1
[crowd cheering]
I'll be up in a minute.
[indistinct chatter]
[music playing]
Feeding back.
[Walter Parazaider]
The inception of the band
was an assembly
of the best musicians
I could find in the city
of Chicago.
We actually discussed about
making the best band
we could possibly make.
That the band would be
a musical democracy,
and I said,
"When you give me your hand,
that'll be the contract,
and the only way
you get out of it
is to ask out or you die."
[Robert Lamm] I've always
thought of Chicago in terms of
a family, rather than eras.
You know, in a span of
40 or 50 years,
there are going to be changes.
And I don't care if it's a
family or a band, there are
going to be changes.
The realization becomes,
you know, we're all
replaceable. [LAUGHS]
We're all replaceable.
["Beginnings" playing]
[Lee Loughnane] Our first
pictures were in a foundation
of a building.
And we had suits,
and we, you know,
we picked up shovels.
We were, like,
leaning on shovels and stuff.
[Lamm] I enjoyed playing music.
I enjoyed playing
in all the groups that
I had played in up to then,
which were, like,
three or four
different combinations.
But I really enjoyed playing
with these guys.
You know,
it was a whole other animal.
[Loughnane] Robert has
always been a songwriter,
ever since I met him.
When he joined the band,
he had a book of 50 songs.
I remember meeting him at
DePaul and he had a notebook
this thick full of lyrics.
And I just remember he said,
"Well, I've got a
few songs here."
And I just said,
"Well, you know, they might
come in handy one day."
[Danny Seraphine] In those days
there weren't bands, you know.
There were singers,
individual singers,
and the bands backed up
the singers.
While we were playing
in the clubs, we were doing
what other, other bands do.
We were playing covers.
["I'll be Back" playing]
You know,
If you break my heart I'll go
LAMM: The club owners
wanted us to play stuff that
people could dance to,
and then drink,
and they would make money and
you know, hopefully fill
the club.
LOUGHNANE: We started playing
one song called Clouds,
and we got fired.
[LAUGHS] Because we
did an original song and
he wanted to hear a top 40.
SERAPHINE:
But it was exciting.
Because, really, we had gotten
a chance to really hear
what the band sounded like.
I love you so
You know, we wore the suits,
and we did the steps.
"Good evening
ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to Club Gigi,
"we're gonna warm it up
with a couple of
belly rubbers."
It was an entirely different
uh, attitude towards
playing music.
LAMM: And then eventually
we began to arrange
those songs
for the instrumentation of
Chicago.
That's when we got into
some dispute.
JOE MANTEGNA: We'd get
a call on a Saturday night
at, like, 9:00 saying,
"This goddamn band,
Chicago Transit Authority...
"They won't play
the top 40 shit.
The kids hate it!"
[STUTTERS]
"We're getting rid of them
after the next break."
Can you come down
and finish the night?
You, if you break my heart
I'll go
MANTEGNA:
And there would be the boys
packing up their stuff,
you know, and they're pissed.
And we're thinking to
ourselves, why don't they
just lighten up?
Why don't they just play the,
you know, give them
a little Rolling Stones...
[LAUGHS]
Give them a little Temptations
if they want it, or whatever.
But we're thinking, "Eh,
you know, they gotta go
their own way."
LOUGHNANE: Terry came on stage
at Barnaby's on State Street
in Chicago
and I think it was during
the first tune, he just ripped
the shirt, the coat,
right off of his back.
[INTRODUCTION PLAYING]
And that was it.
We went straight to hippie-dom.
LAMM: Then we started doing
original material,
and it was a small
group of people that dug it.
Kind of the legend
around Illinois was the
Chicago Transit Authority
had been formed out of
these local super groups.
MANTEGNA: You know,
as we watched them play,
we were all like,
"Wow, these guys
can really read music."
[LAUGHS] "These guys really
know what they're doing."
[QUESTIONS 67 AND 68
PLAYING]
Playing in a band
with horns, with you guys,
was extraordinary,
but, but, um,
but Terry Kath's talent
was just amazing.
Terry and I hung out
a lot together.
Terry's the kinda guy that
made up his own vocabulary
and his own context.
And also the way that
Danny played drums.
PANKOW: Danny, he had a feel,
an R&B back thing,
I mean, wow.
SERAPHINE: Terry, Walt, and
myself were a band of brothers.
We were... We were inseparable.
We were really, really close
and had already been through
a lot together.
But Peter, he was a great,
great singer.
I mean, When I first heard
his voice, I'm like, "Wow!"
Can this feeling
that we have together
IRVING AZOFF: Peter Cetera had
been in another band called
The Exceptions.
That's my earliest
recollection of knowing
anything about Chicago.
Did this meeting
of our minds together
Our first gig, uh,
was at the Club Gigi,
an upholstered sewer
on the south side of Chicago.
The only people in
the audience were my parents.
I mean, it was just,
yeah, you know, "Yeah! Yeah!
"This is great!"
LOUGHNANE: Something
happened in me that I decided
that this is what I
wanted to do for a living.
As soon as I came to that
realization, my mom and dad
tried to talk me out of it
because they didn't think
there was any, uh, any future,
you know, or long-term
future anyway.
We're often asked in school,
what do you want to be
when you grow up?
And, uh...
"Uh, I don't... Fireman?"
Uh. all the while
we were in contact
with Jim Guercio.
I first became involved
with the fellas in Chicago
in, uh, in college.
SERAPHINE: Guercio really saw
that there was no way for this
to be successful
unless there was
total commitment.
FITZGERALD:
He had an idea of building
a management company,
and he called it his
"creative community."
LAMM: I think that his
business tactics
definitely had a hand
in our creation,
in our success.
He envisioned everything
sort of being under one roof.
GUERCIO:
And when the time was right we
brought them to Los Angeles.
[LIBERATION PLAYING]
PARAZAIDER:
The stars were aligned.
We were supposed to do this.
We were just meant to be.
PANKOW: We all lived in
a little house under
the Hollywood Freeway.
And our bedrooms were
various rooms, my bedroom
was the dining room.
Each guy had a shelf
in the medicine cabinet.
Each guy had a shelf
in the refrigerator.
God forbid you take
somebody's food.
There were a lot of referees.
PANKOW: Whoever had to take
the last shower
got the cold shower.
[LAUGHS] So you,
you drew straws
every day you went to work.
The home front.
SERAPHINE: We went from
clubs to we moved to LA,
and more and more people,
you know, starting to
become aware of the band,
and realizing that we were
starting to become successful.
[INTRODUCTION PLAYING]
PARAZAIDER:
My dad always told me,
"Dream a big dream,
if you shoot for the moon
"and hit a star, it's cool."
SERAPHINE: When you put it
all on the line,
there's a certain
intensity and focus,
and we had that.
LOUGHNANE:
We were, uh, very confident
and, uh, energetic kids.
We liked what we did,
and we saw that other people
liked what we did,
but we didn't know if
we were gonna have
more than two records.
PARAZAIDER: We were
straight out of playing,
you know, bars in Chicago.
And we moved out to
southern California,
and here we ran into
Janis Joplin at the
Fillmore West.
[PIECE OF MY HEART PLAYING]
Oh, come on, come on,
Come on, come on
Didn't I make you feel
Oh, honey, like you were
the only man I ever wanted
and I ever needed
Oh
PARAZAIDER: She came in
with this big entourage
and she dropped her brush
right at my feet.
And she went, "Hey, M-F-er,
pick up the F-ing brush."
And I says,
"Pick up your own brush,
"and when you get
done with that,
after you pick it up,
"apologize to me that
you talked to me that way."
Well, she picked up the brush
and she said, "I'm sorry."
Take it!
Take another little piece
of my heart now, baby
Oh, break it
[LAUGHING] And that was
the start of a thing
where she hung with us
and she showed us
what she did to command
on the stage.
Oh, you know you got it
If it makes you feel good
Yes, indeed
How she could
really handle people.
And we were on the tour,
the last big tour
on the west coast.
That was the last tour that
Big Brother and
The Holding Company
with Janis Joplin did.
We saw their last show.
FITZGERALD: We played every
peace rally that ever happened
in California, I think.
And we didn't have any money.
So, they started
writing like crazy
and we started doing anything
we could to pay the rent.
PARAZAIDER: We just happened to
play the Whisky a Go Go and
Jimmy had a camera
and we took some pictures
of Chicago Transit,
of "CTA" on the marquee
at the Whisky,
which when I go by there
I always think of Jimmy
and I standing
in the middle of
Sunset Boulevard going...
PANKOW: I remember we were,
I think, opening for B.B. King,
or something like that,
um...
Or Albert King.
Walter turned around
to walk out...
He probably, he might
have told you this story.
I get a tap on my shoulder,
and I turned around...
I was putting one of my
saxophones away.
It was Jimi Hendrix.
He called me by name
and he said,
"Walt, the horns are like
one set of lungs.
"Your guitar player's
better than me."
"The horn section, it sounds
like one set of lungs,
"and a guitar player
that's better than me."
He said that Terry plays
better than him.
[LAUGHING]
First you have to realize
we were already listening
intensely to his music.
You know, we looked up to him.
Terry was already playing
stuff that Hendrix
had on his records.
[FOXY LADY PLAYING]
LOUGHNANE: Terry could play
a rhythm guitar part,
a lead guitar part, and sing a
lead vocal simultaneously.
I've never heard anybody
that could do that.
PARAZAIDER:
And I gotta tell ya,
I think in a couple weeks
we were on the road
with Hendrix.
We got to see some
of the stuff that was,
uh, driving them,
because Jimi wasn't happy with
the licks he was playing.
Do you have to practice every
day, the way a violinist does?
I mean if you're not working,
say you're off in England,
and you're just taking off
a couple months,
do you have to keep
in shape every day?
Yeah, well, I like to, like,
play to myself, in like,
in a room or before we go on
stage or something like this,
or whenever I feel like,
whenever I feel like down
or depressed or whatever,
you know.
You know, stuff that happens
to every musician,
and, you know, especially guys
who are in the limelight
and are put on pedestals.
And, you know, they have
that pressure of having to do
something new all the time.
PARAZAIDER: We were
on a plane and I said,
"Why are you so unhappy
about what you're doing?"
And he says,
"Well, you're gonna
know this one day,
and you're gonna probably
know it more than me.
You're gonna be
real successful,
you're gonna have
to spit out hits,
you're gonna have
to work real hard.
You know, that's
really not what I'm into."
I says, "I'd love to have
your problems!" You know?
And he said,
"Well, you will have them."
[I'M A MAN PLAYING]
MAN: Yeah, Pete!
Yeah!
Whoo!
FITZGERALD: We went to
New York to make a deal
and to get them signed at
Columbia Records.
I first heard about Chicago
from David Geffen and he said,
"I keep hearing about a group
that Jimmy Guercio
has been working with called
Chicago Transit Authority."
My daddy sent a message
About the whiskers on my chin
Never had no problems
'Cause I've always
paid the rent
I got no time for lovin'
'Cause my time is all used up
Spend my time creatin'
All the groovy kinds of love
I'm a man
Yes I am and I can't help
but love you so
Oh, yeah
Jimmy Guercio,
we had given him a right of
first refusal deal,
so that he really
could not sign
an artist to another label
until he gave us the right
of first refusal.
I signed them,
and was very happy.
I'm a man
Yes I am
And I can't help
but love you so
LAMM: It was a
four-sided album,
almost an hour
and a half of new music
that we performed very well
and with enthusiasm
and a lot of joy.
The material that they
themselves created and wrote,
they did it with their
material, they did it
combining jazz, pop,
and rock in clearly
a very, very, uh, special way.
LAMM: My instinct is to
always be different.
And time, you know, the concept
of time is really abstract.
It can take you anywhere,
you know, from the future,
to history, to right now.
But my own perception
of myself based on
how I think when I'm writing,
I mean, to this day,
is to try to do something
I haven't done before.
And I could take
things much further,
but I try to keep it in the
context of, you know,
what's listenable.
[DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW
WHAT TIME IT IS? PLAYING]
PARAZAIDER: Does Anybody
Really Know What Time It Is?
is the first thing we ever
recorded as a band together.
LAMM: That's right.
Good memory, Walt.
PARAZAIDER: That's the first
thing we ever did.
And it was sort of
frightening,
'cause we all got in
the same recording studio...
And we sort of were in a
sort of a circle, and,
for myself, personally,
and I think maybe
Lee and Jimmy,
we didn't want to
look at each other,
'cause we were afraid
if we looked at one
of the other guys
we were gonna make them
make a mistake.
As I was walking down
the street one day
LOUGHNANE:
Once we got into the studio,
we started thinking
we might not be ready,
because we had no idea
that when
this little microphone
gets in front of you,
it hears everything.
PARAZAIDER:
This is gonna be forever.
[VOCALIZING]
You go...
Does anybody really
know
what time it is?
LAMM: I was kind of
doing the Beatles.
You know, I can sing in
many styles, but my style,
at least when
I was rendering that song,
was not to sing it like
John Lennon,
but was just to
sing it straight.
I was walking down
the street one day
A pretty lady looked at me
And said her diamond
SERAPHINE:
You know, in those days
it was a 16-track.
Producers really did their
work in those days.
They were really, they made
decisions on the spot.
Peter's bass and my kick drum
were on the same track.
I mean, I never knew that.
[BEGINNINGS PLAYING]
Whoa
LAMM: I wrote Beginnings
based on scribbled notes I had,
that I had been carrying
around forever.
I just loved the idea of
strumming 16th note figures
and kind of a really
present vocal.
When I kiss you
I feel a thousand
different feelings
Right away the song had
some kind of resonance
and some kind of appeal.
You know, because basically
songs need to be memorable.
So I showed Terry
what I was doing on guitar.
And he... It was a
piece of cake for him.
LAMM: We were all
still very young.
Were all still very
wide-eyed and
without experience.
PARAZAIDER: Jimmy always said,
"I always believed that
we would do what we would do."
And when the first album hit
the charts at, I think,
42 or something like that
with a bullet, or whatever,
I went, "That's cool."
And then all of a sudden,
we realized we were
more of an album act
and they weren't getting
what horns were.
You know, people would come up
to the horns and go,
"Well, how do you,
where's the strings?
How do you tune
it with the strings?"
I said, "There aren't
strings on a saxophone,
there are reeds."
You know, they really
didn't know about horns.
It was really the start,
inception of horn bands.
PANKOW: Walt was the
eternal optimist.
We were on our way to a gig and
I don't know somehow
I associated...
"Uh, hey Walt, do you think
I'll ever have
a cashmere suit?"
You know, cashmere suit?
I still don't have
a cashmere suit.
I don't know what
I associated that with.
And Walt just looked at me,
"Are you kidding?
You'll have 200 of 'em!"
This was a concept that
he totally believed in
and had no doubt
that it was gonna,
you know, it was gonna develop
into something significant.
I will say one thing that
I got that I remember,
and I remember Jimmy told me
and I forgot this.
We were in Indianapolis with
Hendrix and 20,000 people
there, and they're yelling,
"Bring on Hendrix,
bring on Hendrix!"
I got so fed up,
I got on the mic and said,
"Shut the bleep up,
and listen!"
[LISTEN PLAYING]
Listen
PANKOW: AM radio was
still a baby.
Uh... You know, it was top 40,
but it was bubblegum
stuff.
They weren't ready for
what we were doing.
FM radio was commercial-free
in those days, and played
whole albums.
LOUGHNANE: And AM radio
still hadn't played
one of our songs.
We released Beginnings,
we released Does Anybody
Really Know What Time It Is?
and they wouldn't play it
'cause they said
we hadn't had a hit.
You know, catch-22.
How the hell are you gonna
have a hit
if you don't play something?
There was a certain
amount of frustration
because of the singles that
had been released
and weren't successful.
Besides the fact of we were
doing a fair amount of drugs
and partying and being
young musicians on the road.
And young musicians
will burn the candle.
LAMM: The zeitgeist
of that era was that
people our age were noticing
that we felt different
about things.
And we sort of felt
that we ought to try to do
something about it.
Can't stand it no more
The people cheating
Burning each other
They know it ain't right
How can it be right?
Better end soon my friend
LAMM:
We're watching the war in
Vietnam on television,
we're watching the marches
in the south for
voter registration.
We're watching all this stuff
and we're reading about it
and we feel like,
you know, we need to have
our voices heard.
PANKOW: So it gave our music
a political flavor
and, uh, college
students grabbed
this because...
"Man, these guys are
spreading the word, you know?
These guys are hip,
they're with us, you know?"
And we became kind of
the required listening,
you know, on college campuses.
If you were "hip",
you had to listen to
Chicago Transit Authority,
because these guys
know the score.
And, uh, next thing you know,
"Let's stand up," you know,
"to the powers that be."
You know,
"Let's riot in the streets,
let's tear the system down."
But we didn't
want to go that route.
We're not politicians,
we're musicians.
We know it's hard
for you to see
That this is all
we want to be
SERAPHINE: There wasn't time
to really think about too much.
We were on the road 250 days,
I think, we had all we could
do just to keep our sanity.
We would come home for a day
and leave for three months.
[LAUGHING]
And be out there
working every night.
LAMM: We were working
so intensely, we were
traveling so intensely.
We were learning
and rehearsing the songs
of the second album while
we were on tour
promoting the first album.
LOUGHNANE: When the second
album came out,
Jimmy had written
Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon
and AM radio
said that they were
interested in Make Me Smile.
PANKOW: And I'm in the car
and I hear this...
[VOCALIZING REPRISE TO
MAKE ME SMILE]
I'm going "Whoa!
"Hey, that's the Ballet!"
And I was going...
I'm in the car going,
"Hey!
"Hey!
This is me on the radio!"
And, I mean, you know,
I'm embarrassed to say it,
but when the disc jockey
came on and said,
"Here's a new song
by an up-and-coming group
"called Chicago that's
destined for number one!"
or something like that and...
[VOCALIZING INTRO]
Children play in the park
They don't know
I'm alone in the dark
even though
Time and time again
I see your face smiling inside
I'm so happy
That you love me
PANKOW: "Wow, this is cool!
You know?
They're gonna play the
Ballet on the radio!
Boy, how can they play
something that long?"
At that time AM radio,
the jungle warfare of music.
[FINGERS SNAPPING]
AM radio, you know...
DAVIS: I think if you had
a cut longer than
three and a half minutes
you would not really
get it on top 40 radio.
PANKOW: They took the end of
the Ballet, which was the
reprise of Make Me Smile,
and spliced it onto
the first movement
which was the beginning of
Make Me Smile and made it
a whole song by itself.
DAVIS: Fortunately, the issue
was resolved because the album
would have the longer,
original version on there.
[guitar music playing]
I would be reconstructing
actual history
if I tried to ascertain
whether or not the group
was reluctant
to be in the spotlight.
They were performing artists
from the very get-go.
Their material
was very strong.
LAMM: Other than
experiencing
the joy of playing music,
I didn't really think of
anything in terms of success or
longevity or...
That was way, way
down the road.
So hard to be
Free to love only you
People staring at me
Try to take you away
There's not time to delay
We've got to live for today
PANKOW: The Ballet was not an
easy piece to perform live.
There is so much to say
PANKOW: Because there
are time changes,
there are key changes,
a lot of different intricacies
that had to be fit together
like a puzzle.
This guy's singing that,
this guy's singing this.
SERAPHINE: And we were
playing with these
world-class singers,
players and writers.
And Lee, the same thing,
Lee was a really
serious musician.
But also, he had real,
he had a real identity
problem in those days.
I mean, it was real tough.
LOUGHNANE: I never had
confidence in myself.
I was always like,
"I'm not good enough,
I don't know."
You know,
"I don't belong here."
I was just afraid of people.
Afraid of success, I guess.
PANKOW: I wasn't writing
a pop song.
These movements in The Ballet
were titled in the Latin
for tempo or mood.
It was just a series of
classical moments
sewn together, and
Color My World
was kind of a break.
[COLOR MY WORLD PLAYING]
PANKOW: Andante.
That I've waited to share
PANKOW: One thing that differs
with my songs,
when I wrote a song,
not being a lead vocalist,
it was a sing-off.
Of our moments together
PANKOW: I didn't have to have
a sing-off on that.
That was Ray Charles,
that was Terry Kath.
Color my world
With hopes of loving you
PARAZAIDER:
I got a phone call,
and it was Jimmy Pankow.
He says, "You know, I got an
idea for a movement of
the Ballet."
PANKOW: Okay, let's slow it
down and get a little...
Ah, let's get pretty.
Simple.
Brief.
A little romantic interlude
between Make Me Smile
and Agitato.
[VOCALIZING
INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Which was another, you know...
Quizzically he looked at me
out of the corner of his eye
and he went...
I said,
"Well, what do you think?"
I looked at him,
and honestly I said,
"It'll make me famous!"
SERAPHINE: What a player,
and an arranger,
you know, it was really great
to have a guy that great in
your band.
PANKOW: I had that gift,
but you have to learn the
instrument well enough
to reproduce that tape
that's going on in your head.
LAMM: Beside the brass
arrangements,
his sense of melody,
his expression
in his playing his horn.
It's just, it's just uncanny.
Make Me Smile was
actually titled "vivace".
It's the first movement and
then it reprises at the end.
Now I need you, yeah
More than ever
PARAZAIDER: Lennon, they said
"How would you like to
be remembered?"
And I remember
John Lennon said,
"Just as a good little
rock and roll band."
You know, and we just
want to be a good little
rock and roll band with horns.
Tell me you will stay
Make me smile
MAN: Thank you!
-MAN: Thank you!
-[CROWD CHEERING]
SERAPHINE: You know,
"rock star" had nothing
to do with it at all.
It was about art,
and it was about
making our music.
I think it was more of a
brand in those days, the logo.
LOUGHNANE: It is a brand.
Not more or less. It just is.
You know,
like Coca-Cola's a brand.
PARAZAIDER: I never really
thought about us being
thought of as a product,
but if you think
about the logo,
I really always just thought
it was, you know,
if they saw Chicago,
they knew the band.
GUERCIO:
I think the pop music
business
is a business that happens
to sell art occasionally.
But it is certainly not
a business where everything,
all of the product is art.
I think it is
a corrupt business,
I think it is archaic
and antiquated,
and is probably
the most exceptionally
dishonest industry.
I mean, maybe. I mean,
I haven't been involved in
munitions or anything,
but I know that the record
business is quite dishonest
because of the nature
of the investment.
You see,
a very small investment
of a few hundred dollars
or a few thousand dollars
can return hundreds of
thousands of times its
initial investment.
PARAZAIDER: Becoming famous,
whatever that is,
and I still don't know,
you know... I get inklings
of it and everything,
is something that was not...
Personally...
You'll probably get
a different answer from
every one of the originals...
It scared me.
And I think
it scared us to a point
that we could have gone
one of two ways.
Somebody could have gone,
"Ah, I don't need these guys.
I'm gonna do my own stuff."
Or this... And, you know...
Or just go, "Let's just...
We've taken care of
ourselves this far,
we got through it
with club owners,
we lost gigs 'cause of
playing our own material
'cause we believed in it,
let's just hang together
and forget all this
outside stuff."
And that's what we did.
DAVIS: The success
with Chicago
was truly phenomenal.
[25 OR 6 TO 4 PLAYING]
Make Me Smile
and Color My World,
and 25 Or 6 To 4.
LAMM: We only knew
sold out arenas.
So we only knew success.
We didn't know...
We didn't know failure,
and we didn't know struggle.
We were so busy that
we didn't have time to
sit down and say,
[SIGHS] "We've done it!"
And in the meantime
we were drinking.
You know, I was drinking
all the time, so...
"Why not? Let's do that!"
You know.
Dumb kids thinking,
you know,
we're indestructible.
You know, live forever.
LAMM: When I wrote
25 Or 6 To 4,
I was sitting in a room
up above where the
Whisky a Go Go is on
Sunset Strip.
I just kind of
found that riff.
I mean,
"Waiting for the
break of day..."
Waiting for t
The break of day
LAMM: "Searching for
something to say."
Searching for
something to say
LAMM: When I had nothing
to say, I made the song about
writing that song.
Flashing lights
Against the sky
LAMM: 25 Or 6 To 4 indicates
the time in the morning,
25 minutes to 4:00 a.m.
Sitting cross-legged
On the floor
LAMM: So I was seeing
all of that, just really
describing the whole setting.
25 or 6 to 4
LAMM: I usually mean
exactly what I say,
except when I don't.
GUERCIO: They might not be
the most perceptive
human beings,
in terms of what they see
and how they see it.
But they do experience more
of the common denominator
of this country,
and of every country,
because of travel.
Just because of the
nature of travel.
Let's put it this way, this is
before we recorded an album,
and we went to New York
and we used to go out,
'cause everyone wanted to,
you know, meet some chicks,
you know, have a nice little
drink and all this stuff,
so, like, we'd go into these
nightclubs or something,
you know, and, like, all these
groupie chicks, you know,
they'd come up,
"Oh, you got long hair,
who are you?
Oh, yeah, I'm with CTA."
[SNORTS]
They'd split, you wouldn't
even see them for
the rest of the night.
And now, you know,
now we're the CTA,
we have an album out,
now it's a different story,
ya know?
We go into places,
we don't even want to
meet chicks half the time,
and chicks are like "aw".
[FREE PLAYING]
I just want to be free
I just want to be free
I want to be free
Of all the hurt
I want to be free
Of all the pain
I want to be free of
These lonely hours
PANKOW: Well, it's still a
surprise to know that we've
come as far as we've come.
Uh, I still pinch myself
once in a while because
it doesn't seem like
we could have ever
accomplished what we have
accomplished.
GUERCIO:
I was not happy with what
they did with their success.
I'll tell you something,
it's your success, it's your
fame, it's your fortune.
PANKOW: We burned a
candle, trust me.
Back in those days, there was
no Internet, nobody looking
over your shoulder.
Because you could get away
with so much,
you did get away with so much.
PANKOW: We traveled
exclusively by chartered jets.
LOUGHNANE:
We had a Falcon jet.
And it was two guys,
we were flying
to the next gig.
We had pilots who were
fresh off an aircraft carrier
flying F-16s.
SERAPHINE: The pilots
were Vietnam cats.
I can't mention their names
but, you know, couple of times
they smoked pot with us.
Not before the flight.
Uh, I don't know...
These guys were
right out of the military,
and they wanted to party.
We asked them if they
could do, uh, you know,
a roll. You know.
And, you know, they looked at
each other and went,
"Are you sure
you guys wanna do that?"
They'd have contests.
You know, the first seater
and the second seater. They'd
try to out-do each other.
And do tricks.
LOUGHNANE: So they said, "Well,
you know, we're pretty much out
of the mainstream,
"you guys still wanna
try to do that?"
[SCREAMS] "Yeah!"
Still I can recall
The happy times
Laughing arm in arm
So alive
I mean we'd be doing
loops, snap rolls.
FITZGERALD: "Hey guys,
look out the window!"
And all of a sudden
we'd look out the window
and it was like...
You'd look out
and see the earth turning.
You had no sensation of...
"Oh, boy..."
[MIMICS AIRPLANE ENGINE]
[WHOOSHING]
You could actually take a cup
with liquid in it,
and pull the cup out
from underneath,
and the volume of liquid
stays solid and the same
shape as the cup.
PANKOW: And the balls of beer.
And here comes Terry,
horizontally floating by me,
and he's...
[LAUGHS]
It was... It was so much fun!
Uh, eventually, you know,
we stopped with the tricks,
until we get to helicopters.
-[DIALOGUE PART I
PLAYING]
-[CROWD CHEERING]
LAMM: Put your hands
together, children.
SERAPHINE: The biggest
mistake we made
as a unit was this.
"We're all men. We know,
we know our limits."
That's... That bullshit,
you know?
"We're all men,
we know our limits."
That's fucking bullshit.
Are you optimistic 'bout
The way that things are going?
No, I never ever
think of it at all
Don't it make you worry
When you see
What's going down?
Well, I try to mind
My business
That is, no business at all
PANKOW: Terry, he was
an avid shootist,
and he collected guns.
LAMM: This is a guy, who could
hunt, he could shoot,
he could fish,
he could ride a motorcycle,
he could drive a car fast.
PARAZAIDER: He would come over
and he had a couple guns
that he'd bring into
the house, and I said
"You can have a drink,
but you gotta put the guns
away," or whatever.
SERAPHINE:
I said, "Drugs and guns
you know, they don't mix."
Will you try
To change things
Use the power that you have?
"You know, we're really
worried about you,
Terry, we're really..."
Well, don't worry, I'm okay,
I'm gonna be okay.
You guys know me."
Oh
You know
You know
FITZGERALD: As part of
Jimmy's creative community,
he always envisioned
a recording studio as a place,
a destination where
you could go.
And... And...
Set your stuff up, get sounds,
start recording, and do it
whenever you wanted.
GUERCIO: At that time
Columbia, I was forced
to use their studios,
and they were all union.
I wanted to be free creatively
from any from any
technical constraints.
FITZGERALD: He envisioned
having a place somewhere
where you could
not be bothered
by the outside world.
It was a
great concept, actually.
I think that was
the devil's playground, myself.
LOUGHNANE:
Our original producer
built a ranch
with the money that
we made him.
GUERCIO: We had huge
success with Chicago,
I built the studio.
It's the process I wanted,
it's how I wanted
people to conform
to my environment
and not theirs.
I do believe in you
And I know you believe in me
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
LAMM: I think that he was
hoping in creating a place
where we could go and create
that it would become sort of
a cottage industry.
GUERCIO:
There was a lot of resistance.
I mean, even...
A lot of the guys in Chicago,
"What are you, nuts?"
LOUGHNANE: That was literally
away from everything.
That was like a town
within itself.
PARAZAIDER: I remember
leaving the ranch because
I needed to get
some carbon monoxide.
And you know, it was
very cloistered in a way.
And then I just
would go to Boulder
and then come back.
I think that when you put
young guys with too much money
together in an isolated
venue like Caribou Ranch,
it's a recipe for disaster.
And it was.
[SATURDAY IN THE PARK
PLAYING]
There are no police,
number one.
We were growing beards.
I remember trying to be older
and tougher looking.
We were carrying around
these Winchesters.
You know, feeling like we were
in the Old West or something.
Saturday in the park
I think it was
The Fourth of July
Saturday in the park
I think it was
The Fourth of July
People talking
People smiling
A man selling ice cream
Singing Italian songs
LAMM: The Caribou Ranch
happened to be, um,
very close to a college town.
There was a ton of drugs,
there were really good drugs.
The bank is there,
to be able to afford
whatever you want delivered
to your cabin
in the mountains.
I was flying women up,
Playboy Bunnies, and I was,
you know...
Had we been straight, it would
have been so much better,
but it was a lot of drugs.
A lot.
Whether it was pot, or speed,
or coke, or acid, or whatever,
it was all available,
and it all could be delivered,
and you could use it
whenever and wherever
you wanted to.
LOUGHNANE:
It could never happen now.
I mean, there would
be some TMZ guy in a tree,
taking a shot, taking a movie.
"Look what they're doing now,
these guys." [LAUGHS]
Talking 'bout Saturday
Saturday
[CROWD CHEERING]
LAMM: It was sort of like a,
you know, a binge.
It was a...
A ready-made binge.
People finally
Get them together
Well, making life
Ooh, a whole lot better
Yeah, yeah
PANKOW: [IN ARCHIVE FOOTAGE]
I think we've accomplished
more here
in the past couple months
than we've accomplished
in the big cities in the last
couple of years.
Because we don't have
the problems and the hassles,
and the headaches of getting
to the studio in the middle of
rush hour traffic.
Nature is totally conducive
to being creative.
PANKOW: You go up to
the mountains in Colorado
and you immerse yourself
in this creative process
and the real world
kind of fades away.
My fiancee and I,
we had a problem.
I can't even remember
what it was about.
She wound up locking herself
in a bathroom,
and I was on the other side
of the door, trying to...
-[KNOCKS ON DOOR]
-"Come out of the room,"
she was not cooperating.
Finally, I went,
"Enough of this."
I went through the door
and it freaked her out
to the point where it
freaked me out when I saw her.
And I stopped in my tracks,
and I asked myself,
"What the hell are you doing,
man?" [CHUCKLES]
I stepped back
and looked down the hallway,
and saw my piano.
Something moved me to
go to the piano.
I had a tape recorder
sitting on the piano.
I pressed record, sat down,
and this song just came out.
Just You 'N' Me began
to come out of my fingers,
pretty much in its entirety.
I don't know what power came
over me, 'cause it's never
happened before or since,
where I sat at a piano
and a complete
song happened.
I turned the machine off
and I sat there in amazement,
wondering what had
just happened.
And I took this tape recorder
to the bathroom
where she was still sitting
on the edge of the tub upset,
and I played this song.
[JUST YOU 'N' ME PLAYING]
It erased all the acrimony.
The song just bathed it away
and everything was fine.
You are my love in my life
And you are my inspiration
PANKOW: I took this tape up to
Caribou Ranch to see if
the guys are into it.
And I asked them
if it was any good
and Robert looked at me
and said, "Any good?
Jimmy, that's a hit song!"
Baby, you're everything
I've ever dreamed of
Yeah
LAMM: I mean, we basically
recorded albums every year.
So, at some point
during the touring year,
we would take our breaks
and go to Caribou,
and supposedly do work.
There was a lot of
fucking around.
The feelin' was clear
LOUGHNANE: I was in the midst
of my first divorce.
When I met her the infatuation
was there, we really had
a great time together.
Then we started
going on the road.
We were never home again.
'Cause no one made me feel
The way I felt with you
Oh
Call on me 'cause
I love you
LOUGHNANE: Our relationship
could not handle that
constantly being gone,
and by the time I came home
and saw her,
she didn't know me,
I didn't know her.
I've always been amazed
when people tell me
they can have relationships
with their ex-wives.
I don't know how
they can pull that off,
but a lot of people do.
This is our retreat.
We sort of rediscovered
ourselves here.
It's definitely like,
it's like a monastery
when you're up here.
Uh, the only reason
you're here...
[ALL PROTESTING]
All right,
let me rephrase that.
It's a creative monastery.
LOUGHNANE: More and more songs
were being played on the radio
and becoming hits.
We were just
working constantly.
It never stopped and we had
very little time to slow down
and think about anything.
Thank you, thank you.
And now Robert Lamm and
the Chicago Rhythmaires
step into the spotlight.
America needs you,
Harry Truman
SERAPHINE: You know,
we could do no wrong. We were
at the top of our game.
Without a doubt there was
a certain air of being
indestructible.
Things are looking bad
PANKOW: We lived
the rock 'n' roll life.
But it had dangers.
I mean, you didn't have
to worry about
every word that
came out of your mouth, or...
You could let it flap.
We'd love to hear you
Speak your mind
In plain and simple ways
Call a spade a spade
LAMM: I'm not sure
why the Greatest Hits
came out then,
but I think there might have
been trouble in paradise
as far as the management's
perception of us
beginning to need
to coast a bit,
because of the partying
and because of the fatigue,
and because of...
Oh
SERAPHINE: The mindset is
once we made the switch
to hit singles, hit records,
it's like a heroin addict.
You gotta have another fix.
America's calling
Everybody sing
Harry Truman
Harry, you know what to do
The world is turnin' round
and losin' lots of ground
We're coming up to one half
minute before midnight,
so with a little help from
Danny on the skins,
let's all count down
the seconds to the new year,
okay?
Lead us Danny,
eight to the bar!
LAMM: We didn't really have
a down trend that was...
That was perceived,
but there was one...
There was one occurring.
-And we were beginning
to pay the price.
-[ALL COUNTING DOWN]
SERAPHINE: Management
would never hold back on
reminding us that,
"Well, this could be
your last hit."
ALL: Twelve, eleven,
ten, nine...
SERAPHINE: You never know
when it's gonna end.
ALL: Seven, six, five, four,
three, two, one!
[CROWD CHEERING]
We are the epitome of a band.
I mean...
It has always been
a team effort.
When... When it
starts getting weird, or...
Somebody always steps up
to take whatever slack
is going on in the career.
They step up and add
a little more to it
and we survive it somehow.
LAMM: Cetera kind of felt
less than because he wasn't
a songwriter,
and he wasn't really
an instrumentalist.
He played great bass
and he was a great singer.
But he felt really insecure
about presenting his songs.
Here are three members
from Chicago.
There's Terry,
and there's Peter,
and there's Danny.
Welcome to the UK.
Can I start off
with you, Terry?
Where did you get
the song from?
Well, you gotta start with him,
'cause he wrote this song.
Well, I wanted you to say that
so I could get to him, you see.
Sure. Good man.
-Peter...
-Well, actually, you should...
No, I did write the song.
Just from experience.
EDMONDS:
I mean, somebody wandered
out of your life?
Many times. I don't know,
I just wrote it. I don't know.
-Puttin' me on the spot like
this.
-No idea.
LAMM: So, when Peter
presented the ballad,
it was like, of course!
You know, we're...
One of the things that
Chicago was about
was let's record and write
whatever we want,
including songs that not...
Maybe not everybody
in the band loves,
but, hey, if you write a song,
we're gonna do it.
We're gonna do it
the best we possibly can do it
'cause that's who we are.
And because we know that
that's not who we are.
And we know that,
as nice a song as it is,
it's just not, you know,
nobody's gonna like it.
[IF YOU LEAVE ME NOW
PLAYING]
[LAUGHS]
If you leave me now
You'll take away
The biggest part of me
Ooh, no
Baby, please don't go
LOUGHNANE:
The perception from radio
or the public, or critics,
is that we think
a certain way.
We think...
They read something
into what we're doing
that may not exist.
PARAZAIDER:
"Okay, this band is this,
this band is an R&B band.
Oh, Chicago.
Now we see what they are.
They're a ballad band."
A love like ours
Is love that's hard to find
How could we
Let it slip away?
SERAPHINE: This is
what you dream about.
You know, it doesn't always
come in the form
you want it to,
but we'd already had
a ton of success with all
different styles of music.
We were able to pretty much
do as we wanted.
GUERCIO:
The process was
a little bifurcated.
We used the band,
but if you listen to
If You Leave Me Now,
it's just Bobby's on a Rhodes
and Danny's playing the drums
and everything else,
Peter and I did.
LAMM: Those of us who
kind of were all about
being in a rock band
were kind of looking
at each other sideways
saying, you know,
"What is this?"
You know,
"Why are we doing this?"
GUERCIO:
Those songs were not
Chicago songs.
Those songs were
Peter's songs.
LAMM: I think that
the person who was
most affected by it
was probably Terry Kath.
Because he did not
want to go there.
He did not want to go
to ballad land.
I know the height of his
frustration occurred after we
recorded Chicago VII
and we went out on the road
and we tried to
play that album live.
LOUGHNANE: Without playing
the other hits.
Without playing
the other hits.
It was great but the
audiences really didn't...
They weren't buying it.
And I smoked a joint
and I called Terry and I said,
"Terry, you know what, man?
I think when we
go out on the road next,
we should play
every fucking hit we have.
Just play every fucking hit
and forget about, you know,
trying to do the jazz stuff."
He said, "Oh, man,
you're a fucking hypocrite."
[LAUGHS]
Fucking hung it up.
So that's, that's really
where he was.
He wanted to stretch out
because that's, you know,
that's where we started.
That's who we...
That's who we were.
PANKOW: When you get caught up
in success and everything,
I mean, you're so preoccupied
by the enormity of a career
when it takes off
like it did for us
that you don't give
enough thought to,
well, what about
the business of this?
SERAPHINE: As far as the
business, I really kept an eye
on the business a lot more.
Things were kind of
inequitable.
The first thing that
kind of really resonated
with me was here I was
living in a 1,000 square foot
rental house in Studio City
and Jimmy's up on a ranch,
3,000 acre ranch.
Danny was always
trying to tell us that,
you know, we need to take
a look at the contracts,
we need to do this.
"Let's look at the contracts,
we better start
looking at the contracts."
"Relax.
Let them do that stuff,
we'll do ours."
SERAPHINE: So I finally got
the band to listen,
and we had the books audited.
And lo and behold, I mean,
the difference, the difference
in money was staggering.
He was taking 100 percent
of the publishing.
Millions of dollars had been
going to the wrong place.
Millions of dollars.
It wasn't like
anything was being stolen,
because we signed these
terrible contracts in the very
beginning of our careers
with Jimmy.
I understood why he developed
the company that way.
That it was basically
for everybody's protection.
But he was a little smarter
than everybody else.
LOUGHNANE: Jimmy knew things
about the business
that we didn't know,
and you would have thought
that he would hip us to that.
But he didn't really.
We took it to task
and renegotiated.
And he had 51 percent,
by himself,
of our entire career.
And we had, we had 49 percent
split seven ways.
So there's quite a difference,
especially after Uncle Sam
comes in and grabs half.
PARAZAIDER: I think we went
as far as we were gonna
be able to go with him.
But I just think
the time was up
with that relationship
and we had to move on.
FITZGERALD: I never took
a penny from anybody
and I don't think
you could have found a team
that was any more honest
than the team that
he had built.
And in my opinion,
he destroyed it.
[SCRAPBOOK PLAYING]
SERAPHINE: When we left
Guercio it was a very, very
difficult transition.
Six sets smoked on Saturdays
At Barnaby's on State
Countless California calls
We could not stand to wait
LAMM: There's a lot of guys
in the band.
There was enough
safety in numbers, if you will,
in terms of being productive
and having the ability
to perform
and record and write.
Yeah
Oh
Jimi was so kind to us
Had us on the tour
We got some education,
Yeah
Like we never got before
PARAZAIDER: How many groups
did you see that just broke up
after a couple hits?
That strain is just
the prices that you pay.
LOUGHNANE: Through the years
we kept building stage sets.
We came up
with this street scene
and we had the brilliant idea
to put a phone booth
on the stage.
That was called
the Snortatorium.
LOUGHNANE: Once you went
into the booth, no one could
see you from the audience.
You would just disappear.
But we had cocaine
inside of it,
and we would go in and take a
hit of cocaine.
You know, we would go in there
and snort.
LOUGHNANE:
It's completely insane.
It's getting your heart going
like a Maserati
coming around the curves.
Everybody sang the blues
You just lay into it
and hit that turn like,
"Ahhh, I got it!"
And you could die
just like that.
I was just coming home
from a Laker game
and I got a phone call
from our manager.
He did one of those
"Are you sitting down" things,
and he said "Terry's dead."
[LAUGHS]
[SOBBING]
Obviously, it still hits me.
Holy shit.
MALE RADIO ANNOUNCER:
25 days into the new year,
and the front line
of the rock 'n' roll ranks
have been depleted once again.
The lead singer of Chicago,
Terry Kath, is dead.
What?
I... I didn't believe
what I heard.
I just, I almost, I got up
and I almost fell to my knees
and the phone was ringing.
And I don't know why...
But I got the word
that he had passed away.
And that was, uh...
One of the worst days
of my life.
Terry was, uh, getting ready
to do a solo record,
and had been rehearsing
at the house of, uh,
one of the fellas in our crew.
SERAPHINE: He was
at Don Johnson's house,
our keyboard tech.
He did drugs with Terry,
and he partied
with Terry a lot.
PANKOW: Apparently he had been
cleaning his gun,
and this was a
little automatic pistol.
Donny Johnson kinda
squawked at him about,
"Hey man, you know,
"it's the middle of the night,
you haven't slept,
don't clean your guns,
don't mess around with
your guns. Just go to bed."
And Terry said,
"Hey look, man. You know,
I know what I'm doing."
And apparently Terry took
the clip out of the gun,
and showed him that there
was nothing in the clip.
But apparently there was
still a round chamber.
Terry was just foolin'
with a gun.
And, uh, um, the gun went off.
PANKOW: Boom!
Died instantly.
And, uh...
It was really,
really hard news.
LOUGHNANE:
I didn't believe it.
And, uh... [BREATHING HEAVILY]
I believed it...
When I went to the wake
and he was laid out
in the casket.
And the thing that
really hit me
was when I touched his...
His shell. [SOBS]
'Cause that's what it is,
that's what these are.
It's a shell.
When the humanity leaves,
the soul leaves,
it is a hollow...
Body.
This is the car we
drive around in on this plane
throughout this lifetime.
This is not our essence.
Our soul, our spiritual self
is our essence,
and when this body dies,
that leaves.
[GUITAR MUSIC PLAYING]
SERAPHINE:
We didn't do enough.
We should have intervened.
'Cause that's what friends do,
real friends do
for one another.
I think at the time,
we didn't know
how to handle that.
How do you tell somebody
not to do something
that you might be doing?
LAMM: I think I had sort of
lost my way
in every aspect of my life.
The thing about Terry Kath
is that the
ferocious force and drive
of his playing is what,
is what informed this band.
And when he was gone,
it changed forever.
LOUGHNANE: I still had dreams
that I was sitting
on my front steps
at the house
that I was raised in
in Elmwood Park.
And Terry came walking
down the street like nothing
had ever happened.
"Holy shit, there's Terry!"
He said, "Oh, yeah, it was
an FBI thing.
I had to go away
and hide out,
but I'm back.
Let's, you know, go on."
And, you know, I was going,
"Terry, Jesus Christ,
we replaced you already!"
[RUN AWAY PLAYING]
Run away
Leave all your worries
behind you
Run away
Run for your life
Never turn back
Run away
Run away
Run away
LOUGHNANE:
Looking back on it now,
it seems like really
a small period of time,
like a week or two weeks,
if that long,
that we came
to the realization that
Terry's gone, but he would
want us to keep going.
We're all alive,
we're still viable,
we still love doing it,
let's go.
PANKOW: And we decided
that we were gonna...
We were gonna continue
any way we could.
PARAZAIDER: People didn't
want us to stop.
Because they wanted
to see what we had
to offer musically.
We spent more money on blow
and mansions
on the Hot Streets album
than we did on recording.
[RERUNS PLAYING]
I will not discuss the past
Life goes by us
Much too fast
LAMM: I was already spinning
out of control
before Terry's death.
So there was a lot of things
kind of floating around
that were bothering me
and I had no idea
how to deal with it.
All we have together
Would be lost unless we try
I'll never forget
Those aimless years
Street sounds swirling
Through my mind
PARAZAIDER:
We definitely had the big dip.
And it was a smack
in the face that, hey,
things aren't happening
for you right now.
'Cause I'm a street player
PANKOW:
Black cats are bad luck.
And it's about this guy
that's got really bad luck.
The black cats,
there's always a
black cat in the scene.
Something bad is gonna happen
to this guy, you know.
He's cursed.
I'm a street player
PARAZAIDER: It's funny looking
back on Jimi Hendrix
and he just basically said,
"You know, it's just
all the travel,
the business,
and spitting out my hits."
And he looked at me and said,
"And you're gonna
have it worse."
And I thought, "Yeah,
I hope we do."
Be careful what you wish for,
you might get it.
I'm a street player
LOUGHNANE: For some reason
with drugs,
you tell yourself that
it's not that bad,
I'm not as bad as other people.
I'm a street player
LOUGHNANE:
I just remember being
in a room by myself
snorting cocaine,
and it never being enough.
LOUGHNANE: And I remember
taking a snort
and timing to see how fast
my heart was going.
That's insane,
because I could have
snuffed myself out
at any moment.
But because I haven't,
I've gotten to grow,
I've gotten to enjoy life more,
uh, you know,
hopefully become the person
I've always wanted to be.
MERV GRIFFIN:
During the '70s they sold
over 60 million records
with an unbroken
string of hits
like Does Anyone Know
What Time It Is?
Saturday in the Park,
and If You Leave Me Now.
They're continuing
that sex... Sex?
They're continuing
that success. [LAUGHS]
I don't know, it's hard
to know who to talk to
because they're all stars
of the band, right?
[AUDIENCE CHEERS]
Molehills never
become mountains.
It's a democratic organization,
there's no front man
and everybody has
an equal say.
Walter Parazaider,
Lee Loughnane,
Peter Cetera,
Bobby Lamm,
Danny Seraphine on drums,
Chris Pinnick on guitar.
PINNICK: My first day
of rehearsing with them,
I had to go down and hide
in the pool house
because nobody had told Donny
that he was out of the band.
We had auditioned,
unbeknownst to Donnie.
Donnie Dacus was late
for rehearsal.
We finally got a hold of him.
"What? Bullshit!
What do you mean?"
Two words, buddy.
You're fired.
[THUNDER AND LIGHTNING
PLAYING]
PANKOW: You loved the shoes,
you bought the shoes
'cause you loved them.
But they don't
feel comfortable.
Next, you gotta get
a different pair of shoes
that don't put blisters
on your feet.
PINNICK: My playing just
happened to,
rhythmically wise,
uh, happened to be
a lot like Terry's.
PARAZAIDER: Chris Pinnick had
the inside, some
of the inside guitar stuff.
'Cause Terry was just a great
rhythm guitar player,
outside of a great soloist
and great singer.
PANKOW: There was no leader,
per se, in this band,
but in terms
of the driving force...
Replacing Terry Kath
was no easy task.
But he was... Pfft, you know,
I mean there's
no touching Terry Kath.
I knew that, everybody else
should know that.
You know, so they have to get,
they would have to get used
to someone else's playing.
Will burn you
Just as sure as I'm singing
Thunder and lightning
Didn't know our love
Would end this way
You got your way,
We're to blame
But that's okay
Another time, another place
It's one more game
LAMM: I do think that
the trends in music and tastes
and generational, uh, shift
was occurring
just in the culture anyway.
And for any rock band
to survive all of that,
to withstand all of those,
those effects,
is nearly impossible.
People make records
and you expect to hear
what's on the record.
You know, people come
to see us,
they want to hear what
put us on the map.
There's just something...
I was always thankful
about the hits.
And it never bothered...
Bothered me to play them.
There was a time when
Make Me Smile,
the Ballet, we hated
to do it.
SERAPHINE:
I think a lot of artists
take this attitude,
and we've done it too,
over the course of our career,
of, "I don't want
to do that song anymore."
And well, you know, that's
what the people come to hear.
PANKOW: Those songs
put us on the map, too,
I mean, those songs put
the pool in my backyard.
I can't forget
those songs, you know?
Thank you, Jesus.
Children play in the park
They don't know
I'm alone in the dark
Even though
Time and time again
I see your face
Smiling inside
I'm so happy
That you love me, yeah
Life is lovely
When you're near me
Tell me you will stay
Make me smile
SERAPHINE: They wanted us
off the label
and so we left
the CBS building
with our tails
between our legs.
And then we flew home
back to LA,
and I remember our plane
got struck by lightning.
[THUNDER CRACKLES]
GRIFFIN: The plane
was struck by lightning?
-Yeah, struck by lightning
a couple times. And then...
-Was it an omen...
Well, that's what I thought.
I thought of it as an omen.
Thinking, well, something bad
is coming upon us.
SERAPHINE: And, you know,
they bought us off the label.
You know, they gave us
a couple million dollars
to leave the label.
PARAZAIDER: So we decided
to just take,
you know, take some money
and... And go on
and find a producer
and try to do...
Do the best album
we could possibly do.
At that point,
we were dysfunctional.
We weren't writing great songs
anymore and it was just a...
The band had gone
really stale.
AZOFF: Look, any time
a band's been, made, you know,
as many records as they
had made at Columbia,
um, you know it can go stale.
LOUGHNANE:
Irving Azoff, he had
a label called Full Moon.
It was a part... It was
a subsidiary of Warner Bros.
AZOFF: I had moved
my record label
out of CBS at about
the same time
that Chicago became free.
Irving was, you know,
known to be
this really great manager,
you know, who fought
for his artists.
I think I went to them
and said, "I'll give you
the best of both worlds.
"I'll give you Warner's,
and I'll give you
my undivided attention
as a label head."
Even in those days
the two respected labels
were Columbia and
Warner's.
So, you know, you wanted
to be on one of those two.
You know, so when I was
starting the label
I said, "I'm gonna
sign Chicago."
"Why do you want
to sign Chicago?"
You know, 'cause their sales
had dwindled.
Um, I always believed.
I stood in the center
of the room like this,
and they were all around me.
And they were about
to play me the songs
that they had written
for Chicago 16.
Each one was equally
as average as the last.
And so now after the 13 songs,
they say, "Well, what do you
think of the record?"
And I said it. I said,
"These songs suck."
[CHAINS PLAYING]
AZOFF: David Foster was
a very sought-after,
exciting, young,
writer/producer, uh, who was
really at the top of his game.
FOSTER: I don't know what
Jimmy Guercio's contribution
was to those early albums,
but I suspect that
that sound that they had,
he just had to harness
the sound
and, just, like,
hang on for dear life.
I don't think he was
hands-on the way I was,
you know, getting in there
and playing and arranging
and writing.
The very first day,
of the very first session,
I pressed the talk pad, I go,
"Uh, Peter, you know
when you get to the bridge,
uh, you played
a wrong note there.
It's an F not an E."
Or whatever.
Oh...
He took me to the vocal booth
when there was nobody in there
and he said, "You know,
I don't want you to ever
out me in front of the band.
And furthermore,
I don't even want
to play bass anymore.
You're gonna play the bass."
Chains are the temporary
FOSTER: Peter was unhappy
in the group.
And then the double-whammy
was that we just clicked
and it was just
fortunate and unfortunate
all at the same time,
but we became
a power couple
within the group.
AZOFF: Hard To Say
I'm Sorry, which was
the big first hit
emerges from
a movie soundtrack
called Summer Lovers.
Everything fell in place.
FOSTER: We all went
to the premiere.
Peter and I are sitting
next to each other.
We've written the song.
He's singing it.
We're so excited.
The end title comes on.
It starts out, you can
hear it really nice...
[PLAYING SONG INTRO]
We're getting excited, like,
this is our moment man,
and it's just filling
the speakers.
Way in the background
of the movie is a motorcycle.
It's getting louder
and louder, and the song
is getting softer and softer.
And it's like,
"Dude, are you kidding?
You think the sound
of a motorcycle is
more important than this
beautiful song we've written?"
We were really bummed.
But it went to number one.
[HARD TO SAY I'M SORRY
PLAYING]
Bang.
Everybody needs
A little time away
I heard her say
From each other
Peter started
to feel invincible.
He started
to feel empowerment.
Peter had really shaped up.
You know, he really got
physically in shape.
He was really focused.
He was really
kind of like a new man.
Hold me now
It's hard for me
to say I'm sorry
SERAPHINE: There was never
any one face in the band.
But it became all about Peter.
After all that
we've been through
PARAZAIDER: At first the focus
did change.
And there were videos.
I promise to
LOUGHNANE: When we went in
to record videos,
the director would say,
"So who's the leader?"
"What do you mean?
There is no leader."
You know, "Shoot all of us."
"I can't do that,
there's too many guys.
There'd be no focus."
So, guess what?
They'd focus
on the lead singer.
And Peter Cetera
became the star.
Couldn't stand
To be kept away
Just for the day
From your body
LAMM: So all of a sudden
we have this new guy
who's stepping to the front.
And frankly,
it was completely
different than anything
Chicago was doing.
Far away
From the one that I love
AZOFF: At that particular
point in time,
adding a new approach,
you know,
with a new enthusiasm
was fortuitous timing.
PANKOW: We were desperate
for a hit record.
"Okay, if that's what
you think,
we're good with that.
If that will put us
on the radio, okay."
Hold me now
PANKOW: David would start
dictating lines to us.
'Cause he wrote the song
with Peter.
He did a great job.
And he did a wonderful job
on those records, you know.
I know I'm great.
You can't have 16 Grammys
and not be great. [CHUCKLES]
PINNICK:
Naturally, he had his crew.
That's who he was gonna use.
But it didn't do some
of us any good
because he wouldn't use us
on the records.
LOUGHNANE: And because Peter
was part of the writing team,
he had more of a say
in what was gonna go on there.
The songs that
we had written...
Eh, not so much.
LAMM: I had submitted
a few songs to David Foster,
and they weren't really
even songs, they were just
sort of song ideas,
and I think maybe
one of them got saved,
uh, and...
And made into a song,
and that was Get Away.
[GET AWAY PLAYING]
[VOCALIZING MELODY]
PANKOW: And I didn't get
any writing credit on that,
and the horns is
the melody of Get Away.
"Oh, he's just an arranger."
[CROWD CHEERING]
FOSTER: The person that
was most absent
when I was making
those three records
was Bobby Lamm. Robert Lamm.
LAMM: I was being
very self-destructive.
And I just wasn't showing up.
You know, I just was not.
SERAPHINE:
He was really different
than pretty much anybody.
He was very quiet.
And you never really knew
what he was thinking.
LAMM: Well, you know,
my ego was crushed.
You know, in my mind
I was writing
the really good songs.
He said, "Well, to me, man,
Chicago is Peter Cetera's voice
and the three horns."
FOSTER: I was like
a young rattlesnake.
All the venom, all at once.
I wanted to make a great
record and nobody was gonna
get in my way
and it was gonna be
my way and...
You know, they really
resented that.
LAMM: I mean,
I totally respect it
and admire it, and I get it.
I get what it is.
They just sound weird to me.
It's a whole other
Chicago.
[CROWD CHEERING]
PINNICK: It wasn't
Chicago anymore.
Just when they were
a jamming band, you know,
he took them
and focused everything,
you know, and created
his arrangements...
Created his band.
[HARD TO SAY I'M SORRY
PLAYING]
Hi, I'm Tammy,
and I'm listening
to one of Chicago's
very popular songs,
called Hard To Say I'm
Sorry.
The first time I heard Chicago
was when I was 13,
but Chicago has been
a very popular group
since I was five years old.
Uh, what makes
your group so together?
You seem to have
such a family-orientated group.
We actually grew up together
in this business.
I mean from being kids,
you know, to the point
where we are right now,
and we've experienced
all of the success
and, uh, the good things
and a lot of hardships,
and we've struggled
through all of them together.
And, uh, we like each other.
AZOFF: I left and went
to run Universal in 1983.
To my recollection
they continued
to record with Warner's
for many, many years.
From the, uh,
Peter Schivarelli,
uh, side of things.
SCHIVARELLI:
You know, it's easy
to take care
of Jimmy Buffet
or Stevie Nicks,
you talk to one person.
With Chicago it's a
kind of a committee.
[WE CAN STOP THE HURTIN'
PLAYING]
There's people sleeping
on the ground
I always used to say
that they used
to have a meeting
about having a meeting.
SERAPHINE:
Some of the problems
was we'd have band meetings
and everything was done
democratically.
PANKOW: Peter showed up
at the meeting
and made ultimatums.
Peter wanted
a double share and...
We knew that he did not
want to go on the road.
I like my own bus,
and I want, I want more.
We said okay, well, you know,
we'll give you more control,
if you want that,
if that's gonna do something.
I'd have to say that Peter,
to be very honest,
was not a fan of the horns.
[YOU'RE THE INSPIRATION
PLAYING]
You know our love
Was meant to be
The kind of love
That lasts forever
LAMM: You know, Peter felt
that there didn't
need to be brass
on every single song
and I happened to agree.
PARAZAIDER:
I just can't say that
they were the integral part
of what the music was
up to that point.
The horn players would
come in, you know,
and they'd hear the vocals
and they'd literally walk
over to the board
and they'd go,
"Turn those vocals down!"
And, like, they'd just grab
the faders and
there'd be no vocals.
And then we'd put it back.
And then Peter would come in
and go, "Turn those
horns down!"
You're the meaning
In my life
LOUGHNANE:
To concentrate on the vocals,
he would actually
stop playing the bass.
There would be no bottom.
So that's when I started
playing the Moog bass.
PARAZAIDER:
I picked up a guitar,
Jimmy played keyboards,
and we just wanted
to be part of the songs.
It came to a point
that we thought,
"Geez, maybe we, maybe
it's not going to be
a horn band anymore."
Then along comes a woman
There's a change
In the way
PANKOW: Peter and David
had a string of big hits.
They had a, uh,
relationship that worked.
FOSTER: My records were good.
I mean I, I was, like, hitting
my stride and a writer and as
a producer and as a
player.
And I begged them, I said,
"Guys, this is a hit,
I promise you this
is a hit record.
You've got to cut this song.
"No, we're not interested.
We don't like it.
We don't wanna do it.
We didn't write it.
We don't wanna do it."
FOSTER: To appease them
I used all three of them
to get them at least
interested to do the demo.
I guess I thought
You'd be here forever
I guess I thought
You'd be here forever
FOSTER: I think I gave them
a lot of success,
but I think
I softened their sound,
um, past the point
of where I should have.
You don't know what ya got
Until it's gone
PARAZAIDER: The difference
from the inception of the
group was much different.
One thing you don't want to do
is try to keep somebody
in the band that doesn't
want to be there.
I was acting as if you
Were lucky to have me
Doin' you a favor
I hardly knew you were there
But then you were gone
And it was all wrong
Had no idea how
Much I cared
CETERA: I didn't
really leave Chicago,
they sort of forced me,
sort of forced my hand
at that point.
I just wanted
to do a solo album.
Like a lot of guys
who are in groups
do a solo album,
and then you do a group solo
with the... And they didn't
want me to do that.
Uh, we were very successful,
and then we went downhill,
and then I kind of brought us
back up again,
and, uh, and now it was, uh...
Wow.
How long before you knew
you'd made the right choice?
PINNICK: When Peter left, it
gave them the opportunity to,
kind of,
you know, reform
the way they want to.
You know, they had
the manager call up and say...
I think I can almost
quote his words,
"We're not sure
how the band's going
to be structured next year."
[CHUCKLES]
So, you know,
what I, I mean, to me
that says, "You're fired."
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
JASON SCHEFF: At the time
I connected with these guys
I was just playing
a lot of top 40 music
in top 40 bands
and that was really as far
as my aspirations went.
I was just looking at it as,
let me just play and sing
these songs like a great
top 40 gig.
Waiting for
The break of day
We'd had success with Foster,
but we needed to...
Obviously, Peter was gone now,
so we needed a departure.
SCHIVARELLI:
You know, it was kind of like
a team losing a good player,
but Robert, and Lee,
and Walt, and Jimmy,
they just picked right up and
just, you know, moved forward.
It's not gonna stay the same.
It's gonna...
It's got to be different,
it's got to go somewhere.
And we did all
the power ballads,
we got shit for doing
the power ballads, too.
There's, you know,
"They've sold out,"
you know,
"They don't take
chances anymore."
I don't care
what they think.
Sitting cross-legged
On the floor
25 or 6 to 4
You're redoing one of
the classic songs,
and that's like, you know,
"Why put me in that
position?"
Again, I was just
going, "Awesome!"
I don't hide the fact that
I tried to get him to sing
like Peter on the record.
Staring blindly into space
LAMM: There were, and are,
a lot of tenor voices in rock,
and none of them
sound like Cetera.
In my mind,
I'm the one that brought
Jason into the band.
Now, you're gonna get, like,
ten different perspectives
about who called him and
who put him in the band.
Foster wanted him
out of the band.
He didn't like his
voice at all.
I fought with David,
and I fought for Jason,
and I said,
"No, you give him a chance."
I absolutely, 100 percent
never wanted Jason
out of the band.
I wanted him in the band,
and in my recollection,
he was my pick and
I brought him to the guys.
That's what I recall.
Is that solid enough?
I can't believe that Danny
would say that I didn't want
Jason in the band.
I mean, it's just ludicrous.
Take me as I am
Put your hand in mine
SCHEFF:
Coming into something that had
been together for so long
with, this is a family,
this is awesome,
this is us,
and everything, but,
I was with a group full of
guys who were mentors,
that had been through a lot
and I'm looking at that going,
"This is what they did to come
out the other end of it.
This is what I'm doing,
and it's cyclical."
You just do your best work and
just don't self-destruct.
And it all comes back around.
The road is narrowing.
If you just stay and survive,
there aren't really
gonna be many left.
[HORNS PLAYING]
I was working with
David Foster at a time when
David, for whatever reason,
felt he wasn't getting
what he wanted from Danny.
SERAPHINE:
My friend Hawk Wolinsky
calls me and he said,
"Hey what the fuck is David,
is Jeff Porcaro,
playing on a Chicago record?"
And I went, "What?"
David Foster wanted
to have somebody
who could play
better with a click,
because it was
the era of the click.
He'd kind of lost his
confidence and
I had this sound
that I wanted that
he couldn't get.
I don't know.
All I know is that he did that
behind Danny's back
and Danny got very,
very upset about it.
In fact, he...
He threatened him.
FOSTER: Their manager
called me and said...
"You better get
out of there right now."
I said, "Why?"
"'Cause Danny Seraphine
just found out,
"and he's coming down
to the studio and
and he has a gun."
SERAPHINE: First of all
I wanted to kill him. I,
you know, I almost did.
I said, "What the fuck is...
What's going on?"
They said, "Well,
we wanted to try out Simmons.
"They had the electronic drums
and Jeff had a set, so we
wanted to hear them."
[STAMMERS]
I think it was bullshit.
When technology
started improving,
or at least growing
or inventing new stuff,
musicians had to learn
how to use them.
All of a sudden being
thrown on a click,
and I could see them talking
about me in the control room,
and I could feel everybody
talking about me,
and it was... I could feel
the undercurrent of doubt.
Oh, it just fucked me up.
KATH:
The function of a drummer
is to actually keep time.
Nothing else.
Danny is a drummer.
I would consider him
a lead drummer,
not a rhythm drummer.
He plays solos constantly,
through all songs,
in my estimation.
LOUGHNANE:
I really don't want to have to
figure out where "one" is.
And, and that's
the musician talking.
Changing the time without
everybody else knowing where
it's gonna go,
the rest of the guys in
the band shouldn't have
to figure that out.
Danny's lack of accurate
drumming and accurate
time-keeping was,
was really a detriment to
the band in live performance.
PANKOW:
We went to England, finally,
again, uh, we hadn't had
a career in
England for a long time
because Terry, uh,
insulted the country on
the world tour in '77.
And here we are in London.
Ah, I, you know,
I took my wife with me.
She had never been to Europe.
PANKOW:
She got him out of the sack
at like 7:00 in the morning.
They rented a car,
Danny's driving himself.
We went sightseeing.
Seeing castles and whatnot.
I should have rested,
so I was jet-lagged.
PANKOW:
Here it is 12 hours later,
we're leaving for a show,
and this man...
I played...
We played a show and I...
I really did play horribly.
I mean it was... It was...
Uh, it was terrible.
-[HUMMING]
-[SNAPPING FINGERS]
After the show
we had a meeting.
"Hey, Danny, you got to
stop looking at castles.
Dude, come on, what's
going on here, man?
You lost it here."
LAMM:
In the '70s he really broke
a lot of new ground.
When he was really good
he was very good.
In my view, he spent
too much time focusing
on things other than music.
And, you know, really sort
of being on top of it.
SCHIVARELLI:
His mentality was Buddy Rich,
Mick Fleetwood, that
he should control the band,
and I think it kind of
wore thin after a while.
SERAPHINE: There was probably
some truth to that.
We had good
management at that point.
I really didn't need to be
the drummer/manager anymore,
leading the band out of
the darkness, so to speak.
LOUGHNANE: When
we're playing, we're not
worrying about business.
That's a separate thing.
That has its compartment.
I really just think
business really became more
important than playing.
LOUGHNANE:
You don't do business, like,
just before the show
or during the show,
and, you know,
worrying about the deal,
you play the fucking song.
PANKOW:
At shows he, he started having
his mixing boards
next to his drums.
And he'd be playing, and while
he was playing, he was mixing.
LOUGHNANE:
It takes two hands and two
legs to play the drums.
If you take one of them off,
you start missing stuff.
"Dude, what are you doing?"
LAMM: That was when
the founding members got
together with Danny
and asked him to take
some time and get it,
get it together.
SCHEFF: You know,
you just need to work,
focus back on your playing
and become Danny again.
SERAPHINE: "Well, what are
you talking about?
I just played on everything
we just did, and it
was a huge success."
If you see me walking by
And the tears are in my eyes
Look away, baby, look away
And If we meet on the
Street someday
And I don't know
What to say
SERAPHINE: And at one point
Jason said to me, and
I wanted to slap him,
"We felt that the band,
that the album was successful
in spite of your playing."
And I went... [SCOFFS]
SCHEFF: Hey, listen, I think
it's important to actually
really ask yourself,
"Is there validity to this?"
You know it, it...
I mean, there was truth
to all of that to
a certain degree.
I could kind of see it
and I thought,
"If these guys
are all saying it,
they must be right."
That's a viewpoint and a
perspective by the collective
group and it's a message.
I said, "Okay, I'll go back
and I'll, I'll woodshed."
You know, have a long
meeting with myself about
my playing and work on it.
Work on with a click
and work on this and that.
And so I went and,
and I got with a teacher,
woodshedded like crazy
for six weeks and...
LAMM:
When Danny came back from,
sort of, woodshedding and
us having to work with
another drummer, it was
really no change.
And when we tried to make him
aware of it, he didn't agree.
So one thing led to another,
and he ended up
being out rather than in.
SERAPHINE: And as much
as I kind of knew
it was coming,
it was a... It just knocked
me to my knees.
And, you know, it was, uh,
I lived and ate and drank
and pissed, bled, cried,
lived, died that band.
You know...
LAMM: You know, I'm just
speculating, but I think
that Danny felt that
he was a founding
member of the band,
and we were going to have
to take him, you know,
regardless of how we
felt about his playing.
Uh, I, I just felt that if he
was gonna stay in the band,
it would tear the band apart,
so he had to go.
SERAPHINE:
I think the loss of friendship
was probably what I,
what hurt me more
than anything.
Because, you know, all of a
sudden, you know, I went from
having seven...
Six or seven other, like,
brothers, to nothing.
LOUGHNANE: We would have never
gotten rid of anybody.
That's not the way it works.
The Beatles didn't get rid
of anybody, you know.
How could it be the Beatles
if somebody leaves?
Come on!
That was the last thing
we wanted to do.
But it became impossible
to work and function
properly as a band.
SCHIVARELLI:
Those six guys in that room...
That... That stayed together
and was special
for such a long time.
Longer than the shelf lives of
all the one-hit wonders,
and somewhere in between,
that glitch happened.
And I'm really sorry for it.
People are always
gonna know me for
as the drummer of Chicago.
I mean it's even...
It's ironic.
I mean, they still bill me as
"Chicago's Danny Seraphine."
LAMM: Once Danny was gone
and Tris came in,
I think all of us thought,
"Hey, we better...
We better all,
you know, shape up."
IMBODEN: They really made
me feel at home.
They also said "You don't have
to do what Danny did."
PARAZAIDER:
It sort of sounds like, with
all due respect to Danny,
like he's always been there.
LOUGHNANE: Since Tris
has joined the band...
I talked about
never having to worry about
where "one" is...
I've never had to worry
about where "one" is.
IMBODEN: No matter what
the time period,
the songwriting has
just been stellar,
through five decades, right?
What's the line about a writer
writes, always I think
a musician plays,
performs always.
And I think that's
what we do, that's what
this band is about.
We'll be in there
somewhere in the index,
under "C", Chicago.
Hopefully.
IMBODEN:
Those guys, man, all of them.
Just have this uncanny ability,
and do reinvent themselves.
And what they hear, and what
their, what their muse tells
them, or whatever, you know.
PANKOW: You know, we're
not on magazine covers.
You know, we're not the
flavor of the month.
It's the tortoise
and the hare.
The hare's gonna win the race,
and it's, "Oh, man!"
Wow!
And in the fable the
tortoise wins the race.
'Cause the tortoise is focused
only on the task at hand.
Which is the music.
Whoo!
SCHEFF: We were gonna
cut our auditions off
one day early,
and I said, "I really believe
it's worth a listen to stick
around and hear this one guy."
PANKOW: He was playing the
rhythm things that Terry had.
He had that feel.
"Yeah," he goes,
"You were the only guy
that went..."
[MIMICS RHYTHM GUITAR]
[PLAYING GUITAR]
PANKOW: Anybody close
enough to Terry...
"You're hired man."
The work ethic in the band is,
I think, incredible.
We'll out-practice anybody.
HOWLAND: Chicago feels
like a band to me.
One unit working together,
you know, like,
much like a team.
[CROWD CHEERING]
SCHIVARELLI:
I think everyone genuinely
cares about each other.
We spend more time
with each other than we
do with anybody else.
I think that's just a thing
that's kind of grown,
uh, over the years.
LAMM: The brain works perhaps
more efficiently with facts.
[STAMMERS] With bullet points.
Obviously it's a
very different experience
to have lived through history.
To me it's been all
one very long sweep.
SCHEFF:
I couldn't foresee anything,
as far as anybody leaving.
With anybody who's come
and gone in this band.
It's funny, because
people will find
what their
cumulative value is.
PANKOW: Bill Champlin,
"Ah, well, the only reason
"people come here to see
the band is 'cause of me."
"Oh, really? Hmm. Okay."
Bye. Next!
And then the band grew.
And styles changed.
At a certain point if you've
played on some hit records,
people have heard you.
And if you played well or
played something interesting,
they remember you.
Then they call you.
One of the most amazing
singers I know, great keyboard
player, Lou Pardini.
[CROWD CHEERING]
PANKOW: Even Lou became
a natural part of what
we've always been.
PARDINI:
I think it was a good fit for
myself and for the band.
I'm taking it at a...
At a time where I've had a lot
of experience under my belt.
Being creative,
making new music,
going out and
doing better shows.
I think we've put together
a show that's the best
one we've ever had.
LOUGHNANE:
February 15, 2014 will be the
beginning of the 48th year.
PANKOW: Nobody has had
successful years
consecutively for 47 years.
Nobody.
Nobody!
Nobody.
[CROWD CHEERING]
LOUGHNANE: I mean,
who would have known that
we could outlast
businesses, banks, venues.
You know, they build venues,
we go play them,
they tear the venue down,
we go play the new one
after they build it.
I think the longest period
that we weren't on the road
was about three months.
At the... At the very most,
it would have been six.
We are continuing with
our success and
it's at this level.
To this day, I'm embarrassed to
say I'm a member of the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
although I've just been back
there a couple years.
I'm embarrassed to say
that they're not.
I think it's an injustice.
I think that Chicago very
strongly deserves,
uh, to be in the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
You don't get into the Hall of
Fame maybe until you're gone,
then they're never
getting in, 'cause they're
never going away.
We've always been kind of
an afterthought.
As far as the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
by any criteria
they belong in there.
Longevity, number of hits,
number of shows,
number of records sold.
If it comes, it'll come.
FEMALE ANNOUNCER: The Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame has
announced its 2016 inductees.
Cheap Trick, Steve Miller,
Deep Purple, N.W.A.,
and Chicago will be added
to the Hall of Fame on
April eighth, 2016.
LOUGHNANE: The perception
of being in, and actually
being in is quite different.
All of a sudden we have
the keys to the club.
We figured it was
a matter of time.
We're certainly,
uh, qualified.
This is an awesome historical
moment for Chicago.
It's surreal being included
with so many other people.
It's just terrific.
Congratulations, you're in the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
-Yeah!
-Long overdue.
-Good to see you...
-Good to see you, man.
MALE ANNOUNCER:
The question that looms is,
obviously Chicago is going to
perform at the induction,
and the question is,
are you going to join them?
CETERA: Well... I, uh...
You know what?
I am going to
reserve any comment,
um, on that until
tomorrow on my website.
LOUGHNANE:
Cetera wasn't really with
us in the initial band.
There was only six of us.
For him not to have
participated in the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame induction
is his choice
and no one else's.
He's missing something that
will never come back again.
LAMM: It would have been nice
if everybody could have been
here, including Terry.
As you say it's been
a long, long, career.
Things happen, when they
happen, for a reason.
[CROWD CHEERING]
ROB THOMAS:
In 1967, a group of
musicians came together.
And they were weaving
their city's diverse
musical influences
into one
bold, beautiful sound.
It is my honor
to finally induct
Terry Kath, Peter Cetera,
Danny Seraphine,
Walter Parazaider,
Lee Loughnane, James Pankow,
and Robert Lamm,
Chicago, into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame.
[CROWD CHEERING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
PANKOW: It's a milestone.
Thank you for finally
inviting us into your house.
For me, when you say, "Who are
the greatest American bands?"
you're gonna say the Eagles,
the Beach Boys, Chicago.
Saturday in the park
I think it was
The Fourth of July
LAMM: This band started
on February 15, 1967
when we played for
the first time in my basement.
[CHUCKLES]
We never thought we'd be
standing up here at this time.
People dancing
People laughing
A man selling ice cream
The band deserves to be in the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
they're finally in
the Hall of Fame.
This is not one of 100 shows,
this is one of the
most special shows
of their careers.
Can you dig it?
Yes, I can
And I've been waiting
such a long time
LOUGHNANE:
Life has many ups and downs,
but I've been blessed
with three things that
have never failed me.
Music, my trumpet, and, uh,
the guys in this band.
Walt, Danny, Lee, James,
Terry...
LAMM: Whenever I perform
Saturday In The Park,
there's a line that I sing
about a man playing guitar,
and I always give a quick look
up to the heavens to say "Hi."
A man playing guitar
You know, I'm still working
through losing Terry.
SCHIVARELLI: My earliest
recollections were,
they were playing, and in
those days they used to
have to play six sets.
They always, you know, worked
hard, and like I say, uh,
it's kind of ironic because
nothing's changed.
It was basically how
they've started and
they've continued on.
They love to play.
They love to perform.
LAMM:
I'd like to thank our manager,
Peter Schivarelli,
who's believed in us for
well over 30 years.
And I'm biased,
because I'm from
the neighborhood,
in Chicago, 12th and Pulaski,
and I have to say, you know,
you're a great friend and
you have a heart of gold.
He has been our
offense and defense.
He's, uh, somehow found
a way to keep us working
for almost 50 years.
We love you, Peter.
LOUGHNANE:
He's like an Energizer
Bunny.
He never needs batteries,
though, he just keeps going,
and going and going.
SCHIVARELLI: You know,
a lot of people bring up
that they've
been around for a long time.
What's their secret?
Even with the additions that
had to be brought in due to
departure or death,
I think they're all guys that
worked in harmony,
not only good players,
but good players who
were easy to coexist with.
LAMM: And lastly to the fans
out there for making
it happen for us,
day after day,
and year after year.
We're not going anywhere, and
you ain't seen nothing yet.
Until the last couple
of years I haven't really
ever thought about...
It would be
nice to just, uh, sit.
Or, it would be nice to not
have to be somewhere
in some lobby at 6:30,
getting ready, getting
on a bus and going to a gig.
It would be nice to
not have to play.
Uh, and, you know,
having said all that,
uh, anybody who stops doing
anything that they've
done their entire life will
eventually miss it.
LOUGHNANE:
Once we get off tour,
you know,
I don't know what our
relationship will be,
because
we don't see each other.
SCHIVARELLI:
You don't know what
it's gonna be like.
You know? And it's...
It's a little scary.
It's something I've done since
I'm nine years old and that
will never go away.
Logically, I don't expect,
you know, if,
you know, once it's over,
um, I don't expect we would
spend much time together.
We've spend enough time
together to last a lifetime.
I will never stop thinking of
my brothers as my brothers.
We're closer than we are
to some of our families.
We, you know, we have
separate families now.
We are still, you know,
brothers, and, uh...
I don't know.
LAMM:
I feel, uh, the impetus of,
of running out of time.
That I'm finding to
be very inspiring.
I feel like I'm running out of
time and I better get,
I better get down.
Yeah.
The mortality is a reality.
Well, we've been asked
how long it could go for
quite a long time, and...
-Yeah.
-Oh, yeah.
It doesn't have to stop.
But I don't want
to fuck around.
No. We're not fucking around.
We ain't fucking around.
SCHIVARELLI:
If we're fucking around,
we're kidding ourselves.
[LAUGHING]
Robert one time said he wants
to be like Picasso,
and Picasso fell
over dead working on
a sculpture at 96.
And he said,
"I want to be like Picasso
and fall over dead on stage."
And Lee said,
"Yeah, we'll all fall
over dead together."
[CHUCKLES]
We know it's hard for
You to see
That this is all
We want to be
You guys are a
wonderful crowd.
Thank you so much!
A constant urge
Within us grows we know it
To do the things
That we propose we know it
We're trying so hard to
Make the grade
Yes, we know it
By making music day to day
Yes, we know it
Although our task
Is never done
You know we know it
You ought to know
It's just begun yeah
They're surrounded at CA
with a lot of agents. This is
a band that loves to work,
and the more you play,
the better you become.
And they've become
a well-oiled machine.
And it's just instinctful now.
AZOFF: The core and
the heart of Chicago...
They're not done.
And the performance
they gave at the Grammys
was nothing short of terrific.
BILL CLINTON:
We're really blessed
to have them.
They're one of the handful of
most important bands
in the history of music
since the dawn of
the rock 'n' roll era.
They've basically influenced
everything I do as far
as writing, you know,
and performing, as well.
They were truly a great
band in, in the true
sense of the word.
I open up the second album and
look at each individual guys,
while I was listening
to the song.
"He's playing drums and he is
the singer on this song."
So I used to make,
like, my images, you know.
I got to be about a junior in
high school and, a little
cliche-ish, but it was really
from the very beginning
that I started to,
to follow them.
I remember when the second
album came out,
their messages were
not just music,
it wasn't just a rock 'n' roll
band with horns.
They're a rock 'n' roll band.
And someone will say,
"But they have horns." Yeah!
HOWLAND:
Jason's been here, for what,
close to 30 years now,
twenty-five years for Tris,
almost 20 for me.
A lot of people think that all
it takes to be successful
in the industry is
to be a great player,
but we're all trying to
support each other
and put out the best product,
uh, if you will.
Hot solo!
PARDINI: The more that we do
these songs, the more
it becomes a part of me,
and the more I
become part of it.
This little club that we're in
is a moment right now
that's happening,
and if we're not paying
attention to it,
it's gonna go by and then
people look back and just go,
"Wow, the good old days."
Well, these are
the good old days.
[ORCHESTRA PLAYING]
JIMMY PARDO: I've been around
on this planet almost as
long as the band has,
so I've... My entire life
has been growing
up with this band.
As a kid in the '70s, they
were kids as a rock band.
In the '80s they found that,
you know, that success again,
I'm graduating high school.
They disappear a little bit,
Then, you know,
they disappear a little bit,
I'm confused in my life.
As cliche as it sounds,
Chicago literally is the
soundtrack to my life.
You're welcome!
[CHUCKLES]
You're welcome.
IMBODEN:
Music, at the best of times,
you know, when
you no longer exist,
when you just watch
yourself
play this incredible stuff
that you've never
played before,
and the realization that all we
have is this moment right now.
[ALL CHEERING]