Bitter REO Speedwagon divorce begets Kevin Cronin Band

Call it poor communication. Stubbornness. A disagreement gone bad.

Whatever you call it, it’s a messy divorce for REO Speedwagon.

Veteran rocker Kevin Cronin, REO frontman for nearly 50 years, was outvoted by the band’s other two owners over touring under the band’s moniker. Co-founding keyboardist Neal Doughty and longtime bassist Bruce Hall just said no.

“Maybe this thing sounds like an overstatement but I feel devastated that I’m not able to continue the momentum that we started in November of 2023,” said the singer, who will debut the Kevin Cronin Band on Saturday at Treasure Island Casino by playing REO’s classic 1980 album “Hi Infidelity” in its entirety.

“For the past 35 years I’ve been the leader of this band and I’ve put every ounce of my energy into making it better and raising the bar for REO Speedwagon.”

Slow down. Here are the facts, as we know them.

Doughty, 78, retired in 2023, and Hall, 71, was recovering from back surgery and a ruptured cyst in 2023-24 while REO completed its scheduled dates with a replacement. Then Cronin, 73, wanted to continue REO with the recently revamped lineup.

Hall wanted to return but there were apparently questions about his posture onstage.

Hall, who got paid for last year’s REO tour even though he didn’t perform, has not granted media interviews. However, he and his wife, Kimmie Sue Hall, did speak last fall on the “Eubanks Reality Check” podcast, co-hosted by his friends J.J. and Jamie Eubanks.

“I’ve worked really hard trying to do what I can to get back in there,” Hall said in the podcast, noting he last performed with REO for an encore in April 2024 at a cancer benefit.

“Kevin is the one who has made up his mind. I’m trying to get him to change his mind. If this is going to be the end — and it should be — it’s time to say goodbye.”

Hall advocates for a farewell tour as “the right way to end the band instead of this ugly mess.”

When was the last time Cronin talked to Hall?

“It’s been a minute since I spoke to him personally,” Cronin said. “I hear he’s doing well. He’s traveling, taking vacations, he posts sometimes about going to a concert. I wish him the best. I haven’t really spoken to him personally since spring 2024.”

Some bands continue even though their members don’t see eye to eye. For instance, Journey’s Neal Schon and Jonathan Cain have been feuding and filing lawsuits back and forth for a few years, but Journey is still filling stadiums as those two longtimers stand on opposite sides of the stage.

That kind of animus wouldn’t work for Cronin.

“The thought of traveling on two separate buses, the atmosphere is not the kind I do well in,” he said. “I need the atmosphere to be love and chemistry and good energy and a good spirit backstage. I can’t do this just for the money.”

Not even Irving Azoff, arguably the most powerful person in the music industry and REO’s first manager, could step in and play diplomat.

“He actually made a couple phone calls to see if he could be Henry Kissinger and we’re just at a stalemate,” Cronin said. “For me, I can’t go backwards.”

Over the decades, REO has gone through several personnel changes. Guitarist Dave Amato and drummer Bryan Hitt joined in 1989 while keyboardist Derek Hilland and bassist Matt Bissonette signed on in 2023. They are now the Kevin Cronin Band, playing the REO repertoire including “Keep on Loving You” and “Can’t Fight This Feeling.”

Minnesota has been a key place for the band that started out in Champaign, Ill., in 1967.

“Since the beginning, we’ve referred to the part of the country that’s a few hundred miles either side of the Mississippi River as REO Country,” Cronin said.

Since the drinking age was 18 in Wisconsin, REO performed there often, and Minnesota was the next logical market to explore. The Gopher State welcomed REO so heartily that the band recorded a live album and DVD/Blu Ray at Moondance Jam in Walker, Minn., in 2013.

When REO and Styx, a fellow Illinois band, considered touring together after each losing a key member (REO guitarist Gary Richrath and Styx lead singer Dennis DeYoung), they booked one test show in Duluth. The crowd loved it. And so did the rebounding bands.

“And that was the beginning of a 25-year brotherhood between Styx and REO,” Cronin said. “People of Minnesota have been a big part of these past 25 years.”

Indeed, REO has performed at the Minnesota State Fair six times, often with Styx, and at the inaugural Twin Cities Summer Jam with Rascal Flatts in 2019.

Styx and Cronin will be touring together again this summer with another musician from an acrimonious band, Don Felder, who was fired from the Eagles in 2001. Except it won’t be REO Speedwagon on the marquee and tickets.

“There is no REO Speedwagon anymore. You can’t see an REO Speedwagon concert,” Cronin said. “To me, that’s a shame.”

When: 8 p.m. Sat.

Where: Treasure Island Casino, 5734 Sturgeon Lake Road, Red Wing.

Tickets: $69 and up, ticketmaster.com.