NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Former REO Speedwagon vocalist Terry Luttrell was playing the role of father and grandfather back in Tennessee on Thursday — a day after having been released from Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, where he had been recovering from injuries sustained in a June 15 car rollover.
Luttrell sounded like his old self in a phone interview and said he has started thinking ahead about future dates for his REO Classics Band.
He doesn’t have to be in a hurry. The band’s next concert is about a month away. Dates are scheduled in Chicago and Anderson, Ind.
Meanwhile, the rest of the band is looking forward to taking their vacations, Luttrell said.
The group has one album on CD and vinyl, and Luttrell said a new double album could be in the works.
While getting around with a cane and receiving help from his daughter Kristin, Luttrell said he gets plenty of entertainment from watching the show his 7-year-old granddaughter Willow puts on in the family living room.
“She’s a gymnast and dancer and plays softball and has piano recitals,” Luttrell said. “She’s working on being a singer — her and my daughter both.”
Luttrell said Kristin and her husband, Dylan, are “starting to come back to their musical roots.” They had a band in Champaign — Dry Creek Station — before moving to Tennessee.
“I miss Champaign,” Luttrell said. “It’s my hometown. When I was back there, I certainly could feel the love. There was a lot of love in that arena that night,” he said, referring to REO’s final concert June 14 at State Farm Center.
“We made musical history. It was a good final touch.”
Luttrell said REO should have done a farewell tour but noted it was lead singer Kevin Cronin’s choice not to.
“He should have let Bruce (Hall) back in the band.”
Among those who thought the farewell concert was “a fabulous night,” Luttrell said, were 11 nurses at Carle, some of whom tended to him after his car wreck off Interstate 57 near the Arcola exit.
The 78-year-old Luttrell said he realized he was too sleepy to drive and was planning to get off at the Arcola exit but didn’t make it and fell asleep.
Luttrell was in the hospital for 19 days, receiving physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.
His daughter said he experienced a brain bleed as well as bruising to his heart caused by a sternum fracture, as well as fractures to his neck and lower back.
Luttrell said the “pain is going down,” and about the only thing bothering him now is his back “from flopping around inside the car.”
“If I would have had a five-point racing harness on, I would have unstrapped it and walked out.”
Doctors have indicated he will make a full recovery.
