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northwestofinsanity · 2 hours

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About REO Speedwagon breaking up…

So, earlier this week, an announcement went out on the official REO Speedwagon social media pages that blindsided pretty much every REO fan… including the very small handful of REO fans here on Tumblr. It’s been a rough week.

I’ve done some digging around for information, and have managed to get somewhat of a blurry picture of what happened from everything I’ve found, so here’s a post to hopefully help the small few of us here make sense of it all. Due to the length, I’m keeping this under a read-more, and I’m going to try to (aside from where I must clarify) put the timeline of basic information I’ve gathered up top, and analysis down lower, so that those who don’t want to read further don’t have to sort through it.

Two Disclaimers before jumping into it:

1 -While it is fair that anyone might have their opinions from the information here (as I do, too), this post is not an invitation to hate on the members of the band, and I do not condone the making hate comments toward any of the members on any social media pages with posts on the matter. At this point, talking smack about Bruce Hall, Kevin Cronin, or Neal Doughty is not what’s going to change the situation -if anything will at all.

2 -For every Facebook post I mention, I do have screenshots, though I will not be posting them in the main post, as some social media screenshots have a way of being removed here. Most of those pages are publicly viewable even to those not logged in, so I will link to REO’s official page and Bruce Hall’s official page to those who would like to look, and anyone who would rather not look there at all who would still like to see is welcome to request that I DM the screenshots.

Alright, let’s do this, starting with the Basic Timeline of Events:

Starting with the line of perspective given on the official REO Speedwagon Facebook Page (and I believe everything on there is cross-posted to their Instagram for anyone who has that). This Facebook page is viewable without an account. Kevin Cronin makes a lot of posts here himself in a blog-like format, so we can consider posts here as Kevin’s side of the story.

-Back on November 7th of 2023, it was announced by Kevin on social media that Bruce Hall, the longtime bassist of REO Speedwagon, would be off the road and replaced with a substitute to undergo back surgery and the subsequent recovery. Matt Bissonette, who has been with multiple groups, was the bassist who took over touring duties while REO has been on tour with Train. As Kevin’s post read, one line stated, “Bruce is our brother. And times like these test us all. We have faith that Bruce’s surgery will be successful, that he will make a complete recovery, and that he will be back to being the hard rocking bassist/singer that we all know. Bruce has our love and support, as we have encouraged him to take all the time he needs to get himself back to 100% strength.”

Very little information has been given there on Bruce since, up until recently, but going back through, I found:

-November 27th, 2023, at the end of Kevin’s “Happy Thanksgiving” journal entry, a PS note stating, “Received a photo of the newly repaired Bruce Hall, sitting up in his hospital bed and smiling. The nurse in the shot was all smiles and hands in the air, reacting favorably to Bruce making progress. I am giving him space, while my thoughts are with Bruce and wishing him a full recovery.” So by this point, Bruce had undergone his procedure and was doing well in early recovery.

—June 1st, a post from Bruce on the Official REO Facebook Page, mentioning he had been featured on “A Fishing Story With Ronald Green”. No telling if this was filmed before or after Bruce’s operation. He does look good in the video, and is on his feet, though not holding anything of substantial weight.

—One of Kevin’s journal entry-like posts on July 12th, 2024, where Kevin was talking about the Milwaukee Summerfest performances, and mentioned, “Bruce told me he would love to be out here, but we both agreed that his health and recovery need to come first.” So by Kevin’s account here, Bruce was not in condition to play.

……..

Nothing further came on the REO Speedwagon page until the recent unfolding of events within the last week -so let’s jump over to Bruce’s official Facebook page, Bruce Hall of REO Speedwagon, (also viewable without an account) and backtrack to get his side of the story:

-On November 7th, 2023, Bruce made his own announcement letting fans know he would be off the road, stating that he had been powering through a “traumatic back injury” for quite some time and was unable to do so any longer. He assured fans that REO had a plan to find a good substitute while he was away.

-On November 20th, Bruce’s wife, Kimmie, made a post saying that Bruce had his surgery that morning. She assured that “Everything went really well”, and that Bruce had “already gotten up and walked a couple of steps”.

-On December 10th, Bruce posted his first picture of himself with his then newborn grandchild. He looks a bit rough (rightfully so), and is sitting on a couch, so unsure how steady he was at this time, but he was at home in recovery. In his post, he stated “My surgery was a huge success, and I’m getting better everyday.”

[I’m not going to list every one of Bruce’s posts, because there were a lot while he was home in recovery, but over the next month or so, there were several around the Holidays where Bruce was with his family, back on his feet and looking better, and even a few where Neal Doughty was visiting with him]

-Worth mentioning, on January 27th of 2024, Bruce mentioned in a post that he had been working on bass tracks for an album his daughter was recording over the last couple of days. A post came the next day featuring a video of Bruce playing bass, if sitting down and leaned over, but playing as great as usual for him.

[Multiple posts continued of Bruce living life in recovery, including a trip to Disney World with his wife in February, his feature on Ronald Green’s fishing show in March, confirming that it was filmed at that time, and another family gathering with the Doughty’s in early April]

-On April 8th, Bruce made a post with pictures of an REO Speedwagon Make-A-Wish Benefit show, in which he did come onstage for one song and perform. He excitedly mentions this as the first time he had performed since October. Pictures show him playing standing up, if bent over. (Very strangely, there are no posts about this show on the REO Facebook page, when they are typically very prolific with posts made about benefit shows). The day prior, the 7th, Bruce had a video featuring him and Neal Doughty at soundcheck (Neal had also shown up and was playing Piano for “Can’t Fight This Feeling”)

[More posts follow, including ones where Bruce posted Facebook-generated “memory” posts of pictures with him performing with Kevin and Dave, stating how much he misses this, and pictures of being out and about fishing and golfing.]

On June 14th, Bruce made the first post directly addressing the length of his time absent, accompanied by a picture of playing bass while sitting down. Within his statement, the most notable information is as follows: “I'm feeling better every day and have been cleared by my doctor to perform. If it were up to just me, I'd be there rocking tonight...but it's unfortunately not. The consensus feeling is that I don't have good enough posture to perform at the level expected by our fans.” Amid assurances he was still undergoing physical therapy and training to continue recovery, he added, “Trust me, I have no intention of retiring or walking away from the band I have loved for almost 50 years. I would never ever walk away.”

[More generalized Bruce living life and being physically active in recovery follow]

On September 5th, Bruce made a post with a picture of his wife that seems a bit cryptic, stating that he appreciates the support of fans and misses them. It seems this coincided with an article that had come out on September 3rd by Ultimate Classic Rock, regarding Bruce’s absence, titled “Is Bad Posture Keeping REO Speedwagon’s Bruce Hall Off The Road?” My guess is this is what began stirring up a lot of talk from fans, and led to the official statement eventually being made, and Bruce was answering to concern given by fans who might not have been following his page to be aware of his condition until this time. Now, Ultimate Classic Rock is somewhat of a clickbait site (there’s no other way to get around putting it as such), and the article was quoting information from Bruce’s post made back in July, but in this case, it is true to Bruce’s post. Anyone who is trying to avoid Facebook who would like to see it can find it here.

This ends anything relevant on any Facebook page up until everything unfolded within the last week, so the next part of the timeline that follows, I’m going to mix posts from the REO Speedwagon Facebook Page and Bruce’s page in chronological order, rather than separating them out. I will also attempt to hot link the individual posts to the dates here (Tumblr tends to limit how many of these I can do, which is why I have saved that for the most pertinent posts).

-On September 14th, 2024, on the REO Speedwagon Facebook Page, Kevin made an announcement entry along with a performance video regarding the end of the Summer Road Trip Tour, and expressing gratitude for the good touring partners Train have been. He then addressed REO Speedwagon having to miss the last two shows of the tour, revealing that he had emergency surgery, and suggested that he was making this post from the hospital. Kevin then went on to leave this somewhat cryptic message, “I have so much more life to live, and have re-examined what I want to do with the rest of my time here, and who I want to be surrounded by while I do it. I need to be lifted by those around me, and in return, to lift them. I feel excited at the prospect of creating and playing the best music I have in me, with the best artists, musicians, and people who will have me.”

Many comments were left on the September 14th post, requesting clarification on what Kevin meant about this, as well as asking “What about Bruce? When will he be back?”

One person made a comment claiming that they had privately spoken to Kevin on Facebook, and that Kevin had said that Bruce had quit the band on his own. Bruce himself came into the comments on his verified account to say that Kevin does not have his own Facebook page, and that it was a fake imposter account whom that person had spoken with, warning to look for blue checkmarks after the names. In his first of two comments clarifying this, he noted, “I would NEVER leave the band.” This was less than two days before major news came to light.

The speculation on this post inevitably led to the next…

-On September 16th, an announcement came up on the REO Speedwagon Facebook Page that most REO fans have seen by now -if not on the band’s socials, by many news articles featuring it. This one was worded as if written by management. It stated that if it were up to Bruce alone, Bruce would be back to touring, but “it’s not up to just him”, and stated that there was a consensus that Bruce could not perform up to expected standards. It also stated that Kevin had never had any intentions of leaving the band, but then cited irreconcilable differences between Bruce and Kevin as cause that REO Speedwagon will stop touring at the end of this year.

Comments were disabled on this post, as well as the next couple that followed. Many people still shared this post and commented on their own pages

—Bruce shared the post on his own page, expressing that he is heartbroken that it has ended this way, that he in no way expected this, and that he and Neal did everything to try and keep the band going after his recovery. (Should be noted that while Neal has retired from touring, he is still very much a member of the band with some background control). Many fans commented on Bruce’s shared post, expressing anger toward Kevin, and some suggested that Bruce and Neal should find a singer who can do justice to Kevin’s voice, as well as a strong guitarist who can back them. (To the effect of “Do what Journey did”, etc). Bruce has said over and over again in responses to those comments that he believes Kevin is the voice of REO and that he will not tour as REO without Kevin, that he is protecting the legacy of the band and the wishes of Alan, Neal, and Gary’s family. (Also, we don’t know if there’s some contractual agreement between Neal, Bruce, and Kevin as owning members where it’s a tiebreak situation, and Kevin can’t continue permanently by himself, and if Bruce and Neal refuse to do this.) Even though he has been deemed healthy and ready to return by his doctor, he has said that if Kevin would rather “go solo”, he cannot stop him from doing so. He has suggested through these comments that despite being upset, he does not want anybody talking disrespectfully about Kevin in his comments.

—A share that I will not be linking, but I have a screenshot of that anyone may request by DM, Eric Richrath, the son of late classic era guitarist, Gary Richrath, whom in the past has occasionally joined REO onstage for a couple of songs, shared the post, making some scathing comments about his feelings on the situation. For the sake of keeping this part of the post neutral, and for the sake of his dignity, I will not repeat publicly what he said about Kevin. The relevant point he makes is that he believes this is a sad way for the band to have gone out, that fans and the members deserved at least some proper farewell shows, and brought up the good point that Alan Gratzer and Neal Doughty may have wanted the opportunity to rejoin the band for a couple of songs at said shows to send off the band they founded in a good way.

…………………………………

Alright… phew. That was already a lot. Now, discussion, analysis, if anyone wishes to continue further:

From what I can understand from all this, is technically, Bruce is medically cleared to travel and perform, but he is under certain limits as to how he is allowed to perform. For the sake of putting on a good show, is the show diminished somewhat if Bruce can’t jump around as he has in the past, or if he’s required to play sitting down for part of the show? To a point, yes… However, this has been done before. Members of various bands have sustained injuries before and have had to do this, and some found their ways to still make it fun. (Actually, more recently, Bruce posted a throwback picture performing onstage, where Kevin was sitting down after injuring his foot, so this isn’t the first time REO has dealt with something like this… in the comments, when asked about Neal’s stance, Bruce stated that Neal is his best friend, and that Neal is “100% in [his] corner”).

And honestly, none of our aging rockers are able to jump around the way they used to. That’s life, that’s fair whether anyone likes it or not, and that’s what’s going to happen. Sure, I have more fun when I watch live videos of -say, let me pick on Heart, and compare just the videos from even the late 2000s/early 2010s to now. Nancy Wilson isn’t kicking and jumping as high as she did less than a decade ago, but I still love her. And she’s 70 -it’s lucky she was still doing that as long as she was, and that she can still kick at all. I don’t see any reason to view Bruce any differently. Now, maybe not ideal to continue for years like that, but for the sake of having some official farewell shows here and there, as many fans, and Gary’s son have suggested they would have liked to have, it would have probably been feasible. It is worth mentioning that traveling for multiple shows in close proximity can be a little harder on the body (it’s ultimately why Neal chose to retire even though he can still play fine). Bruce has traveled, per the timeline posts I went through, though there could be some valid risk. Nobody’s necessarily saying that farewell shows would have to be close together, though -one a month in different locations could limit the toll of the traveling.

And then, the side of the issue with Kevin. My intent here is to put this into an objective viewpoint, because some people who know me well may know I have some opinions about what happened in the past with Gary, and I’m not alone in that among REO fans -and I have seen it brought up in comments on Facebook. Which is fair, and I especially find it fair for Eric Richrath to leave the comments on his share he did, after he had to witness the impact of that fallout on his father -but let’s put the situation with Gary aside and look at this as an isolated incident, because this is about Kevin and Bruce. And while I’m not here to defend Kevin, I’m also not here to trash talk him -and I would discourage anyone who has decided to side against him to not go wild with negative comments, as Bruce’s Facebook comments have made it abundantly clear, he doesn’t want this.

Is it kind of cruddy for Kevin to just spring this on everyone suddenly the moment he decides he wants to do something else? Yeah! Could he have handled this better, and would it have been more fair of him to just agree to stick around to do even just a couple of official farewell shows? Probably so. But the reality is, while Kevin does share a great deal of what goes on in his life on REO’s official pages, there’s a lot we still don’t know about, because we don’t know Kevin. We do know he recently had emergency surgery. We don’t know what for. We don’t know what’s going on in his life or his true health status, or whatever news he’s potentially been given. Apparently, based on Bruce’s replies mentioning “going solo”, he’s decided he’s got other things he wants to do, and I hate saying it (because it breaks my heart), but we’re not going to have these guys around forever. So again, while it would have been great for Kevin to stick with it for a farewell tour even just a week long, he’s got a need to do something else, and the reality is, there’s only but so much time he’s going to have to make that happen. If that’s what he’s choosing to do with the remaining time he has where he is still able to perform, that’s a choice that has understandable and respectable merits, regardless of how much there might be to disagree over.

My advice to fans who have chosen to pick sides in this situation? If you’ve sided with Kevin, keep your eyes out for whatever he’s going to do next. It won’t be REO, but maybe it might just be something worthwhile -so give him a chance. If you’ve sided with Bruce, and you feel the need to say anything, go show him some love on any of his socials, but please keep comments expressing frustration toward Kevin to yourself or to your own private posts away from him. I cannot stress this enough (I’ll say it again), Bruce has politely suggested that he does not want that. I imagine comments of such on his socials at this point are only serving to rub this in his face. I can also imagine that if Kevin can see any comments like that, it’s only serving to fuel whatever animosity he might feel toward Bruce right now, and it’s making any small chance of reconciliation in the future smaller. So please don’t do this.

And for those neutral in the situation, let’s just stand back and watch this situation. Give Kevin a chance, show Bruce some love… Maybe Kevin will get whatever he feels he needs to do out of his system and will rethink things and decide maybe he wants to get together again for some farewells (situations in the past -including the fallout with Gary -have told that he doesn’t go back and change his mind after making a big change like this, but who knows… time will tell). Hopefully, everyone will make good choices, and as the shock settles, “irreconcilable differences” may seem a bit less than they were in the moment. We can only love these guys while we’ve still got them. This situation is hard, and nasty thoughts aren’t going to make it any easier. We know what’s said before every live performance of “Ridin’ the Storm Out”, and I think it holds true here as we process all this.

#REO Speedwagon #Northwestern speaks #Kevin Cronin #Bruce Hall #Neal Doughty #if this helps process or clarify what’s happened and gives anyone some closure then I’ve done my job #if anyone needs to talk about this my DMs are open (though I may be slow to reply as I am in vet school and I have exams)#band drama can be so weird #this one feels like it came out of left field and blindsided us all #it’s okay to feel odd about this #and y’all affected by this are *allowed* to be emotional!#(There’s probably only like three of us here who need to hear that… but it’s true)

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