REO Speedwagon singer’s kids to thank for ‘Ozark’ cameo

REO Speedwagon lead singer Kevin Cronin turns to his kids for advice when deciding on new projects — including the band’s recent cameo on Netflix’s “Ozark.”

“If I want to see if something is cool to do or not, they’re my sounding board,” he told Page Six of his 23-year-old daughter and 20-year-old twin sons. “They told me, ‘The show is awesome, you’ve got to do it.'”

The members of the rock band play themselves in the newly-released third season of the show, which follows Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman), a financial planner and money launderer, who is forced to move his wife Wendy (Laura Linney) and two teenage kids to the Ozarks after a scheme goes awry. REO Speedwagon is hired by the family to perform and offered a chance to undertake a little money laundering on the side through merch sales.

Although the group has never been offered the same shady opportunities, Cronin, 68, told us they did unwittingly once become involved with someone who was potentially doing illegal things.

“We got a great deal on an airplane in the late ’70s, long before we could afford to fly charter,” the “Keep on Loving You” singer remembered. “It was this old beat up prop jet and they painted our logo on the side of it. It turned out, that on our days off, this REO plane was doing other business that we were only made aware of years later.”

Although Cronin suspected the plane was used to transport drugs, he never learned the exact truth. He explained that he only found out about it when a fan showed him a photo of agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives behind an unmarked car with their weapons drawn and aimed “at an airplane in the distance, which clearly had the REO Speedwagon logo on it.”

“We were duped!” He said. “We never could figure out why we got such a great deal on that airplane and then it started making sense.”

Cronin is currently still with the band, and told us he’s working on a memoir.

“There will be some stories in the book of the fun we had,” he promised. “It was an amazing run we had there. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”





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