50 Fun Facts About Kansas (Band)

Which TV series played Kansas's Carry On Wayward Son over the recap that opened nearly all of its season finales?

Supernatural adopted the 1976 hit as an unofficial theme song, running it before every season finale from its second season on. It became the longest-running series on The CW.

In which comedy film does Will Ferrell's character sing Kansas's Dust in the Wind at a fraternity brother's funeral?

Old School reached cinemas in 2003, a quarter of a century after the ballad peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is the only Kansas single to make the American top ten.

Which scientist is the subject of Kansas's single Portrait (He Knew), which its composer later rewrote about Jesus?

Albert Einstein inspired the 1977 original. Eleven years later its writer recorded a new version, Portrait II, with his Christian band AD.

Which abolitionist appears on the cover of Kansas's debut album, in a scene cropped from a Kansas State Capitol mural?

John Brown holds a Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other in Tragic Prelude, John Steuart Curry's mural about the Bleeding Kansas years that led up to the Civil War.

Which member of Queen sang backing vocals on three songs of the 1982 Kansas album Vinyl Confessions?

Roger Taylor, Queen's drummer, sang on three tracks of the first Kansas album made after the band's original lead singer left.

Which Beatles song did Kansas cover as the opening track of their 1998 album Always Never the Same?

Eleanor Rigby leads off a record that otherwise mixes new arrangements of older Kansas songs with a handful of new ones.

Which organisation named Kansas its Deputy Ambassadors of Goodwill in 1978, the year of the band's first European tour?

UNICEF honoured the band in the same year that Dust in the Wind climbed to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Kansas guitarist Rich Williams wears an eye patch after losing his right eye to what in a childhood accident?

Fireworks cost Williams the eye as a boy, and he wore a prosthetic one for many years before switching to the patch.

Kansas blended American boogie with which genre, taking inspiration from British bands such as Yes and Genesis?

Progressive rock gave Kansas their long, intricate pieces with shifting time signatures, while a violin up front made the sound their own.

In which Kansas city did the band Kansas form in 1973 and later rehearse their breakthrough album in an empty store?

Topeka was the band's hometown, and they went back there to work up their fourth album in a vacant store in a strip mall.

Which Kansas album, their commercial breakthrough, opens with the hit single Carry On Wayward Son?

Leftoverture reached No. 5 on the Billboard album chart. One member wrote nearly all of it after the lead singer turned up to rehearsals without a single song.

Which Kansas guitarist and keyboardist wrote both Carry On Wayward Son and Dust in the Wind?

Kerry Livgren brought both songs to the band at the last minute, so each of the two biggest Kansas hits came close to missing its album.

Carry On Wayward Son was written as a sequel to which closing track of Kansas's previous album, Masque?

The Pinnacle closes Masque, the 1975 album whose cover reproduces Water, a painting by the Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

Kansas recorded Carry On Wayward Son at Studio in the Country, a swamp-side studio in which US state?

Louisiana's Studio in the Country sat in a swamp near Bogalusa, where alligators waited outside the door and armadillos ran into the control room.

Which thrash metal band released a cover of Kansas's Carry On Wayward Son with their album For All Kings?

Anthrax first put the cover in a 2016 box set of the album, then issued it as a 12-inch single the following year.

Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas peaked at No. 11 in the US but climbed to No. 5 in which country?

Canada gave the single its best chart placing. It stalled at No. 51 in the UK and No. 58 in Australia.

What did the writer of Kansas's Carry On Wayward Son say the song was about?

His own spiritual search was the subject: he called it a song of self-encouragement, telling himself to keep looking for truth and meaning.

Whose encouragement led a Kansas guitarist to turn a fingerpicking exercise into the hit ballad Dust in the Wind?

His wife, Vicci, heard him practising, said the melody was nice and urged him to add lyrics. He doubted the band would want something so unlike their usual style.

In which city did Kansas record Dust in the Wind after equipment failure forced them out of their usual studio?

Nashville's Woodland Sound Studios took the band in for most of July 1977, and the ballad was taped there on a Martin acoustic borrowed from the other guitarist.

Which German hard rock band covered Kansas's Dust in the Wind on their 2001 live album Acoustica?

Scorpions picked a song made for the unplugged format: the original is carried by acoustic guitars and a violin break.

Which soprano recorded Kansas's Dust in the Wind for her 1998 album Eden at her producer's suggestion?

Sarah Brightman took the song on at the urging of Frank Peterson, who was both her producer and her partner at the time.

Which horror film series used Kansas's Dust in the Wind in its fifth instalment, as a recurring omen of death?

Final Destination 5 plays the song as a warning that death is near, a grim use for a ballad that meditates on mortality.

Which Kansas album, their highest-charting at No. 4 in America, includes the acoustic ballad Dust in the Wind?

Point of Know Return got its punning title from the drummer, and the phrase then inspired the lyrics of the title track.

Which music mogul behind the Monkees and the Archies signed Kansas to his own record label in 1973?

Don Kirshner signed them after his assistant Wally Gold heard a demo tape and travelled to a local gig in Ellinwood, Kansas, to hear them live.

Under which earlier name was the classic Kansas lineup playing when a record label came to see them in 1973?

White Clover took back the name Kansas only after signing a record deal; two earlier local lineups had already used it.

Despite the name, the band Kansas made its home in which Southern city, where its 2002 live DVD was filmed?

Atlanta was already the band's base by the mid-1970s, and several of their albums from 1979 onwards were recorded in studios there.

Which original Kansas lead singer and keyboardist sang Carry On Wayward Son and retired from the band in 2014?

Steve Walsh also sang lead on Dust in the Wind, even though he had quit the band shortly before it was recorded. That departure lasted a month.

Which Kansas co-lead singer played the violin that set the band apart, and introduced the songs on stage?

Robby Steinhardt was classically trained from the age of eight, and his adoptive father taught music history at the University of Kansas.

Which singer fronted Kansas for two early-1980s albums before becoming a Grammy-winning producer of Christian rock?

John Elefante sang on Vinyl Confessions and Drastic Measures, and wrote most of the second album with his brother Dino.

Which Dixie Dregs founder played guitar in Kansas in the late 1980s before spending decades with Deep Purple?

Steve Morse joined the re-formed band in 1985 and co-wrote All I Wanted, the last Kansas single to reach the Top 40.

Which famous New York venue was among the giant halls Kansas sold out as headliners in the late 1970s?

Madison Square Garden was one of the largest rooms open to touring bands at the time, and Kansas captured that peak on a 1978 double live album.

Billy Greer handled which instrument in Kansas for 39 years before retiring from the band in 2024?

Bass guitar was Greer's job from the 1985 re-formation onwards. He also sang, and fronted his own group, Seventh Key, between Kansas tours.

Which ensemble backed Kansas on Always Never the Same, the 1998 album partly recorded at Abbey Road Studios?

The London Symphony Orchestra played under Larry Baird, who wrote the new arrangements of the band's older songs.

What disaster in a real Kansas town inspired In the Spirit of Things, the 1988 concept album by the band Kansas?

A flood struck Neosho Falls in 1951. The band's guitarist took up the idea after reading a chapter on the town in a book about the ghost towns of Kansas.

Which American tycoon is the allegorical subject of Closet Chronicles, from the Kansas album featuring Dust in the Wind?

Howard Hughes, the aviator and film producer who ended his life as a recluse, had died in 1976, the year before the song came out.

Which 1979 Kansas single takes its title from the meaning of the Kansa tribal name, the source of the state's name?

People of the South Wind is roughly what the tribe's name means. The band's guitarist called the Top 40 single, with its steady disco beat, their most pop moment.

Which 1978 double live album captured Kansas at their arena-filling peak and went platinum soon after release?

Two for the Show drew on recordings from three tours, and it sealed the band's reputation for reproducing its studio arrangements faithfully on stage.

Dave Hope, a founding member of Kansas who was born again in 1980, later took up which calling?

Anglican priest is a long way from his 1970s reputation for heavy drug use. He retired in 2013 from a church in Destin, Florida.

Kansas violinist David Ragsdale played on two songs of Siamese Dream, a 1993 album by which alternative band?

Smashing Pumpkins were one of several acts to borrow Ragsdale's violin in the 1990s; he also recorded with Queensrÿche and Jason Bonham.

Which American illustrator's painting The Charwomen inspired the cover photo of Kansas's 1978 live album?

Norman Rockwell joins a run of painters behind Kansas sleeves: the debut crops a statehouse mural, and Masque reproduces an Arcimboldo.

Which 1980 Kansas single, the original lineup's last Top 40 hit, first voiced its writer's new Christian faith?

Hold On peaked at exactly No. 40. Its parent album, Audio-Visions, was the last the six original members made together for twenty years.

Which 1982 single gave Kansas their first Top 20 hit in four years, sung by a newly recruited frontman?

Play the Game Tonight reached No. 17, which makes it the third-biggest Kansas single, behind only the two signature hits of the 1970s.

Which 2015 documentary about the rise of Kansas takes its title from a song on the band's 1976 breakthrough album?

Miracles Out of Nowhere follows the band from its formation through to the success of its two best-selling studio albums.

Which former truck driver became the lead singer of Kansas in 2014 after messaging the band's guitarist on Facebook?

Ronnie Platt had sung in Chicago cover bands and with Shooting Star before making his first Kansas album, The Prelude Implicit, in 2016.

Which founding Kansas drummer moved to England in the early 1970s to study the British style of popular music?

Phil Ehart found British musicians keener to learn the country and rhythm and blues he had brought with him, so he soon came home.

Which 2000 Kansas album reunited all six original members, with every song written by their main 1970s songwriter?

Somewhere to Elsewhere was a reunion at a distance: the lead singer taped his vocals at home, and the six were never all in the studio together.

Which German-born author's novel Narcissus and Goldmund inspired Journey from Mariabronn on the first Kansas album?

Hermann Hesse published the novel in 1930 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. The song's lyricist was steeped in Eastern religions at the time.

Which hard rock band did the original Kansas lead singer form in 1982 after quitting over the group's religious lyrics?

Streets debuted at Charlie Daniels' Volunteer Jam in January 1983 and made two albums before the singer returned to a re-formed Kansas.

Which heavy metal singer guested on Seeds of Change, the 1980 solo album by the writer of Kansas's Dust in the Wind?

Ronnie James Dio sang two tracks, To Live for the King and Mask of the Great Deceiver, alongside Ambrosia's David Pack and several members of Kansas.

On which Caribbean island did Kansas record Freaks of Nature, their 1995 album that missed every Billboard chart?

Trinidad hosted the sessions with producer Jeff Glixman, who was back at the desk for the first time since the band's 1970s run of hits.