HIS DAD PLAYED BASS FOR ELVIS. HE BECAME THE VOICE OF CHICAGO.

Ticket To Adventure Opening

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hi, I'm Kim Alexis. Today in Paris, Dr. Kelly is showing his collection spring closed. Hi, I'm Kim Alexis with your ticket to adventure. I'm Kim Alexis, and I'm here in New York City. Got a great show coming up for you, so stay tuned.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

So

Meeting Jason Scheff

SPEAKER_01 0:22

speaking of rock and roll, we have Jason Chef here today. Thank you, Jason, so much for being here. You are so amazing, songwriter, bass player for Chicago, and just such a great person. You and I got to meet on a golf tournament one time, and instantly it was so fun because it was an instant connection, and uh we've just enjoyed getting to know you and spend time with you. So I love having you on Unexpired because you have had such an amazing

Growing Up With Musical Parents

SPEAKER_01 0:52

career. So to get started, I would love to talk about your early life because yours was different than most people growing up with famous parents. So can you talk to us about that?

SPEAKER_03 1:04

Yeah, in fact, uh I've been reflecting a lot with a lot of people these days about it. And it's a it's a really fun time. You and I have shared this and and Jeff that you know, really reflecting. And this is a beautiful time of life to really really go over everything and see how grateful we all are and really what the what this this time is about, which are the the legacy, you know, years and paying it forward. And so I it's funny, you just met my mother. My mother is my northern star. She um my parents split up when I was probably about three years old, so I didn't really and I I know I'm I'm lucky in that way that they weren't I wasn't ten, you know. I didn't really remember when they were together, so it wasn't one of those splits that was really tough. So I really was raised by my mother, um, and she's very musical, as well as my father, you know, and uh and my dad moved-tell the audience, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Tell the audience about your dad.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

Yeah, so my father is one of the greatest bass players who ever lived. He was really part of the wrecking crew. In fact, um the um the movie that just came out, Epic, on Elvis Presley, is is really cool because that's my dad is was Elvis's bass player during those years, the TCB band, the Vegas years. So he's all over that movie, and so I'm sure many of your your uh viewers will have just seen that movie, so they'll be able to put the face um with the name Jerry Chef. Elvis being from Memphis, you know, he would always pronounce things with you know, Memphis and Schiff, Jerry Schiff on Fender Base. So that's my dad, and so he was this rock star that moved to LA, and I saw him in bits and pieces growing up, but didn't spend a ton of time with him, and now I understand why he's on the road all the time and just that you know made that a his career. But it was a you know, it was a a bit confusing and you know, and and uh longing growing up uh without your dad around and and kind of seeing him on television here and there, and and then but my mother, um um, I I joined the musicians union at 14 years old and joined her band and have never looked back since. And so she was always the person that that gave me that um that vision that you're going places, you know, and just and just and I tell my kids this because I know it's the truth. I see it in them, I say it's just a matter of time, you know. That's what they said to me. So it was a beautiful thing to have that support, and my father supported, you know, what I wanted to do because he did it too, and he saw what I had. So so anyway, that that was those were the early years, and so I was from 14 years old, really a professional musician, and it was so beautiful, Kim, because I just knew that that was that was going to always be, and to this day, the thing that expands the universe that I can always go to, that no matter what's going on out in the world or the exterior things, that that always brings me back to um to feeling connected to everything, to life, to spirit, everything. And um, and that's the music thing. And I and it, you know, I'm sure we'll get into this during this talk, but you know, I I I I let some things get in the way of that, you know, along the way, you know, a typical 70s, 80s kid, you know, with some substance abuse, which was always the thing that was kind of like, well, hold on a second, you're you're cutting off this thing. So, but that's really those are the early years, San Diego, and um having this beautiful woman being the the the the first original champion and still to this day.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Um it's just and she introduced you to a lot of like Elton John, right? Yes, Elvis. I mean, at 10 you got to meet these. What were your thoughts then? Like, did you realize how lucky you were? It was just like, oh, that's just Uncle Elvis.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

No, I see, they were I wasn't around that because dad was in LA, and that was a whole other thing that was going on. So I didn't I never met Elvis, but I was on stage with him. My dad got me and my brother a great seat in the percussion stand in 1976, the last time Elvis played Vegas, and it was amazing. I was on stage with him, but I didn't meet him, and I've played that room many times with Chicago and other other things. It became the Hilton, Vegas Hilton, and then uh is the Westgate now. And uh,

Sitting In At Clubs Young

SPEAKER_03 5:50

but the people that I met along the way, my mother would take me. It was such a great thing because she would take me in to meet all of the people she knew coming up in San Diego, and I was like this you know, little novelty walking in with my mother, and my mother would say, Can my son sit in with you? And they were like, just kind of like, Okay, Linda, you know, gratuitously. But then I played, and that that's when everything changed. I saw the looks on their face, they go, Whoa, this guy's legitimate. So you'd walk in with your guitar, right? No, I just play whatever theirs was, you know. So I'd walk in, she'd take me into the clubs and say, Hey, can my son sit in? And so they were they were kind of like, you know, giggling. And but those seeds that were planted ended up being a great gig that I got. Um did it help your confidence, do you think? Because without question. Yeah. Without question, because I I I pulled it off. And and the weird thing, Kim, is just like what what you've done, you've got gifts that you didn't personally give yourself. No. You got git, you got gifts, right? They read they were given to you, and I and I know you enough now to know that you've never taken that for granted, and just immediately that's why you not to turn this interview into you, but your your story of being self-sufficient and not going down the tubes in wrong directions shows a massive inner, um, it's beyond confidence, but just you know, knowing who you are, you know, and I've and I gravitate to people like that because you know, you get these gifts, and all of a sudden you're in a world where people are really putting giving you the opportunity to completely lose your mind.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Or pull back to, right? There's so many things, it's like, oh, that's not a good idea. I knew more of what wasn't a good idea versus what was a good idea.

SPEAKER_03 7:44

But that's good enough, though.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Well, you're more creative than I was, probably. Like they could see, oh, this would make a beautiful picture. But to me, it's like, oh, but that party the night before, that's not going to help me any. Right? So you have to learn those boundaries. I had to learn them at 18. You probably had to start learning them at 14.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

Well, I'll tell you this, and it's great. It it ties into what you were talking earlier. The fact my mother, and this this this is this happens today, too. And it's just such, I feel so grateful to have been given these opportunities and learned these lessons immediately. That when I walked in and I played in these situations and pulled it off, I drilled it. Yeah. So I never it would that was always what was pure. Right. The art, the you know, any of the trappings of, hey, if you go and hang out with these people, you'll further yourself. That was never in the equation. I was already rising the ranks just based on showing up and doing my thing. So I never really thought in terms of, well, if I and I to this day, it blows my mind, and I love speaking to other people that have had really great careers and were super successful. That I never had to to BS anybody to get where I was going. Right. And I'm not about to start now. Right. It's so funny. Exactly. You see all these people that are it's like, you know, and they get, you know, people get pulled into no, no, no, we're not gonna start that now. I'm happy where I am. I'm not trying to light the world on fire, I'm not trying to get more and bigger, you know, and you see people just kind of scrambling or try to get back to something, have zero because when I like I played a show with my band, my personal band, which is really the ultimate of what I love to do. Cherry picking exactly on work, and there Steve Ferroni, as you met, you know, um, is one of the greatest. So I'm sitting there playing these guys, and the same thing, it's effortless, and and we're really operating at a at a super high world-class level. So there's no amount of shucking and jiving, positioning, trying to act like anything. It just speaks for itself, and um, and that's good enough for me. Yeah, that's good enough for me.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Yeah, it's like the intent. You you can read people's intent in their heart. And if you don't have that desperation or that, oh, I need to fit in. No, I'm me. This is who I am, this is me at my best. You either like it or you don't.

SPEAKER_03 10:17

That's exactly right. And it's funny because when you start talking to people to possibly work with, especially that aren't that are on the business side of it, and you I can spot it a mile away, you know. That you and I've talked a bit about this, and it, you know, it's like, I'll give you a chance, but the minute I smell a rat, that's the beautiful thing about being 64 years old now. It's like, we don't have to do that. So it's like, and you see so many people, it's crazy. People who've had great careers, then all of a sudden, at this moment in time where all of a sudden this desperation sets in and you start changing and and associating with the wrong people. No, yeah. I'm telling you too. I'm not to turn this into an interview about you, but from from day one, what you've told me about, what you were able to turn away from, walk away from, that's that's really the that's the deal.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Because you it some of that stuff's just not worth it, no matter what. It's like selling your soul, or yeah, you it I don't know exactly what it is. Yeah, you just have to know at a young age. So we're going back to you now.

Moving To LA And Finding Voice

SPEAKER_01 11:23

So now what made you move to LA? Were you like 18, 20? You moved to LA?

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Okay, so my mother is like the ultimate stage mother. She was always looking for opportunities for me. She also was always pounding on me. You gotta sing. And I'm like, I don't want to sing. I think part of the problem is I'm not problem, but at the time think you're thinking it was a problem. I'm a tenor voice, I'm a I'm a high voice. Right. And so I was trying to sing songs that were out of my range that were low, so there was no support, so I didn't think I could sing. I wanted to sound like a dude, not a girl. You know, I could sing some high notes, so I just didn't pursue it. But she tricked me for my 21st birthday. She bought me a vocal lesson from the great Seth Riggs in LA, who was teaching Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Barbara Streisand, everybody at the time. And I thought I was gonna walk in and he'd hear me and just kind of go, Great, here's another stage mother throwing their kid at me. But he he's another North Star. Right. He he saw it and heard it, and and just and immediately on the first on the first lesson in the first lesson, I felt what it that I felt what it felt like to to do it properly, to connect your voice from a chess voice going all the way up into high notes and and not you know quack cracking and squeaking. Right. But but going back even more before that of getting to LA, I left school because I was so far behind. Um, and it's weird, I failed history and English in tenth grade, which I love both of them. But at the time it was like I just wasn't going to school. I was playing so much music and and really becoming yeah, but more like just yeah, being a professional musician. I just had my eyes set on that. And um and were you writing music then? No, no. I was just had zero idea of being an artist and a writer or anything. I just was I was a natural bass player. I get that from my father, right? You know, and I was in my mom's band, and so I didn't have to really work that hard at it. I hope that doesn't sound like too much of a pompous. Well, no, but you but you didn't have to work hard at looking good, right? So that these are the gifts, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Right. It but it's going up and it's it's stepping out even further, which you did. You ended up going from just okay, well, I played the bass great. Do I live that way the rest of my life, or what else can I do? And that's what you did.

SPEAKER_03 14:00

Great setup because I went as far as I could in San Diego, joined the best band, and and again, and I started singing in that band because just to get the gig, but I was not like, okay, I'm gonna be a singer. That was uncomfortable, so that wasn't natural. Love telling younger, up-and-coming people too. It's like work at something you're not that isn't easy for you. Right. Because it's easy to take your gas your foot off the gas pedal when you're when you've got gifts, right? I tell my kids this and they've listened. I said, put some energy and some discipline into what you're not great at, and then you'll really separate yourself from the pack. You the percentage of your competition will be. If you're gifted as a bass player or as a as a musician, and and you you know, you'll still you can still go real far, but there's a lot more competition up there. But if you're a singer, you're a songwriter, and you're putting energy into something, then then there's a it's rare, rarefied air, right? You don't understand that at at first because you're you're working and it keeps you going, but I love I love passing that on. So so I'm I'm I quit school at 16 and took a gig that went up to Seattle, Washington, and it was just it changed my life because I'm going, man, I'm sprung. I'm out on my own, I'm paying my bills, everything's cool. Great. And I was I was gonna when that was over, I I was going to I was coming back down from Seattle and I was gonna live with my mother in LA. And um, once I got to LA, she said, You got to keep going, because one of those guys she took me in to meet, John Ozon, who had the best gig in in San Diego, the longest running, best paying. He had a bass player named Nathan East, who became one of the greatest bass players, most recorded on the planet, LA guy. So he was in this top 40 band in 1978, and I remember going in and seeing him sitting in with them, and they were like, Yeah, you know, he was always encouraging. Yeah. John Ozon didn't hire me when Nathan left to go to LA because I was too young. I was 16. But the guy he hired, he didn't like, so um, I wasn't working out. So he told my mother, send him down. So I so I kept driving. I went to San Diego, and he knew I could play bass, but he said, Do you sing? And I said, No. And he said, Well, you have to because Nathan sang on this gig. And Nathan isn't really what you would call a you know, like a real lead vocalist that went out to be a he's one of the greatest bass players that ever lived. But you sang on these gigs to get work, and so here's another thing I love to share that I didn't know to be careful and still don't know. I love to do it. I don't know my limitations, you know. And and I think a lot of people just count themselves out because they've got such a especially young kids, they've got this vision and these dreams, and it's gotta be like this. I I was just trying to get a gig, Kim. So he said, he goes, You sang? I said, No. He says, Well, you have to because Nathan sang. He said, Okay. And he said, Um, he said, What do you want to try? And I looked at his set list and I had no idea to be careful. So, of course, I choose the hardest song you could possibly imagine. I'm looking at his set list and I go, Oh, what about just the way you are? Don't go changing to try and please me. You never let me down. The rangiest, brutal song. So I think he probably saw, well, this guy's got courage, a little bit of fearlessness, and and I I think I hear something in his voice. He gave me the gig, and that started everything. So then I go to LA after a couple of years, and I'm hanging with my mother, and that's when she gets me the vocal lesson. And this guy lit me up. I went there thinking this will be over before it starts. He lights me up. I've got recordings too. I'll send, I'll send you one to just listen to like when you can when you can hear when that moment changed when somebody showed you who you are. It's unbelievable to go back to that, thinking the minute before that, going, well, you know, how when's this going to be over? To like, whoa, I'm gonna stick around. Had no idea or dreams that it was gonna turn out into something like this, but I loved how it felt. Right. I loved that that I was feeling it's like going to a coach in anything and feeling how to properly swing a golf club, you know, whatever, pitch a ball or whatever, or walk down the runway, unless you were 100% supernatural, which I'm sure you were, you didn't need me coaching, but at any rate, uh to feel I got hooked on the feeling of and so that's the motivation rather than hooked on a feeling exactly. I thought the same thing, rather than I gotta keep coming back so I can become a singer. No, no, no. I just loved how it felt, and I felt that it was I was probably so here's the key. If you were to ask me from the day I took that vocal lesson, 21 years old, to the day I joined Chicago, I would have said, Oh, it was probably like five years later, you know, it was like two and a half years. How crazy is that? So you get the proper training, get the repetitions in, you don't even know where this is gonna end up, but then when the opportunity comes, I was ready for it on that level. Yeah, not mentally, of course, and certainly standing front and center on a on a stage took a lot of getting used to. But I was able to go in and so intimidating with David Foster and Humberto Gatica, who were like ruling the airwaves. Again, I'm thinking this is gonna be over before it starts, but something felt so comfortable when that moment happened. Like I know it happened for you. It's like you walked out and went, I'm supposed to be here.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Yes, you know, yeah, yeah, that's really cool. Now, the demo really that you gave to the Chicago band, was it from that singing lesson?

Songwriting Breakthrough To Chicago

SPEAKER_03 20:05

No. In fact, I was starting to write songs, more and more songs, and and again, I was not the guy that's going, I'm an artist, I'm a songwriter, I gotta express my. I was just doing what everybody else was doing that. Oh, you went, you went to um, I don't remember how you were you were saying this, but it made me think of I went as far as I could in San Diego and said, I could stay here for the rest of my life, not even have to really work that hard at it, as long as I don't flush it down the toilet with drugs and alcohol, which I kind of was trying to do. Um, but just ability-wise, you can stay here. And I went, nah, there's more for me. Yeah. I got I said, I gotta go to LA. And I even was saying, again, not putting so much pressure and expectations, I said, even if I stayed in a top 40 band in LA for the rest of my life, just did what I was doing, but I was in in LA, I just want to be in a place where I can go to 7-Eleven and run into Gino Vinelli or or or or Maurice White of Earth, Wind and Fire, which actually happened, just so that I can see them. I can like, you know, just be like from across the room and be around that. Well, as you discovered, you go to New York and and uh and Paris and and Italy, it's proximity. If you're in proximity, opportunities really just start happening. So going to LA, starting to write more songs, and I discovered I was good at it. You know, Bobby Caldwell, What You Won't Do for Love, that was the guy that I really hit the ground running. You know, I I um I was I got to know him as a bass player on some demos, and he was cordial to me, but it wasn't, you know, really thick as thieves like it ended up because I said, I gotta get his attention. Let me write something that I think Bobby would sing. You know, so I sat down, I came up with this chord progression and melodies, and took it to him, and he flipped out, pushed me off the piano bench, goes, What is that? And writes the chorus, melodies, and all to a song called Heart of Mine that Bos Skaggs ended up cutting in 1988. That song and that demo literally is what got me the gig with Chicago. So over the course of two years, two and a half years of vocal lessons, writing songs, and I had like three songs that Kathleen Carey, the great publisher, heard heard my song and signed me on the spot. And two months later, Chicago got a hold of those demos, and I was the lead vocalist. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Yeah, it's crazy, but it's it seems like right even hearing you say it.

SPEAKER_03 22:48

It does to me too.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

We have to teach these young kids to just keep doing what your passion is and then step a little farther out of the boat and step a little further and just keep developing. And I love how you even you keep saying the word grateful through this whole conversation. And I think that makes a good songwriter because you're aware of things around you and you're able to pull in like just this little piece. I mean, how many people write about a song about yellow submarine? Or, you know, there's just the most bizarre things some songs are written about or being stood up or whatever it is, but you're aware of it, and then you're able to put it down on paper. And it's just so fun to be around creative people that are I could because I can see when I'm hanging out with you, I hear you're like, oh, that would be a great song, or oh, that's a great idea, you know, because you're constantly looking and aware and and just pulling in new stuff. And that's I love being around people like that.

SPEAKER_03 23:51

So do I. And and you said it earlier, the intention, the intent is so different now because as a kid, especially getting a gig to be a front man and a focal point of a band like Chicago, at 23 years old, it's all it's gotta be all about you. They're like, you gotta, you gotta you know, get in shape and you gotta, hey, am I preaching to the choir on this? So it's like it's very you focused. And I'll be honest with you, that and I've shared this a lot lately because I still struggle with it. The truth of the matter, yes, I am full of gratitude, but my tendency is that when I do something that ends up being successful or you know, or whatever, my first instinct is to take way too much credit for it, and you know, and the ego starts going, you know, and then then I'm always brought back down a peg. So it's like nowadays I'm I'm and plus wanting to lead my kids to not do that, that you know, wherever you however you articulate it to give you know all the glory to whatever, to God, to you know, to not

Gratitude Ego And Spiritual Grounding

SPEAKER_03 25:02

you. Yes, you know, and and that's another thing that I love because I'm recovering, you know, this I'm 39 years sober. So my church is the Church of Alcoholics Anonymous. I was raised an Episcopalian, but where I really found my connection, you know, to the spirit is in in in AA, and we talk a lot about God and and and people get so fixated on on what that is, what the form looks like, you know, and and argue over it. And I've heard so many beautiful ways to look at this through my program of you know, let's start with it's not you. Right. You know, so the the the serenity prayer, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Well, if people are are are stuck on the word God for that, well, what do you mean? Whose? You know, and are we gonna argue about this? I heard a guy put it so abusing one day, he goes, I I don't think about what God is, I think about what God isn't, me, my will, my ideas. And I went, Wow, that opens the whole thing up. Yeah, because you could actually say that serenity prayer as not me. Yeah, grant me the serenity to accept that now. It's wide open rather than hey, you hear this song that I sang and wrote the other day, I'm pretty cool. No, anyway. Yeah. So that's a little bit of a fun tangent, but I thought you might like

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SPEAKER_03 26:29

that.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Thinking about buying a home, but not sure where to start? Jeff Schwartz at Altitude Home Loans makes the process simple. From application to closing, Jeff helps you find the best loan for your financial goals and keeps everything moving smoothly because the right team makes all the difference. Ready to get started? Apply today with Jeff at Altitude Home Loans. Well, and when I was growing up, I'd look at a cover and I'm like, I always thought to myself, what could I have done different? How could I have made that better? That's what I thought. I never was like, oh, I am just, I'm the end all. To me, it was always like, huh, that's the one they chose. Like all the shots that I gave them, all the poses or whatever it was. And that's the one they chose. And I'm like, hmm, what could I have given them that was different? How could I make that better? That always went through my mind.

SPEAKER_03 27:26

It's funny you'd say that because I can relate to that as far as what they choose as the singles and and the tanks as you're in recording and a producer goes, I think that's great. And you're going, right? When I did, you know, three or four minutes. But it's funny when you're saying, you're saying, I didn't look at a cover saying, Oh, I'm I'm the be all end-all. No, we did it for you, Kim. Yeah. We were looking at your cover saying, That's the be all end all. We'll do it for you.

Radio Debut Relapse And Rehab

SPEAKER_01 27:51

So take me through the first time you heard one of your songs on the radio. Did you ever like, I mean, because like I would go by a magazine cover and it wasn't like I was like right. You know, so obviously when you first probably heard your song on the radio, you weren't like, that was me.

SPEAKER_03 28:09

The first time I heard myself on the radio was 25 or 6 to 4. We did a remake of it, which was really not the smartest move because it was such an iconic song. And truthfully, the program directors of of Top 40 radio at the time were the age of the band. They were just turning 40. Can you believe this? And I was thinking, these guys are old, man. I was 23, they were turning 40. And so the program directors were 40, and they really felt like we were whizzing on the flag, you know, um, remaking something like that. So they from what I heard, the calls were good, you know, the phone calls, like, oh, I love this, but they were almost kind of boycotting it. So we scrambled. So I heard I heard I heard that on the radio one one day in LA, and I was just I had to pull over. It was like, I can't believe I'm hearing myself on the radio. But then, ironically, I don't know if you and I've talked about this, but I love this part of my story that talk about something making sure that you're not gonna go too far off uh off the deep end when success starts coming to you. Um I was two weeks into my first tour uh with Chicago October and November with Chicago in 1986, and so we we were scrambling to get a um our second single out, which was Will You Still Love Me. But it was just two or three weeks out, so it was it had a it was it was climbing the charts, but it's probably only like 60, you know, 75, something like that. It's only out a couple weeks in, so it had a bullet, but still I in the back of my mind I'm going, They're gonna find out they picked the wrong guy. It's I've gotten this far, but the other shoe's gonna drop. And I was still getting high. And um, so I'm two weeks into my first tour, and I thought I'd sworn off, you know, cocaine, you know, because now I'm I'm a singer and I'm it, but sure enough, I I ran into some dude in this barbecue joint in Memphis, Tennessee, and and he asked if I wanted anything, and my brain said, now you're successful, you can handle it. Yeah. And and uh ended up ended up getting it and was locked into the bathroom one more time, you know, all night. And um, so I called one of my buddies in the band who was sober a year and said, I need some help, you know. And actually, I like sharing this part of the story too, because I said, I know I got a problem with cocaine, but I'm not gonna stop smoking weed. That's not my problem. He goes, Yeah, I used to say the same thing, but for me, it all led down the same road. I'd always end and go, Yeah, yeah, I understand, but you know, I'm I'm you know That's you, this is me, right? That's exactly right. Then he asked me the two best questions. He goes, Listen, man, your career is like a pregnant woman. Something's about to happen. And he meant the song. He goes, What are you gonna do if this song's a hit? And I thought, I'm gonna celebrate, right? You know, and then he asked the best question. He goes, What are you gonna do if it stiffs? Because that's really where I thought it was headed. And that when I thought of what I would do to myself in shame of being this fraud that brought the band down, and I thought the level, I mean, I was already it was already going well, and I'm I'm I'm holed up in the bathroom with a couple of grams of blows. I mean, that's so that was the good side of it. I went, and I literally thought, whoa, to get high or to get high, that is the question. There were no other options, there was no option to not get get high, and I went, okay, I'll I'll take the cure. So I I went into rehab after finishing that. And the crazy thing was, is I got into the shower and it almost felt like a baptism because you know, again, I was not uh a religious person, and I don't remember what I said, but I just remember saying, if there's anything out there or God, you know, if you're there, please help me. And I'm telling you, the obsession was lifted, never to return 39 years later. Wow, yeah, I'm telling you, and it almost felt like a baptism, the water, you know, and I was I was crying, and and there's a song from Toto Fahrenheit called Leah and Steve Picardo, who wrote it, it's a dear friend of mine. I tell him, I go, that was the soundtrack, man. This beautiful, beautiful sound, gentle sound going through. And so so I I took the cure, I went into the to rehab, and so a long-winded way to answer your question. So I heard 25 or 64 on the radio, but I'm telling you, they told us when we got into rehab, my my counselor said, Don't tell anybody what you do because they're gonna treat you different. And we got to stay right, you know, even I said, totally get that. So I'm not not saying a word to anybody. And I'm sitting in my my room with my roommate. Will you still love me? Comes on the radio. First time I hear it in rehab, I tell the guy, I go Did you start singing with him? No, I said, I said, I gotta tell you something, man, but you can't tell anybody. He goes, I don't want to know. I said, No, seriously, I'm freaking out. I've got to tell somebody this, but you can't tell us all. He thought I was gonna say, I have a pound of blow in my suitcase or something, right? You know, but I said, That's me on the radio.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

And he's like, Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 33:37

He goes, get the F out of here because everyone's lying for their teeth in rehab, trying to make themselves feel better. Right. So I sang a line and he realized, well, that's him. Well, sure enough, and this is kind of cool, is what we talk about too, of like to keep yourself in check. Of course, it got out. And the minute it got out, and people were like, I I told them, I said, No, no, no, you don't understand. I'm not cool, I'm not special, I'm a junkie, just like you. That's why I'm here. And it really taught me to just not take advantage of that privilege and status, you know, because and and that was like, you know, like we were talking earlier, Kim, that came from an early age, too. Like I said, that the that doing these things and achieving these things, I think internally I just knew that this is much bigger than you, man. You know, so don't get too full of yourself.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

Yeah, yeah, just the way that you were placed, and I mean, your whole life and how we look back on our lives as we start to get older, right? And you're like, oh I see now why that happened. Oh, I see why I made that turn, and oh, glad I learned from that mistake, and we start these reflections, and then we get to this point, which I think we're at, where we feed into the younger, like, ah, this is what I went through, and don't go down this path, and it's not worth it, and all those small things that we learned the hard way.

SPEAKER_03 35:04

And if we can get any of them to listen, that's the key because they're everybody's all these kids have have all the answers, but some are listening. Yeah. My kids are listening, and I'm so grateful for that.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Well, and what makes a hungry kid? What makes somebody that's hungry for success so that they'll listen and tune in to their elders to be able to learn? That's a that's almost a gift in itself.

unknown 35:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Because some are like, I got it. Don't don't worry about it. I got it.

SPEAKER_03 35:31

Yeah. My old my oldest JJ, who's done everything on his own, gotten himself signed to a major label, um, Interscope, and then now he's on his own, but he's he's a self-sufficient, independent artist supporting himself. And so on one level, he's like, I don't, I don't need to hear anything from you. But it's so cool when I'll walk into his studio and I'll see the things that he's that he's he's learned from me, like labeling his stuff. Right. We have a label or like a brother label, or and I didn't do that for so long, was just so impatient, and nothing was labeled, cassettes weren't labeled. I love that that's I've passed that like those little things, he gets it. Yeah, and all the all the power supplies and cables are labeled, and I go, he's paying attention.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

Yeah, yeah, and sometimes our actions. So take me back through.

Mentoring Kids And Staying Hungry

SPEAKER_01 36:24

You were with Chicago longer than anyone, correct? Is that right?

SPEAKER_03 36:28

Well, as the original, actually, currently there's one guy out there who's who's been there the entire time. So I think they're coming up on 60 years, which is wild, right? But uh other than him, the other original members, Robert Lamb and Jimmy Panko, you know, have been really consistent for well over 55 years-ish. Other than them, a non-original member, yeah, I am, and probably will the record will never be beaten because it's not going to be really around. But he never know. I mean, blood, sweat, and tears, who I'm actually going to going on a cruise with, um, leaving tomorrow. There's no original members, but it doesn't matter because you know, the the the um the quality of the band has always been maintained. So so maybe maybe Chicago will continue, you know, in some form forever. I hope it does because it's like going to see Beethoven and Mozart at the Hollywood Bowl, they're not there, but all of that legacy that we all built, you know, it's it's our um our body of work. I'm half of the 80s hits, you know, and so um but as far as right now of seeing somebody out there that people would have have gone to see uh throughout their lifetime in concerts, yeah, 30 years I was there.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Um and you didn't, I mean, that could have easily become your identity where you would have said, I'm staying here no matter what, like I can't ever possibly top this. But you and I we don't need to get into the details, but you at some point decided I'm out.

Leaving Chicago For Family

SPEAKER_03 38:15

Yeah, well, it was an easy thing to, and I, you know, I would have 100% stayed there for the rest of my life, but my in-laws got ill, you know this. So, really, um, when my wife, I saw that this is a dutiful soldier for you know, probably so the 30 years I was there, she was there for about 25 of them. And when I and she's a tough, a tough woman. And when I saw that she was losing her parents, and I said, This woman needs me at home. And we'd it's not like we were making hit records and you were leaving in the middle of that. We'd already done all the work, and when I went and talked to the guys, talked to management, they totally understood, you know. And I mean, come on, 30 years together, so it's always probably good everybody's ready for a change anyway. But it was um, you know, that that was really the main the main reason, and I went and uh said, you know, I gotta go home and take care of my family. And they said, completely understand, and so and that but that's big of you.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

Here you are, this huge rock star, and you're like, you could have said, I don't need anybody, I'm great by myself. But no, you have this support system that you wanted to honor and take care of. Yeah, that shows yeah, that shows a lot about your character.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

Well, thank you. And I do see when people stay, and not to not to compare myself to anybody else, but I just looked at that's making a a decision and sending a message to your family. Sorry, and you can rationalize it. This is a great life, this and that. But I yeah, to your point. And Robert Lamb said this years ago, and he he was one of the the original real champions to get me in that band, too. Somebody was at a mutual friend of ours was talking to him one day about different guys, you know, and and he's like, you know, he's kind of looking around the band and go, yeah, I mean, without this, so and so would really not have anything. And there's nothing wrong with that. That's that's a good thing to only have you know a legacy in a band like that. But I love that he said, Jason will be fine with whatever he does in and out of this band. And I, you know, and he's he's right because I do so many different things, and I love, you know, I love being the go-to guy. I was just talking to somebody the other night that you know, Robbie Krieger of the Doors called me to come and do a video they were they they needed to do, and he needed me to be Jim Morrison. I mean, how crazy is that? First time going, okay, he wants me to play, but I said, Who's gonna sing this? He goes, You are okay. Paul Stanley of Kiss, you know, I need you to come and and uh play some songs with me. Alex Lifeson of of Rush, so I get to be Getty Lee. I love that stuff. Yeah. Kim, again, I'm a top 40 musician. Like I said, this this this beautiful woman in the next room brought me into a life of I just love great songs. I like to blend in, um, you know, and you know, my friends, it's incredible. Now I look back just like you do, and all these icons really are your friends that that made all these great uh works of art. And um, I just love being a part of that rather than you know staying in one one thing.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Yeah, and you're not gonna sit on the sidelines. So tell everyone what you're doing

Generation Radio Tours And Loss

SPEAKER_01 41:38

now. I got to I got to go see you and you pulled me up on stage. I love that yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:45

Well, so actually I'm in Nashville and celebrated my mother's birthday, like I said, but I also have been doing a bunch of press with our buddy Jay DeMarcus, because I'm in a band with Jay of Rascal Flats, and we have a band called Generation Radio. Our second album is going to be released on April 17th, and two singles have come out so far. And Steve Ferroni, who he used to see you, or I don't know if you went to Studio 54, he did. But remember that when we were all hanging out, and he goes, Oh, that's right. Steve was in the thick of the New York session scene in the 80s and uh and lived there. But Ferroni's our drummer. He's iconic. He was with Tom Petty for 25 years, so um, so Ferroni's the drummer, Jay, me, and a couple of incredible musicians, Tom Yankton and and Chris Rodriguez. So we we're gonna make a big push to get out and and do some dates. Um Rascal Flats is back together, so that's great. That really helps to just have one guy that's out there, you know, in a massive country group. And um, so that, but I do my own things too, which is what you came to. And I love that, you know. Um I love having a hundred percent my own band, and it we're doing Chicago music. I'll be probably adding some of the stuff I'm doing on solo work, but uh we played that, and it was it's actually kind of a bittersweet thing, and I'd love to just give a shout out that those gigs that you came to in uh Arizona, they were they were gigs that were potentially going to be canceled because I was doing them with my beautiful friend Tommy DiCarlo, who sang for Boston for 16 years, and he was incredible. And we had this show where he'd I'd go out and do a set of Chicago, he'd do a set of Boston, and we were really ramping that up, and he got sick. Oh, he's six sixty years old, Cam, and we lost him about three weeks ago. Oh, yeah, sorry. Yeah, and I'm just so grateful because I was able to get back to Charlotte. It was a trip I was coming back to Nashville, and I flew into Charlotte, I saw him, and he knew. I was there. Yes. He knew I was there. And a couple of days later he was gone. But and there is therein lies, you know, another piece of yeah, I don't look at it in a morose way. I just look at how fortunate I am to be sitting here with my pal Kim and and um you know celebrating, you know, this life that we have and have have left that we you know that today, just for today, we're healthy and because one day it changes. And um so anyway, so that so I'm doing that uh generation radio. You know, I'm going on a cruise tomorrow with blood, sweat, and tears. It's exciting. Yeah, a lot of things going on.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

That's good though.

SPEAKER_03 44:41

Oh, wait a minute, one more thing, and I'm and I'm I I told you guys I'm gonna be coming through your town. The Happy Together Tour. Oh, right, right. So um all summer, and uh I I kind of passed on it. I didn't kind of I passed on it a few times because I really wanted to focus on Generation Radio and myself, but the Happy Together Tour is based on the Turtles. Well, Mark Volman just passed away, Flo of Flo and Eddie, and and and Eddie Howard, um, I don't think tours much anymore. So that thing's changing. So they called me, and I almost felt felt a sense of of service and duty. Yeah. That they they're looking at me again. I was the guy that came into Chicago thinking, man, I'm an afterthought, but suddenly, like we talked, I'm half of the 80s success. Now I'm the link to the 60s and the 70s, because that tour is about 60s and 70s artists, and so they wanted me to come to continue it. And I went, that makes a lot of sense to me. So I'm gonna be out. There's like 66 dates that we're doing tour. Wow. That's yeah, but I don't have to perform the whole night, so that's what's beautiful about it, right? And some artists on it, like um the association. There's two original members, and my father's first hit record he played on was Along Comes Mary. So I can't wait to meet these guys, and that that's what that tour is about, too. A lot of storytelling. People are gonna flip out, hearing, like you say, the dots that are connected. Yeah, so I'm Jerry Chef's son, and so he was a session guy association, and then I joined Chicago, and everything's really just kind of intertwined. So I'm gonna be doing that this summer, too.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

Yeah, I love it. I love how that you're you may be 60, and you know, we we could just relax and retire. Right. And we're not, we're out giving back and doing what is productive and and gives people either entertainment or education or both. And I just love, I would love to see maybe even write a new song about something somewhere that as we get older, where we're feeding back into other people. I think that just it's just so neat.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

Absolutely. I've I've got a bunch of ideas started really like that. I'll put it before you go.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

All we have to do is just give you one sentence and your mind just dirt, you just start creating it.

SPEAKER_03 47:09

Yeah, you're you're right. You're right.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Yeah. Well, I thank you so much for being on Unexpired. I love you, and I'm so glad that we got to spend some time.

SPEAKER_03 47:20

Yeah, absolutely. I can't wait to see you again. And and um this is great. Yeah, it's a beautiful beautiful day out there, and say grateful, you're grateful again, without question. Yeah, I'm grateful. Yep, it's a beautiful life. Keep rocking, Kim. You are um such a great inspiration. You're the inspiration. See what I did there.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

I got a little song. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 47:47

All righty, talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_01 47:49

Yeah, you too.

Farewell And How To Connect

SPEAKER_01 47:51

Thanks for watching the show. If you have any questions for me or you want any more information, go to Kim Alexis.com.