REO SPEEDWAGON Plans Hi Infidelty 30th Anniversary

REO SPEEDWAGON Plans Hi Infidelty 30th Anniversary Reissue, Tour

www.Billboard.com has issued the following report from Gary Graff:

Though REO SPEEDWAGON frontman Kevin Cronin says that he's "not one for nostalgia", he's enthusiastic about the band's two-year plan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its biggest-selling album, 1980's Hi Infidelity - which includes a deluxe reissue and possibly a tour playing the full album.

"This is 2010, so we're kind of celebrating 30 years since we recorded the album," Cronin tells Billboard.com. "Next year is 2011 - 30 years since 1981, the year that rocked our world...The Hi Infidelity record was such a turning point for us, just on a personal and professional level. And an awful lot of people took this music into their lives, into their hearts. It's just too special of a time to ignore, so I just decided for this anniversary I'm going to embrace it and go for it... We're milking it for everything it's worth!"

Hi Infidelity was REO's only #1 album and the top-selling rock release of 1981. It's been certified nine-times platinum and spawned four Top 40 hits, including the chart-topping 'Keep on Loving You' and the Top 5 'Take It On The Run'. And, Cronin adds, it came at a time when REO was "literally on the brink of being dropped by our label. This was kind of our last chance."

Now the group and its fans will have multiple opportunities to relive Hi Infidelity. The group is performing the album's entire first side, with some subtle re-arrangements, on its current summer tour with PAT BENETAR; meanwhile, Cronin says, REO is talking about performing the complete album in 2011 - which it's only done once before, for an XM satellite radio broadcast.

Also on tap for next year is a deluxe edition of Hi Infidelity, which will likely include the original demos that REO's manager recently found in his garage.

"He found a box that said 'REO' on it," Cronin recalls. "It was mostly old photographs, but he dropped it off at my house and when I went through it there it was, a tape from Crystal Recording Studios, July 1980. No one knew where they were. We searched the vaults in New York, L.A. - a full cavity search, you might say - and no one found them. So we were like, 'All right, I guess that's our holy grail. We'll keep searching for them'."

Read more at Billboard.com.