Gary James' Interview With Jason Scheff Of
Chicago



Jason Scheff got the opportunity of a lifetime when in 1985 he was invited to join Chicago. From 1985 to 2016 he was both singer and bassist for the band. We spoke to Jason about his time in Chicago, his musical career prior to Chicago, and what he's doing these days.

Q - Jason, you're fresh off this tour, It Was 50 Years Ago Today - A Tribute To The Beatles White Album. Now, how many people alive today even remember the songs on that album? Baby boomers of course, but do you get a younger crowd coming out to see the show?

A - We've got ten more dates starting November 30^th (2019) in Pittsburgh and it just went so well they said we'd like to have you guys come back and do some more. There's talk about doing more dates next year, (2020) which would be great. I've really had the time of my life doing this.

Q - Are you seeing younger faces in the audience?

A - Good question, because a lot of interviews I've been doing I get asked, "How did The White Album impact you Jason, when it came out?" I say, well, I was six years old when it came out, so it didn't. That was not something I really remember happening. When I started getting into radio heavily, like ten, eleven years old, I think that's kind of a standard age for kids just about to become teenagers and get into the next phase of their lives. Especially then because radio was really the water cooler and all of us were glued to it, all the kids and everybody. So, I remember The Beatles were still together barely, and releasing singles like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". I remember that as being in pretty heavy rotation right as I got into the radio along with Todd Rundgren's "Hello. It's Me". But the stuff that really lit me up was Elton John. So now that I go back and listen to The Beatles' White Album, I see how much Elton was influenced by The Beatles. When I joined Chicago they were very upfront about what Beatles fans they were. Now, going back an dissecting The White Album, I see exactly what my DNA is made of, where it came from. So, getting out on tour, this is a long winded way to get around to the question, you'll find that way with me, I can't tell a short story so I'll apologize in advance, but getting out on tour with this, you're exactly right, it's pretty much a straight up Baby Boomer crowd. So people are kind of wondering, "Who's this guy?" But then once we perform our last set of hits that we're associated with, they respond, but don't go crazy until we play the song and the band delivered it so well that they react pretty nicely. The two songs I do from Chicago are "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" and "25 or 6 to 4". Then the audience connects the dots and goes, "Oh, okay. This is that guy that's really the link to the '70s and '80s in Chicago," and it really makes sense why I'm there. I'm seeing mostly a Boomer audience. I don't see a lot of younger people. I think if we keep doing this it probably will expand into that because truthfully, Toby Ludwig, one of the producers of this show, one of the main guys, he's Christopher Cross' manager also, they've done this before and it's been successful. But you never know, especially with a new collection of personalities and artists, if it's really going to gel and work, but it did. So, about half way through the tour we really started seeing the social media buzz and the reviews were really great across the board. So, business started picking up and we started selling out more. So, it's just been a blast. I love it!

Q - One of the guys you're sharing the stage with is Mickey Dolenz. Does that mean anything to you? In the 1960s The Monkees were very, very popular.

A - Well, exactly. When they came out obviously this was right around the time of the "White Album" or maybe just a little before. So, I may not have been into listening to the radio all day, waiting for my favorite songs, wanted to share that with my little girlfriend at the time whatever was going on. But, The Monkees being a television show, they were really attracting my generation and the next level of five to ten years older than me, but I completely remember that. I loved it. I was huge Monkees fan. Working with Mickey was and still is a big rush for me and now to become friends with him and collaborate on things with him; we both sang background vocals on Joey Molland's record that he's making, which is pretty much a Badfinger record. Now, we're peers. That's an amazing feeling for me. Yes, he impacted me heavily as a kid.

Q - You worked as a judge for American Super Group in 2016. You're giving advice to up-and-coming musicians about the music business? What are you advising them about?

A - Well, that was actually a show that a friend of mine in Nashville had been working on for many, many years. And he's still working on it. We were able to put together a season. Really the show was about taking people who had really never worked together and auditioning for spots in a band. And the concept was there would be four judges, and each one of us would be putting a band together out of the contestants and then we would compete against each other for that band to survive. It was really a blast because they had to write music, they had to write songs. So, we'd be mentoring them in that way and working with them on their performance. So, it was a really great experience. Hopefully it gets back to go into another season and move forward.

Q - What network was that on? A major network?

A - No. I think the network it came out on was Pop, which is a cable channel and MTV Live and MTV Classic was running it. We were just trying to launch it that way.

Q - Your father played with Elvis. Did you ever get to meet Elvis?

A - I did not, however my Dad had me and my brother Darren come to Vegas in 1977. He told us, "Okay, we're gonna go get a black, long-sleeve, button-up shirt and Darren you're coming to the first show and Jason you're coming to the second one. I've got you a great seat. You're going to be sitting in the percussion stand." So, Darren went to the first show. I went to the second one. The percussionist said, "Do you want to look like you're doing something?" I said, "Sure." So he gave me a tambourine. I'll never forget the opening act for Elvis was the female vocal group The Sweet Inspirations. So, I'm standing there, playing tambourine to "Get Away" ironically because I'd end up having a great relationship with them through our mutual touring, Chicago and Earth, Wind And Fire. So, I'm playing "Get Away" as a fifteen year old kid, and whatever songs they had in their set. Then we'd go into J.D. Sumner And The Stamps Quartet. I'm playing tambourine and all of a sudden Elvis walks out. The thought occurred to me that tambourines really cut and so if I'm freaked out, all of a sudden I'd start playing weird beats. I didn't want to have Elvis swing around and go, "Who's that throwin' me off on tambourine back there? Is that Jerry's son?" So I stopped playing and for a year I lied and said I played with Elvis. The truth is, I didn't. I was too scared, but I was on stage with him. So, that was the closest I ever got. That was in 1977, about three months before Elvis passed. What I remember from it is how sad and sick he looked. On stage you could see when he turned to the band, the lights were coming from behind him, it was this really weird, shadowy, gray look and I'll never forget that image in my mind. But that was as close as I got. I never really met him.

Q - That's too bad. Since your father worked with The Doors, did you ever meet Jim Morrison?

A - I didn't. My parents split up when I was young. I'm from San Diego. And so that's where they met. I was born in San Diego. Dad moved to Palm Springs at first, probably around 1964, 1965, something like that. Then he got to L.A. and became one of the first-call session musicians. So he played on a lot of records. He didn't connect with Elvis just yet. Actually, he was in Elvis' band and Robbie Krieger is a great friend of mine. So, he's told me the stories as well and I've read it that they never really had bass players in their band, but on the "L.A. Woman" album, which would end up being their last one, they wanted to get Elvis' bass player, so they brought Dad in and he's the bass player on the "L.A. Woman" album. It's phenomenal.

Q - Yes, it is! It's one of their better albums.

A - Absolutely. That record is definitely an evolution. They were evolving. Dad said they were batting the idea around of having him really join them. I don't know how accurate that is. I asked Robbie before, "Why did you guys not have a bass player in the band?" It's so unique that Ray had a left-handed, Fender Rhodes key bass that you would imagine that's a conscious decision. Oh, no. We're going to have this sound. But Robbie told me, "We just couldn't find a bass player we liked." I think they had one other guy that played on some stuff early on, but for most of their career it was always Ray playing a left-handed, keyboard bass. But when they hired Dad, as you pointed out, they made one of the greatest records, Doors records. I think they were talking about let's keep this going. Then Jim passed away.

Q - Did your father ever talk about Elvis?

A - He did. He wasn't really chatty about it at first. It was such a shock and such a big part of his life that he was not in a hurry to get out and write books and start talking about this. I think he just moved forward and started working a lot with that same band, the TCB band. They started working for Elvis Costello. They worked for John Denver. I can't speak for him, but I know what it's like when you've had s much of your life in something, then you catch a little bit of a break and you get some clarity about things and you start wanting to talk about it.

Q - You started playing professionally when you started or joined this band, Keane in 1982? What kind of band was that?

A - Well, actually I joined the Musicians Union when I was fourteen years old. My mother had a band and so I joined it. That was pretty revolutionary for me because I became a professional musician and knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I knew what I was going to do with my life, not to the degree of becoming a singer, a lead vocalist and a focal point of something as amazing as a group like Chicago, but I just knew I was going to be in music. So, I got those early experiences and confidence of being able to go and work and show up and not complain about it. Then when I got to L.A. I met two brothers who would really change my life, Tom and John Keane. I had seen them on television when I was a kid in San Diego. They were child prodigies and they were on like The Mike Douglas Show. I think they were on Dinah Shore. They were called The Keane Brothers and they were just so advanced. They were like amazing, really, really amazing. They were making records. In fact, David Foster, who arranged all the big Chicago records, David's first production was The Keane Brothers back in the '70s. So when I got to L.A. they were some of the first people I met. I remember telling my mother when I was watching them on television in San Diego, "If I could meet those kids, I know we'd make great music together." I remember thinking that's a pipe dream. That probably would never happen. It's one of those examples if you put something out in the universe, you never know. I did meet them and they became really, really great friends of mine. We made that record "Keane" in Sound City Studios, the famed studios that a lot of incredible records were made, including the Buckingham-Nicks album which was the precursor to Fleetwood Mac and Lindsey and Stevie. Keith Olson was the house engineer, the main engineer of Sound City. He's the guy who got the Neve console, recording console, one of the first ones in the country into Sound City and the first project I believe was Buckingham-Nicks. He hired my father to play bass on it. Look at all the dots being connected, it's so amazing. If you've ever seen the movie Sound City with Dave Grohl, buys that console and puts it into his new studio. That's where this was going on. So, I'm standing in this history of this studio and the records that had been made that were big hits. "Damn The Torpedoes" was on the wall of a record that had been cut there. "Fleetwood Mac", the first one with Lindsey and Stevie was cut there on that console. So, The Keane Brothers, we ended up going in and cutting that record "Keane" for Japan. Ironically, REO Speedwagon was in there cutting their "Hi Infidelity" album. I'm just a kid walking the halls and watching these Rock stars and they're out playing basketball and you're just sitting there dreaming. And all of a sudden I'd be on stage one day with these guys again in a package, Chicago and REO Speedwagon. All those seeds were planted all that time ago.

Q - You also played with some guys who went to form the band Ratt. How come they didn't ask you to join Ratt?

A - Actually, that's an inaccurate rumor. I never played with them. Right after my mother's band, I joined the group called Coco Blue. One of the guys went on to do some pretty great things. Todd Howard went on to play with Cheap Trick and Frehley's Comet. But we were a local band in San Diego. So when we were playing around at parties and Del-Mar Fairgrounds, one of the rival bands was a band that I don't remember what they were called. They ended up changing their name to Mickey Ratt. And I remember just meeting briefly Rob Crosby. Robin is what he went by when they became Ratt and became famous. Rob was that really super tall, guitar player, really good looking dude. He was so nice. I remember meeting him after they became super famous and he was still the same guy. Just super nice. He wasn't arrogant. But that's as close as I got to them. We were just rival bands, but I never played with them.

Q - You were twenty-three years old when you joined Chicago. How did you get that gig?

A - I signed a publishing deal with a company called Uni-City. I wanted somebody to talk about me. I didn't know if it was a manager that I needed. A good friend of mine, Aaron Zigman got a publishing deal. Aaron's a kid I grew up with in San Diego. He was just ravenous about pursuing the music business. I wasn't nearly as serious as he was about going to the next level. I was playing in Top 40 bands and that was always easy for me, but Aaron really pursued songwriting and ultimately production. So he got a publishing deal with Almo-Irving.

Q - Herb Alpert's company.

A - Right. They started pushing Aaron, which included me 'cause we were writing songs, some of my first songs I was writing. They pushed the two of us on all their writers. So the next thing you know I'm in the studio with Steve Cropper of Stax fame. Bobby Caldwell, who would become very pivotal in the success of my career, Alan Gorrie of Average White Band, Jeffery Osborne. Just incredible artists. So, the next thing you know I was writing with all these guys. We were cutting demos and I saw the power of having a company that was just beating the drum on these two kids. And so I said, "I need that. I need somebody to talk about me." So, I signed a deal with Uni-City and three months later Michael Ostin of Warner Brothers called Uni-City and said, "Do you have any songs for Peter Cetera's solo album and/or someone to write with him for that album?" They said, "Well, yeah. We signed this new kid and we're gonna send you his stuff." I had three songs in my catalog and the next thing I know my publisher calls me and says, "Something's going on. I don't know what it is, but I can feel it. I've been doing this a long time. Something's happening." Michael's assistant called the next day to my publisher and said, "Who's singing on these demos" They said, "Well, Jason is, the writer." "Okay. Thank you," and hung up the phone. That's when he said, "Something's going on. I can feel it." I said, "What?" "I don't know. Just be ready." "Be ready for what?" "I don't know." A week later what had happened was, as I said, they were looking for songs for Peter's solo album. When he went solo, Warners had Chicago and Peter Cetera. So, they're looking for songs for him. Michael Ostin heard my demo tape. Shut the tape off and called Lenny Warenker upstairs and said, "Lenny, you gotta come down and hear this. I think we actually found the guy to replace Peter in Chicago." I heard on the street they were talking to Richard Page of Mr. Mister, and Mickey Thomas. A week went by and Lenny concurred. "This is a real strong possibility." My tape went through the hands of everybody, the entire Warner Brothers staff, Michael and Mo Ostin, Chicago's management, HK, Howard Kauffman, the band itself and the next thing I know, a week later I got this phone call saying, "We think you're the new lead singer for Chicago." I'm like, "What?" (laughs) And so I said, "Well, when do we meet? So, I went in to audition and it was amazing. I did the three songs they had me learn and after we were done they were like, "Wow! That's great! I wish we had you learn more songs." I said, "Well, let's play something." "Well, did you learn anything?" I said, "No, but I've heard your music forever. It's in my DNA." They said, "Really? Have you learned anything? I said, "No." "Well, what do you want to play?" I said, "Let's play 'Just You And Me'." They said, "Do you know it? Have you learned it?" I said, "No, but I'm telling you I've heard this stuff forever." So, we played 'Just You And Me' and I think it impressed them that not only obviously I was a fan of the music, but a bit fearless and obviously could pick music up pretty quickly. So, we finished that audition and they had a little talk and they brought me back for a second audition. I was also told that Mickey Thomas was the one they were really looking at. That kind of deflated me, but Howard Kauffman said he saw the look on my face. "It's between you and Mickey Thomas." I'm sitting there, thinking there's no way I'm gonna get the gig. He's famous. He's proven. Howard looked at me and said, "Jason, they want it to work out with you." So basically that gave me the impression it's your game to lose. I shared that with other people who are in positions to become successful and you could see them freaking out. Don't talk yourself out of this. This is yours. This is your game to lose, so go get it. So, we did.

Q - That was your big break then?

A - Oh, yeah. Again, think about this for a second. This was an impossible task. I'm twenty-three years old, so I'm kind of young. It's amazing they believe in me, but this is virtually impossible. How do you replace the voice of a band that's dominating the radio, Pop radio at the time? And so I walked into it thinking I'm gonna give it a shot, but it probably won't work. I also knew that David Foster wasn't really sold on me, which I thanked him for because we went in and recorded some demos of our songs to give to David. Hearing my voice was not blowing his mind because in a sense I kind of was not ready. David panicked a little bit and called the guys, specifically Robert Lamm and said, "You made a mistake. You didn't get the right guy, man." 'Til the day I die I'll take a bullet for these guys, particularly Lamm 'cause Lamm said to him, "Sorry. You're working with him. He's our guy." And so I walked into the studio on day one. We were recording my song and I knew it. I had one song on "Chicago 18" I co-wrote. Here's David Foster and Humberto Gatica, the engineer, Grammy winning engineer. These are the top of the food chain, literally Mozarts on the other side of the glass. He said, "Do you want to try one?" Kind of in a feeble sounding voice, I'm sitting and going, "Yeah, okay," and I took a deep breath and something happened. This is another thing I like to share with up-and-comers. Something happened when the red light went on. You're in the bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, you're in the World Series, two outs, full count and something just felt comfortable. I took a deep breath and the first couple of lines out of my mouth I knew it was sounding good. I felt comfortable. Actually, if you listen to "Chicago 18" you'll hear "Nothin's Gonna Stop Us Now", which is that song. Most of that track was the first take. I didn't really go in and replace anything. It was an inspired moment. By the end of the song, David Foster had his head in his hand and he looks up and he goes, "You just blew my mind, but then I knew you would," and he pointed at me and we sailed through that record. I'd heard what an ogre this guy was. He's brutal on singers, but something clicked, man, and we just sailed through that record and all of a sudden "Will You Still Love Me", number three, one of the biggest hits Chicago had in their career. And we were up and running. The next thing you know I write "What Kind Of Man Would I Be", number five. Another one of the biggest hits in the band's career, and then suddenly I'm one of the main contributors of the most successful era of Chicago, the '80s sound.

Q - What a great story that is.

A - Who would've thought, right?

Q - You never know what's around the corner.

A - That's right.

Q - You also worked with Neil Diamond.

A - That's one of those things where we just had this experience, crossing the threshold of actually being able to pull off this role in Chicago. So, suddenly Foster says, "Hey man, I'm producing Neil Diamond as well. We've got a track and I'd love to have you sing background vocals on it. Do you want to do it?" "Absolutely." So, I stayed after one day when we were working on "Chicago 18". He puts up the track and actually I played bass and sang on it. I've met Neil I think once years ago. I think my dad is on "Song Sung Blue".

Q - The circle is complete.

A - I know. It's crazy.

Q - Have we got you all talked out yet?

A - Can I talk about the record I just released?

Q - Go right ahead.

A - I just released a solo record called "Here I Am". Basically it's Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts sent me a letter. Let me set this up by saying when Chicago had me join their family in 1985 it was incredible to have the vote of confidence of these guys that are basically saying, "We believe in you in the future of the franchise," and they were right. They knew something I didn't and they took a chance on me, which I'll always be extremely grateful to have joined that family. So, I always thought even though I contributed my hits to them, half of the '80s are my era, I'm still the guy that came in later. I always felt that being a younger musician joining my mom's band; when I was sixteen I was in a band called The People Movers in San Diego that spawned a lot of incredible musicians that went on to do great things and that's where I really started singing, out of that band. I replaced their bass player, so I always thought I'm the afterthought. I came in after the good years, after the great years, right? Chicago felt the same way. How couldn't you? I grew up in the '70s and this band was influential on me like every other person of my age group. So, I always felt even though we had our own success that the real period of Chicago was the Peter Cetera era. That's a rhyme for any of you paying attention. Yes, I'm not self-depreciating. I know exactly what I've done and what my abilities are, but I'm the guy who has come in afterwards and it will always be that way. Well, guess what? One day I get a letter at a gig in 2003 from the next generation, Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts. They had been together for two years. They played a venue we played. He was so excited that his favorite band was going to be playing there two nights later. He wrote me a letter and said, "Jason, I'm Jay DeMarcus in a Country band called Rascal Flatts. Chicago made me want to play music." When it was announced that Peter Cetera was going to be moving on, Jay was crushed. He thought this is the end of my band. This is my favorite group and apparently when the video of "Will You Still Love Me" came on MTV, Jay saw it and ran into the next room to his mother and said, "Mom, they've found the guy. It's going to keep going." And so all these years later, in 2003, he leaves me a letter. That moment hit me. This is your period. So you can't think anymore that you're just a guy who stepped into replace somebody. You have a generation now. They're ten years younger than me. So, they came up on the years I have been in the band as well as the children of the original band members. The irony is most of them never saw the group with Peter Cetera. They only saw it with me. So I started seeing, okay, this is the generation you have helped influence along the way. So, Jay and I started writing together. The next thing you know, in 2006 the opportunity came for Chicago to get back into the studio. No one would touch us for years. We were done. No more hits. No producers were interested. Well suddenly Jay DeMarcus and Rascal Flatts are taking over the world. They had become not only the biggest Country act, but one of the biggest bands in the world, I think the year before having sold more records than anybody in any genre. So, we've got this band and this is my relationship. Management and everybody says, "Man, we can get into the studio if we can get those guys involved." No problem. Jay ended up producing the record "Chicago 30" and it was amazing. We had a duet with Rascal Flatts that I co-wrote. The fans were saying, "What's going to happen, because we know you're super involved in 'Chicago 30'." I co-wrote seven of the twelve cuts and so Jay and I went in to start a solo record. We got about half way through and I said, "I'm too busy touring. Let's put this down for awhile." Well, we put it down for twelve years. And now that I've had this break in my life, going home to take care of my family, we started looking at that record again. Pulling it up, seeing what what was great about it, kind of put the other stuff off to the side, kind of a handful of Chicago songs that I had been associated with, like I said, the hits that I had helped create. So we cut some new versions and some incredible new material. The album is called "Here I Am" and we just released it about two weeks ago, November 13th, 2019. And now being out on this "White Album" tour, a lot of venues that I've actually come to know the guys that run 'em through my years with Chicago, they're saying "Would you be willing to come out on your own to support your record?" I said, "Okay. Sure. As long as I don't have to be gone all the time." So, we're looking at booking some limited dates for me next year in 2020 with my band. My record is out and you can get it on Amazon or if you want a signed copy, come to my website, www.JasonScheff.com. So, that's basically what's going on. It's an extension I would say of "Chicago 30". Jay DeMarcus produced both projects, so there's a lot of consistency.

Q - You are a busy guy!

A - I came home in 2016 to take care of my family. A lot of personal loss with people that have happened over the last three, four years. It's just that point in my life. I'm fifty-seven. So that's what's going to be happening. A lot of people moving on and leaving us. I'm so grateful to be afforded the opportunity to come home and handle that. Now, I'm just out doing some limited dates with the "White Album". I love people. I love performing. A lot of people have told me now that I'm out with this "White Album" thing, "Wow! I've seen you six times in Chicago. You are the soundtrack of my life." It's just incredible to experience (that) as well as Chicago. If anybody has the chance to get out and see that band, they've got a great guy singing with them, Neil Donell, whose life-long dream was to sing with them. They sound awesome, as great as ever. So, get out and catch it while you can, because life is screaming by.

Official Website: www.JasonScheff.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.