hear the big hitters,” Platt said. “We can’t do a show without doing ‘Carry On Wayward Son,’ ‘Dust in the Wind’ and ‘Point of Know Return,’ but we really try to give the audience a good sample of Kansas through the years, including the early albums. And we’re working on ‘Jets Overhead,’ off ‘The Absence of Presence.’ What a rocking song that is.”
Health scare
Platt recently dealt with his own health scare.
“Back in January, my neck felt really sore and I started getting hoarse. I got a needle biopsy and it came back that I had malignant thyroid cancer. The first thing on my mind was how much time do I have left? It’s such a scary, sobering thought. But as I got educated about the type of cancer I had, I learned it was extremely slow growing and it’s extremely rare that it spreads. I found an amazing surgeon that was able to remove the cancerous nodule on my thyroid and not remove my whole thyroid, which cut my recovery time down dramatically. We did our first show one month to the day of my surgery. We did have to cancel five shows, but three were rescheduled.”
Kansas has a busy year ahead, with more than 30 shows currently scheduled.
“We’re playing with a lot of friends this year,” Platt said of the summer and fall tours that include shows with various other bands, including .38 Special, The Outlaws, Night Ranger, Jefferson Starship and Starship featuring Mickey Thomas.
“It’s going to be a fun year; and when you have a new perspective on life, you really appreciate things a lot more.”
Platt also appreciates that Kansas travels by plane and not by tour bus.
“When I was in Shooting Star, we traveled by bus and it lost its luster really fast. It was the band and the crew on one bus. I’m 6-foot-2 and those bunks are probably about 6 feet long,” he said. “With Kansas, we fly to the first location and drive Expeditions or Suburbans from city to city, staying in hotels until we finish that run and fly home. That’s a big benefit of being in Kansas: I get to come home every week,” he said.
When asked about carrying on the musical legacies of well-known bands after their original members depart, Platt said, “Mozart, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky aren’t around anymore but people still go to see symphony orchestras play their music. It’s because of the music. I don’t call it classic rock anymore. I call it ‘timeless rock.’ And it’s like your favorite sports team – there’s no one from the 1985 Chicago Bears playing anymore but they’re still the Bears. The Kansas organization hires the best musicians possible to carry on the music and Kansas is still producing new music.”
