Link Ahead with the City of Dublin, Ohio
Link Ahead with the City of Dublin, Ohio
Kansas and 38 Special will rock July 4th in Dublin. Kansas' lead singer wants you there!
Ronnie Platt's journey to becoming the lead vocalist of rock legends Kansas defies conventional music industry narratives. At 52, after decades behind the wheel of a Chicago delivery truck, he stepped into the spotlight previously occupied by one of rock's most distinctive voices, Steve Walsh. "Better late than never," he quips with characteristic humility that runs throughout his conversation with Lindsay and Bruce.
Now celebrating eleven years with the band, Platt opens up about the influences that shaped his powerful vocal style—Steve Walsh, Steve Perry, and Lou Gramm—analyzing their techniques and selecting vocalists whose approach matched his physical capabilities.
The conversation takes a more serious turn as Platt details his recent battle with thyroid cancer, from discovery to diagnosis to his triumphant return to the stage just one month after surgery. His concern extended beyond his health to the entire Kansas organization—band members, crew, venues, and support staff who would be affected by his absence from touring. This profound sense of responsibility, combined with extraordinary medical care, fueled his remarkably swift recovery.
It's only April but it's time to get excited about July 4th! Kansas and 38 Special will headline this year's Independence Day celebration, culminating in the city's spectacular fireworks display. Community Events Director Alison LeRoy also joins to share details about the full day of festivities and the upcoming table reservation process. It promises to be another rockin' unforgettable Fourth of July in the city we love!
All right, we love our first here on Link Ahead and we have a big one today. Our Independence Day announcement is always a monster episode, but we've never had an artist join the podcast to talk about the upcoming show until now.
Speaker 2:Lindsay, I am very excited. So please welcome lead vocalist and keyboardist from the band Kansas, Ronnie Platt, to Link Ahead. Hello Ronnie, Hi kids, we are beyond excited to have your band and 38 Special join us for our Independence Day celebration. How did the stars align for you to be here with us?
Speaker 3:What a great lineup. Kansas and 38 Special. What a great matchup. We can't wait to get there. And on July 4th, are you kidding?
Speaker 1:Well, we throw quite a great party for the 4th, and this is part of your 50th anniversary tour, and you're playing all over the country. What can your fans here in Dublin look forward to in terms of the set list and the show itself?
Speaker 3:Well, not only from 38 Special, but from Kansas also. You're just going to hear some crazy intense music. It's a good time. You're going to see some of the best musicians in the world. We bring our show to everyone and everyone's always satisfied customers by the time they leave.
Speaker 2:Let's run some numbers here. Kansas has sold 30 million albums, and eight of them went to gold, plus two one-million-selling gold singles in Carry On my Wayward Son and Dust in the Wind. What's kept Kansas so popular over all these years?
Speaker 3:It's the quality of the music and it's something to see our audience just in the time that I've been in the band which I'm now working on my 11th year. Hun, can you bring the Geritol? But yeah, it really is the quality of the music and it's I like to rebrand it. As you know, it's called classic rock, but I like to call it timeless rock.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, isn't that a great way to put it? When I look out over the audience now and I you know, I see you know the original fans and their kids and, dare I say, their grandkids, getting into Kansas music, really it's, it's something special, it really is. And when you think about it, where have you not heard Dust in the Wind? You're absolutely right, really. The elevator, the grocery store, the dentist office, on the radio, in the car, in the mall. You've heard it everywhere. And then Wayward Son. Now you know, with so many TV shows that have picked it up, reacher is playing Wayward Son. Supernatural unofficially adopted Wayward Son as their theme song and it really introduced, you know, the song, the band and the music to new generations of music. And it's something for me, just in the time I've been in the band, to look out over the audience and just see the vast age group of people that are out there enjoying our music. It's really great, it's flattering.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean you're talking about we had this. We had Kansas on album, we had it on cassette. Well, I mean you're talking about we had this. We had Kansas on album, we had it on cassette, we have it on CD. Now we're streaming it. Like it has transcended. No, I'm sorry I totally forgot the 8-track. That's my bad yeah absolutely Did. I just age myself there.
Speaker 3:No, we all had an 8-track player Bring a big bottle of Geritol hon.
Speaker 1:But you're absolutely right. It but you're absolutely right, it's timeless. We are talking, bruce and I have some some younger teammates here in Dublin and, yeah, you mentioned these songs and they know the music, so that you have that generation too. Let's talk about your road to rock and roll. You became lead vocalist more than a decade ago, as you mentioned, and you followed a legend in Kansas's original lead singer, steve Walsh. Those are some big rock and roll shoes to fill. I'm sure there was a moment when you thought what have I gotten myself into? Were there some jitters early on?
Speaker 3:Oh, you know it. You know because you know. I listened to the live album Two for the Show that came out in the 70s and you know, boy, all songs that steve was just on fire. You know vocally, you know, and it's something I. I have a, I have a homework assignment for you. Okay, and dust in the wind, uh, where, at the end of the song, where it starts to fade as you, as it starts to fade, turn the volume up.
Speaker 3:So you're, you're keeping the volume level and at the end of that song you're going to hear steve in the stratosphere and you never hear it because the song really low but as you bring the volume up and you listen to the end of that, steve is just in the stratosphere on his pitch and and you know, not only was he, you know, in my opinion one of the greatest rock singers of all time a monster keyboard player and then just turned into one of the best showmen ever. You know, when people say, well, why don't you do a handstand? And I say my blue cross, blue shield doesn't cover. And I say my blue cross, blue shield doesn't cover that.
Speaker 2:You said your singing voice is a tribute to guys like you know Steve Walsh that you mentioned. There's also Steve Perry from Journey, lou Graham from Foreigner. What is it about them that really influenced?
Speaker 3:you their intensity, their passion and their intensity. And you know, being a singer, I always dissected their vocals. You know, even long before the technology was there, I was listening to these guys and just isolating them in my mind. I mean listening to not only the way they projected, but you know their breathing techniques and you know just and I happen to pick guys that you know were good for my physical makeup. I admit that there's no way I could sing in ACDC.
Speaker 2:They can't even sing ACDC songs anymore.
Speaker 3:This voice does not do Brian Johnson. Sure, I can for about five minutes, but then I'm not singing for a week. So I just picked guys that were conducive to my physical makeup and as time goes on, you pick up elements of different singers.
Speaker 1:Well, let's talk about your journey from listening to now being on stage, because if this isn't a cool story, I don't know what is. Before becoming a rock and roll star, you spent a couple of decades driving truck.
Speaker 3:Well, let me tell you I was driving a truck around the beautiful streets of. Chicago. Hey ma is my Midwestern accent coming out, ma? There's a thing I like to do.
Speaker 3:It's called eat we enjoy enjoy that you have to earn a living, you have to pay the bills and I never I never not made money from music. But you know there were. There were times, you know, playing the bar scene around chicago where you know, after you, long before, uh, you know, there was house sound and lights. It was the band's responsibility to contract sound, contract lights and by the time you get done, paying your sound, your lighting company, your crew, your expenses. You know there were many gigs that you know me and my bandmates were, you know, scraping up the leftover money for pizza. You know, after the gig, you know, truck driving. Not only, not only did I love it, but it allowed me the time to be in music and I had other opportunities in my life that you know. I could have made a comfortable living, but I would have had to have given up my music aspirations and that just wasn't in my playbook. So it took me until age 52 to become the lead singer in Kansas.
Speaker 2:Better late than never. I got to ask when you were driving the truck, did you have a CB radio in the truck and did you have a handle?
Speaker 3:Yeah, this is wings and I'm talking, and can you give me what it looking like on the other side? Yeah, you know, I did have a CB because I started driving in 87.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 3:And you know there were a lot of, you know, trucking yards and stuff that you had to communicate with, like the guardhouse and stuff through through CB.
Speaker 2:On a more serious note, you recently went through quite the health journey with the diagnosis of, treatment of, and clearance, to return to the stage from, thyroid cancer. So tell us about that journey. And you know how are you able to maintain your stamina when you're playing three, four times a week.
Speaker 3:It's quite the the reality check to uh, you know, and it was just something you know. We, back in January, we we played, uh, some shows in Florida and I came home here and this, you know, if I came home on Sunday, it was, you know, monday. I'm like I'm feeling my neck and it's like, wow, I'm really tender, you know, it actually hurt to touch. And then I got a little hoarse and I'm like, let me tell you guys, I am the guy that waits to the absolute last second to go to the doctor. I do not like doctors, but some a flag went up this time and uh contacted my ENT and it was so funny. Uh, you know, I I went and made an appointment but by the time I went and saw him, I'm like, hey, doc, you know I feel great. You know the tenderness is gone. You know I'm singing like a bird and you know he's looking at me and he's like, sit in the chair. Obviously he saw what I didn't right and uh, you know, discovered I had a nodule on my thyroid and it was three centimeters. And, uh, he did a needle biopsy and it came back that it was malignant and it's it's.
Speaker 3:It's scary to to think about sitting in that room now and you know, he's handed me a sheet of paper and I'm like, well, what am I? And he's like, well, one is benign. And you know, all the way up to the different categories, which is six, which is full blown malignancy, and I'm like, well, what am I? And he goes, well, you're six, you know. Then the first thing in my mind was how much time do I have left? You know, am I? Am I going to have three months to live, six months to live? A year? You know, it's really something when you're confronted with those words, going from knowing absolutely nothing about it to getting educated along the way of of what I had. And let me tell you, I feel lucky, I feel like I skated, because the type of cancer that I had was called papillary it's very rare that it spreads.
Speaker 3:And when I made an appointment with my surgeon through my ENT, and he's like he's probably going to be a few months out, and I'm like a few months out, what you know, and I'm thinking about, oh my God. You know, I got a band that's not working, I got a crew that's not working, venues that are now not working, merchandise people, accountants, travel people that are all not working because I'm not singing. You know that's quite a burden to have on your shoulders. You know, long story short, because of some amazing people, they moved me up in the schedule and it's just crazy that my initial uh appointment with my surgeon was not till April 21st. And here I get my surgery scheduled for March 4th and one month to the day I'm back on stage. Wow, it's crazy. It's crazy. And now, now that I've done that first show back. It's, it's funny. Things seem surreal that that happened, you know.
Speaker 3:Now that it's behind me, it's a crazy feeling. So I I really skated there. I got extremely lucky.
Speaker 1:Well, we are so glad that you are healthy now and that you are back on stage and that you're going to Me too.
Speaker 3:Me too. Let me tell you just for the record, me too.
Speaker 1:So you're back on stage. Let's talk about you and 38 Special. Are you guys touring together now? Have you toured before? How do the bands get along?
Speaker 3:We've done many shows with 38. Donnie Barnes, I mean mean, what a great guitar player, great singer. 38 special in Kansas. What a great matchup. We've done many shows in the past, but now, not only this show, but throughout the rest of the year we're doing a lot of shows with 38, also with Dave Mason Jeffersonhip. We're playing with a lot of our friends and just this year is going to be so much fun and just a good time. It really gets interesting at times.
Speaker 1:I'm sure. Well, Ronnie, we and all of our episodes with rapid fire questions to finish up our podcast.
Speaker 3:So, ready or not, here we come. Wait a second, let me load up my holsters.
Speaker 1:Question number one what makes a great rock and roll song?
Speaker 3:Heart, Heart makes a great when your heart is in the song, when your heart's into writing it and your heart is into performing it.
Speaker 3:that's what makes it great. And even even the best songwriters will tell you there are some songs that they, you know that they write or or have written just for the fact of writing the song. Whereas and you know it, you know, there's there's times when I sit down at the piano here and it's like sometimes it just comes to you and it's it just comes right out of your heart and a lot of people will tell you some of the greatest songs were written in five, ten minutes I love that you know, because it just instantly came from your heart ronnie, what's the best part of touring ah?
Speaker 3:it's not the airports, I'll tell you that. No, you know what the best part of touring is seeing the people and just seeing everyone in the audience. And I mean I love to mess with people in the crowd. You know, when Joe or Tom or Zach they're soloing or Rich is doing a solo and I go up to the side of the stage, I'll look at someone and I'll mimic them, you know and they'll realize that I'm looking at them and you know everybody around that person just starts laughing.
Speaker 3:You know every new audience there's just an energy and I love that. It's the people. It's performing is the greatest thing. The travel not so much.
Speaker 1:Well, that was going to be. My question is what's the toughest part of touring?
Speaker 3:So the joke is we don't get paid to perform, we get paid to travel, traveling.
Speaker 4:The joke is we don't get paid to perform, we get paid to travel. It makes sense.
Speaker 2:Do you have a strict diet when you're on the road?
Speaker 3:Very strict it's only Twinkies and cashews. That's another really difficult thing about being on the road because it's hard to eat right, you know you can't go to the grocery store every day. You know you're at the mercy of, you know what's around the hotel and you know 90% of the time it's fast food. Thank God, the people that provide catering to our shows are just 90% of the time. Our caterers are just outstanding. But it's tough trying to eat right on the road.
Speaker 1:Okay, what's a guilty pleasure, food or otherwise?
Speaker 3:Okay, I'll let you into a little personal thing here. My guilty pleasure is being in my hotel room on my downtime. I go on YouTube because I'm restoring a 1968 Corvette oh wow, and doing everything myself. And if you want to learn how to fix something on your car, you go to YouTube.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, if you want to learn how to fix something on your Corvette.
Speaker 3:You go to YouTube. Because, there's so many Corvette clubs and so many guys that are Corvette enthusiasts and it's something that I've been able to and it gives me a disconnection from music. You know, sometimes you get frustrated, you're trying to work on something and you need to disconnect yourself from that for a moment and do something else and then when you come back, you feel refreshed.
Speaker 2:Well, I think you might have just told us this, but tell us something else that you know your fans don't necessarily know about you. Do you cook? You play sports? You have a great TV show, you watch? You know what? Can we tell people?
Speaker 3:You know what? I'm not much of a TV guy other than YouTube to watch how to fix something on my Corvette. You know, to me it's. You know, as you could see behind me. You know my guitars and my music stuff in the house. It's like you could have and I can't stress this enough for people that even are novice players, because you could be having the worst day ever and you pick up the guitar and you sit at the piano even if you're not a great player. It's the best therapy in the world.
Speaker 1:We're so excited to see you and can you give us like a nice radio? Sign off like this is Ronnie Platt and I'll see you on 4th of July, dublin. Sign off like this is Ronnie Platt and I'll see you on 4th of July, dublin.
Speaker 3:This is Ronnie Platt from the band Kansas and if you want to see fireworks and you want to hear fireworks from the stage, you've got to come and see Kansas. Along with our friend's 38th special July 4th, we're going to be rocking it into the night and carry on.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, yes, absolutely Perfect. I have the perfect face for Carry on yes absolutely, yes, absolutely Perfect.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, I have the perfect face for radio.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, that was great. All right, Ronnie Platt, lead singer of the legendary band Kansas. Thank you so much for joining us on Link Ahead and we will see you in Dublin, Ohio. Thanks guys.
Speaker 3:This is a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:All right, what a guest. And now we have another rock star with us. Allison LaRoy, community Events Director, the person who makes all this happen every year and our first and only four-time guest on Link Ahead. Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 4:I'm so glad to be here, but I am wondering what the coat looks like for the five-timer We'll have to budget for that for next year we're still figuring that out. It's got to be good.
Speaker 2:I mean, you've seen the jacket they have for the Masters, right, I'm sure?
Speaker 4:it's the same, yeah, but it'll be green. Wait With shamrocks, it will be good.
Speaker 2:That is great.
Speaker 4:I know We'll get shamrocks.
Speaker 1:So we just talked to Ronnie Platt, lead singer of Kansas, and I have to tell you what we are really, really, really excited for this year's headliner 38 special in Kansas. Tell us how this all came together.
Speaker 4:You know, it's one of those things. You know, we always look for those, maybe somebody who's doing something special. So both of them have actually been on our list before and it just never worked out, for whatever reason. And so when they came to us this year and said we've got both of them together doing a show, so we really jumped on it because we're thinking like, oh, it's something different that you're not going to see all the time.
Speaker 1:Right and two acts for one yeah right.
Speaker 2:You get both of them.
Speaker 1:Either one of them in and of themselves would be a great get, but this is two really classic bands coming to Dublin.
Speaker 4:And it makes you kind of wonder. You know they came up around the same time, had the hits at the same time. So I'm hoping for some crossovers or some fun, you know, collaboration between the two, I mean and not to get all sentimental on you but it's like, what's great about it is it's generational stuff.
Speaker 2:You know my you know, when I expose my kids to music and then we're able to share and enjoy this kind of genre together.
Speaker 4:It's kind of special yeah, and I think it's one of those things, um, especially for some of the, the younger generation, they're they're maybe not gonna know the names of the bands or even the names of the songs, right, but they're going to hear those songs and they're going to go. Oh, I know that that was in this movie or they did in this thing. So I think that's one of those things when you start hearing the songs, you're going to remember all those you know your memories of where you were, those kind of things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's timeless rock, just like Ronna said.
Speaker 2:Nice job, Lindsay.
Speaker 1:timeless rock, just like Ronna said and I have to say, you know, really excited to bring it back to rock. I know sometimes we'll do rock, classic rock, country a little bit, and so we have rock acts this year and that's good for us and exciting.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things. It just seems kind of iconically 4th of July, so you know go with fireworks and that old time feel. I always say 4th of July is about tradition, so it just makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2:We have the greatest firework display.
Speaker 4:Yes, we've got some rock and roll to go with it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Right. So talk about the whole day we're gearing up for this. Table sales are going to be happening soon. Walk us through it. Soon, walk us through it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so obviously we start every year at the 4th of July parade. It's just, you know, one of those things you got to go out to the kids with the candy, but you've got the floats, you've got the balloons, you've got you know, dancing groups. You know all that kind of stuff. So it's just a lot of fun. You start the day out that way. I want our evening celebration starts up later in the afternoon.
Speaker 4:You know people have made this. It's such a tradition. You know people bring in their entire picnic basket with all sorts of food. A lot of people go and order food from like Giant Eagle and have that brought in. You know it's really kind of a feast. You know you walk around and it's just so much fun to see what people are doing. But one of the things I love about the table sales too, is that people really get together as neighborhoods. So back in the day we used to do it where they had to stand in line and it was one of those things you had to get there. The first people were there. I think one year they got there at 10 pm the night before. So we don't do that anymore, although I always thought it was kind of fun.
Speaker 2:I think people thought it was fun too. I remember people camping out outside the rec center.
Speaker 4:Exactly Now. We do it all online. We had to get, you know, we had to get with the times, but it's still. You see groups going together, so you'll see an entire neighborhood and you can kind of pick out. You know that's those 10 tables over there, or this neighborhood, and all the kids are running around, and so it's just a really great place to get together. So we have to ask um.
Speaker 1:Did either of the bands have any fun or funny requests this year?
Speaker 4:Um, my favorite thing and this is just fun and funny for me is that and I can't remember which one it was but one of them says you have to leave a note in their dressing room that said I read this writer and you have to sign it. So in other words, they're just trying to say and I think that's always what the green M&M thing was Absolutely that was it.
Speaker 2:To make sure they read it.
Speaker 4:Did you actually read it? So I think this one's kind of cool, because you just have to leave a little handwritten note.
Speaker 2:Who is writing that?
Speaker 4:note this year, I don't know. I think I might write it and put some hearts on it. You should.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean seriously, if you live in Dublin and you've never got a table, get a table. It is totally worth it. Yeah.
Speaker 4:I mean it's nice, especially when you have kids if they're going off and they're playing in different things, or even if they're a little older and seeing their high school friends, they have a place to come back to. You've got your spot. You've got a great. Every single table has a great view of that stage. We have an amazing stage that we bring in and it just really has that whole feel where everybody's together.
Speaker 2:All right, so we talked about getting a table. How do you go about getting a table Allison?
Speaker 4:Well, one thing that is special about our event is that only Dublin residents can reserve those tables, you know, and so that's kind of cool. It keeps it Dublin. But what we want to do is make sure everybody gets registered. They have to register with their Rectrack membership at the Rec Center. So if you're thinking about getting a table, you should probably check into your Rectrack account, make sure you're up to date, all your information is correct, because then on May 12th and 13th you actually register for the sale. So this is how we still keep it, instead of having to wait in line, and this also helps you get your table with your group. So you then get, once you register May 12th and 13th, you then get a time slot where you actually then buy it on May 15th and 16th. So there's a bit of a step out in the process, but that's all about making sure that we keep those groups together, sure.
Speaker 2:I mean back in the day you used to bring everyone in the rec center and then you'd physically check a gas bill or a water bill to make sure they were Dublin residents, so that process didn't take long.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so this is so much easier. Sometimes people say this seems like a weird long process, but the whole point is to make sure these really are going to our Dublin residents really are going to our Dublin residence.
Speaker 2:All right, allison, I think you forgot to mention something before the parade.
Speaker 4:I did. I forgot about the Sherm Sheldon Fishing Derby, which is just one of those things that people love. I mean it's amazing how many people get out there. The last couple of years it's been at Avery Park. It starts at 8 in the morning, so it's really early. Actually, it's funny. When it used to be at Rec Center I'd be getting into work and seeing them fishing, so that was always so much fun.
Speaker 4:But you know kids and adults all go out to Avery Pond and you know they really do catch fish. I think when I first heard about it I thought it was maybe fake fish or something Fake fish. But you know, yeah, so it's great and you know I've seen some really big fish come out of that pond.
Speaker 1:All right. So you've got the fishing derby, then you have the parade, then the evening celebration and then the fireworks Best in Central Ohio, if we do say so ourselves and you know it's funny because we you know every year it's always okay.
Speaker 4:what music are we going to put in? I'm not going to give any secrets away here. The playlist.
Speaker 2:Wait a minute. Secrets away here um and a playlist wait a minute, didn't last year? You didn't know what the playlist I did not know what the playlist was last year.
Speaker 4:That was the first time ever for me, um, this year I did actually hear it. Um, I don't know, maybe I just wanted to hear it this time okay, because I think I think I was too nervous or something I wanted. I wanted to make sure my favorite songs were in there.
Speaker 1:Well, allison, thank you so much for joining us. I think we gave you about two hours notice this time to join us on the podcast. You're always such a friend of the show and we're happy to have you and looking forward to the fourth.
Speaker 4:Great. I'm so happy we're going to be there together this year.
Speaker 2:And to our listeners. Thank you as well for taking the time to connect with your city. Tune in next time as we continue to explore the many personalities and experiences that make Dublin a thriving place to live, work and grow.