Styx, “Mr. Roboto,” and the Metanarrative of God

The Apologetics Podcast

Kilroy Was Here!

During World War 2, “Kilroy Was Here” described a type of graffiti that American soldiers chalked on walls wherever they went.

In 1983, the phrase gained a completely different meaning.

That’s when the band Styx developed a rock opera and concept album—complete with a ten-minute dystopian science-fiction film—in response to accusations that Styx had encoded Satanic messages in their song “Snowblind.” These accusations led to legislation in the Arkansas State Senate requiring rock records that included backward messages to be labeled with warnings. Styx keyboardist and vocalist Dennis DeYoung envisioned a future in which rock music was outlawed and robots served fried chicken to former rock stars. In the rock opera that resulted from DeYoung’s vision, Kilroy became the surname of Robert Orin Charles Kilroy (whose initials, completely coincidentally, spell “ROCK”), a rock musician imprisoned in the not-so-distant future by the Majority for Musical Morality. Garrick Bailey and Timothy Paul Jones explore the history of Styx and consider how Christians should—and shouldn’t!—engage with artistic artifacts and cultural expressions. Along the way, your intrepid cohosts talk about backward masking and Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, as well as a plexiglass toilet (surprisingly, "Plëxïgläss Töïlët" has never been the name of any rock band as far as we know). In a special segment of “Behind the Covers,” the dynamic duo considers a song that’s been covered far too many times and implores every musician listening to the program never to cover Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” again.

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS

Timothy Paul Jones, Ph.D., is C. Edwin Gheens Professor of Christian Ministry at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He teaches in the areas of family ministry and applied apologetics. He has authored or edited more than a dozen books, including Why Should I Trust the Bible?, The God Who Goes Before You, Perspectives on Family Ministry, In Church as It Is in Heaven, and Christian History Made Easy.

Garrick Bailey is lead pastor of Substance Church in Ashland, Ohio. Garrick was born in the frozen lands of Wisconsin but spent most of his life as a Texan. Before coming to Substance, he served as the director of adult discipleship and home groups at The Village Church. He and his wife Bethany have three children. Garrick has been a PhD student for ten years but thinks it’s about time to quit.

LINKS TO CLICK

Mr. Roboto (song by Sytx, 1983)

Hallelujah (song by Leonard Cohan, 1984)

Hallelujah (song performed by Kurt Nilsen, 2006)

Hallelujah (song performed by Small Town Titans, 2019)

Hallelujah (song performed by Pentatonix, 2016)

Hallelujah (song performed by Tori Kelly, 2016)

Hallelujah (song performed by Styx, 2017)

Hallelujah (song performed by K.D. Lang, 2005)

Hallelujah (song performed by Willie Nelson, 2006)

Hallelujah (song performed by Neil Diamond, 2010)

Hallelujah (song performed by Eric Church, 2016)

Hallelujah (song performed by Tenille Townes, 2020)

Boat on the River (song by Styx, 1979)

Show Me The Way (song by Styx, 1990)

Father O.S.A (song by Styx, 1973)

Witch Wolf (song by Styx, 1973)

Hallelujah Chorus (song performed by Styx, 1973)

Lady (song by Styx, 1973)

Grand Illusion (song by Styx, 1977)

Snowblind (song by Styx, 1981)

Backward Masking (article by Stephen Holden,1983)

Kilroy Was Here (short film by Styx, 1983)

Every Square Inch (book by Bruce Ashford,2015)

Biblical Critical Theory (book by Christopher Watkin, 2022)

Paradise City (song by Guns N' Roses, 1987)

Hunchback of Notre Dame (musical by Dennis DeYoung, 1996)

The Apologetics Podcast

Urban Ministry Podcast

CLOSING CREDITS

Theme music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Cunningham Manor. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).