Steve Walsh is an American musician, singer, and songwriter best known for his work as a longtime member of the progressive rock bandKansas; he retired from the band in 2014. He sings lead on four of Kansas' best-known hits: "Carry On Wayward Son," "Dust in the Wind", "Point of Know Return", and "All I Wanted", the last two of which he co-wrote.
Career
Walsh was in a number of local groups prior to his joining Kansas, most notably the group White Clover that ultimately became Kansas. White Clover toured relentlessly and sharpened their brand of distinctively American, hard-rocking progressive music. Kansas and White Clover merged and the group was signed to Don Kirshner's label. The newly-merged bands decided to go with the name Kansas. During Walsh's time with the band, Kansas recorded two enormously successful albums, 1976's Leftoverture and 1977's Point of Know Return. With Kansas, Walsh has released 12 studio albums, six live albums, and numerous singles. He has released three solo albums thus far. In 1978 he was invited, as well as Kansas drummer Phil Ehart, to play on Steve Hackett's second solo album, Please Don't Touch. He sang on two of the LP's songs, "Narnia" and "Racing in A". Hackett released "Narnia" as a single, but not before Walsh's management insisted that Hackett re-cut the track with another vocalist so as not to confuse Kansas fans into believing the track was a new Kansas release. John Perry, a relatively unknown singer, was hired to re-cut the "Narnia" vocal for the single release. Walsh left Kansas after 1980's Audio-Visions due to creative differences with the band's primary songwriter Kerry Livgren. Earlier in 1980, he released his first solo album, Schemer-Dreamer, which included bandmates Livgren, Rich Williams and Phil Ehart, as well as guitarist Steve Morse. It contains the popular song "Every Step of the Way". In 1982 he formed a rock band called Streets, which released the albums 1st in 1983 and Crimes in Mind in 1985 before disbanding. As a guest vocalist, Walsh has appeared on numerous other artists' recordings. Kansas split in 1984, but reformed in 1985 with Walsh back on board. He remained with the band until his retirement in 2014. Walsh released his second solo album, entitled Glossolalia, in 2000. In 2003 he joined forces with Daniele Liverani to form the band Khymera. Walsh sang lead vocals on their first self-titled album. Adding to this album were Billy Greer and former Streets bandmate Mike Slamer. His third solo album, Shadowman followed in 2005, with the collaboration of such musicians as Joe Franco on drums, Joel Kosche on guitars and bass, and David Ragsdale on the re-issued version of the album's bonus tracks. On June 30, 2014, Walsh announced he would retire from Kansas after 41 years. In 2015 Walsh contributed vocals to the latest Radioactive album entitled F4UR, which was released on April 7, and he sings lead on the song "The Piper". In 2017 Walsh released a collaborative "solo" album on the Escape Music label entitled Black Butterfly. Its release date was November 10. This release was a collaboration between Walsh and Tommy Denander.
Personal life
Walsh was born June 15, 1951 in St. Louis, Missouri. He was adopted as an infant and grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri. He attended St James Catholic School and is a 1969 graduate of Christian Brothers High School. He now lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He is divorced and has a son named Bleu who was born in 1980, a daughter named Olivia who was born in 1999 and another son, Gabriel, born in 2006.
