Kevin Cronin

But I put a lot of work into it with our content and lighting director, Paul Dexter.

And when Bruce heard himself, it was a week before we were supposed to open in Vegas.

And I put a year of work into this.

And people buy tickets from all over the world to come for a residency.

And so I didn't want to lose the residency.

And I said, Bruce, you gotta go home, take care of yourself, you know, and he did.

And I just was, if there's a way to salvage this thing, I'm gonna salvage it.

And it just so happened that Elton John had retired, and his bass player, who's named Matt Bissonette, Greg Bissonette's brother, all friends of ours, and Matt came out,

Learned our entire set list overnight, came in with a stack of charts, read the charts for a couple of days, threw the charts away, and something happened in the band, and I was trying to lift the band.

Now I felt the band lifting me.

And I felt myself, and I was in the midst of taking these vocal lessons, and suddenly there was this new energy.

One of the guys in Elton's band told me not long ago, he goes, Matt Bissonette's the kind of guy where any band he's in, the band gets better.

And so it was just like unplanned.

completely unplanned yeah life just sometimes happens and then what do you do right

So that was kind of the scenario, because I think I love Bruce, and I think he might feel like I was out to get him.

I've heard that from people, that there's a feeling there, and it's just not the case at all.

I hold no ill feelings toward him.

It just became an impossible situation where it's always been my job, I felt,

especially since Gary left.

I remember the day that I was either going to go and do a solo album or stick with REO Speedwagon.