Chicago keyboardist/vocalist Robert Lamm said there was only one time during the band's 29-year career when it thought about calling it quits.
It was in 1978, when founding member/guitarist Terry Kath accidentally shot himself while cleaning a gun."That was the only time," Lamm said during a phone interview from San Francisco. "But we didn't. And even through all the lineup changes and other setbacks, we've managed to pull through. I do credit that to my brothers in the band."
Lamm's "brothers" - trumpeter Lee Loughnane, trombonist James Pankow, woodwinder Walt Parazaider, guitarist/keyboardist vocalist Bill Champlin, bassist Jason Scheff and drummer Tris Imboden - collectively known as Chicago, will play at the Wolf Mountain Amphitheater on Tuesday.
Chicago, which is currently on a co-headlining tour with Crosby, Stills and Nash, will take the stage first.
"The tour with Crosby, Stills and Nash is - can I say it? - a trip," mused Lamm. "We've been seeing people of all types at the shows. It's interesting how our groups attract all ages. It goes back to the fact that '70s and '60s music never really died."
Besides the tour, a storm of events have been brewing in the big band from the Windy City.
"We've been planning a greatest hits package of the band's two eras," Lamm said of the early jazz-influenced tunes of the '70s and the breezy pop ballads of the '80s. "Then we'll head back to the studio in '97 for a new Chicago album."
Lamm is also involved with projects of his own. "Chicago has its own record label on which I've got two albums," he said.
Lamm's first album, "Skinny Boy," which was originally released on Columbia in 1974, is now on Chicago Records, as is a new album, "Life Is Good In My Neighborhood."
"`Life' was something I had to do," he explained. "I wasn't feeling fulfilled with my songwriting for Chicago. And I needed to do something different. I sat down and talked to my producer (Phil Ramone who has also worked with Billy Joel), and he told me the things people look for in my work is, first off, my voice. Then they look for the intellectual content - human rights, lost opportunities and the whole human existence thing. So I was able to let loose and I'm pretty happy with what was done."
The sessions served as an inspirational break for Lamm who returned to the band with all sorts of ideas.
"I'm happy to say the hard-driving '70s sound of Chicago is reinstated because of that album," he said. "And I've also got my next solo album ready to go. I'm just waiting for the marketing procedures to begin rolling."
Lamm, who sang in a boys and mens choir at church and studied classical and jazz at Roosevelt University, has been with Chicago since its inception in 1967. He said one of the reasons the band has been together for so long is communication.
"We fight a lot," he laughed. "There are so many different points of view. A band is like a small capsule of society. There are democrats, republicans and all sorts of thought waves put together to make music. All of our disagreements are arranged around what we as individuals think will benefit the band. And there are times when things are taken personally and not as constructive criticism. That's when it gets heavy. But it's all based on making decisions for the better of the band. That's why we're still here."