REO Speedwagon bid fans farewell on Saturday, June 14, 2025, with a final show at the State Farm Center in their hometown of Champaign, Illinois. The career retrospective brought together many of the band's current and former members, including keyboardist and co-founder Neal Doughty, co-founding drummer Alan Gratzer, early vocalist Mike Murphy, longtime bassist Bruce Hall, early lead vocalist Terry Lutrell, and early guitarist Steve Scorfina.
The iconic group took some time out of the evening to honor those who couldn't be there to perform with them: bassist Gregg Philbin, who died in 2022, and former guitarist Gary Richrath, who died in 2015.
The band paid tribute to the two fallen members onstage by presenting a commemorative plaque to Richrath's son, Eric, who made the journey from Edinburgh, Scotland to join them for the event.
"I'm not going to sit up here and babble," he said during the emotional moment, according to Ultimate Classic Rock. "We've got a lot of music to get to. I think in this moment, my dad would probably say, 'Let's get back to the rock,' so let's do that." The younger musician then joined the band for a performance of "Ridin' the Storm Out."
The group spoke at length about Richrath and Philbin's contributions to the band's success in a podcast interview with Ultimate Classic Rock a couple of days earlier.
"What a rock star that guy was," Doughty said of Richrath. "There's one song that Alan put on the set list, 'Sing to Me,' which we'd never played live. Playing along with the record here, I'm going, 'Man, Richrath killed on that song.' Going through [the material], it's kind of bittersweet. It's just like, 'Man, that guy was such a guitar player.'"
They were just as fond of Philbin. "Everybody had a bass player, of course," Hall said of his former bandmate. "Gregg was different... it was unique. I used to watch him play and I'd go, 'Jesus Christ, this guy is a monster.'"
"We're doing 'Lost in a Dream' at the Champaign show," Gratzer added. "If you listen to Gregg's bass part [on that song], I didn't appreciate it at the time, but now, after hearing it a hundred times in the last two or three months, I'm going, 'Oh my God!'"
Noticeably missing from the farewell show was longtime lead singer Kevin Cronin, who went his separate way when the band announced in 2024 that they would stop touring due to "irreconcilable differences."
"As hard as it's all been for everybody, including me, don't forget that love will cure you," Hall said at the farewell concert. "I'm counting on that."
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