This month we speak with Dennis DeYoung about the Styx album “Kilroy Was Here” which was released February 22nd, 1983.

“Kilroy” is a concept album that involved things going on in the world at the time.

The Parents Music Resource Center, or PMRC had been created to try and get albums rated because of ther content..

It was not only about what was clearly part of the music but also about accusations of satanic messages put into songs using backwards masking.

On the album track “Heavy Metal Poisoning” Styx did indeed use backward masking on purpose.

The message in the song was the Latin words “annuit cœptis, novus ordo seclorum”.

Translated from the Latin, these words mean “[he] has favored our undertakings, a new order of the ages”.

The phrase is one of two mottoes from the Great Seal of the United States on the reverse side of the one-dollar bill.

Dennis spoke to that and so much more.

He touched on influences such as Pink Floyd, which songs were written first, a look at what influenced “Mr Roboto” and more.

Watch below as Dennis talks “Kilroy Was Here” with us and below that, check out some videos from the album. See the rest of the “On Fire At 40″ series here.

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