Culture
Kansas’ guitarist Rich Williams reflects on progressive rock and his band’s unlikely stardom
By: Emily Votaw
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Kansas are the progressive rock giants responsible for megahits such as “Carry On Wayward Son,” “Dust in the Wind” and many more. Over the course of their almost five decades of music making, the band has produced eight gold albums, three sextuple-platinum albums, and one platinum album, just to name a few of their accomplishments. Kansas will bring their Point of Know Return Tour to the People’s Bank Theatre for two dates later this month, and tickets are still available for the Saturday, November 20 show.
“Point of Know Return,” which the band will play in its entirety throughout the tour, is an album and a cultural landmark. After all, what screams “cultural landmark” like being a music reference in the 2000, John Cusack-starring film “High Fidelity”?
In the film (and maybe in the 1995 Nick Hornby novel the film is based on, but this music journalist can’t say for sure because I haven’t read that — yet) Championship Vinyl employee Barry Judd (played by Jack Black,) refers to “Point Of Know Return” as one of the most obvious selections for being the LP with the “best side one, song one in the history of pop music.”
I was given the opportunity to speak with Rich Williams, the band’s guitarist, about Kansas’ cultural endurance, how unlikely rock stardom seemed when the group was just starting out, and what audiences can look forward to at the band’s shows at the Peoples Bank Theater later this month.