FAIRLEA W.Va. (WVDN) – In 2014, Ronnie Platt joined Kansas as lead vocalist after Steve Walsh’s retirement. The legendary rock band welcomed Platt as the new front man who has continued to recreate the iconic sound fans have come to know and love. “Being such a fanatical Kansas fan, just watching Steve Walsh and listening to him was such a huge influence,” Platt says.
With his love of music beginning as a child, Platt recalls playing the trombone in 5th 5th-grade band before moving on to chorus in middle school. “By the time I was a freshman in high school, I was playing electric bass guitar in bands and singing,” he says. “My entire life, I’ve always been in a working band. I’ve always made money from music, but sometimes after a gig, we’d have just enough money for a Coke and a piece of pizza. I like to eat and pay my bills, so I became a truck driver. It was a lot of fun and I loved it. I had other opportunities, but driving a truck allowed me to have a job and still be able to play music,” Platt recalls.
These days, Ronnie Platt has a career that most would only dream of, but one that he never takes for granted. “Music has been the best gift in my life – it’s given me experiences that not a lot of people get to have,” he says. “I don’t just mean being in Kansas. Even when I started out very young and playing bar bands, cutting my teeth and honing my craft and not making any money or barely making gas money to get to a show.”
Earlier this year, Platt received a frightening diagnosis that could’ve changed everything. “You never want to hear the ‘C’ word,” he says. After learning he had thyroid cancer, Platt recalls his earliest fears. “It’s something when you’re sitting in the doctor’s office and they say you have cancer. My first thought was ‘how much time do I have?’ It’s a shock to the system, and you look at things with new eyes after that,” he says. “You appreciate things more. Not that I didn’t appreciate them before that, my Lord, I’ve had a charmed life, but to go through that and have such an incredible outcome.” After learning that a cancerous nodule could be removed instead of his entire thyroid, Platt was eager to regain his place on stage. “After my March 4 surgery, I walked, no wheelchair, out of recovery and walked the length of the hospital out to the parking garage. They gave me a prescription for pain, and I never even opened the bottle,” Platt said. “One month later, April 4, I did my first show back with Kansas. I just picked up where I left off – back into full stream touring. This was beyond amazing results. If I haven’t won the lottery enough….that’s how I feel.”
For anyone facing a cancer diagnosis, Platt recommends educating yourself as much as possible. “Take it one day at a time,” he says. “Do all the research that you can. I went from knowing nothing about it to getting a crash course in knowledge about the type of cancer I had. Learn everything you can.”
Now that Platt has regained his place on stage, he wants fans to enjoy the show and leave feeling great. “I want them to walk away feeling good, knowing they just saw a great show, knowing they gave themselves a few hours of disengagement from the stress of everyday life. You go to a concert to get away from problems,” says Platt. “I just want them to feel good about what they saw and want to come back and see it again.”
For Ronnie Platt, the feeling of walking out on stage and hearing the roar of the crowd never gets old. “It’s still surreal to me. Seeing all those people out there and knowing they are coming specifically to watch your band – it takes your breath away,” he says. “When you’re young, you dream of being a rock star, but it happens to very few people. How lucky am I to walk out on stage and experience that? I never take it for granted. Every audience is new, and it feels different every time.”
When asked if he ever had stage fright, Platt responded with a laugh. “Only every weekend,” he said. “When you’re taking the place of Steve Walsh, there’s an expectation of greatness. When we’re standing at the side of the stage and get that two-minute warning, the adrenaline goes through the roof,” he admits. “After I sing the first line, it’s not me anymore. Fear is a very motivating factor, and just walking out on stage is such a rush. We played Blue Ash on July 4th a few years back, just outside Cincinnati, with an estimated crowd of over 100,000. You walk out and see heads forever. If you become complacent with that, there’s something wrong with you,” Platt says. “I still get nervous every show – is my voice going to be with me, will everyone like us, will we get through without technical problems. We always pull it off – this band is firing on all cylinders. The biggest compliment and one I’ve heard a few times is “wow, I wasn’t expecting it to be that good.”
When it comes to his favorite song to perform, Platt admits ‘Wayward Son’ is at the top of the list. “It’s the last song of the set and I get to watch everyone turn 18 years old again,” he says. “To see that, the audience gets so energized. That song has a powerful meaning to so many people, and I love everyone singing it with me.”
Music has a way of taking us back to a certain place, time or person. When asked what it is about a song that gives it that power, Ronnie Platt didn’t hesitate. “That’s exactly it,” he says. “It brings you back to the time you first heard that song. It’s always when you’re in your youth and times were simpler. It gives your mind a little reprieve. It’s the power of music, and I can’t think of anything else that can do that.”
In his spare time, Platt enjoys restoring his 1968 Corvette. “It’s my latest passion outside of music. I’ve been tearing it down and rebuilding it myself,” he says. “I’m doing everything myself, absolutely everything, and I’ve fallen in love with it. Thank God for YouTube but when it comes to corvettes, there’s so many clubs and videos pertaining to every series there is, how to repair this and restore that. On a side note, I was so diligent about taking the car apart and putting everything in the proper sequence,” Platt admits. “Now that I’ve watched so many videos, when I take something apart now, I throw it anywhere and I know where it goes,” he chuckles. “It’s been a great departure when you get frustrated to go and do something to occupy your mind.”
When asked what people might be surprised to know about him, Ronnie Platt wants fans to know that he’s not so different from anyone else. “I’m just a normal guy,” he says. “People might be surprised to see me cutting my lawn or watering my garden or being greasy up to my elbows from working on my Corvette. At home, I’m the plumber, electrician, carpenter, landscaper, etc.”
As for what he is most grateful for and what brings him the most joy in life, Platt quickly replied, “Surviving cancer. And, I’m grateful for the gift of music. It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around someone who doesn’t have music in their life.”
In closing this interview, Ronnie Platt extended a message to Kansas fans who will be attending the show at the West Virginia State Fair. “Be prepared to be swept away by amazing musicianship,” he says. “It’s really what this band has. Whenever people say, after a concert, they weren’t expecting it to be that good, that’s a tribute to the guys in this band right now. It’s over the top.”
