American musician
Musical artist
Charles Salvatore Panozzo (born September 20, 1948) is an American musician best known as a co-founder of the rock band Styx. He is currently a part-time bass player in the band, sharing bass duties with Ricky Phillips. Panozzo is living with HIV, which played a role in limiting his full-time participation.[2]
Biography
Panozzo grew up in a working-class Italian Catholic neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. At the age of 7, Panozzo and his fraternal twin brother, drummer John Panozzo, who died in July 1996, took music lessons from an uncle. He attended Catholic schools.
In 1961–1962, Panozzo founded Styx with his brother, John and singer/keyboardist Dennis DeYoung.[3][2][4] Panozzo received a degree in art education and taught art at the high school level.[4]
In 1991, he was diagnosed as being HIV-positive, which he kept secret along with his sexuality. In 2001, at the Human Rights Campaign annual dinner, in front of 1,000 guests, Panozzo announced that he is gay and is living with HIV.[5][6][7] In 2007, he released his autobiography The Grand Illusion: Love, Lies, and My Life With Styx.[8]
