After more than 40 years, anthem rockers REO Speedwagon have finally reached their prime.

“I wasn’t that terribly familiar with [REO Speedwagon],” drummer Bryan Hitt says. “I heard the hits, the big ballads, and that was about it. I wasn’t sure what it was all about.”

When he joined, in 1989, the band was falling apart at the seams.

“Gary [Richrath] was forced to leave, Alan [Gratzer] had retired and they were struggling and didn’t know what to do,” says Hitt, who played with Wang Chung prior to REO. “There were thoughts of disbanding and all kinds of bad stuff.”

REO, whose current lineup features Kevin Cronin on vocals, Bruce Hall on bass, Neal Doughty on keys and Dave Amato on guitar, has sold 40 million albums worldwide. It has scored several gold and platinum records. Their record Hi Infidelity spent 15 weeks at No. 1 and tunes like “Take It On the Run” and “Can’t Fight This Feeling” have become synonymous with the arena power ballad. But by the early 90s, the band found itself playing to small handfuls of people.

With Hitt on board, REO, once used to filling arenas of more than 10,000, REO began touring as much as possible wherever they could score a gig.

“I remember thinking, ‘I’m not too sure about this,’” Hitt says. “But we played a gig in Phoenix and we struck, ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling,’ and 13,000 people with their lighters lit the arena and it was like, ‘This is pretty cool.’ It took years to build it back up to but the last 10 years or so have been great.”

On Nov. 19, REO will release Live at Moondance Jam, the first high definition Blu-Ray disc of REO Speedwagon in concert. The highly produced, 2010 show, shot in Walker, Minn., in front of nearly 50,000 people, is more than just another concert video. It’s a testament to a band’s commitment paying off.

“There are so many classic rock bands who come out, and still sound pretty good, but they’re renting stage gear from a local music store or some backline company,” Hitt says. “They’re just cashing in on their previous thing. Not us.”

In 2013 alone, REO will have performed 93 total shows by the year’s end, including tonight’s gig at the Fox Theater.

“Now, we’re way better than we’ve ever been and we’re so consistent night after night,” Hitt says. “Everybody cares; everybody looks good, we have a great stage setup.”

The band has several things in the works for next year, including an Asia tour and maybe an arena tour, but nothing’s carved in stone just yet except that fact that they’ll be on the road… a lot.

“We probably won’t do 93 shows,” Hitt says. “We’ll probably play 75 or 80.”

REO SPEEDWAGON performs at 7:30pm (doors 6:30pm), Thursday, Oct. 3, at the Fox Theater, 241 Main St., Salinas.