Michael Stanley – There’s No Place Like Home

Michael Stanley

There’s No Place Like Home

By Breanna Mona

First, a flashback:

Heavy smoke shoots from a fog machine and rolls over the hill at Blossom Music Center. A crowd filled with restless young fans, hair teased to wild heights, chants, “MSB! MSB! MSB!”

Michael Stanley and his band finally emerge from the smoke clouds, and they give the crowd what they want — music, and lots of it. Energetic rock that keeps fans on their feet. Quieter ballads. The fans know every word to every song. Hits such as “Lover,” “My Town” and “Falling in Love Again” gave the band a phenomenal fan base that built a cult-like obsession in Northeast Ohio.

MSB performed at Blossom 17 times over a six-year period, with an astounding four-night run in 1982 that drew a total attendance of 74,404 — still a record for that venue. The band not only reached regional fame, but also landed on Billboard’s Top 40 list twice. Their music video for “He Can’t Love You” played on MTV.

Musician, Grandfather

Stanley is still very much a performer and a celebrity in his hometown. Since the Blossom days of the ’80s, Stanley has worked with several bands and done solo work. He estimates he’s made more than 30 albums.

Today he performs in venues all over Northeast Ohio and — fittingly — is an afternoon drive host at the classic rock station 98.5 WNCX. He and his band The Resonators in April sold out the Akron Civic Theatre. He’s working on another album from his home studio.

At a recent photo shoot at the Agora Theater and Ballroom on Euclid Avenue, he caught up with a handful of people who stopped by to say hi.

Stanley is reflective and private. Anyone who hasn’t seen him since their college days in the ’70s or ’80s would immediately recognize him. He looks younger than expected, more like someone who has been doing work that he loves for four decades. As is true for his contemporaries and fans, he’s experienced many of the things — good and bad — that life throws at you. He’s dealt with cancer and reveled in being a grandparent.

He hasn’t had to make too many accommodations to age — at least when it comes to his occasional performances. “I was never running around on stage like Mick Jagger,” he says. Those who see him in concert may think, “My gosh, if he can get up on a stage for 2 ½ hours, I can keep moving,” Stanley says.

The songwriter/rocker has five grandchildren, ranging from their early 20s to preschool age. Stanley’s twin daughters, who live in suburban Cleveland, have been known to join their father on stage for vocals.

“They all like music, but none of them play anything. I bought my oldest granddaughter a guitar a while back when she was maybe like 14 or something like that, and she tried for a little while but I don’t think it was her thing. So far, we just have a bunch of singers.”

Hometown Guy

Northeast Ohio has been and continues to influence Stanley’s music. A West Side native and Hiram College graduate, his talent took him to hundreds of tiny bar stages, warrenlike clubs and sprawling venues, but his roots remained right here.

“I’ve lived here my entire life and you know, this is where all my influences I listened to and grew up you know, trying to emulate (were),” he says.

“All the guys in the band for the most part over the years have been from here. That’s a big part of what we do. Also a factor, when our reign of terror back in the late ’70s, early ’80s — we obviously tapped into something that people around here liked. It was a thing of like, they’re as much responsible for it as we were.”

Stanley’s often asked why he didn’t leave Northeast Ohio.

“Everybody used to say, ‘Why aren’t you guys in L.A.? Why aren’t you in New York?’ Well, L.A. would be better weather-wise, can’t argue that. But at the time, the reason most people went to New York or L.A. was to get a record deal, and I already had a record deal. I got it when I was here. So I just didn’t have to go there and chase you know, chase around and try to get a record deal,” he says. “Now if we just wanted to relocate, it might have been smart from a certain standpoint — networking and all that sort of thing. But we were all Northeast Ohio guys.”

It’s hard to believe an entire band was on the same page about staying here, but Stanley insists, “It never came up. Everybody had family here. Everybody liked it here. I liked it here. I still like it here. I mean I’m not gonna lie, I’d like to get out of here in January and February, and bring me back in March, I can deal with that. But it was always a cool place to come home to. We got to see every place else. And you go like, ‘That’s a nice city. I could probably live there.’ But it (Ohio) was home, you know?”

Health Scare

In 2015, Stanley discovered he was facing prostate cancer, an intimidating diagnosis considering the American Cancer Society says it’s among the leading causes of cancer deaths in men.

Stanley is thankful for his daughters, who stepped in as his support system.

“Oh they were great. I mean my daughters were there for anything that I needed. But for the most part, it (cancer) was caught early before things got out of control. So it was basically just being there and picking up the slack from my lack of energy. Everybody was on board to do whatever they could and they were great.”

While some men choose surgery as their course for treatment, Stanley opted for radiation. Today he is happy to report he is cancer-free but still needs to be tested for about four more years to monitor his health.

Since his diagnosis, Stanley encourages men to get tested, saying, “I was one of the guys that really didn’t think about it or didn’t pay attention to it until I had to. I think most guys are that way.”

As with most forms of cancer, early detection can save a life. Stanley explains, “It’s no big deal to get tested for it. If you get tested for it early on and catch it early on, it’s a real manageable situation. It’s just a thing of hoping most guys over 50 will just do it.”

Work He Loves

Stanley makes creating a living from pursuing his passion look easy, but he’ll tell you it’s not.

“A lot of people start out doing what they love, whether it be music or sports or whatever it is that their dream is, and for most people along the way, they hit a wall and they stop,” he says.

Pushing past the difficulties makes the difference.“You may run up against your limitations or you may run up to the point where it’s just not fun anymore, and it just becomes real, real work, and then those people change direction and do something else. You can follow your dream — it’s a nice saying, but most of them aren’t easy to follow.”

Never quitting his daydream led to a lifelong career that has its place in Cleveland history. You can find tour dates and order Michael Stanley’s newest album, “In a Very Short Time” at michaelstanley.com. Listen to Stanley on 98.5 WNCX weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m.