March 11, 2025 • 34 mins
Join us with the legendary Lee Loughnane, the iconic trumpeter and founding member of the legendary band Chicago. Lee shares stories from his incredible career, from his early days of Chicago's formation to the band's rise as one of the most successful and enduring groups in music history. He reflects on the making of their timeless hits and discusses the evolution of Chicago's sound over decades. Tune in for an unforgettable conversation that will leave you feeling like you're walking alongside a legend.
Check out our companion podcast Music Saved Me hosted by Lynn Hoffman here. here
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Buzz Knight
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I tell people that if there's advice that I can
give them, do something in your life that you lose
yourself into. Just art or welding, you know, I mean
anything whatever excites you and takes your time where you
lose yourself in it and don't realize what time of
(00:23):
day it is, what day it is. You're just into
that project so much. Do that for a living, and
inevitably most people will try to talk you out of
it because you're only concentrating on one thing.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast, where Buzz Night
steps into the lives of fascinating individuals and explores their
musical journey. Today, Buzz is joined by Lee Locknane, the
legendary trumpeteer from the iconic band Chicago. Lee shares stories
of his musical beginnings, from learning tropic techniques to forming
unforgettable memories with Chicago. Here's Buzz with founding member of
(00:59):
Chicago lock Name on the Taken a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Well, Lee, thanks for being on taket a Walk. I
really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Thanks for having me so.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Since the podcast is called Taken a Walk, I wanted
to ask you if you could take a walk with
somebody living or dead. Doesn't have to be in the
music business, but it could be. Who would that be?
And where would you take a walk?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Lee, I'd like to walk with Terry again?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Amen?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Anywhere?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, anywhere, anywhere, anytime, right, Yep.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I don't do that much walking anyway, you know, I
should around. I have a cup of coffee, I start
practicing in the morning, and you know, I get up
and I go into my office. Then I go back
to where I'm watching TV or you know, continue practicing
and stuff, and then I drive across town to the
grocery store or to my studio. So there isn't a
(01:55):
lot of walking involved. But I guess if it would
take me about, you know, three four hours to walk
to the studio the way I walk.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Well, it's a saunter, right, rather than a walk exactly.
But let's touch on the importance of Terry Kat You
mentioned him as the person to take a walk with. Obviously,
he's an integral part of your life and someone that's
so unforgettable and had such an influence on you. Can
(02:26):
you talk about the early beginnings with Terry?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, he and I used to hang out a lot,
and we lived together for a while in Chicago and
as the band was starting and Terry was I think
he was actually wanting to move to California. He had
a girlfriend named I don't know if it was his
girlfriend or not, but it was a girl that he
was infatuated with by the name of Ophelia. And if
(02:53):
she's watching this, I don't even know if she's alive
but or what her last name is, or if I
saw her on the street, I wouldn't be the recognizer.
But anyway, he was infatuated with her at the time
and was thinking of moving to California. He changed his
mind and we were forming. Actually, Walt was forming a
new band after The Missing Links broke up, and Terry
(03:16):
was the bass player in the Missing Links. When that
band broke up, we formed Chicago and we've been doing
this ever since fifty eight years. Who knew.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Congratulations. It's an amazing legacy and it's a legacy that's
still being built Lee, How does a band continue to
say so precision sharp to this day.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
We enjoy doing what we're doing when we get on
stage or playing in any capacity. We like what it
sounds like. So that's the key factor that hasn't changed
from the first time we got together in Walt's basement
in Chicago. You know, beyond that, once we started writing music,
when we were able to play clubs where they allowed
(04:05):
us to play original music without getting fired, you know,
we had to either play top forty or get out,
and so we did like everybody else, including the Beatles.
I mean, nobody got away with trying to be original
because no one has heard those songs, so they want
people to come into the club, not be you know,
(04:30):
what are these guys playing anyway, So regardless of everybody
had to play top forty music for a while and
then start writing their own music. And as that started
catching on and we started the recording process. Once the
first hit was accomplished, which was make Me Smile, we
(04:52):
went back and re released songs off the first album,
which AM radio would not play at first because we
hadn't had a hit. Strangely enough, that Catch twenty two problem,
and our first album was so underground. That's always amazed
me why the radio wouldn't play the music at first.
But the album was successful and it was underground, and
(05:14):
we were like stars in Europe when we first time
we went to England, we were stars first time we
went to Europe. It was amazing. We didn't even know
what to think about that. And the music is so
ahead of its time. What are they going to do next?
Oh my god. So then the second album comes out
and we release make Me Smile, which is a fourteen
(05:36):
minute piece the ballet for a Girl in Buchanan. Make
Me Smile as the first movement and the reprise of
make Me Smile is the last movement. And we just
cut out all that music stuff in the middle. Who
needs that classical stuff? Too much? Too much music, too musical,
and squashed it together and made a three minute, three
(05:57):
and a half minute song out of it called make
Me Smile. Well, and that got us started. And when
we went back and re released the songs on the
first album, does anybody really know what time it is?
Beginnings question, sixty seven, sixty eight, they all became hits.
And the most amazing thing to me is that music
(06:19):
that was so far ahead of its time, and oh
my god, these are geniuses. What's going to happen next?
They said we sold out because the music had become successful.
We didn't change a note, and that all went on
pretty crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
That is crazy, And to this day. Sometimes when somebody
uses the term, oh, this is pop music, you know,
oh this is pop you know, I remind him, I'm
sure you do too. You go, wait a minute, pop
equates popular, so it's like there's no sell out here.
And in fact, I remember your first album becoming this
(07:00):
aple of progressive rock radio on FM.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah yeah, and broad rock bands yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And it And what was so awesome about it is
you fused all these sounds together, you know, pop, rock, jazz,
and it was utter perfection. No one had heard anything
like this.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Well, we just we did it naturally. It was it
was organic for us because we just played the music
that was written and that's how we heard it and
felt it and when we saw those notes, that's that's
what we played. And that style was came from the
stuff that we had listened to growing up, the big bands,
(07:42):
classical music, you know, some of the stuff that you
hear from us as the bomb bump bam bum bum
bum ba, and some of it is like jazz, you know,
babu abou bah. You know, you just you have to
be able to play the different styles and it's that
you have to. That's what we did to me. And
(08:03):
I think that's set us apart from other bands.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Do you remember those that session for CTA and what
do you remember about that or those sessions.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
On the first album. Yes, well, first of all, we
had to do it in the dark of night. We started.
We were the twelve day eight shift. We started at
midnight and went till eight o'clock in the morning, and
then we went and got a sandwich and went home
or to the hotel for a while. And I think
Simon and Garfunkel had the studio during the day and
(08:39):
we had it at night. And thank god, we knew
the music as good as we did, because the hardest
part for us was learning how to record. We didn't
know how to record, and you know, you got yourself
in front of those microphones and they pick up every
sound that you make, so it you know, you got
to get past the nervousness of making a mistake and
(09:00):
learn how to use it in your you know, for
your benefit.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
How long did those sessions take, Lee.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I think we recorded the first album and only a
few weeks. It wasn't all that long because we knew
the material so well. We were writing it for the
first We came to California in sixty eight, and during
that time we were playing small clubs Itchy Foot Mos.
It was That's club in Alhambra. I don't even know
(09:30):
if that's open anymore. We played the Whiskey and that's
where Jimmy Hendrix and Janis Joplin sauce, well, especially Jimmy.
I'm not sure where Janice saw us, but oh I
know it was the Fillmore West and she asked us
to go on the road with her, and so did Jimmy,
and that was our start in the big time. And
(09:52):
that was the start where we were the opening act.
So I want to hear Jimmy, I want, you know.
So they wanted us off the stage, but enough people,
I guess, liked what we sounded like to stop yelling
at us and listen to the first few songs and
let Jimmy come on stage.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Amazing. My understanding is Jimmy was one of the softest,
sweetest gentlemen that anyone could ever run across.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Well, I didn't spend a lot of time with him,
but we did, you know, have some talks and you know,
holiday and hotel rooms and just sort of sat around
and did some strange smoking things and probably looked for
cheeseburgers afterwards, you know, Munch and I know he wanted to.
(10:42):
Walter always said that he was he wanted to record
an album with us, and unfortunately he passed away before
we were able to get to that. But I think
that was in the plans.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Can you imagine that?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
My god?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Pretty cool?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
No kidding? Yeah, Now you mentioned the Holiday inn. Is
it true that while you were out on the road
and living in those holiday inns there was the Holiday
Inn room where two of you you know, roomed together,
and then there was the other Holiday Inn room that
was the party room.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
There was a party room and all of us slept
in the other room. We only had two rooms. There
wasn't much money back then. You know, people think, oh,
the rock stars, you know, the old money for nothing
in your chicks for free. Not quite, not quite. You
got to work for this stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Now back to the studio aspect of things. How do
you did you make the studio sound ultimately transfer to
the sound that would be the concert sound.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
We just we pretty much played it the same way
that we did in the studio as we did live
in a club or the harder part was spreading out
on stage. We didn't want to spread out right away.
On the big forty foot stages, you would see this
little band in the middle of it, like, get your
(12:13):
binoculars out, are those guys up there or what. But
we were so used to playing close together that it
took a while to spread it out. And then when
you do that, you spread out the band. The configuration
of the band. It's harder to hear each other, and
there's like a couple milliseconds aren't much, but when you're
(12:35):
playing music, if the drum hits a beat and you
hear you're on the other side of the stage a
couple of milliseconds later, that's when you get the sound.
So when they finally invented the headphone monitors and you
could do like a you could hear the drummer right now.
(12:55):
You didn't have to wait for it to get to you.
You could hear it right in your ears immediately as
he plays it. So that helped everybody be able to
play together in a live setting, the big auditorium live settings.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
I saw you and actually it was fortunate to MC
bring you guys on stage at a show. It was
a place called the Pine Crest Country Club in Shelton, Connecticut,
And so I was working at a radio station in
Connecticut called I ninety five, and I was able to
bring you guys out. And I'll never forget it because
(13:37):
getting that experience being on stage and experiencing the machine
like you know, masterful approach of Chicago. This would have
been I think nineteen seventy nine, I believe, so like
the year.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
After Terry died. Terry was already gone by.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Then, right, Yeah, I'll never forget it. It was incredible,
And I think about this amazing legacy of the band.
You've never missed a year of touring, which is, you know,
considering what we've been through the last few years with
COVID and everything, it's even more remarkable.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
We even played the COVID Year in January and February,
and then the world shut down. Fifteen months later in
twenty twenty one, we started back up again, so we
played in the COVID Year twenty twenty and we played
twenty twenty one, I think June or July or something.
We started back up, so we continued every year without
(14:44):
a year off of touring.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
It's incredible. How did it make you feel? Though, you know,
officially coming back even though you never had left your fans.
This connection with fans, what does it mean to you
and the rest of the band members.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
There's nothing like it. I mean, without them, there's no career.
Somebody doesn't buy tickets that come to see you sit
at home and you don't get to do zoom interviews.
And Zoom was created during the pandemic and it afforded
people not to have to come to work anymore for
whatever reasons. You do everything right from your house. But
(15:23):
it's like, you know, all of a sudden, you do
an interview and you have to be the producer. I
did all my product I got my Tonight Show production
curtain behind me here.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
It's wonderful. It's tremendous.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
You know, we got to do all the production too,
you know, make sure the zoom works and you can
click the right buttons to see each other. Pretty strange.
The world has changed and it's continuing to well.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
I must say, sir, for you being curious as a
musician but also curious in other apps specs of life.
I think, in fact, I know you're the first Hall
of Fame musician who I also know runs it for
his band's organization.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
That's right. I just as a matter of fact, I
just learned relearned Sibelius program to do a brass chart
that we're going to rehearse when we get to Las Vegas,
and we'll see each other on Friday before the show
and we'll go over that Friday or Saturday that we'll
do a rehearsal. And pretty interesting. We're doing a fan
(16:36):
club convention that the second week that we're there in
Las Vegas and starting right up again. Like it's good
to be home and it's good to go back on
the road. I'll miss everything that I've been living with
here because I enjoy being home as much as I
do being on the road. Hardest part is always the
(16:59):
travel there and getting from there back here.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
And this is a residency that you'll have for a
bunch of shows at the Venetian, Right the Venetian.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, we do nine shows in first shows at the
end of February and then we finish up mid March sometime.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
So did you get your curiosity as a musician, as
a person leading a course to great music career but
also this it side job. Did you get that curiosity
from your dad?
Speaker 2 (17:35):
No, not really, but musical curiosity, yes, because he had
a lot of big band albums and I would listen
to those quite a bit. And then when I was
old enough, at eleven years old, he asked me if
I wanted to join the band at school, maybe play
the trumpet. So we went in. He took me in
and we met the band director. They took a look
(17:55):
at my teeth to make sure I wasn't going to
mash myself to you know, the inside of my mouth up.
And I guess I passed muster because I started playing
trumpet and then havn't stopped and it's been got over
sixty years playing the horn.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Can you talk about some of the horn players that
you've studied or you continue to study through your career.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Well, you know Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morden, you know Miles.
Actually I got into Miles later and more for the
stuff that he didn't play, the beauty of the stuff
that he didn't play, as much as the stuff that
he did. It's pretty crazy how how Miles put it
together and was different from from all others. And you know,
(18:54):
talk about a legacy. That's an amazing one. And I
listened to the big bands, you know, Dorsey and Glenn
Miller and played along with those records, and then Maynard
came out and I played everything down and active. I went,
there's a way I'm it ever going to be able
to hit those notes, baby. So but as it turns out,
(19:16):
the more you can get these muscles around the lip
strong and sturdy, so that I mean, I guess trumpet
players call it the corners. So when you close your mouth,
this is like you feel the muscles around here. It's
like solid, but everything inside here is soft and supple
and has to be really respected and be easy on
(19:40):
it and just blow the air through the horn and
not jam it against your mouth because as soon as
you jam it in, it's a piece of metal stopping
the lips from buzzing. That's problematic.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
That's an issue, especially when.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
You're trying to get up and you uppy register and
you think you're going to pull it this way to
get the note. That's not the way it works.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
You go.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
You have to just relax and let the lips buzz
and play the note.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I love how you're using the term buzz too.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
You got we're buzzing a while. I'm gonna buzz right
after we finish here.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Buzzing around. What's a regular part of your rehearsal discipline,
whether every day or how do how do you stay
so sharp?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
I just I get up in the morning and I
have a cup of coffee and start warming up normally,
And it feels like I'm missing something if I haven't
gotten to the horn soon enough, like if I don't
get into it until later in the day. As long
as I am able to play my horn during the
day and and get to my routines, it feels like
(20:50):
I've accomplished something during the day. And just recently, I said,
you know, I was relearning Sibelius, the music program, and
that's pretty difficult because you have to learn all the
ins and outs of which button to push and how
to move it over there. So thank goodness, I know
something about music as to how to break up the bars,
(21:11):
because you have to hit the buttons to split up
the bar so you can fit the notes that you
need in there. Da da da d up. That all
has a look to it, you know. You play those
sixteenth notes and then da da da da there's a
rest there. You go, you put a sixteenth rest in,
click to the next one, and then play the next
(21:31):
you know, put in the next note. So it's it's
pretty intricate and a lot of fun. But after you
do it for a few hours, you're like bleary eyed,
you know, just sitting there working with a computer. All
of a sudden, wait a minute, what time is it?
I got to stop this for a minute. And then,
(21:51):
you know, I tell people that if there's advice that
I can give them, do something in your life that
you lose yourself into like that, like the sibelius or
practicing I mean, just art or welding, you know, I mean,
(22:12):
if anything whatever excites you and takes your time where
you lose yourself in it and don't realize what time
of day it is, what day it is. You're just
into that project so much. Do that for a living,
and inevitably most people will try to talk you out
of it because you're only concentrating on one thing. Is
(22:34):
that's what I like though, I want to do that.
Keep doing it.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
That's that's brilliant. That that is brilliant. Spot on advice
when you're doing those warm ups, is some of that,
or you know, a little more than some of it improvisation.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
No, not really, It's stuff that I've been doing, you know,
day after day for years and years, and you know
all brass players can relate to that. You keep switching
off different books, but basically you're playing the same twelve
notes all your life, you know, it's just a different registers,
the low register, the middle register, and the upper register,
(23:16):
as high as you can go and as low as
you can go. And the easier you can do that,
the more fun you have with the instrument.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Any instrument, is that the key that has helped you
and the band stay so incredibly relevant for fifty eight
years pretty much.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
You know, like I said, the first time we got together,
we liked what it sounded like when we played together,
and that hasn't changed, you know, And as the music
has been written and wherever that came from, you know,
Robert and Jimmy and Terry and then a few other
guys started getting into it along the line. Whenever there
(23:58):
was a lull in how many songs were being written
for an album, somebody else in the band stood up
and presented something to keep the legacy afloat and It's
been that way our entire career. Somebody else gets up
and takes the reins and you just keep moving on.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
And your thoughts when you look out into the crowd
and you see, you know, the multi generational aspect of
the crowd, how does that make you feel?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
It's very cool because when the songs were written, I know,
when I wrote call on Me, my first song that
was on record, I was hoping that anybody besides myself
would like it, you know. So so for that to
have the success that that's had since nineteen seventy four,
and you know, I'm still making royalties on that song,
(24:53):
even though it wasn't one of our huge hits. It
was my introduction in helping something to the legacy and
providing something for the legacy. So it's it's it's great.
You know, I came in sheepes, so you want to
hear my song, you know, because all these guys were
like established songwriters by then. With we had a bunch
(25:17):
of hits under our belt by the seventh album, you know,
it was it was a pretty amazing career already and
we had only begun.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
By the way, call on Me one of many of
my Chicago favorites, So it's absolutely so brilliant, you know.
Back to the residency, I don't know if you have
a thought on the way residencies have become. I think
they're great for fans and great for musicians, especially based
(25:47):
on the whole you know, travel aspect of things that
you referred to. Yeah, right, so I think I think
it's done a lot of a lot of good in
terms of the showcasing. But any thought thoughts on the
new phenomenon the sphere in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I haven't been in the building. I've only seen it,
you know, glowing in the daytime and nighttime, so I'm
not you know, it's it's sort of like looking at
an alien and you don't know what is inside or
how are you how you once you get in there,
if you're going to be abducted or not. And as
(26:28):
far as playing there, we haven't been offered a gig there,
and as far as I know, it costs a lot
of money for each artist to go in and play
because they apparently have to redo the productions each time.
So I'm not sure exactly what it'll what it'll involve,
but we'll do it. If we're asked, that's for sure.
If it comes up, I have no problem going into
(26:49):
another venue.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yeah, I think it's going to ultimately whether there's more
spheres that pop up, or whether elements of it, you know,
probably are at your residency as well, you know, just
in the way it's showcase the video and you know,
the surround sound sort of feel of it. Yeah, it's
(27:11):
it's pretty intense, so it's it's it's an experience. But
I think residencies or experiences as well, So I think
it's just an extension of it.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
You know, they are, and it's they just use a
different name for They call it a residency now, But
it was just you know, a long standing gig when
we did it, before we opened up the Aladdin, when
no other rock and roll people would go into Las
Vegas because it was Frank Sinatraville at the time, so
it was thought of as an older venue, older crowd
(27:42):
type venue, just Las Vegas in general. And when we
played the Latin, opened up the Aladdin, and now the
Aladdin is closed, so we outlived that one too. But
when that opened up, other artists started coming in. Other
artists of our generation started coming into Las Vegas, and
that whole thing turned around, and now it's like residencies
(28:04):
and bigger and bigger and better and longer and faster
and higher and all the all the stuff that happens
in the world. If if a little is good, a
lot better?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Right, tell me what the experience was like that yielded
Chicago at the Kennedy Center, which is is just a
fabulous collection.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Right, that was pretty cool. We fuck, I forgot we
even did that because earlier in the year we did
the Carnegie Hall Live at Carnegie Hall and we did
six days, eight shows, and myself and our engineer Tim
Jessup we restored all eight shows so that that came
(28:49):
out what it was that last year, last year, the
year before, I forget what think year before. Yeah, it
took like ten months for for me and Tim to
pull that one together though. That was quite an accomplishment
for us, and I like the way it sounded because
we were able to get because fifty years later, technology
(29:09):
has changed, so you could play the tape or the
file or whatever you know, it's called files now because
they're digital. You don't see the tape running around the
machine anymore, but you can see the sound bites on
the screen and you can see when it comes in
and when it goes out, so in order to and
(29:32):
the room is very ambient. It's Carnegie Hall, so it's
built for concerts, and so the drums are very ambient.
The microphones are around the drums, all that stuff, and
you can see the music that you need to save
and cut out. You can erase that time in between
and then fade into the first note, so you don't know,
(29:55):
so whoever's listening doesn't realize that you have cut out.
All of that's stuff that is just noise. It's just
ambient noise from the rest of the band playing, you know.
And then you play that note and then fade out
of that and wait for the next one. And you
do that with all brass parts, all the born parts,
(30:15):
all the vocal parts, and anything that's not direct into
an amplifier. You have to do that, and then you're
able to when you're done, be able to you push
up the instrument. You can actually hear the instrument better
and you can eque it without having all the other
noise behind you. That's why we were able to hear
(30:37):
it and sort of immerse yourself into the crowd. I know,
we sat there every day. Gone, Man, it feels like
I'm like right here in the crowd with them. That's
the whole idea. The Kennedy Center was pretty much like
doing the Carnegie Hall album, except that, you know, it
(30:57):
was our next project on so we had learned a
lot from doing Carnegie Hall. And I was amazed that
we were so busy back then that we were writing
songs and performing them as we were writing and recording them.
Saturday in the Park. We hadn't decided on who the
(31:18):
lead vocalist was yet, Dialogue hadn't been the second half
of Dialogue hadn't been written yet, so we just sort
of did a guitar solo and then ended the song.
So it reminded me that how ballsy it was for
us to play current gigs with that kind of pressure,
(31:43):
playing for, you know, the opening of a venue in Washington,
d C. And we were like rehearsing songs as well
as stuff that was already established, you know, established hits
for us. It's pretty crazy.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Are there other projects over the horizon past the upcoming
tour that you can talk about?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
At this point? I know we're writing music, I am
for sure, and I don't know if it'll be a
Chicago album or a Lee Locknane album, Like somebody's going
to go, hey, yeah, well Lee Lockdane. As sure, I'm
going to go out and pick on one of else.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
But come on, now they will.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
My bread is buttered with the band with the logo
with Chicago. So that's what I've based my life on,
or you know, life is based it on me. They
actually named the city after us. We were so popular.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Oh. I love it when I think of the collection
of music over the years, over the decades, and I
think of what this music does, certainly to me personally
and to your fans. It's it's so uplifting and so
just you know, just makes us feel great. I produce
(32:57):
this other podcast it's called Music Save Me, which is
about sort of the healing power and what music does
to us. Basically, do you think music has healing powers?
For for sure?
Speaker 2 (33:15):
For sure? You know, and brings people together who would
normally not be together at all. And you know, same
thing like with twelve step programs, people you've never imagined
that you would meet on the street, meet in there,
you know, with big problems that you can work yourself
out of. But music definitely is a healing, universal healing method.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Well, I have to tell you continue to give us
amazing joy. The tour is going to be joyful. The
residency at the Venetian is something for folks to look
up to and look forward to as a destination. Also,
don't forget about the documentary The Last Band on Stage
as well.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
There was our fifty fifth anniversary of documentary. We have
the one before that, which was the fiftieth anniversary documentary.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
With your friend Joe Montana right who, Yes, the great Joe,
the great actor Lee lock Nae. Thank you for so much,
the iconic band Chicago and Lee lock Nae. Thank you
for being on Taking a Walk. It's an honor.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Thanks Boss same here.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I tell people that if there's advice that I can
give them, do something in your life that you lose
yourself into. Just art or welding, you know, I mean
anything whatever excites you and takes your time where you
lose yourself in it and don't realize what time of
(00:23):
day it is, what day it is. You're just into
that project so much. Do that for a living, and
inevitably most people will try to talk you out of
it because you're only concentrating on one thing.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast, where Buzz Night
steps into the lives of fascinating individuals and explores their
musical journey. Today, Buzz is joined by Lee Locknane, the
legendary trumpeteer from the iconic band Chicago. Lee shares stories
of his musical beginnings, from learning tropic techniques to forming
unforgettable memories with Chicago. Here's Buzz with founding member of
(00:59):
Chicago lock Name on the Taken a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Well, Lee, thanks for being on taket a Walk. I
really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Thanks for having me so.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Since the podcast is called Taken a Walk, I wanted
to ask you if you could take a walk with
somebody living or dead. Doesn't have to be in the
music business, but it could be. Who would that be?
And where would you take a walk?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Lee, I'd like to walk with Terry again?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Amen?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Anywhere?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, anywhere, anywhere, anytime, right, Yep.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I don't do that much walking anyway, you know, I
should around. I have a cup of coffee, I start
practicing in the morning, and you know, I get up
and I go into my office. Then I go back
to where I'm watching TV or you know, continue practicing
and stuff, and then I drive across town to the
grocery store or to my studio. So there isn't a
(01:55):
lot of walking involved. But I guess if it would
take me about, you know, three four hours to walk
to the studio the way I walk.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Well, it's a saunter, right, rather than a walk exactly.
But let's touch on the importance of Terry Kat You
mentioned him as the person to take a walk with. Obviously,
he's an integral part of your life and someone that's
so unforgettable and had such an influence on you. Can
(02:26):
you talk about the early beginnings with Terry?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Well, he and I used to hang out a lot,
and we lived together for a while in Chicago and
as the band was starting and Terry was I think
he was actually wanting to move to California. He had
a girlfriend named I don't know if it was his
girlfriend or not, but it was a girl that he
was infatuated with by the name of Ophelia. And if
(02:53):
she's watching this, I don't even know if she's alive
but or what her last name is, or if I
saw her on the street, I wouldn't be the recognizer.
But anyway, he was infatuated with her at the time
and was thinking of moving to California. He changed his
mind and we were forming. Actually, Walt was forming a
new band after The Missing Links broke up, and Terry
(03:16):
was the bass player in the Missing Links. When that
band broke up, we formed Chicago and we've been doing
this ever since fifty eight years. Who knew.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Congratulations. It's an amazing legacy and it's a legacy that's
still being built Lee, How does a band continue to
say so precision sharp to this day.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
We enjoy doing what we're doing when we get on
stage or playing in any capacity. We like what it
sounds like. So that's the key factor that hasn't changed
from the first time we got together in Walt's basement
in Chicago. You know, beyond that, once we started writing music,
when we were able to play clubs where they allowed
(04:05):
us to play original music without getting fired, you know,
we had to either play top forty or get out,
and so we did like everybody else, including the Beatles.
I mean, nobody got away with trying to be original
because no one has heard those songs, so they want
people to come into the club, not be you know,
(04:30):
what are these guys playing anyway, So regardless of everybody
had to play top forty music for a while and
then start writing their own music. And as that started
catching on and we started the recording process. Once the
first hit was accomplished, which was make Me Smile, we
(04:52):
went back and re released songs off the first album,
which AM radio would not play at first because we
hadn't had a hit. Strangely enough, that Catch twenty two problem,
and our first album was so underground. That's always amazed
me why the radio wouldn't play the music at first.
But the album was successful and it was underground, and
(05:14):
we were like stars in Europe when we first time
we went to England, we were stars first time we
went to Europe. It was amazing. We didn't even know
what to think about that. And the music is so
ahead of its time. What are they going to do next?
Oh my god. So then the second album comes out
and we release make Me Smile, which is a fourteen
(05:36):
minute piece the ballet for a Girl in Buchanan. Make
Me Smile as the first movement and the reprise of
make Me Smile is the last movement. And we just
cut out all that music stuff in the middle. Who
needs that classical stuff? Too much? Too much music, too musical,
and squashed it together and made a three minute, three
(05:57):
and a half minute song out of it called make
Me Smile. Well, and that got us started. And when
we went back and re released the songs on the
first album, does anybody really know what time it is?
Beginnings question, sixty seven, sixty eight, they all became hits.
And the most amazing thing to me is that music
(06:19):
that was so far ahead of its time, and oh
my god, these are geniuses. What's going to happen next?
They said we sold out because the music had become successful.
We didn't change a note, and that all went on
pretty crazy.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
That is crazy, And to this day. Sometimes when somebody
uses the term, oh, this is pop music, you know,
oh this is pop you know, I remind him, I'm
sure you do too. You go, wait a minute, pop
equates popular, so it's like there's no sell out here.
And in fact, I remember your first album becoming this
(07:00):
aple of progressive rock radio on FM.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah yeah, and broad rock bands yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
And it And what was so awesome about it is
you fused all these sounds together, you know, pop, rock, jazz,
and it was utter perfection. No one had heard anything
like this.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Well, we just we did it naturally. It was it
was organic for us because we just played the music
that was written and that's how we heard it and
felt it and when we saw those notes, that's that's
what we played. And that style was came from the
stuff that we had listened to growing up, the big bands,
(07:42):
classical music, you know, some of the stuff that you
hear from us as the bomb bump bam bum bum
bum ba, and some of it is like jazz, you know,
babu abou bah. You know, you just you have to
be able to play the different styles and it's that
you have to. That's what we did to me. And
(08:03):
I think that's set us apart from other bands.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Do you remember those that session for CTA and what
do you remember about that or those sessions.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
On the first album. Yes, well, first of all, we
had to do it in the dark of night. We started.
We were the twelve day eight shift. We started at
midnight and went till eight o'clock in the morning, and
then we went and got a sandwich and went home
or to the hotel for a while. And I think
Simon and Garfunkel had the studio during the day and
(08:39):
we had it at night. And thank god, we knew
the music as good as we did, because the hardest
part for us was learning how to record. We didn't
know how to record, and you know, you got yourself
in front of those microphones and they pick up every
sound that you make, so it you know, you got
to get past the nervousness of making a mistake and
(09:00):
learn how to use it in your you know, for
your benefit.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
How long did those sessions take, Lee.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I think we recorded the first album and only a
few weeks. It wasn't all that long because we knew
the material so well. We were writing it for the
first We came to California in sixty eight, and during
that time we were playing small clubs Itchy Foot Mos.
It was That's club in Alhambra. I don't even know
(09:30):
if that's open anymore. We played the Whiskey and that's
where Jimmy Hendrix and Janis Joplin sauce, well, especially Jimmy.
I'm not sure where Janice saw us, but oh I
know it was the Fillmore West and she asked us
to go on the road with her, and so did Jimmy,
and that was our start in the big time. And
(09:52):
that was the start where we were the opening act.
So I want to hear Jimmy, I want, you know.
So they wanted us off the stage, but enough people,
I guess, liked what we sounded like to stop yelling
at us and listen to the first few songs and
let Jimmy come on stage.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Amazing. My understanding is Jimmy was one of the softest,
sweetest gentlemen that anyone could ever run across.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Well, I didn't spend a lot of time with him,
but we did, you know, have some talks and you know,
holiday and hotel rooms and just sort of sat around
and did some strange smoking things and probably looked for
cheeseburgers afterwards, you know, Munch and I know he wanted to.
(10:42):
Walter always said that he was he wanted to record
an album with us, and unfortunately he passed away before
we were able to get to that. But I think
that was in the plans.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Can you imagine that?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
My god?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Pretty cool?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
No kidding? Yeah, Now you mentioned the Holiday inn. Is
it true that while you were out on the road
and living in those holiday inns there was the Holiday
Inn room where two of you you know, roomed together,
and then there was the other Holiday Inn room that
was the party room.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
There was a party room and all of us slept
in the other room. We only had two rooms. There
wasn't much money back then. You know, people think, oh,
the rock stars, you know, the old money for nothing
in your chicks for free. Not quite, not quite. You
got to work for this stuff.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Now back to the studio aspect of things. How do
you did you make the studio sound ultimately transfer to
the sound that would be the concert sound.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
We just we pretty much played it the same way
that we did in the studio as we did live
in a club or the harder part was spreading out
on stage. We didn't want to spread out right away.
On the big forty foot stages, you would see this
little band in the middle of it, like, get your
(12:13):
binoculars out, are those guys up there or what. But
we were so used to playing close together that it
took a while to spread it out. And then when
you do that, you spread out the band. The configuration
of the band. It's harder to hear each other, and
there's like a couple milliseconds aren't much, but when you're
(12:35):
playing music, if the drum hits a beat and you
hear you're on the other side of the stage a
couple of milliseconds later, that's when you get the sound.
So when they finally invented the headphone monitors and you
could do like a you could hear the drummer right now.
(12:55):
You didn't have to wait for it to get to you.
You could hear it right in your ears immediately as
he plays it. So that helped everybody be able to
play together in a live setting, the big auditorium live settings.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
I saw you and actually it was fortunate to MC
bring you guys on stage at a show. It was
a place called the Pine Crest Country Club in Shelton, Connecticut,
And so I was working at a radio station in
Connecticut called I ninety five, and I was able to
bring you guys out. And I'll never forget it because
(13:37):
getting that experience being on stage and experiencing the machine
like you know, masterful approach of Chicago. This would have
been I think nineteen seventy nine, I believe, so like
the year.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
After Terry died. Terry was already gone by.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Then, right, Yeah, I'll never forget it. It was incredible,
And I think about this amazing legacy of the band.
You've never missed a year of touring, which is, you know,
considering what we've been through the last few years with
COVID and everything, it's even more remarkable.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
We even played the COVID Year in January and February,
and then the world shut down. Fifteen months later in
twenty twenty one, we started back up again, so we
played in the COVID Year twenty twenty and we played
twenty twenty one, I think June or July or something.
We started back up, so we continued every year without
(14:44):
a year off of touring.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
It's incredible. How did it make you feel? Though, you know,
officially coming back even though you never had left your fans.
This connection with fans, what does it mean to you
and the rest of the band members.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
There's nothing like it. I mean, without them, there's no career.
Somebody doesn't buy tickets that come to see you sit
at home and you don't get to do zoom interviews.
And Zoom was created during the pandemic and it afforded
people not to have to come to work anymore for
whatever reasons. You do everything right from your house. But
(15:23):
it's like, you know, all of a sudden, you do
an interview and you have to be the producer. I
did all my product I got my Tonight Show production
curtain behind me here.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
It's wonderful. It's tremendous.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
You know, we got to do all the production too,
you know, make sure the zoom works and you can
click the right buttons to see each other. Pretty strange.
The world has changed and it's continuing to well.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
I must say, sir, for you being curious as a
musician but also curious in other apps specs of life.
I think, in fact, I know you're the first Hall
of Fame musician who I also know runs it for
his band's organization.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
That's right. I just as a matter of fact, I
just learned relearned Sibelius program to do a brass chart
that we're going to rehearse when we get to Las Vegas,
and we'll see each other on Friday before the show
and we'll go over that Friday or Saturday that we'll
do a rehearsal. And pretty interesting. We're doing a fan
(16:36):
club convention that the second week that we're there in
Las Vegas and starting right up again. Like it's good
to be home and it's good to go back on
the road. I'll miss everything that I've been living with
here because I enjoy being home as much as I
do being on the road. Hardest part is always the
(16:59):
travel there and getting from there back here.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
And this is a residency that you'll have for a
bunch of shows at the Venetian, Right the Venetian.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yeah, we do nine shows in first shows at the
end of February and then we finish up mid March sometime.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
So did you get your curiosity as a musician, as
a person leading a course to great music career but
also this it side job. Did you get that curiosity
from your dad?
Speaker 2 (17:35):
No, not really, but musical curiosity, yes, because he had
a lot of big band albums and I would listen
to those quite a bit. And then when I was
old enough, at eleven years old, he asked me if
I wanted to join the band at school, maybe play
the trumpet. So we went in. He took me in
and we met the band director. They took a look
(17:55):
at my teeth to make sure I wasn't going to
mash myself to you know, the inside of my mouth up.
And I guess I passed muster because I started playing
trumpet and then havn't stopped and it's been got over
sixty years playing the horn.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Can you talk about some of the horn players that
you've studied or you continue to study through your career.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Well, you know Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morden, you know Miles.
Actually I got into Miles later and more for the
stuff that he didn't play, the beauty of the stuff
that he didn't play, as much as the stuff that
he did. It's pretty crazy how how Miles put it
together and was different from from all others. And you know,
(18:54):
talk about a legacy. That's an amazing one. And I
listened to the big bands, you know, Dorsey and Glenn
Miller and played along with those records, and then Maynard
came out and I played everything down and active. I went,
there's a way I'm it ever going to be able
to hit those notes, baby. So but as it turns out,
(19:16):
the more you can get these muscles around the lip
strong and sturdy, so that I mean, I guess trumpet
players call it the corners. So when you close your mouth,
this is like you feel the muscles around here. It's
like solid, but everything inside here is soft and supple
and has to be really respected and be easy on
(19:40):
it and just blow the air through the horn and
not jam it against your mouth because as soon as
you jam it in, it's a piece of metal stopping
the lips from buzzing. That's problematic.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
That's an issue, especially when.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
You're trying to get up and you uppy register and
you think you're going to pull it this way to
get the note. That's not the way it works.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
You go.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
You have to just relax and let the lips buzz
and play the note.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I love how you're using the term buzz too.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
You got we're buzzing a while. I'm gonna buzz right
after we finish here.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Buzzing around. What's a regular part of your rehearsal discipline,
whether every day or how do how do you stay
so sharp?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
I just I get up in the morning and I
have a cup of coffee and start warming up normally,
And it feels like I'm missing something if I haven't
gotten to the horn soon enough, like if I don't
get into it until later in the day. As long
as I am able to play my horn during the
day and and get to my routines, it feels like
(20:50):
I've accomplished something during the day. And just recently, I said,
you know, I was relearning Sibelius, the music program, and
that's pretty difficult because you have to learn all the
ins and outs of which button to push and how
to move it over there. So thank goodness, I know
something about music as to how to break up the bars,
(21:11):
because you have to hit the buttons to split up
the bar so you can fit the notes that you
need in there. Da da da d up. That all
has a look to it, you know. You play those
sixteenth notes and then da da da da there's a
rest there. You go, you put a sixteenth rest in,
click to the next one, and then play the next
(21:31):
you know, put in the next note. So it's it's
pretty intricate and a lot of fun. But after you
do it for a few hours, you're like bleary eyed,
you know, just sitting there working with a computer. All
of a sudden, wait a minute, what time is it?
I got to stop this for a minute. And then,
(21:51):
you know, I tell people that if there's advice that
I can give them, do something in your life that
you lose yourself into like that, like the sibelius or
practicing I mean, just art or welding, you know, I mean,
(22:12):
if anything whatever excites you and takes your time where
you lose yourself in it and don't realize what time
of day it is, what day it is. You're just
into that project so much. Do that for a living,
and inevitably most people will try to talk you out
of it because you're only concentrating on one thing. Is
(22:34):
that's what I like though, I want to do that.
Keep doing it.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
That's that's brilliant. That that is brilliant. Spot on advice
when you're doing those warm ups, is some of that,
or you know, a little more than some of it improvisation.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
No, not really, It's stuff that I've been doing, you know,
day after day for years and years, and you know
all brass players can relate to that. You keep switching
off different books, but basically you're playing the same twelve
notes all your life, you know, it's just a different registers,
the low register, the middle register, and the upper register,
(23:16):
as high as you can go and as low as
you can go. And the easier you can do that,
the more fun you have with the instrument.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Any instrument, is that the key that has helped you
and the band stay so incredibly relevant for fifty eight
years pretty much.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
You know, like I said, the first time we got together,
we liked what it sounded like when we played together,
and that hasn't changed, you know, And as the music
has been written and wherever that came from, you know,
Robert and Jimmy and Terry and then a few other
guys started getting into it along the line. Whenever there
(23:58):
was a lull in how many songs were being written
for an album, somebody else in the band stood up
and presented something to keep the legacy afloat and It's
been that way our entire career. Somebody else gets up
and takes the reins and you just keep moving on.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
And your thoughts when you look out into the crowd
and you see, you know, the multi generational aspect of
the crowd, how does that make you feel?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
It's very cool because when the songs were written, I know,
when I wrote call on Me, my first song that
was on record, I was hoping that anybody besides myself
would like it, you know. So so for that to
have the success that that's had since nineteen seventy four,
and you know, I'm still making royalties on that song,
(24:53):
even though it wasn't one of our huge hits. It
was my introduction in helping something to the legacy and
providing something for the legacy. So it's it's it's great.
You know, I came in sheepes, so you want to
hear my song, you know, because all these guys were
like established songwriters by then. With we had a bunch
(25:17):
of hits under our belt by the seventh album, you know,
it was it was a pretty amazing career already and
we had only begun.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
By the way, call on Me one of many of
my Chicago favorites, So it's absolutely so brilliant, you know.
Back to the residency, I don't know if you have
a thought on the way residencies have become. I think
they're great for fans and great for musicians, especially based
(25:47):
on the whole you know, travel aspect of things that
you referred to. Yeah, right, so I think I think
it's done a lot of a lot of good in
terms of the showcasing. But any thought thoughts on the
new phenomenon the sphere in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I haven't been in the building. I've only seen it,
you know, glowing in the daytime and nighttime, so I'm
not you know, it's it's sort of like looking at
an alien and you don't know what is inside or
how are you how you once you get in there,
if you're going to be abducted or not. And as
(26:28):
far as playing there, we haven't been offered a gig there,
and as far as I know, it costs a lot
of money for each artist to go in and play
because they apparently have to redo the productions each time.
So I'm not sure exactly what it'll what it'll involve,
but we'll do it. If we're asked, that's for sure.
If it comes up, I have no problem going into
(26:49):
another venue.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yeah, I think it's going to ultimately whether there's more
spheres that pop up, or whether elements of it, you know,
probably are at your residency as well, you know, just
in the way it's showcase the video and you know,
the surround sound sort of feel of it. Yeah, it's
(27:11):
it's pretty intense, so it's it's it's an experience. But
I think residencies or experiences as well, So I think
it's just an extension of it.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
You know, they are, and it's they just use a
different name for They call it a residency now, But
it was just you know, a long standing gig when
we did it, before we opened up the Aladdin, when
no other rock and roll people would go into Las
Vegas because it was Frank Sinatraville at the time, so
it was thought of as an older venue, older crowd
(27:42):
type venue, just Las Vegas in general. And when we
played the Latin, opened up the Aladdin, and now the
Aladdin is closed, so we outlived that one too. But
when that opened up, other artists started coming in. Other
artists of our generation started coming into Las Vegas, and
that whole thing turned around, and now it's like residencies
(28:04):
and bigger and bigger and better and longer and faster
and higher and all the all the stuff that happens
in the world. If if a little is good, a
lot better?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Right, tell me what the experience was like that yielded
Chicago at the Kennedy Center, which is is just a
fabulous collection.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Right, that was pretty cool. We fuck, I forgot we
even did that because earlier in the year we did
the Carnegie Hall Live at Carnegie Hall and we did
six days, eight shows, and myself and our engineer Tim
Jessup we restored all eight shows so that that came
(28:49):
out what it was that last year, last year, the
year before, I forget what think year before. Yeah, it
took like ten months for for me and Tim to
pull that one together though. That was quite an accomplishment
for us, and I like the way it sounded because
we were able to get because fifty years later, technology
(29:09):
has changed, so you could play the tape or the
file or whatever you know, it's called files now because
they're digital. You don't see the tape running around the
machine anymore, but you can see the sound bites on
the screen and you can see when it comes in
and when it goes out, so in order to and
(29:32):
the room is very ambient. It's Carnegie Hall, so it's
built for concerts, and so the drums are very ambient.
The microphones are around the drums, all that stuff, and
you can see the music that you need to save
and cut out. You can erase that time in between
and then fade into the first note, so you don't know,
(29:55):
so whoever's listening doesn't realize that you have cut out.
All of that's stuff that is just noise. It's just
ambient noise from the rest of the band playing, you know.
And then you play that note and then fade out
of that and wait for the next one. And you
do that with all brass parts, all the born parts,
(30:15):
all the vocal parts, and anything that's not direct into
an amplifier. You have to do that, and then you're
able to when you're done, be able to you push
up the instrument. You can actually hear the instrument better
and you can eque it without having all the other
noise behind you. That's why we were able to hear
(30:37):
it and sort of immerse yourself into the crowd. I know,
we sat there every day. Gone, Man, it feels like
I'm like right here in the crowd with them. That's
the whole idea. The Kennedy Center was pretty much like
doing the Carnegie Hall album, except that, you know, it
(30:57):
was our next project on so we had learned a
lot from doing Carnegie Hall. And I was amazed that
we were so busy back then that we were writing
songs and performing them as we were writing and recording them.
Saturday in the Park. We hadn't decided on who the
(31:18):
lead vocalist was yet, Dialogue hadn't been the second half
of Dialogue hadn't been written yet, so we just sort
of did a guitar solo and then ended the song.
So it reminded me that how ballsy it was for
us to play current gigs with that kind of pressure,
(31:43):
playing for, you know, the opening of a venue in Washington,
d C. And we were like rehearsing songs as well
as stuff that was already established, you know, established hits
for us. It's pretty crazy.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Are there other projects over the horizon past the upcoming
tour that you can talk about?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
At this point? I know we're writing music, I am
for sure, and I don't know if it'll be a
Chicago album or a Lee Locknane album, Like somebody's going
to go, hey, yeah, well Lee Lockdane. As sure, I'm
going to go out and pick on one of else.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
But come on, now they will.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
My bread is buttered with the band with the logo
with Chicago. So that's what I've based my life on,
or you know, life is based it on me. They
actually named the city after us. We were so popular.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Oh. I love it when I think of the collection
of music over the years, over the decades, and I
think of what this music does, certainly to me personally
and to your fans. It's it's so uplifting and so
just you know, just makes us feel great. I produce
(32:57):
this other podcast it's called Music Save Me, which is
about sort of the healing power and what music does
to us. Basically, do you think music has healing powers?
For for sure?
Speaker 2 (33:15):
For sure? You know, and brings people together who would
normally not be together at all. And you know, same
thing like with twelve step programs, people you've never imagined
that you would meet on the street, meet in there,
you know, with big problems that you can work yourself
out of. But music definitely is a healing, universal healing method.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Well, I have to tell you continue to give us
amazing joy. The tour is going to be joyful. The
residency at the Venetian is something for folks to look
up to and look forward to as a destination. Also,
don't forget about the documentary The Last Band on Stage
as well.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
There was our fifty fifth anniversary of documentary. We have
the one before that, which was the fiftieth anniversary documentary.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
With your friend Joe Montana right who, Yes, the great Joe,
the great actor Lee lock Nae. Thank you for so much,
the iconic band Chicago and Lee lock Nae. Thank you
for being on Taking a Walk. It's an honor.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Thanks Boss same here.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a
Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends
and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking
a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
and wherever you get your podcasts.
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