Chicago Co-Founder Lee Loughnane On The New Album “Born For This Moment,” The Doc “The Last Band On Stage” & More
With more than 100 million albums sold worldwide, in addition to being in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, the multi-GRAMMY Award-winning band Chicago has been hailed by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the “most important bands in music since the dawn of the rock and roll era.” A rock & roll band with horns like no other — past or present — Chicago is also the highest-charting American band within the “Top 125 Artists Of All Time” list published by Billboard Magazine. Chicago recently received The Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the GRAMMYS and was previously inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame in 2014, while founding Chicago band members Robert Lamm and James Pankow were both inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 2017.
To date, Chicago has scored 21 Top 10 singles, 5 consecutive #1 albums, 11 #1 singles and 5 Gold singles, with a total of 48 gold and platinum awards. But Chicago — as comprised of original members Robert Lamm on keyboards and vocals, Lee Loughnane on trumpet and vocals and James Pankow on trombone, along with Ray Herrmann on sax and flute, Wally Reyes, Jr. on drums, Neil Donell on vocals, Ramon “Ray” Yslas on percussion, Tony Obrohta on guitar, Loren Gold on keyboards and vocals, and Eric Baines on bass and vocals — is definitely not just resting on these accomplishments. Back in July, Chicago released its 38th studio album, Born For This Moment via the BMG record label, as preceded by the advance-released single “If This Is Goodbye” climbing the radio and single charts.
As if a big co-headlining tour with Brian Wilson and a new studio album was not enough for 2022, Chicago is the focus of the newly-released documentary, The Last Band On Stage. As released via Gravitas Ventures, The Last Band On Stage tells the unbelievable story of how the band Chicago has lasted 55 years without stopping recording or missing a year of touring. Narrated by Joe Mantegna, the film follows how Chicago dealt with COVID-19, and how the only thing that could stop the band from touring was a worldwide pandemic that stopped everyone. The film also chronicles the recording of the Born For This Moment album, as well as the song “If This Is Goodbye.” In turn, The Last Band On Stage is a comprehensive celebration of the American musical institution known as Chicago.
On October 3, 2022, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chicago co-founder Lee Loughnane again, as embedded below along with my footage from Chicago’s July 2022 show at the Northwell Health At Jones Beach Amphitheater. More on Loughnane, Chicago, the BMG-released Born For This Moment and the Gravitas Ventures-released The Last Band On Stage can be found by clicking here, here and here.
