Actor Terrence Howard gets high marks at Judson University's World Leaders Forum in Elgin, Illinois

 

    (Photo by Robb Davidson, courtesy of Judson University)

 

By Tom Siebert

Terrence Howard has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, having appeared in 52 movies and 25 television shows.

But the acclaimed actor told a Judson University audience on Friday that he would rather be known for reaching the real stars, through his newly developed drone technology that could improve border security, curb upper-atmosphere pollution, and even connect with space aliens.

"We plan to take it to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,” said the 52-year-old Chicago native at the university’s tenth annual World Leaders Forum in Elgin.

Judson alumnus Mark Vargas, a business and political consultant who hosts a local conservative talk show on WIND-AM 560, interviewed Howard on stage at Judson’s Herrick Chapel before about 200 students, faculty, and members of the community.

Vargas kicked off the conversation by asking Howard what it felt like to be among the 2,690 entertainers whose names are emblazoned on the five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars, along the 15-block Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles.

“It humbled me that people who may not even know who I am will someday walk over my name and wonder who is this person that my mother and father made,” said Howard, who starred for six years as hip-hop mogul Lucious Lyon in the popular TV series “Empire.”

He grew up in Cleveland and studied electrical, chemical, and civil engineering at the prestigious Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

“I was bouncing back and forth between these majors, trying to figure out how things worked,” Howard recollected. “I couldn’t find the answer so I left school and became an actor.”

One of his first major film roles was in 1995’s “Dead Presidents,” as the memorable character Cowboy, an anti-war friend of a returning Vietnam veteran.

Howard, who has since been nominated for 56 acting awards and has won 34 of them, said he discovered a truth about his craft when fellow “Dead Presidents” cast member Laurence Fishburne told him that he had known someone just like Cowboy.

“That touched me to know that I could affect someone’s emotions in that way and it was freeing,” said Howard, who was later nominated for both a Golden Globe and Academy Award for his riveting role as a pimp turned rapper in 2005’s “Hustle and Flow.”

But the father of five, whose wife Mira also attended the event, said his acting career will be only a “footnote” if his new drone technology takes off, with the help of partner Vargas and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who will head an advisory board on the project and was in the Judson audience.

“I know a lot of people at the Defense Department who are fascinated by this,” said Vargas, who served in the administrations of presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, working to rebuild the economy of war-ravaged Iraq.

The newly invented drone, called the “Lynchpin,” was later launched in a demonstration on the scenic campus grounds by Kevin Plaizier, a junior from Utah State University.

Plaizer, who won an international competition to develop the drone using Howard’s designs, showed off its ability to not only hover but turn upside down, similar to the spaceship in the 1977 classic film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

Howard has many commercial, science, and computer patents pending, and he envisions his unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as being used to decrease pollution, improve agricultural crops, and perhaps even determine the source of life.

"If I'm successful, there will never be a need for my obituary," he said metaphysically.

Proceeds from Friday’s event will fund entrepreneurship, diversity programs, and RISE scholarships for developmentally challenged students at Judson.

Previous speakers at the school’s World Leaders Forum were former President George W. Bush; ex-Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice; former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev; ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair; and former Mexican President Felipe Calderón.

Other keynoters were Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan; Dallas Mavericks owner and “Shark Tank” host Mark Cuban; author, attorney, and diplomat Caroline Kennedy; and jointly, former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and ex-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

Located in northwest suburban Elgin since 1963, Judson University offers a Christian, liberal arts and sciences education through its Bachelor of Arts degrees for more than 60 majors, minors, graduate, and online programs, as well as certification and accelerated adult degrees. For more information, visit www.JudsonU.edu.

Some students interviewed at the World Leaders Forum thought that Howard’s lofty objectives for the betterment of the world were not just pie-in-the-sky aspirations.

“It was mind-blowing,” said P.J. NKalang’ango, a junior from Tanzania majoring in architecture. “He is a genius and not only as an actor.”

Abigail Belsan, a sophomore from southwest suburban Lemont and also an architecture major, agreed, calling Howard “one of the most unique individuals I’ve ever seen.”

Asked whether the actor’s search for the meaning of life may differ from the teachings of the Christian college, Belsan replied, “People can have a different interpretation of the gospel.”

 

REO Speedwagon, joyful fans roll with COVID changes at Aurora’s RiverEdge Park in Chicago suburbs

(Photo by Tom Antonson)

 

By Tom Siebert

 

After riding out the storm of COVID-19, more than 6,000 REO Speedwagon fans couldn’t fight the feeling of unabashed joy last night, as the venerable rock band staged the first major concert in the Chicago area since the day the music died nearly 16 months ago.

 

Amidst the bucolic beauty of RiverEdge Park along the west bank of the glimmering Fox River in Aurora, the home-state heroes delighted the concert-starved crowd with a dazzling two-hour set of the power anthems and tender ballads that dominated rock radio throughout much of the 1970s and 1980s.

 

Charismatic lead singer Kevin Cronin stirred up the already-pumped audience with the evangelical zeal of a Southern preacher. He is, after all, from south suburban Oak Lawn.

 

“Check yourself out!” Cronin shouted, after the Speedwagon played the relentless rocker “Keep Pushin'” from the 1976 album “R.E.O.,” which marked the vocalist’s return to the group after a two-year hiatus.

 

“Look at this!” he marveled to the cheering, fist-raising, peace-sign-giving crowd. “We’re out! We’re at a rock and roll show!”

 

With COVID-19 subsiding and the so-called Delta variant of the coronavirus concerning, there was not a protective mask in sight at the scenic, 10-acre park where rock returned.

 

“You know, ever since this craziness started, this is actually the first time I’ve been out of my backyard,” said the singer turned nightclub comic. “As a matter of fact, this is the first time I’ve been out of my pajamas!”

 

Then he noted that the Champaign-founded band was not only kicking off its latest U.S. tour but also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the release of their blockbuster album “Hi Infidelity,” which sold 10 million copies and yielded six smash singles that owned the FM airwaves throughout the year of 1981.

 

Then they tore into one of those fabled numbers, the infectious “Don’t Let Him Go,” driven by Dave Amato’s swirling guitar riffs and Cronin’s distinct yodel-like vocalizing.

 

The most faithful fans had camped out under the late afternoon sun in order to lay claim to the standing-room-only spots at the front of the titanic stage, with its pavilion wings and cedar-planked sound wall.

 

But the thousands who arrived an hour or two prior to the show’s 8 p.m. scheduled start had to endure long lines along Broadway, north of downtown, before being greeted by RiverEdge staff at the security checkpoints into the park.

 

Most people sat on lawn chairs or blankets, eating vendor food, drinking beer or lemonade, or just resting from the long, strange trek––that is, until Cronin began to sing these nursery rhyme-like lines:

 

Heard it from a friend who

 

Heard it from a friend who

 

Heard it from another you been messin' around

 

Immediately recognizing the lyrics from the mega-hit “Take It On the Run,” many in the audience rose up like Lazarus and joyfully sang along.

 

The mostly Baby Boomer crowd provided vocal assistance on practically every song that REO performed, emblematic of the loyal fire that the band’s fans have kept burning for them during the past half-century.

 

The group got its name way back in 1967 when keyboardist Neal Doughty saw the name “R.E.O. Speed Wagon,” referring to a 1915 truck designed by Ransom Eli Olds, on a blackboard in his history of transportation class at the University of Illinois.

 

REO Speedwagon started out playing the Champaign-Urbana bar circuit, barnstormed the Midwest for several years, and released ten albums with varying success––most notably 1973’s “Ridin’ the Storm Out” and 1978’s “You Can Tune a Piano but You Can’t Tuna Fish.”

 

Then came 1981’s “Hi Infidelity,” a wry take on the band’s lifestyle at the time, and they became global pop stars.

 

That landmark album also gave them their first Number One song, “Keep On Lovin’ You,” whose opening lyrics sent Thursday night's concert crowd straight into rock ‘n’ roll heaven. Many sang transportedly along, perhaps lost in memories of a romance gone bad or good.

 

You should have seen by the look in my eyes, baby

 

There was something missin’

 

You should have known by the tone in my voice, maybe

 

But you didn’t listen

 

And I’m gonna keep on lovin’ you

 

'Cause it’s the only thing I want to do

 

“Keep On Lovin’ You” is now a mainstay at proms, weddings, karaoke bars, and classic rock stations, including Aurora’s own The River 95.9-FM, which was prominently present at the gig, after giving away free tickets to some lucky listeners.

 

And yes, REO, which has sold 40 million records worldwide, did play 1984's chart-topper "Can't Fight this Feeling," “Keep the Fire Burnin'” from 1982’s “Good Trouble” album, along with a soaring “Time for Me to Fly,” again from “Hi Infidelity,” and 1979’s “Back On the Road Again,” which featured bassist Bruce Hall on lead vocals.

 

The showstopper of the evening was the thunderous “Ridin’ the Storm Out,” title track from the popular LP. The iconic song stems from an earlier iteration of the band that was stranded during a Colorado blizzard.

 

But “Ridin’ the Storm Out” took on added gravitas Thursday night, in the painful wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that has taken the life of nearly 4 million citizens of the world.

 

Moreover, the coronavirus crisis was not the first health storm that REO has ridden out. During their first two decadent decades, the Speedwagon was fueled by alcohol and other drugs.

 

They went through three singers, two drummers, two bass players, and two guitarists including creative force Gary Richrath, who left the group to form his own band in 1989, and passed away at the age of 65 in 2015.

 

However, the band’s current line-up, which includes gifted drummer Bryan Hitt, has been performing together for more than 30 years.

 

Opening for REO was Head East, who also hail from Central Illinois and has shared many concert bills with the main act.

 

Head East is comprised of keyboardist Roger Boyd, drummer Eddy Jones, bassist Greg Manahan, lead guitarist Glen Bridger, and lead vocalist Darren Walker.

 

The talented musicians performed a lively half-hour set that included album-oriented radio standards “Since You’ve Been Gone,” “Love Me Tonight,” and “Never Been Any Reason,” with its signature line that many in the audience knew and sang heartily:

 

Save my life/I'm going down for the last time

 

RiverEdge Park, the public access project of Aurora’s late Mayor Tom Weisner, began hosting summer concerts in 2013. Last season was completely canceled due to COVID-19, while this year’s schedule was delayed for a month.

 

Previous RiverEdge headliners have included Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, the Steve Miller Band, Peter Frampton, Idina Menzel, Loretta Lynn, Randy Travis, Trace Adkins, Lady Antebellum, OneRepublic, and KISS.

 

Last night, REO’s final encore was yet another song of survival, “Roll with the Changes,” and seemingly everyone sang the chorus “Keep on rolling!”

 

And so it was altogether apropos that these soul survivors should resurrect rock concerts at a pretty park on a gorgeous night in the City of Lights.