Gary James' Interview With Danny Seraphine Of
Chicago



They've sold over 100 million records, which translates into twenty-one Top 15 singles, five consecutive number one albums, eleven number one singles and five Gold singles. Twenty-five of their thirty-six albums have been certified Platinum and the band has a total of forty-seven Gold and Platinum awards. Their lifetime achievements include two Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, Founding Artists Of The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts, a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, a Chicago street dedicated in their honor, and keys to and proclamations from cities across the United States. Their first album was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 2014. In 2016 they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. They are the first American Rock band to chart Top 40 albums in six consecutive decades. President Bill Clinton called them, "One of the most important bands in music since the dawn of the Rock And Roll era."

The group we are talking about is Chicago. We spoke to drummer and original member of Chicago from 1967 to 1990, Mr. Danny Seraphine.

Q - You have a group today called CTA (California Transit Authority).

A - Right.

Q - This group performs where?

A - All over.

Q - All over the country?

A - Yeah. All over the country and we've done some international. We want to do some more. A great band. The band plays Chicago better than anybody. That's really the truth. We don't have to have tracks. It's all natural. All the backgrounds are real. All the lead vocals are real. The brass is real. So many young bands these days are using tracks. You probably already know that. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.

Q - I've been told that many of today's top singers can't sing, so the use elaborate computer systems in their live shows to help them out. That's why ticket prices are so high.

A - I think ticket prices are high because (of) the greed. (laughs) There's always an excuse. You can understand it a little bit. Some people still want to keep doing it, but they've lost some range. It's a really natural thing with singers, as it is with any of us, to lose a little bit off your top end. Sometimes it's a lot as far as singers. It's very difficult. So, I have a lot of compassion for singers, the older, legacy singers. They can lower keys, but sometimes when you lower the key it really changes anyway. I kind of compare what's going on in music and the legacy era to the sterioid era in baseball. If you're sharing the bill with a band that's using tracks and they sound phenomenal and they sound incredible, well, guess what? It's really not them. It's only partially them. And the band that's with them that's not using tracks sounds pale in comparison. It's really created a weird dynamic in the business in my opinion, but I'm old school. What can I say? I'm very old school.

Q - I'm not talking about Classic Rock groups. I've been told it's today's top singers.

A - That's okay. They dance, but the bad part is bands are using it now. Most of the big name classic bands are using it.

Q - I was told they can't afford it.

A - That's bullshit. My former band is using it. The Doobie Brothers are using it. Earth, Wind And Fire for sure are using it. Journey. It's like the steroid era in baseball. In order to compete now you have to do it. The audiences are so ignorant today. It kind of aggravates me, to be honest. I really hate it. I don't ever want to use tracks. I never intended to, but you never know. I always say "Never say never." This is one thing I can pretty much say never.

Q - Is your band billed as CTA or California Transit Authority? I ask only because Chicago Transit Authority became Chicago when you guys received a cease and desist order.

A - That was a p.r. ploy. That was never true. When I did the name check of Chicago, the city doesn't even have the name CTA. But, I think that was a p.r. ploy. I've had that confirmed with a wink and a nod. It was really the management and ultimately the record company that wanted to shorten the name to Chicago. It was a good story and a good excuse, so that's what happened. That was then. I now have the name CTA (California Transit Authority(. I'm now marketing the band as Danny Seraphine's Take Me Back To Chicago Tour Featuring CTA, or featuring, if I have any guest artists with me, any former members. So, that's kind of what I'm running with these days.

Q - Chicago had a club in the early 1970s called B'Ginnings.

A - Yeah. I had the club. It was me. The band helped me. They played at the grand opening.

Q - Do you remember a Rochester, New York band called Wale that played your club?

A - No, I don't.

Q - They were a great band! Now, you started your musical career at the age of twelve. You were playing school dances? You couldn't play clubs.

A - Yeah, school dances. A wedding party. You'd be surprised. Bar mitzvahs. Just small stuff with local bands. It was really frustrating for me because they weren't very good. But actually it led me to the guys, Terry Kath and Walter Parazaider. Walter came and heard me play in the basement at the behest of a friend of mine. He said, "You gotta hear this kid play." I ended up joining their band which was called Jimmy Ford And The Executives.

Q - Fast forward to De Paul University. You were studying with Bob Tilks. What did he teach you?

A - He really transformed me into the drummer I am today. I have to give him all the credit, but he really saw the potential of my playing from being just a Rock player. He transformed me into being a well-rounded musician and a Jazz player. My goal at that time was learning how to fuse, how to integrate what I was learning from him into my Rock playing, which really kind of meshed with what Chicago did and was doing. It was a pretty amazing, evolutionary kind of time in my life. Like I said, it really transformed me from a good Rock and R&B guy into a well-rounded musician and being able to play Jazz and then striving to integrate whatever I was learning from him, which was a ton, into my playing at the gigs. It was pretty amazing. It was a great time for me. It was like a renaissance time for me. So, he really transformed me into the player I am today.

Q - What year was that?

A - '64. I think I was seventeen when I first started to go to him. I studied with him for the better part of a couple of years. I mean, I'd come after school. He was the head of percussion at De Paul University. I was his prodigy child from the neighborhood. He had so much belief in me. He was an amazing person. Just an amazing person. I can't tell you how much he meant to me as a player and what he did for me. You can never thank someone like that enough.

Q - When you were growing up you joined a gang called the JPs.

A - Yeah.

Q - Was that like a street gang?

A - Yeah, it was a street gang.

Q - That was before music was really part of your life?

A - I was doing music. It wasn't until I joined the band with Walt and Terry that music became such a full-time part of what I did, what I was about. It was a very scary time. I quit school at fifteen and a half. I was roaming the streets and getting into a dangerously bad direction. The music part really saved me. I was forever grateful. It was kind of scary where my life was going. I was going nowhere. I quit school. The only thing I could do was play drums and it was salvation for me. The JPs was a street gang. We got into fights, terrorized the area. It was probably similar in Chicago, there was certain turf that was ours, that certain area. When the other rival gangs came in that area, there would be gang fights. It was dangerous. It got into guns later, towards the end. I was really glad that I was pulled out of that. I was very lucky. I was one of the lucky ones. Again, I'm very thankful.

Q - After meeting Walt and Terry, you guys decided to move to California.

A - Yeah. We formed the band in 1967. Walt was being groomed for the Second Chair of the Chicago Symphony. He was about to get his degree in music, the clarinet. We were in a cover band that was just going nowhere. It was about to disintegrate, called The Missing Links. Terry played bass in the first two bands I was in with him. He had got an offer from a band called The Rovin' Kind, who got signed by the guy who ended up being Chicago's producer, James William Guercio. He had a lot of success with The Buckinghams and Chad And Jeremy. He was a local kind of hero guy. He knew Walt from De Paul University because at one time he had gone to De Paul University. He knew Terry as well. He offered Terry a gig to go out to the West Coast to play bass with this band called The Rovin' Kind, which he changed their name to The Illinois Speed Press. I'm lookin' at a situation where I'm about to lose my two music soul mates, the guys that pulled me off the streets and out of the gangs. It was kind of scary, to be honest. I thought, God, I've got to talk to Walt. So, I talked to Walt. We were all close. We were like brothers. I talked to Walt and said, "I can't lose you guys. I really enjoy working with you. We have a great relationship. I don't want to lose you and Terry. You both got it goin'." Walt was about to retire and focus on his marriage. He had just gotten married and focus on being the Second Chair in The Chicago Symphony, which was what he was being groomed for by his teacher. He was that good. He said, "Yeah, I'm gonna miss you too." I said to Walt, "Why don't we consider putting a horn band (together). Let's do a horn band. All the best players in the city. Good singers. Good players. Let's really go after it." He was definitely intrigued by the idea. He talked to his wife, Jacqueline, and she said, "Yeah, whatever you want to do, I'll support it." So, he came back to me and said, "I'm in." So then we worked on Terry. Terry was scheduled to go to the West Coast. He couldn't wait to get out of Chicago and get to L.A. where everything was happening, the big Hippie thing and the whole sex, drugs and Rock 'n' Roll thing. Of course, we didn't call it that in those days. That's what it was. The whole counter culture revolution. It was happening in New York, L.A. and San Francisco, so Terry couldn't wait. Walt and I both knew that Terry was a great guitarist. He was a closet guitarist. In the two bands we were in he played bass. He was a fabulous bass player. And so we talked to Terry. "C'mon Terry, why don't you just stay here and be the guitar player in the band with us." It took him about ten minutes and he said, "Okay, I'm in. I don't want to lose you guys either." So, we started off with the three of us. And you know Lee Loughnane was hanging out with Terry a lot. So, Lee came to me and said, "I want to be in the band." I hadn't thought about it. Lee is a very fine trumpetist. I said, "Sure." Then Walt knew James Pankow from De Paul University, the Jazz band there. Walt talked to Jimmy and Jimmy agreed. We went on a search for a keyboard player. At that time and place, a guy playing a B-3 organ, a guy playing bass pedals instead of a bass player, was kind of a thing in Chicago. So, we heard about this guy by the name of Bobby Charleson on the South Side. Bobby Charleson is Bobby Lamm. I remember calling him and saying, "Have you ever played the B-3? Do you have a B-3?" He said, "I have an M-3," or whatever it was that's similar. I said, "Have you ever played bass pedals?" He said, "No, but I'll try." And he did. We had our first rehearsal in Walt's mom's house and it was just magical. It was just magical. And that was the beginning, the birth of Chicago. It was without Peter Cetera at the time. We were a cover band, a really great cover band. We were playing all the clubs and building a following. We played a show one time at a college bar called Barnaby's on State Street. All the college bars were on that street. We opened for the number one band in the city. They were called The Exceptions. That was Peter Cetera's band. It was like four guys who could sing different ranges like he could. They were amazing vocally. He was on the outs with that band and I got wind of it. So, we immediately went to Peter. We knew he was leaving or getting fired. It had gone bad. And so that was the final, missing piece of the puzzle. Everybody in the city wanted Peter in their band. He was that much in demand. He was that good of a singer. Once we got Peter in the band, that was amazing. Once we got Peter, that was it. I knew we were special. I knew we were a force to be reckoned with.

Q - Chicago got a regular gig at The Whiskey A-Go-Go. James Pankow told me Jimi Hendrix came in to see the band.

A - Yeah. He came in one night.

Q - Did Jim Morrison or Janis Joplin ever come to see Chicago?

A - Jim Morrison did. Janis saw us at the Fillmore. We opened for her at The Fillmore West.

Q - What was it like to meet Jim Morrison?

A - It was just a one time meeting with him. I'm really close with Robby Krieger now. We're really close friends. Jim was very spacey. Mario, who ran the place, introduced him to me and it was like he was not there. I'm not trying to say bad things about him, but it was like he was not there at all.

Q - And Janis Joplin?

A - She was wonderful. She treated us with such great respect. She loved the band. After she heard the band, she fired Big Brother. She was so impressed with the musicianship and the horns, the power of the band. She absolutely loved the band. She brought us on tour. It was pretty amazing.

Q - And Jimi Hendrix?

A - We were playing The Whiskey. We finished our set and there was Jimi Hendrix in our dressing room. He said, "Man, you guys are the best band I've ever heard in my life." And he absolutely loved Terry's playing. Mitch Mitchell was with him. Mitch was really the guy I was listening to, his playing. We were listening to Jimi constantly on our own. It was pretty amazing to have that kind of validation from Jimi Hendrix. It really meant a lot to the band.

Q - You were in the right place at the right time with the right stuff. You could never duplicate what you experienced.

A - Oh, God, no.

Q - When Chicago would go into the recording studio, were you told, "Now Danny, here's how we want you to play the drum parts."? Or did you come up with them on your own?

A - Well, different writers had different approaches on how they wanted their songs interpreted. They all had kind of an idea. What made it so great is we would try their idea. Sometimes their ideas were very good and I would play them and that's what it would be. Other times they weren't so good and I would just kind of come up with my own part and make it better. The majority of the time, that's the way it was.

Q - The drums played a significant part in the songs of Chicago. That's why I asked.

A - Yeah. Well, they were in those early records for sure. Especially the Jazz/Rock stuff. A lot of it was mine. Jimmy had some definitive ideas. I would try to incorporate them into my own, or I'd try to do his ideas and build upon them. I would try to pull off what he wanted within the framework of what I heard and what I felt.

Q - You have an avenue named after you (Honorary Danny Seraphine Way) in Chicago.

A - Yeah.

Q - You're a member of The Cleveland Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. What do awards mean to you?

A - Both of them meant a lot to me 'cause, don't forget, I had all of it taken away from me when the band fired me and there was the big falling out. So, to be inducted with the band and given that night of respect meant a lot to me. I'm not going to lie to you. It meant a lot. The street that they named after me is the street I grew up on, which is kind of ironic and fun. It was a great honor and a great day. It doesn't mean everything to me, but it does mean a lot. I think what means the most to me is how good our music still sounds today and how much people appreciate it. That to me means more than anything. Awards, at this point in my life, recognition, is something that I very much appreciate and I embrace it and I'm grateful.

Official Website: www.CTAtheBand.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.