Terry Luttrell Of REO Speedwagon escapes near-fatal car wreck

After performing at this weekend’s reunion event at a location run by the University of Illinois in Champaign, where the band was formed, Terry Luttrell, the vocalist for the early REO Speedwagon, was engaged in a terrifying car accident. He claimed to have wrecked on Interstate 57 after dozing off on Sunday night. He co-wrote all eight of the songs on REO Speedwagon‘s 1971 self-titled first album while serving as frontman. He just published his “Live at Shock City Studios” CD on limited-edition red vinyl and is still traveling with his own tribute band, the REO Classics Band. At the reunion performance on Saturday night, “Honoring the Legacy of REO Speedwagon: A Concert Event – Back Where it All Began,” Luttrell was joined in the show by Alan Gratzer and Neal Doughty. Longtime bassist Bruce Hall, singer Mike Murphy from the early 1970s, and guitarist Steve Scorfina from the turn of the 1970s also participated. That evening in Bend, Oregon, Kevin Cronin, their longest-serving frontman, was playing with Styx.

I nodded off. I rolled the car over, and I woke up and I was in a cocoon [of airbags]. Unfortunately, it totaled the car. Terry Luttrell

This event was created to provide the founding fathers, original singers and classic REO lineup a chance to reunite and say a proper goodbye, a chance to honor [late band members] Gary Richrath and Gregg Philbin’s memory.

Bruce Hall

Luttrell, on the other hand, was recovering at a nearby hospital for a few days after his car’s airbag deployed, resulting in merely a cracked sternum. Long autograph sessions at the performance after-party and subsequently at the hotel, where Luttrell claimed another 40 admirers were waiting, were the cause of his lack of sleep, he added. Luttrell claimed, “It was just sign-sign-sign,” and he calculated that he didn’t get to bed until 4:30 AM. At seven o’clock, he resumed his journey.

I was able to get up and get out of the car. I have a little back pain and neck pain. It’s nothing that can’t be overcome. Terry Luttrell