What started out as a paid summer vacation keeping the beat for classic rockers Styx on 1996’s “Return To Paradise” reunion turned out to be a life-long career for Todd Sucherman.

Not only has his membership extended to every album and DVD the group released from then through its recent studio offering, “The Mission,” but it led to the Chicago native being voted 2020’s number one live drummer by readers of Modern Drummer, the magazine that previously crowned him the world’s top rock player.

The escalating notoriety also gave the heavy hitter enough confidence to give his singing voice a shot on a debut solo album, “Last Flight Home,” which prompted this Styx-peppered conversation with Chicago Concert Reviews.

Your solo debut album just came out on your 51st birthday. Does this particular year have any special significance for you? 

Todd Sucherman: 51 can feel a bit anti-climatic after 50, so the release of this record helped make it special and meaningful. Truthfully, the release date was originally May 30 and we moved it up to May 2. I had scrapped the idea of releasing the record in early March when we were all hit with this, but I was convinced to release it for those on my social media outlets. So when we decided to forge ahead, and we moved up the release date, I thought that May 2 would be a fun idea.

What’s on your mind throughout “Last Flight Home?”
 
Sucherman: Everything unfolded very naturally and organically with this project, so there was no premeditated or predetermined anything, really. I just wanted to make music and have performances that I could stand behind and be proud of. It was entirely a new musical experience for me, and I had to learn and adjust quickly. It was also a great learning experience as well, but musically, everything had to fit and work well together as a sequenced record. I wasn’t sure I could pull off what I was going for, so we kept at it until it was where we wanted it.
 
Tell us about the inspiration behind the excellent artwork that features your suitcase and door concept. 
 
Sucherman: When it became clear to me that the song, “Last Flight Home,” would be the title track, I came up with the concept of photographing my suitcase against various hotel room doors. I sent the idea to one of my oldest friends, Christopher Markos, who is an Emmy Award-winning director and graphic designer. He did the graphics for the record and he knocked the concept out of the park. He encapsulated the sometimes mundane feeling of traveling with the black and white treatment of the various photos, yet he left one of the photos in color. That, to me, signifies the day you fly home and that was your last hotel room on that run.
 
Did any of the Styx sounds rub off onto this release or did you set out to approach it from a completely different place? 
 
Sucherman: No, it came from several different places. Various influences that have been named by others that have heard the record range from Crowded House, XTC, Jellyfish, The Beatles, ‘70s Genesis, Brian Wilson, Alan Parsons, The Cure, and Don Henley. Quite a varied range and I enjoy hearing what other people hear in it.

How surprised do you think fans will be by your decision to sing in addition to playing on the album?
 
Sucherman: No one is more surprised that I am, truthfully! But yes, I think there have been a lot of surprised people regarding this release. It’s been one of the joys of this experiment and the responses have been really overwhelming and delightfully incredible.

What made you go the route of concise rock songs rather than a drum-centered instrumental record? 
 
Sucherman: I would assume most people that take an interest in what I do would expect a drum centric jazz-fusion project. I assumed that of myself as well, honestly, but the truth of the matter is that I’ve played on a few instrumental records recently, including Antoine Fafard’s “Borromean Odyssey.”  So that itch has been scratched so to speak. My old friend from the old days, J.K. Harrison, had been harassing me to do a record with him for years. He believed in me when I did not, so it was really that collaboration that brought this into fruition. Like J.K, I’ve always been drawn to melodies, songs, and the story of the lyrics above all else. So that’s what took center stage with this music.
 
Congrats on being voted 2020’s “number one live drummer” by Modern Drummer! Who would be your personal top picks past or present? 
 
Sucherman: Being nominated or winning the Modern Drummer Readers Polls over the years has always been incredible, and I take it with a grain of salt, because it makes me work harder to try to try to earn it. I can’t buy into the awards, because I don’t think it’s good to “believe in them” so to speak, although it’s certainly nice to have them. I have a thousand favorite drummers, but if I had to whittle it down to the “holy trinity,” that would be Tony Williams [Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock], Steve Smith [Journey, Vital Information], and Vinnie Colaiuta [Frank Zappa, Sting].
 
You joined Styx at a very pivotal time during the “Return To Paradise” era. What was going through your mind during that transition and describe your view every night during such a massive tour? 
 
Sucherman: I had groomed myself to be a session drummer, which I was at the time I started that tour in 1996. I was doing twenty to thirty sessions a month and having the time of my life when the band came into the picture, but I had never done a full scale large rock tour. To have that experience with a band that I saw live three times as a kid and the fact that I had all the records? I could not pass that opportunity up. So it was really my job to be consistent, reliable, and perform 100% every night. My job was to hold down the fort and support them so they could do their thing. It was a very exciting time and experience, and when the tour ended, I assumed it was just a summer fling. I really thought I’d never see any of those guys again when the tour came to a close. We ended the tour in Chicago, and I knew the gear would be delivered to me at a later date, but I emptied the wardrobe case into my car and drove home at the end of the night. It felt like one extended gig that was five months long.

At what point did you feel like you fully inherited the band’s drum chair? 

Sucherman: When they called me back to do the tour the following year in 1997. They’ve never really told me I have the gig. I’ve just been hanging around for the last 24 years.
 
What’s your perspective on Styx’s latest album, “The Mission,” and the reaction it’s received thus far?
 
Sucherman: When “The Mission” came out in 2017, I loved reading the reviews, because I never read a bad one. The fact that Styx could come out with a concept record about a mission to Mars, and the critics couldn’t rip it to pieces it while salivating to do so? That speaks to the quality of the work in my opinion. Ground has been broken on another record that again, in my opinion, will be even stronger. It’s obviously been halted for the time being, and if normal life had continued, I would have just recorded the drums for it in Nashville last month.
 
Will you be incorporating any of the “Last Flight Home” material into future shows with the group or your own solo dates?
 
Sucherman: No, no. There’s not enough time to play all the Styx songs we could play during a Styx show. So I think that’s how it will remain. I know there will be many Styx shows to make up in the future once this is all behind us, so that will be the focus at that point.
 
Are there any specific concerts from the band’s many Chicago homecomings over the years that especially stand out? 
 
Sucherman: I can recall every Chicago show in my mind. There’s so many now that they seem like a Jackson Pollock painting in my mind. The first few stick out, playing the Rosemont Horizon a couple times. I had so many childhood concert experiences there in that building, including seeing Styx in March of 1981. Since I’ve not lived in Chicago for 23 years, every Chicago area show is always a time of visiting and connecting with old friends. It ends up being a special night every time we swing through town.

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For additional information on Todd Sucherman, visit ToddSucherman.com.