Chicago Biography

Pankow on the Carnegie Hall Performance:
“I hate it. The acoustics of Carnegie Hall were never meant for amplified music, and the sound of the brass after being miked came out sounding like kazoos.”

Cetera on his fight and injury:
“Four marines didn't like a long-haired rock 'n' roller in a baseball park, and of course I was a Cub fan, and I was in Dodger Stadium, and that didn't do so well. I got in a fight and got a broken jaw in three places, and I was in intensive care for a couple of days…The only funny thing I can think about the whole incident is that, with my jaw wired together, I actually went on the road, and I was actually singing through my clenched jaw, which, to this day, is still the way I sing.”

Pankow on their ‘commercial’ direction on ‘Chicago V’:
“About the time of that release (‘Chicago V’), radio had started changing. FM radio became more commercial, and it started to deal with formats.”

Loughnane on breaking into the songwriting club, which was then Kath, Pankow and Lamm:
“Terry (Kath), Jimmy (Pankow) and Robert (Lamm) were the writers in the beginning, and then Peter (Cetera) and Danny (Seraphine) started breaking into it, and then, by the seventh album, I started coming into it. I had just divorced and decided to write a song, and I presented 'Call On Me'. These guys were very good at what they did, and I didn't think they were going to like it. Everyone went, 'Yeah, that's a good song, but listen to this,' and ‘listen to this’, and 'Yeah, check this out.’”

Guercio on Kath:
“Terry Kath was a great talent. Hendrix idolized him. He was just totally committed to this band, and he could have been a monster (as a solo artist).”

Lamm on the public’s identification of Chicago as the ballad machine after the massive success of ‘If You Leave Me Now’:
“That drove me crazy. I know it drove Terry (Kath) crazy, because that isn't what we set out to be and it isn't how we heard ourselves.”