DeYoung – who co-founded Styx in the Chicago suburbs with the Panozzo brothers more than 40 years ago – gave Chicago Tribune writer Rick Kogan the scoop on how he’s kept busy.

Last week [DeYoung] released in the U.S. a new version of One Hundred Years from Now,  his first solo album in five years and his first solo “rock” album in more than 20. Still actively performing concerts across the globe (nearly 20 dates last year), his is also finishing the music and lyrics for the dozen or so songs of a theatrical production of “101 Dalmations: The Musical” that will begin a nationwide tour in the fall.

“To say that I have been surprised by the last 10 years would be wild understatement,” says DeYoung, who lives with his wife of nearly four decades, Suzanne, in the western suburbs. “I never imagined that I would have a successful solo career, let alone one in musical theater.”

DeYoung also told Kogan why his solo work is just now getting back to the sound fans are familiar with.

“When you are part of a band it’s like being on a baseball team, you write with a heavy awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the other members, and I was writing with the responsibility to provide songs that would make it into the Top 40,” he says. “With my previous solo albums I was trying to get away from what I had been doing, to create a new persona. With this one I finally felt free enough, secure enough to return to the style of music I wrote for Styx in the late ’70s. It was liberating.”

Although DeYoung’s solo career in the States hasn’t reached the heights of Styx’s popularity, he’s done extremely well in Canada, where the title track from One Hundred Years topped the charts two years ago.

“A poll three years ago was taken to name the top rock ‘n’ roll songs of all time,” he says. “Number one was ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ Number two, ‘Hey Jude’ and number three…” He pauses before saying, “Number three, ‘Suite Madam Blue.’ Go figure.”

DeYoung is as baffled as anyone as to why Canadian fans would choose a lesser-known track from 1976’s Equinox.

“Now, maybe ‘Come Sail Away,’ that might make some sense,” he says, mentioning a very popular Styx song. “I don’t know, but we [Styx] were always successful in Canada. I took French in college and would always speak French to the audience.” He pauses to laugh. “Think that could be the reason?”

Um, yeah. Let’s go with that.

Besides the upcoming “101 Dalmations,” DeYoung’s theatre projects include his musical version of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” which premiered last year at Chicago’s Balliwick Repertory Theatre to good reviews and won a Jefferson Award for best musical.

DeYoung told Kogan fans of Disney’s animated version of “101 Dalmations” shouldn’t expect to see the movie simply translated for the stage.

“It’s quite different and it’s a great adventure story,” says DeYoung, who is 62. “God, I feel lucky. At this stage, I have completed so many of my artistic goals. Still, I write songs and people want me to write songs and people want to listen to them. A lot of guys my age are wandering around Boca Raton wearing a straw hat and sipping from a drink with a little umbrella in it.”

What’s wrong with that? Sounds like fun to me.

So what do you think? Did DeYoung make the right decision when he left Styx?

Read more of Rick Kogan’s chat with Dennis DeYoung here.