Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Inside the
Speaker 1: Studio on iHeart Radio. My name is Jordan runt Dog,
Speaker 1: but enough about me. My guests today are three founding
Speaker 1: members of one of the most successful American bands in history.
Speaker 1: Their plaudits are practically endless and well deserved. They've sold
Speaker 1: over forty million albums in the U s alone, not
Speaker 1: twenty gold records, eight teen platinum, and eight multi platinum.
Speaker 1: They've had five consecutive number one albums and twenty top
Speaker 1: ten singles on the Billboard Hot One early hits like
Speaker 1: twenty five or six to four? Does anybody really Know
Speaker 1: what time it is? And Beginnings Solve Them Somewhat simplistically
Speaker 1: labeled the rock and roll band with horns, this really
Speaker 1: under sells the event of arrangements and delicate melodies of
Speaker 1: songs like Color My World or If You Leave Me Now.
Speaker 1: They've had many different eras and many different members, but
Speaker 1: these three guys have been there since the very start
Speaker 1: in nineteen. Now they're helming a brand new album called
Speaker 1: Born for This Moment, which is out now complete. His
Speaker 1: can rest easy because this their thirty eighth album, also
Speaker 1: bears the label Chicago thirty eight in their trademark Roman numerals.
Speaker 1: I'm so thrilled the welcome Robert Lamb, James Panco, and
Speaker 1: Lee Locknane of Chicago. I mean, it's congratulations. I mean
Speaker 1: there's just so many new moments that I discover every
Speaker 1: time I listened to it. Listened to it a number
Speaker 1: of times. How did this project begin for you? Was
Speaker 1: this a quarantine lockdown project? Pretty much? I mean I
Speaker 1: think we had all gone home after after it was
Speaker 1: our touring was interrupted. Um So speaking personally, I just
Speaker 1: went home and after a couple of days, you know,
Speaker 1: I got I was drawn to the piano in my
Speaker 1: studio and I just started, you know, working on not
Speaker 1: even working on music, just sort of rediscovering older pieces
Speaker 1: of music that hadn't been made into songs yet. So
Speaker 1: I just started a very long process process of doing that,
Speaker 1: and it was I found it refreshing to not be
Speaker 1: under a time constraint I had all day every day.
Speaker 1: My wife was very indulgent if I if I, I
Speaker 1: spent most of the day at piano, and as a result, uh,
Speaker 1: some songs started to make themselves done, and I just
Speaker 1: you know, just began, you know, on my my little
Speaker 1: laptop studio kind of composing what essentially were demos. Now,
Speaker 1: how much of this was done through file sharing? Because
Speaker 1: those those horn parts sounds so tight. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know one set of lungs that had to be together.
Speaker 1: Was that? Was that done through file sharing? We we
Speaker 1: made records in the studio as a band for fifty years,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it was. It was a little bit different,
Speaker 1: a little challenging, uh to a degree of to compose
Speaker 1: um a little uh little snippets of pieces of songs
Speaker 1: remotely and then um, you know, get them to Joe Thomas,
Speaker 1: our producer who kind of uh so things together. We
Speaker 1: did the Brass live at Lee Lot Main studio in Sedona, Arizona.
Speaker 1: I was in the process of building the studio in
Speaker 1: Sedona before the pandemic started, and then this was just
Speaker 1: uh continuation of that when all of a sudden we
Speaker 1: weren't working. I was at the studio all the time,
Speaker 1: and we had by the time Jimmy had charts together
Speaker 1: to be able to record. We had myself, Jimmy and
Speaker 1: Ray Herman. We all gathered at my studio. We recorded
Speaker 1: eleven tracks. So that's how it's got on the record.
Speaker 1: I don't think that we intended to record an album
Speaker 1: right away. I think everybody was sort of working individually
Speaker 1: and it wasn't until uh, you know, maybe maybe six
Speaker 1: months into the pandemic that the idea that hey, this
Speaker 1: could be this could be an album, and uh, Joe
Speaker 1: Thomas approached us and asked if we were interested. So
Speaker 1: I called these guys and said, you know, are we
Speaker 1: are we interested in doing an album? Or what you
Speaker 1: mentioned the charts earlier. I mean, something that I've loved
Speaker 1: about your arrangements throughout your career is just the interplay
Speaker 1: between the voice and the brass. The brasses is a
Speaker 1: full on co lead. It's like the singers doing a
Speaker 1: duet with the brass. That has to be a challenge
Speaker 1: to make those pieces fit together. Is there a key?
Speaker 1: What's the process like of of arranging the brass parts
Speaker 1: for this? When I, uh, when I approached this unique
Speaker 1: brass situation, I just inherited the chair because I had
Speaker 1: been arranging as I was in college and even before.
Speaker 1: And it's a lead vocal. Basically, it's a main book
Speaker 1: character in the song, and along with the lead vocal,
Speaker 1: it completes the melodic journey from beginning to where the
Speaker 1: lead vocal leaves off, the brass picks up, and where
Speaker 1: the brass leaves off, it leads into the vocal and
Speaker 1: remains thematic to the vocal melody. So it's it's one
Speaker 1: smooth process, you know, vocals, horns, vocals, ones. And then
Speaker 1: basically when I when I arranged this Breath, I picked
Speaker 1: up my trombone and I played a solo along with
Speaker 1: the rough mixes with the vocals, and that solo became
Speaker 1: an ensemble and voiced we're appropriate, and that underneath the vocals.
Speaker 1: Two at substance, uh, I wrote pads to a largely
Speaker 1: agree two strengthened the quartal based under the vocal. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's so interesting. I mean, how elaborate and intricate it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many great moments on this album,
Speaker 1: and one that I keep going track two is for
Speaker 1: the Love I mean, those strings that lead into the
Speaker 1: horn solo. It's just it's so amazing. And Robert, I
Speaker 1: know you've said for the Love of a standout for you.
Speaker 1: What is it about that song that really resonates with yeah?
Speaker 1: Uh uh. This song actually was born from a recording
Speaker 1: of the acoustic guitars a friend of mine who actually
Speaker 1: who guitarists who has played h H on Chicago albums,
Speaker 1: and someone who's also from Chicago. Um uh sent me.
Speaker 1: You know, we were I wanted. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: write with people I hadn't really written with for a while.
Speaker 1: And ah, he sent me. He sent me basically, he said,
Speaker 1: you know, I haven't been i haven't been playing lately,
Speaker 1: and I'm having a bit of a problem, but I'll
Speaker 1: send you. I'll send you the last stuff that I
Speaker 1: laid down just this as a as a start. So
Speaker 1: I I took his recording and I I manipulated sections
Speaker 1: of it and sort of you know, made meets H
Speaker 1: an interesting grid on which I grew huh singing melody
Speaker 1: and and as the as the melody and the section
Speaker 1: sections began to emerge, Ah, I was hearing I was
Speaker 1: hearing a song that was maybe maybe from the Dred
Speaker 1: I was I was hearing I was here. I was
Speaker 1: kind of feeling like the singer was talking or singing
Speaker 1: with his friends, telling telling them about how much the
Speaker 1: world had changed, and and the one thing that was
Speaker 1: a constant was was the love. So uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it was sort of a brick by brick building of
Speaker 1: a sum um. And as it happens, the first violent
Speaker 1: piece that was put in to the song was played
Speaker 1: by I'm blanking on the name, played by a young
Speaker 1: virtuoso violinist who happens to live in Italy, and she
Speaker 1: she played her solo and sent it to me and
Speaker 1: it was like perfect and so so the whole thing
Speaker 1: was coming together as sort of a non electronic, non
Speaker 1: rock piece, just a beautiful love song, if you will,
Speaker 1: with lyrics that talked about how the world was changing.
Speaker 1: And in the end all will have is That's an
Speaker 1: incredible track. Really, one of my my favorites on the album.
Speaker 1: That's my wife, there you go. That's as the highest
Speaker 1: praise you need. She turned to me, she said, you
Speaker 1: are that's I get highest praise. There's nothing else I
Speaker 1: can say. That's all you need. Wow, I mean, good lord,
Speaker 1: beautiful track. There's so many amazing songs on this album,
Speaker 1: and I'm so fascinated by the many different ways that
Speaker 1: people can have these flashes of creativity. I mean, you
Speaker 1: mentioned other ways that you manipulated this wholy other song
Speaker 1: to create this. I'm curious. I mean I think of
Speaker 1: a track like make a Man out of Me, a
Speaker 1: song that's so steeped in in paternal love for a child.
Speaker 1: Do you have a feeling and go sit down and
Speaker 1: sort of play it out of you? Or does the
Speaker 1: does the tune come first, and does that give you
Speaker 1: a certain feeling and then you kind of right to that. Well,
Speaker 1: making that out of me is a love song to
Speaker 1: me my new one soon. And we're all fathers. You
Speaker 1: might be a father yourself, are you? Are you a dad? Okay? Well,
Speaker 1: I don't think that there's any more powerful bond than
Speaker 1: apparent to their child. When when when I looked down
Speaker 1: at my son in the crib, I was overtaken by
Speaker 1: the love I had for this new human being, a
Speaker 1: product of my wife and myself, and I looked down
Speaker 1: and it's that idea just hit me between the eyes.
Speaker 1: You know, this is a responsibility. It's my duty, is
Speaker 1: your father, to give you the tools two have a
Speaker 1: good life, to succeed to know the meaning of life.
Speaker 1: And it inspired the words um. You know, as songwriters
Speaker 1: we have we have the joy of experiencing these intimate
Speaker 1: moments of expressing ourselves and our feelings about various things
Speaker 1: that affect us as people. And I was overtaken at
Speaker 1: that point in this instance, with this discovery of how
Speaker 1: deeply I love this little person more than just about
Speaker 1: any other writing experience I had had. And then they
Speaker 1: have the blessing of being able to UH compose a
Speaker 1: song about that feeling, and then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: it goes on a record and eventually becomes a story
Speaker 1: shared by lots of lots of people. And I would
Speaker 1: venture to say that it's a commonality of it. Anybody
Speaker 1: who's had a child will immediately relate to that feeling.
Speaker 1: In fact, when we were in the studio listening back
Speaker 1: to UH songs with UM the record Company, one of
Speaker 1: the UM, one of the higher ups with the record
Speaker 1: company seated next to me, leaned over and saying, Jimmy,
Speaker 1: you know that song resonates with me unbelievably because I
Speaker 1: have a son, and when I listened to this song,
Speaker 1: I was standing over his crib just like you, and
Speaker 1: I immediately understood the power of what you were feeling.
Speaker 1: So hopefully a lot of people will experience that. I mean,
Speaker 1: there are so many of your songs that have that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was I'm sure you heard us all
Speaker 1: the time. I was a wedding DJ for a number
Speaker 1: of years, and the recessional that we would play so
Speaker 1: often at so many of these ceremonies and receptions was Beginnings.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just something that just is so powerful,
Speaker 1: and you'd see you look out there and you'd see
Speaker 1: people crying when that song was was on because it
Speaker 1: was such a beautiful. You know, it's my favorite song.
Speaker 1: I tell Robert every night on stage and he looks
Speaker 1: at me like, Okay, I've heard enough of that, I know,
Speaker 1: and I don't blame me. I love that you included
Speaker 1: that as a as a little nod in um in
Speaker 1: our New York time. I thought was just such a
Speaker 1: cool little call back. What let you do include that?
Speaker 1: That was a producer call you know, Uh, producers can
Speaker 1: be can be creative in that way. You know. They here,
Speaker 1: you know, they hear a song that is fairly complete,
Speaker 1: and the track may be done, and everything might be done,
Speaker 1: but a good producer will well, uh, well, sometimes add
Speaker 1: a color of flavor, maybe even a few words here
Speaker 1: and there two to make to make a particular song
Speaker 1: stand out. It's definitely not a record that's that's steeped
Speaker 1: in nostalgia, but there were a few of these touching
Speaker 1: little moments, like the opening of that This is Goodbye
Speaker 1: to really hit me. Just a bunch of crazy kids,
Speaker 1: look at all the things we did wake up playing
Speaker 1: in the high school band. Make it to the Promised Land.
Speaker 1: I mean to me as a fan, it's hard not
Speaker 1: to read that as as autobiographical in some way. Well,
Speaker 1: you know this record, you know, as a listener, not
Speaker 1: as a composer or a member of the bandit as
Speaker 1: a listener. Uh. I found, uh, this collection of songs
Speaker 1: to be Um really pretty fascinating because you know, we
Speaker 1: delve into all kinds of stuff. Okay, it's not just
Speaker 1: love songs or or pointless rock and roll. It's it's
Speaker 1: very cerebral, but yet it has the pull of great musicality,
Speaker 1: and the grooves go from A to Z. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is clad Seek Chicago with a new face. You know,
Speaker 1: I can try of m express it in terms of
Speaker 1: you know, I I played some of the rough mixes
Speaker 1: for my kids, you know, my younger listeners, and they
Speaker 1: were wow. You know you guys, you guys have have
Speaker 1: a freshness, yeah, that you haven't had in a while.
Speaker 1: And maybe it was the desperation of being completely idle
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. That made us stretch a little further,
Speaker 1: you know, or made us aware of more things that
Speaker 1: we were always too busy to realize. And I think
Speaker 1: that might have inspired, uh, the courage two push the
Speaker 1: envelope and go a little further, you know. Maybe. Well
Speaker 1: when you asked about the the Right of Goodbye, which
Speaker 1: by the way, is the first single coming out off
Speaker 1: the album, Uh, it was written by our producer, and
Speaker 1: I think he was probably incorporating when he started as
Speaker 1: a band, and I think he had a co writer
Speaker 1: and they were both doing a similar thing where they
Speaker 1: back to their roots, back to when they started and
Speaker 1: went into high school and started further in their career.
Speaker 1: And it could be construed as it being only about us,
Speaker 1: but I think it's about any band that gets together.
Speaker 1: Let's be friends, let's you know, how far can we
Speaker 1: go with this and uh see what happens? You mentioned.
Speaker 1: The record was produced by Joe Thomas, who has worked
Speaker 1: with some of my all time favorite artists, mean, Brian Wilson,
Speaker 1: Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty and now you what was it
Speaker 1: like working with him? When all did he did he
Speaker 1: bring to the table? It seems like he was very
Speaker 1: actively involved. The biggest problem is we didn't see each other.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so we were very rarely in the in
Speaker 1: the same room together. We were trying to put it,
Speaker 1: get it to a point where everybody would be able
Speaker 1: to come to my studio and we'd be able to
Speaker 1: do background vocals, which we did a little bit of.
Speaker 1: We did most of the brass, all of the brass
Speaker 1: at my studio, but getting everybody in the room together
Speaker 1: was a difficult process during the pandemic. You know, I
Speaker 1: had a lot of conversations with him on the phone. Um,
Speaker 1: and I agree with you. You know, I had never
Speaker 1: laid eyes on the guide. Uh. We know we had
Speaker 1: done some some video projects at one of the studios
Speaker 1: in Chicago that that is a venue for for videos. Um,
Speaker 1: but I had I didn't have any sense of him
Speaker 1: as a as a producer or as a writer or
Speaker 1: he actually plays plays a really good keyboards. So so
Speaker 1: all of that was really interesting. I have to say,
Speaker 1: I have to have to say that in the beginning.
Speaker 1: Uh once once we had sort of commuted to let's
Speaker 1: see if we can you know, make this an album.
Speaker 1: Um uh, I I think uh, not being a tech guy,
Speaker 1: completely opposite from Lee. I'm not a tech guy whatsoever.
Speaker 1: I thought, well, everybody has a laptop and we all
Speaker 1: can do our our demos on the laptop. Will send
Speaker 1: him to Joe, and Joe will just you know, make
Speaker 1: a do his magic and magically, uh make a finished record.
Speaker 1: Well he kind of thought. He kind of thought the
Speaker 1: same thing at first, but then as he was getting uh,
Speaker 1: as he was getting a file files said to him, Uh,
Speaker 1: he discovered everybody's working on a different platform. So it
Speaker 1: was like, un, I'll never do that again. But uh,
Speaker 1: and being the tech guy, I was trying to talk
Speaker 1: everyone out of doing it and sending you know, a
Speaker 1: certain file type so we can have consistency going on.
Speaker 1: It was a difficult process. Yeah, it was really it
Speaker 1: was really you know, it was really a long, longer
Speaker 1: process and it really needed to be um. But having
Speaker 1: said that, he was very patient. He was he was
Speaker 1: very open. I found to be very open two ideas
Speaker 1: and you know, he he put his nose to the
Speaker 1: grindstone and got this stuff done. Yeah. It was no
Speaker 1: easy test, I'm sure for for him because you know,
Speaker 1: he received, yeah, he received files from writers and he
Speaker 1: would plug in Chicago, Uh, performances into the personal demos.
Speaker 1: You know, if I submitted a song all of a sudden, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, a demo's a demo vocal. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we get a studio sausage or saying or that we
Speaker 1: knew to say, a lead vocal, and then we do
Speaker 1: some backgrounds and I do a trombone kind of a
Speaker 1: thing where the horns section would be. And then it
Speaker 1: was not only was Joe getting files from from band
Speaker 1: members and then plugging in um Chicago players band members
Speaker 1: to do to redo the performance. But yeah, he would
Speaker 1: then take that upgraded track with you know, Wally Rays
Speaker 1: playing the drums instead of a you know, a a
Speaker 1: drum machine or whatever. We have you know, Wally playing
Speaker 1: real drugs. We have a real bass player, we have
Speaker 1: you know, real musicians. And then he'd take that file
Speaker 1: and send it to me, and then I would arrange
Speaker 1: the brass to that track which had the real music
Speaker 1: on it. So uh, I could create a horn arrangement,
Speaker 1: because I cannot create a horn of horn arrangement to
Speaker 1: an unfinished demo because there's uh, there's it's got to
Speaker 1: be the real thing. I can only arrange to what
Speaker 1: the final representation of the song will be. So he
Speaker 1: was receiving files, he was putting musicians on those files.
Speaker 1: He does send the file to me, I would put
Speaker 1: real brass on paper. We take that brass to Arizona
Speaker 1: to Lee's we record that real brass. It would then
Speaker 1: go back to Joe and Joe would put background love
Speaker 1: of those on the track again where the real horns were.
Speaker 1: So it became a sceneless result. So it was back
Speaker 1: and forth and back and forth. I was doing vocals
Speaker 1: in California. I didn't the track for my song on
Speaker 1: stage with the with the live band if This Isn't Love?
Speaker 1: And I think I did a couple of songs like that,
Speaker 1: and if This Isn't Love was the one that made
Speaker 1: it on the album. But I think that was one
Speaker 1: of the few songs on this record that was done
Speaker 1: by our band and band on stage as a band. Wow.
Speaker 1: And then we recorded the Breast at the studio in
Speaker 1: Sedona and and by the way, well during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: I had enough time two build the studio. My UH
Speaker 1: engineer Tim Jessop and I were working on a Cardigi
Speaker 1: all projects which we we did six days in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy one and uh we were uh mixing and mastering
Speaker 1: all six all eight shows that we did within that
Speaker 1: six states. So we were immersed in the in uh
Speaker 1: deep in a project while this record was going on.
Speaker 1: So um, there was a lot going on in the
Speaker 1: pandemic amazing productive time. Yes, I loved that Carnegie Hall
Speaker 1: box set when it came out last year. And one
Speaker 1: one of the things that I really enjoyed about it
Speaker 1: was I feel like there were so many moments of
Speaker 1: improv in there, which is a side. I feel like,
Speaker 1: we don't see a lot from you so often. So
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it so much. I really love there
Speaker 1: was a lot from night to night we we just said,
Speaker 1: we were uh like this, like good bye, that's crazy
Speaker 1: kids just coming up and playing uh, you know, from
Speaker 1: the hip and just doing what what came. We had
Speaker 1: the the the songs put together, but we played them loosely,
Speaker 1: you know. Frankly. I revisited that Cardegie all uh Little
Speaker 1: Lee sent us uh the records. I listened, you know.
Speaker 1: Of course it was uh you know, it improved, I
Speaker 1: mean amazingly so at I started realizing, holy crap, how
Speaker 1: did we do that? We I mean, we were a
Speaker 1: bunch of kids, and I listened to some of those performances,
Speaker 1: and you know, we had no fear. We had no fear. Uh.
Speaker 1: And Terry, you know, I mean his his genius and
Speaker 1: his his strength within the band. Yeah, I think it
Speaker 1: actually motivated me to say, screw it, man, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna worry about rules, you know, with this album, you know,
Speaker 1: and I started just taking chances because I listen to Candy,
Speaker 1: I'm all right, man, if we could, if we could
Speaker 1: accomplish that when we didn't know anything, can we accomplished
Speaker 1: when we do know all that? But we had the
Speaker 1: same experience when we a couple of years ago we
Speaker 1: did Chicago to live on on our tour, and in
Speaker 1: rehearsing to play that, played that repertoire. It was like
Speaker 1: we did a lot of that, looking at each other saying,
Speaker 1: what the hell will we think we're writing these? And
Speaker 1: you know, obviously not only the Chicago two situation, but
Speaker 1: you know, the Carnegie Hall. Uh, you know, that was
Speaker 1: still very early in our career. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: probably the most the most recent song might have been
Speaker 1: Savory in the Park. That was this was only three albums,
Speaker 1: so you know it was. It was a different world,
Speaker 1: certainly a different climate in in rock music. It was
Speaker 1: funny before speaking to you, I was rewatching that amazing
Speaker 1: documentary now more than ever. And there's a great moment
Speaker 1: when you were talking about the start of your career
Speaker 1: when you played an original song at a club and
Speaker 1: you were fired for not playing the top forty, which
Speaker 1: is I mean, it's just insane to me to think
Speaker 1: of a time like that. What what what was that
Speaker 1: like back then for you? What compelled you to make
Speaker 1: the jump from from playing these songs to playing originals.
Speaker 1: We actually played a Frank Zappa song of uh, how
Speaker 1: could I be walls? Rock and roll walls? And that's
Speaker 1: where we're go from there quote a Zappa cover. The
Speaker 1: music business changed, it changed, it changed. By the end
Speaker 1: of the seventies, it was really all about, you know,
Speaker 1: if you had to hit with one song, the record
Speaker 1: company wanted another song just like it, only different if possible.
Speaker 1: And and I just think that the uh, the thinking,
Speaker 1: the thinking about trying to write a hit song really
Speaker 1: kind of really kind of defeated lots of artists as
Speaker 1: as the music industry demanded that that procedure. Here was
Speaker 1: a strange question that I'm just thinking now and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to make phrase it right. I feel like there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people who talk about artists who inspired
Speaker 1: m to be virtuoso's, But I was wondering, are there
Speaker 1: any musical heroes of yours that taught you how to
Speaker 1: play together with a band and how to really jel
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like that's something that's so special
Speaker 1: about you. And again, I keep going back to the
Speaker 1: one set of lungs. Were there any groups out there,
Speaker 1: maybe the Mother's of Evntion were one of them that
Speaker 1: really showed you what was like to see a group
Speaker 1: in total cohesion, total mind melving playing as one that
Speaker 1: really showed you like this is what this is how
Speaker 1: powerful and musical unit can be. I can tell you
Speaker 1: one right, yeah, the Beatles. Oh yeah, when the Beatles
Speaker 1: came on the scene, I was totally jaw dropped. I mean,
Speaker 1: these guys, uh, they re they reinvented pop music, or
Speaker 1: maybe not reinvented it, but took it to a unique
Speaker 1: other level. Perfect voicing in the vocals. Well, like Calfacings.
Speaker 1: We were listening to Colfaing and we learned how to
Speaker 1: phrase by listening to Yeah, I've always in my own mind,
Speaker 1: like in your your horn parts to Brian Wilson's vocal
Speaker 1: arrangements just the way it sits in the track and
Speaker 1: compliments the lead so perfectly. UM. I know he's someone
Speaker 1: that you're very closely associated with. He's one of my heroes,
Speaker 1: and you're about to go out and do a number
Speaker 1: of shows with him this summer. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you more about about your your connection with him,
Speaker 1: and what it's been like playing with them all these years,
Speaker 1: and and just your thoughts on the Beach Boys. But
Speaker 1: we did, we did to her with the Beach Boys
Speaker 1: extensively in the seventies, and it was they had they
Speaker 1: had kind of been in a down phase of their career. Uh,
Speaker 1: and we were, you know, we were selling out baseball stadiums.
Speaker 1: So our producer at the time, Jenny Garcio actual, she
Speaker 1: was playing bass with the Beach Boys and somehow got
Speaker 1: them to agree to be our opening end. And that
Speaker 1: whole ste summer was just in aasing experience. Uh. Talk
Speaker 1: about a band that could throw down live. The Beach
Speaker 1: Boys good, and so could Chicago and so could the
Speaker 1: two bands when they came on stage together. So I
Speaker 1: think that as a possibility, will be doing a little
Speaker 1: bit of that this summer. Brian and his band. The
Speaker 1: footage from that seventy five when you're on together doing
Speaker 1: like Darlin together or something, I mean, you're out there
Speaker 1: playing with it sounds like a Chicago song. It's so perfect.
Speaker 1: It's such a great blend. I love those those concerts. Wow,
Speaker 1: that was that was a phenomenal experience. Were at the
Speaker 1: at the Garden in New York and they had to
Speaker 1: they had to evacuate the felt for him on the
Speaker 1: floor below because the floor of the floor of the
Speaker 1: of the Garden was going up and down. The people
Speaker 1: that's right, it's on springs, right, and then the the
Speaker 1: upper deck was coming loose from the French were shaking
Speaker 1: around at Angels Stadium in California when we played that,
Speaker 1: because the you know, they were built to withstand a
Speaker 1: home run. The excitement of the run, well a three
Speaker 1: minute song with it, with its shaking up and down,
Speaker 1: it really got going good there where they were. They
Speaker 1: were worried that that the all per deck went collapsed.
Speaker 1: Oh man, I we all need a little bit of
Speaker 1: that energy this summer. I cannot wait to see out there.
Speaker 1: My my last question before I let you go. I'm
Speaker 1: so excited to get back out on the road. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you, what is the title Born for
Speaker 1: this Moment mean mean to you? It's such an evocative phrase.
Speaker 1: I was thinking a lot about it. I don't want
Speaker 1: to ask you what what led you to choose that
Speaker 1: title Born for this Moment? Yeah? That was actually that's
Speaker 1: actually the title track. That's a uh, you know Robert song.
Speaker 1: And before the title was chosen, I as I'm arranging
Speaker 1: that Robert song, I'm thinking, wow, what a great title
Speaker 1: for the for the record. Weren't for this moment? You know,
Speaker 1: this mortality is the reality. You know, maybe this uh
Speaker 1: is the last real original plation of music that we
Speaker 1: have the you know, the pleasure of doing. Hopefully not,
Speaker 1: but uh, this record is a record that I think
Speaker 1: was meant to be made for a long time. You
Speaker 1: could book had this career with Chicago Transit Authority and
Speaker 1: Born for this moment in my moment, because this, you know,
Speaker 1: this is the first album of this next thing, hold
Speaker 1: long at last. We don't know yet be in the moment,
Speaker 1: I think that's a that's a beautiful note to end
Speaker 1: on Lee, Robert James, you were the best. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for your time today and most importantly for
Speaker 1: your music. You give me so much joy over the years.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you so much, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Joy Speaking. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside
Speaker 1: the Studio, a production of I Heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: episodes of Inside the Studio or other fantastic shows, check
Speaker 1: out the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite podcast.