REO SPEEDWAGON: THE BAND THAT'S BACK AFTER 20 YEARS OF ROLLERCOASTER SUCCESS

Asking Neal Doughty to look back on 20 years of playing music with the band he helped form in college is like asking him to relive his entire adult life.

The definitive theme is he loves what he's doing.

The long-time keyboard player for REO Speedwagon, Doughty insists the weekend job that helped pay the bills back at the University of Illinois was never intended to bring the band the fame it has.

"We always had fantasies about making it big, but we never thought it would happen," said Doughty in a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles.

"It started out as fun. And it paid for the donuts... barely."

Doughty is one of the original members of REO, the band that's had a 20-year career and continues to draw huge crowds, most recently at the VP Fair in St. Louis.

Despite the fact that all the band members have migrated to the west coast, Doughty insists they still have their hearts in the Midwest.

"It's the part of the country where we started out. We have more hard-core fans there than anywhere else, and it's still our favorite part of the country to play," he said.

REO will perform with Head East Aug. 2 at the International Racepark in Benton. It's the racepark's first major concert.

Since the enormous success of the band's 1981 album, High Infidelity, the album that put them on the pop music map, REO has demonstrated a staying power that's unusual for today's bands.

But the success of High Infidelity changed the band, said Doughty, who grew up in Belleville, Ill., outside of St. Louis. His family still lives in St. Louis.

"High Infidelity was a level of success that I didn't expect and didn't know how to handle," he said. "All of a sudden people are looking at you like you're a product."

That album sold seven million copies. It was the top selling album of 1981 and makes the top-20 list of the best-selling albums of all time.

The album contains two of the band's best-known hits, "Keep on Loving You" and "Take It On the Run." Both songs demonstrate a "power balled" style that is REO Speedwagon's trademark.

"We get asked what it's like to follow up a record like that and not get that kind of success," Doughty said.

But the band did produce noteworthy hits after High Infidelity. With their 1983 album "Good Trouble," they came through with another ballad, "Keep the Fire Burning." Another hit, "Can't Fight This Feeling," followed.

Doughty said it's the band's "hard-core" fans who have enabled them to continue touring. Those are the fans who remember classic REO songs like "Riding the Storm Out" and "Roll With the Changes," a song Doughty said demonstrates the definitive REO sound.

It's that loyal following that keeps buying the records, even though the band isn't on the charts anymore.

"When you come right down to it, REO has a sound that really gets the crowd going," he said. "I really think it's the type of music that's coming back. Bands like Nirvana, they think they're doing something new. But it's been around for a long time."

"We are easy to identify with. Most of our songs have a real positive attitude. And we have a lot of loyal fans who don't care that we aren't number one anymore."

The band has never tried to significantly change their style. They've concentrated instead on becoming more accomplished musicians, Doughty said.

After the current tour that includes most of the Midwest, they'll head to the studio and record a collection of their classic ballads. "It's a kind of low-key greatest hits CD," he said.

"After that, Kevin (Cronin, the band's lead singer) wants to try a solo album," Doughty said. "It's something he's wanted to do for a long time."

Much has changed for REO in the past 20 years. Members have come and gone, and success has been a roller coaster ride, peaking in the early 1980s. In the beginning, Doughty and the other original band members came together while students at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

Doughty was studying engineering, and joined the band along with his roommate "strictly for fun."

"After a while, it just grabbed hold of us," he said of the band's early success. "Eventually I let school slide, which is a mistake in an engineering curriculum. Once you let it slide for a few weeks, you're lost. I ended up quitting school altogether."

Endless touring has not bothered Doughty. In fact, he said he loves it. But he and other members of the band are changing some of their ways after years of hopping from one town to another, living the life of a rock star.

"If we're going to keep doing this in our mid-40s, we have to change a few things. All of us have adopted a more healthy lifestyle. That's important. Ten or 20 years ago, we all partied more.

"Now, I think we've still got the same amount of energy on stage, we're just a little different off-stage."

It's that energy that has made for some odd experiences while on tour, especially in other countries, where they are known primarily for their ballads.

"There have been times we would go out and play and people would be expecting to see a band like Air Supply.

"I remember in Dublin, Ireland. The people in the audience were in their 40s and 50s and wearing suits and ties. We literally felt like we were going to hurt them. But we've never had anyone run out screaming."

Doughty said he looks forward to spending some time in the Midwest.

"We actually consider ourselves a Midwest band even though we've lived in California for 15 years," he said. "And don't get me wrong, I love this section of L.A. But I miss those Midwest summer nights."

Tickets for REO's concert are $17 and are available at Disc Jockey Records and Fun Flicks, or by phone at 545-4242.

Gates open at 4 p.m. and music starts at 6 p.m. Performing before REO will be Head East and Kevin Lee and the Lonesome City Kings.