Touring as an original member of a classic rock band is like winning a war of attrition. It can be a mixed blessing being able enough to perform at a high-level when you\u2019re on the precipice of 80 \u2014 as many still-touring Rock & Roll Hall of Famers are \u2014 especially as former bandmates have retired or died.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something Lee Loughnane, a founding member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group Chicago, knows well. When Loughnane announced in April that singer\/songwriter Robert Lamm had retired from touring due to health issues, Loughnane \u2014 who turns 80 in October \u2014 became the last original member of Chicago to remain on the touring circuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love for everybody to still be around,\u201d he says, \u201cbut that\u2019s not the way life works.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month, Walter Parazaider \u2014 who stood by Loughnane\u2019s side for many years in Chicago\u2019s vaunted horn section \u2014 died following complications from Alzheimer\u2019s disease, though he had retired from the road years earlier. Original singer and guitarist Terry Kath died in 1978in a firearm accident.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Chicago\u2019s most famous member, Peter Cetera \u2014 who sang lead on songs like \u201cBaby, What a Big Surprise\u201d and \u201cHard Habit to Break\u201d \u2014 quit in1985. Loughnane claims there were efforts to bring him back but, he says, \u201cthat fell through a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band originally formed in 1968, when it was known as The Big Thing, a precursor to its second name, The Chicago Transit Authority. To put that in some perspective, Season 6 \u201cAmerican Idol\u2019 contestant Rudy Cardenas \u2014 who joined the band last month to sing the Cetera songs \u2014 was born in 1978.<\/p>\n
Loughnane \u2014 known for his soaring trumpet lines on Chicago classics like \u201c25 or 6 to 4\u201d and \u201cDoes Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?\u201d \u2014 now lives in Sedona, Arizona, but he grew up in Elmwood Park, where Lee Loughnane Way was dedicated in his honor in 2012. Today, his nephew owns the house where Loughnane was raised, while his sister still lives about a half-block away.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would never even in your wildest dreams that, first of all, you\u2019d be able to do this for a living and then have something remembered after you with your name on it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Next month, Loughnane returns to the area with Chicago to co-headline the Allstate Arena with fellow Windy City natives Styx as part of the aptly named \u201cWindy Cities\u201d tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know of (Styx\u2019s) music,\u201d Loughnane says, \u201cbut I think if you ask them, they\u2019ll probably give you a similar answer. They\u2019ve been busy working rather than listening to what anybody else is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not entirely true. Tommy Shaw, singer and guitarist for Styx, says he has been rockin\u2019 Chicago since the release of their 1969 debut, when Shaw was 15 years old. \u201cWhen Chicago Transit Authority came out,\u201d Shaw says. \u201cit changed my world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Shaw isn\u2019t technically an original member of Styx, he joined the band in 1976, just in time for the band\u2019s golden era. He says it \u201ctook a while\u201d to stop feeling like the new guy and was absent from the band for a few years during Styx\u2019s first of several reunions, beginning in 1990. Even though fellow singer\/guitarist James \u201cJ.Y.\u201d Young has been in the band from the beginning, Shaw is the de facto leader of the band. Original bassist Chuck Panozzo joins the band on stage for some songs; his brother and former Styx drummer John Panozzo died 30 years ago and original singer and keyboardist Dennis DeYoung left the band in 1999.<\/p>\n
Most classic-rock bands have stopped recording new material, either because the return on investment isn\u2019t there or because hardwired fans simply want to hear the hits. Chicago has released just one album of original material since 2014 and rarely performs anything recorded within the past four decades.<\/p>\n
For Loughnane, the reason is simple. \u201cWe try to keep people in their seats interested in what we\u2019re doing. The legacy material that we\u2019ve put together works every night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Styx takes a different approach. While no show is complete without arena-rock staples like \u201cCome Sail Away,\u201d \u201cThe Grand Illusion\u201d and Shaw\u2019s signature \u201cRenegade,\u201d the band continues to write, record and perform new material. Their \u201cWindy Cities\u201d tour set list includes songs from both 2025\u2019s \u201cCircling From Above\u201d and 2021\u2019s \u201cCrash of the Crown.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sentient beings and our brains are still working,\u201d Shaw says. \u201cSo, we don\u2019t want to just lean on the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough,\u201d he adds, \u201cwe have a pretty awesome past.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blair R. Fischer is a freelance writer.<\/p>\n
If you go<\/p>\n