Original subtitles

(guitar music)

- I had talked to Terry in the morning,

and he says, "You coming over?"

I say, "Okay. "

Well, when you've been up for a couple days,

things get discombobulated, the processes,

and what happened was, Terry was playing with the gun,

that stupid little automatic he had,

and he just played with the gun,

and he just went like that, "Hey, John."

Boom, boom.

Just that,

and I hate it when people say,

"Oh, he committed suicide."

You're full of shit.

They don't know shit.

They just wanna be sensational.

(guitar music)

- He was the leader of the band.

You know What I mean.

"One, two, three."

He was the leader of the band.

(guitar music)

- Terry was really soulful.

Really pretty voice.

(guitar music)

- Terry Kath was an innovator,

to the point Where Jimmy Hendrix

was blown away by Terry's playing.

(rock music)

- When we were locked, Terry and I, it was fun.

(rock music)

- He was the most wonderful guitar player.

He was the fastest I've ever seen.

(rock music)

- I spent a lot of time wondering

how in the world does he get a guitar to sound like that?

(rock music)

- I never knew my dad.

I know that he was the lead guitarist

and co-founding member of the band, Chicago.

I know that he loved my mother and me very much,

and his music provided a soundtrack

to many of my experiences.

People who knew him are often struck

by how similar we look,

and even how similar we seem,

but to me, he's been a relative mystery,

and I began to search for clues to who he was.

I Oh my reasons and my ways

I Keep on changing from day to day

I As I do it becomes so clear

I Why I'm here

After the birth of my first child,

I found a box of my mom's

that she had tucked away in a closet.

It was filled with love letters,

photos and compositions.

But What was most exciting to me,

was my dad's eight millimeter home movies.

It was like getting a glimpse into his mind,

snapshots of things beyond his music

that meant something to him.

Life on the road, my mom,

me, as a baby.

This was our last Christmas together.

He died tragically before my second birthday.

(dramatic music)

This is the neighborhood my dad grew up in, really.

His house is close by.

They walked these streets.

I Looking back a few short years

Uncle Rod.

- How are you? - Hello, Uncle Rod.

- Good to see you.

- Uncle Rod left at 6:30 in the morning to meet us.

- Oh, absolutely. To beat the rush hour traffic.

I used to live here.

I Clinging to our confidence

I We stood on the threshold of the goal

- The reason Why I wanted to focus so much

on the Kath's Lake Placid Lodge

is because you guys spent a lot of time there

and a lot of the interviews and the stories I'm getting,

everyone talks about this need my dad had

to get back to nature and be in this place,

this environment you guys were raised in.

- Well, it was a fantasy.

And when you think about it,

we grew up in the city of Chicago,

our parents bought a piece of property,

which was 160 acres with 5,000 feet of lake frontage

that you couldn't drive to.

- [Michelle] You were saying there was always

musical instruments lying around?

- [Rod] Here Terry started playing,

there were woodwinds, Clarinets, saxophone,

accordion, and then Terry brought the guitar

into the environment.

- [Michelle] Do you know What might have

spurred that on, the need to pick up the guitar

as opposed to anything else.

Was he into any kind of music at the time?

- [Rod] To defy my father.

- [Michelle] To defy your father?

- His father. (laughing)

He didn't like those long haired creeps with the guitars.

He didn't consider it to be music at the beginning.

- [Michelle] That's so funny.

- [Rod] And there was a little rebellion there,

but Terry had this innate ability

to pick something up and start walking through it

and just pick up without any ability to read the music,

pick up the melody and play it.

- [Michelle] Can you tell me about the first time

you met my dad?

- We met at Boulevard Studios,

and I decided for a little that sounded like Elvis,

and we didn't hit it off right away,

but got really friendly

and he'd stay over at my house,

and we'd take records down,

like Jack McDuff live at the Jazz Workshop,

and he'd take the guitar licks off

of George Benson and I'd try to take

Red Holloway's licks off on the tenon

and we'd just mess around and we hit it off.

- I was 15 and a half, so he was

The very first meeting, I passed the audition for the band,

and I was just going to observe the drummer

and gonna learn the songs and got here, said,

"This is Terry, this is Danny. "

He was so relaxed and cool and easy going and unpretentious.

- I met Terry at Walt's parent's house in Chicago.

My impression of Terry was one of the more amusing guys

I've ever met.

He was always up to something.

He had a sense of mischief,

good natured mischief going on.

- [Man 1] I think the first time I saw him,

you guys were playing a gig down at the Happy Medium.

- [Man 2] The Pussy Cat A Go Go.

- The Pussy Cat A Go Go? - Yeah.

With Missing Links. - Yeah.

And he was playing bass.

- [Man 2] He was playing bass with the Missing Links.

- I remember, excuse me, just being blown away

by his voice,

the soul in his voice.

I Every day I wake up crying

I Every day

- Yo. - Hello, how are you?

- Morning everybody.

- Good morning, been a while.

- It's been a While.

Hi.

- This is Dennis Polkow. - Dennis, nice to meet you.

- It's a great pleasure.

May I? - Yes, of course.

- [George] And this is Michy Saxe.

- Hi, Micky. - How are you doing?

How are you? - Nice to meet you.

Finally.

- And doesn't she look like her,

do you see a little- - It's, yeah.

- It's uncanny, isn't it? - It really is.

(rock music)

- [Man] The music scene, the people,

and most of the fans had long hair,

most of the public had crew cuts.

- Yes, exactly.

It was a statement.

Very definitely about how you felt about the war

and how you felt about society in general.

There was this phenomenon called show bands.

What you're seeing when you see those early pictures

of The Big Thing, or The Missing Links,

and they're all in shark skin suits,

that was the style then,

and yes, it very much was about getting people

to dance and to respond

because this was music that they wouldn't know.

The covers that they did were very unusual.

They were their own arrangements.

- Their own take.

- Yeah, their own take.

That was always a challenge for the club owners,

who of course, would much prefer a human jukebox.

(rock music)

- This was The Happy Medium,

and upstairs was an actual performance for bigger acts.

Downstairs was a club called the Pussycat,

and the Pussycat is Where most of the bands played.

We'd come and see each other play.

Somebody would get off one gig

and you'd end up, you'd in the back of the room

and the guys were back there,

and that's how we were.

We were family,

and especially that tie to DePaul,

which was an important part,

because there was a crew of us

that came and went to different bands.

- This is where the music school was.

It's the college of law, now,

but this was on the original signs, Lewis Center,

and the fifth floor of this building

was where the music school was,

and though your dad didn't actually go,

he was a fixture.

- Oh, he was there every- - Yeah.

- He was there quite often. - Yeah.

- I love it. - Yeah, yeah.

- That's one way to go to college.

- That's one way to do.

- [Man] Terry, although we were trained musicians,

Terry walked in and fit right in.

- [Michelle] 80 you guys knew each other,

when did you meet him?

- I was at DePaul, so that's how I knew

Walt and Lee and Jimmy.

So I had left.

I'm working with Dick Clark.

We're on the road.

We had a band and I was getting promoted up

from the D band to the C band,

and there was an opportunity when I got moved up.

- And I said to the guys,

I said, "Well is there room for Terry to come,

“cause I'm not going otherwise.

"You need a guitar player. "

And he said, "You're talking to him."

I said, "Well, then I can't go."

And then for some reason, I thought,

"Do you have a bass player?"

And they said, "No."

And I went back to Terry, I says,

"Hey, we can go and travel from California

"in a bus with all these acts and everything.

"Would you wanna get a bass?

"If you don't wanna get a bass, that's cool.

"We'll just pass on this thing."

He says, "I'll get a fender bass."

And he got an echo bass.

- We played a placed called Holiday Ballroom.

We backed up Paul Revere and the Raiders

and it was one show at Aaron Crown Theater,

and then we did a road gig.

That was an actual Dick Clark gig-

It was the only one I got to do with him,

with The Four Seasons and Little Anthony

and the Imperial, the Yard Birds,

first North American appearance.

It was really mind blowing.

- I was in another group in Chicago,

and this new group, the Big Pink came.

We actually played a gig together,

and I think about the second night.

He said, "Hey, we wanna talk to you.

“We're looking for a bass player who sings."

Your dad, he and I did not hit it off.

He didn't like What I was playing on bass,

and in about two weeks I said,

"It's not working for me, guys."

"Why, Why, Why?"

Well Terry's not even talking to me,

he's grumpy, he's complaining about everything I'm playing,

and Bobby said, "No.

"Never mind Terry.

"Terry, you be nice."

Or something, it was one of those "You be nice" moments

and "We want you in the group and that's that."

And that's how it started.

- Walt's idea was to be the kind of band

that could work in night clubs

and maybe even work in Las Vegas,

that was about as far as Walt's vision was.

I pulled Terry aside and I said "Terry,

"Walt and I are gonna put a horn band together,

"an all star band, and we want you to play guitar.

"Not bass, guitar.

"Instead of going out to the west coast,

"Why don't you stay here with us."

And he thought about it and said,

"Yeah, I don't wanna leave you guys.

"Okay, I'm gonna stay, I'm in."

So that was the beginning of Chicago Transit Authority,

of course we weren't called that.

- They were called The Big Thing,

and they were playing in the suburbs.

- Your dad was trying to encourage us

to be ourselves for a long time

but we were wanting to work

so we had to play this game with the suits

and the Whole nine yards.

- Cover band. - Cover band, you know,

doing the R and B and stuff.

I Not unusual to make love with a new one.

Terry was always the renegade.

Your dad didn't like this image.

We weren't crazy about it either,

so we showed up at the club the next day.

This was the biggest club in the midwest.

We had the hair hanging down

and Terry's suit jacket was inside out

and this guy was looking at us like,

"What's going on here?"

He'd sit at the bar with his cronies

while we started the sets.

- [Man 1] Right across the street, Cream

was making their American concert debut

and they were playing this place down below,

and here we are stuck in this nightclub.

The owner was a real slime ball,

and he comes up to us and he goes,

"Hey, boys, play one of those belly rubbers."

So he could dance with his waitress girlfriend.

- [Man 2] Instead of playing Misty,

we launched into a Frank Zappa tune,

How Could I Be Such a Fool,

and we tore Terry's jacket off

in the process of playing the song,

and with that, the club owner got off his stool,

he was completely irate.

He ran to the front of the stage

and started yanking at Walt's pants,

and I'm playing next and I'm going,

"Walt, What is he saying?

"What is he saying?"

Walt goes, "I think we're fired."

And Terry says, "Yeah, screw it.

"Let's just keep playing man."

- [Michelle] And The Big Thing became CTA.

- Thank God.

(laughing)

Can you imagine being called The Big Thing.

It conjures up a lot of strange thoughts, doesn't it?

Launches into that Mothers of Invention song,

at the club. - Yeah.

- [Man 1] Which was Terry's idea,

was your dad's idea.

That was a defining moment.

- [Man 2] That was breaking out of the mold.

- [Man 1] That was a defining moment,

because from that day on,

we decided we're gonna be us.

(upbeat music)

I Well my Daddy sent a message

I 'bout the Whiskers on my chin

I Never had no problems

I 'cause I've always paid the rent

I I got no time for Iovin'

I My time is all used up

I Spend my time creatin' for some groovy kinds of love

I I'm a man, yes I am, and I can't help but love you so

I I'm a man, yes I am, and I can't help but love you so

I If I had my choice of matter

I I'd rather be content

I Being closer to the chatter

I Than Where your mind is at

I While relating to each other

I How strong your love will be

I Except that only sometimes

I Groovy chicks you see

I I'm a man, yes I am, and I can't help but love you so

- The Wildest thing was your dad happened

to call my apartment, and he said,

"This guy's in town I want you to know,

"and I think he can help us out.

"You oughta talk to him."

- So anyhow, I went to Barnaby's and saw 'em,

said, "This is all incredible.

"It's better than anybody who does it,

"and it's great but I can't use it."

I gotta have original material

and they went to work and Jimmy

and they went to work and rock.

- [Man] And that was our break.

(upbeat music)

When we moved to California,

the first album was What we rehearsed

at the Holly Drive house, which was

our little house in LA.

- The late 605 was a very experimental

time in music and we were really trying to break

new ground and we were being encouraged by Jim Guercio.

Don't just try to write songs,

and we took the influences of the things

we were listening to at the time,

everything from The Beatles, Hendrix,

some jazz to some classical.

We made those influences drive

how each composition had no standard form of construction.

As we composed the music for the first album

and rehearsed it and rehearsed it and rehearsed it,

over and over, in that little house,

it began to take form and at some point, Guercio said,

"Okay, we're going to New York and we're gonna record."

- And did that Whole album in 14 days

and that whole album was done eight track.

- He wrote this song, which is the first song

on the first, called Introduction,

and it's basically, your dad wanted to introduce the band

in a song.

(upbeat music)

I Hey there everybody

I Please don't romp or roam

I We're a little nervous

I 'Cause we're so far from home

I So this is what we do

I Sit back and let us groove

I And let us work on you

I We've all spent years preparing

I Before this band was born

I With heaven's help it blended

I And we do thank the lord, yeah, yeah

I Come on, everybody

I Sit back and let us groove

I Let us work on you, yeah, yeah,yeah

Well the introduction's my favorite.

That's a killer piece.

Incredible piece of music.

Your dad ran that band and that's his tune.

I love Introduction, one take, live.

One, first album.

- To me Introduction is like

the greatest challenge I've ever had musically.

It's a really challenging song.

It's got three or four different time changes.

It starts in four four,

then it goes three eight and into 19 eight.

19 eight, you can't even fathom how to count it,

and then back into four four

and it has tempo changes and also kicks.

- But he didn't actually write music.

I'm trying to imagine now you guys

in the studio recording this song,

and him trying to get it out of his brain

and communicate to you.

- He wrote this piece with all of these

complicated time signatures

and he said, "Jimmy come over here."

Because I have the ability to write stuff down,

and he needed that to happen,

so he could chart everything out,

so we could then present it

to everybody in the band

and they could read the parts,

and when I started writing it down,

only then did I realize how sophisticated

the mind of this guy was

to be able to encapsulate

this song in his head, in its entirety.

I'm going, "Man, this dude is off the charts, man."

That's when I realized,

I always knew how enormously talented

your dad was, but when that song happened,

that's when I really understood

how deep Terry's integration into music was,

because just writing it down was a daunting task,

much less having it all in his head.

(rock music)

- [Man] Sitting there counting minutes,

I wanted to do a double album,

but then that went up.

I said, "Terry, do that thing with your guitar. "

- I found one called Free Form Guitar,

and I'm not sure exactly What that is.

(discordant music)

- That was way ahead of its time.

I remember, it was almost Coltrane-esque.

- There was no pedals.

We set him up, nobody was in the room.

Turned the lights down.

The big concert studio that we recorded

a lot of the album in, but that was one take.

It was one take, just him.

I think I mic'd it on three, four tracks,

I had echo.

(discordant music)

- I'm well versed enough so that when I hear that piece,

I know What he's doing.

I have a visual of that sound

of What you have to do with your guitar

to get that sound and there's a couple other things

that I don't know What he's doing.

I don't know how in the world

he got that out of a guitar.

- [Michelle] Do you know about that guitar?

Where it might be?

- Is that the one- - I don't know.

We're trying to look for it.

- [Man] You know, I think Hank has the guitar.

- Fender's genius design of the telecaster

was the fact that it was solid.

You can see it's not a hollow bodied,

'cause at the time hollow bodies

were prominent and prone to feedback,

Whereas this was not, so you can see

it has two single coils.

Bridge pickup is angled to create

that Telly twang, or the brightness.

- Why would he favor this guitar?

What do you think?

- He really liked the ability of the telecaster's

bridge pickup to cut through mix.

Somewhere around 1972 on his guitar,

apparently he asked his guitar tech at the time

to carve it out and put a humbucker

or double coil- - On this?

- Yeah, on this one, double coil in the neck,

so that he could have some Gibson

and the sound of a Fender in one guitar.

From what I read, he favored the Stratocaster

tremolo system, mostly because of its response

but also intonation, which intonation on a guitar

makes sure that all the notes sound good

on the front board, 'cause from here to here,

can't be fixed.

That's just standard intonation,

but from here to here,

it can be anywhere between a half step

and a Whole step off depending

on how bad your intonation is.

I was reading in, I have an original copy

of the 1971 or '72 Guitar Player magazine

that your dad was featured in.

He just said that he liked the Fender Stratocaster

tremolo bridge the best.

- Okay, I'm gonna introduce you to Tom Vienna.

I came across Tom because when I first

had the idea to do the documentary,

I was just researching,

and his website always came up,

over and over and over,

and I was like, "God, people are obsessed with this guitar. "

And there were forums and chats,

like, "Where is this guitar?"

And seriously intricate details

on how to replicate this guitar,

so in my journey, we're trying to figure out

Where this guitar is.

It's taken a character of its own,

'cause we haven't found it yet.

(rock music)

Can you describe any of the setups

or the gear or any of that stuff?

- He had these Radio Shack amplifiers

that were really old PA amplifiers.

I think he got the first one in Chicago

before he ever came out here,

and he used acoustic speaker cam,

with six 10 inch speakers in each one,

and they thought he, if I can remember,

two of those on stage.

- That amp, I don't know, it was this little box.

I don't think he was using it.

It wasn't even a guitar amp.

It was for something, PA or something.

At the time it was so primitive

that it picked up RF, radio frequencies

from these places and you'd be

right through his amps in the afternoon,

when he's testing them out,

you'd hear a radio station coming through the amps.

Rig, they called the rig, his whole setup.

We'd be running Wire 40, 60 feet ground Wires

to get rid of the RF.

He'd hook up chicken wire

and your dad would say, "I don't give a shit.

"Let's go, I don't care.

"That's my rig, I'm going.

"You wanna use something else?

"No, I ain't using nothing else."

- He was so having fun,

and I heard a story, they say that Hendrix said

that when he saw Terry play,

he said, "That guy is the best guitar player

"I've ever heard in my life."

So let's just start with getting a thumbs up from Jimmy

and work exponentially forward,

that's how everybody felt,

that he was the superstar of the band.

- Chicago, there was a house band at the Whiskey,

and one night, they were on stage playing,

and somebody, one of the guys looks at me and goes,

motioning in the back

and in the back of the room is Jimmy Hendrix.

Had a scarf, said, "Oh, my God, Jimmy Hendrix."

We just happened to do Purple Haze and stuff like that,

and so we finished our set and like,

"Oh, my God, Jimmy Hendrix."

We couldn't breathe and we went in the dressing room

and we sat down, toweling off, "Jimmy Hendrix!"

Sitting there, the door swings open

and in walks frickin' Jimmy Hendrix.

He walks in and he goes,

"You guys are motherfuckers."

And that's when he came up to me

right after we had made the deal with CBS

to produce CTA, the first album.

- What of course we find out

was that he really, he was floored

with the group, of course,

but he was floored with Terry.

He had his management call our then-management,

and we opened for Hendrix for the tour.

- Your dad and him were buddies.

He thought your dad was the best guitar player.

He said, "He's better than me."

Yeah.

Anyway he said, "You gotta let me produce it, man.

"Gotta let me produce it."

Like that.

- [Michelle] Imagine if Jimmy Hendrix and my dad

had an album together.

- [Man] We talked about it many times.

(rock music)

- The reason Why I think it's important to come

and talk to you is because you're a little piece of history,

not only with my dad but with the band as well.

With your fine establishment here.

- That there Whiskey, your dad was there

almost 50 years ago. - Yeah.

- That's a long time.

- Did you know my dad back in Chicago?

- No, I knew him from here. - Oh, from here.

- In fact, we put him into Whiskey

when they first came here.

Whiskey A Go Go.

They were still there, 50 years now.

- [Michelle] Yeah, it was one of the first places

they played. - Yeah, right.

- The Whiskey. - Yeah.

But your dad was a very dear friend of mind,

and that's how I came to baptize you

for your father.

He's a great musician. Great, was, I love him to death.

I still think about him today.

Think of him all the time.

There he is, right there.

There's my friend, right here, see him?

Look at how beautiful he is.

What a great guy, God.

Just can't forget him, he's right there.

Little girl with blonde hair.

- [Michelle] I was that little girl once upon a time.

All the other pictures are amazing.

The history of the Sunset Strip.

- [Man] Chicago has been phenomenally successful

outside of the United States.

They've been accepted all through the continent,

in France and Germany, Switzerland,

Denmark, Holland, Sweden, and England, phenomenally.

They've been accepted much more readily

than they have here.

Yet at the same time, we have toured more extensively here.

We've played more cities here.

We've played every borough, every state,

every major city over two, three hundred thousand

population in the country.

Not that we were an overnight success,

but when all of the sudden hit that level,

your life is not your own.

We were gone more than we were home.

We were with each other more than with our families.

You get surrounded by a different element of people,

not necessarily the most stand up honest people.

- I would see him when my band The James Gang,

and CGA were on the same show.

When I knew him, they weren't a pop band.

They would play songs live

that were 10 and 12 minutes long,

and the middle part, everybody would open up

and they'd just go improvise,

and that's where Terry would shine.

I Yeah, we can make it happen

I We can make it happen

I Yeah, we can make it happen

I We can make it happen, yeah

I We can make it happen, we can make it happen

I Yeah, we can make it happen, we can make it happen

I Yeah, we can make it happen, we can make it happen

I Yeah, we can make it happen, we can make it happen

I Yeah, we can make it happen, we can make it happen

I Yeah, we can make it happen, we can make it happen

I Yeah, we can make it happen, we can make it happen

I Yeah, we can make it happen, we can make it happen

I Yeah, we can make it happen, we can make it hap-

(applause)

- Let's put it this way.

This is before we recorded an album,

and we went to New York

and we used to go, 'cause everybody wanted

to meet some chicks, have a nice drink

and all this stuff,

so we'd go into these night clubs or something,

and all these groupie chicks.

They'd come up, "Oh, you've got long hair.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm With CTA."

(vocalizes)

They'd split.

You wouldn't even see them for the rest of the night

and now, now with CTA, we have an album out,

now it's a different story.

We go into places, we don't even wanna meet chicks

half the time, chicks are like, "Oh."

All they want is a free ride.

That's all a groupie is.

They've been here for years, man.

They really have.

Groupies have been around ever since there was musicians.

- Yeah, it seems like a fairytale,

and when I look back, I think of how romantic it all was.

Graduated from high school and I was traveling around.

I always wanted to see California,

and I ended up in LA.

One day I was in a grocery store,

and I ran into my girlfriend from Michigan

and she said, "Oh, my God.

"I'm living at the beach in Malibu,

"and my boyfriend's in Japan.

"He works for this band Chicago,

"and I'd love for you to spend the summer.

"I'm here alone all summer. "

And I thought, "Oh, my God.

"This is like a dream come true."

I stayed with her at the beach.

It was really wonderful.

That night, Terry came over,

and was very casual.

I met him, I thought he was really nice.

He said, "Oh, I wanna take you for a ride."

And we went up the coast a little bit

in his Maserati and Terry was a wonderful guy.

He was a real gentleman,

but I had plans to go back home to Michigan.

He kept writing me letters

and sending me cards.

I think I got one or two cards a day

for a very long time.

I don't know how he kept that up.

He called me and he said,

"What would you like for your birthday?"

And I said, "I'd like to come out and see you."

So I came out, he lived in the Hollywood Hills.

The vibe, the I. vibe just didn't strike me

as a comfortable place to be

and he could see that and he said,

"Well, Why don't we drive to Colorado together? "

And it was that drive from I. to Colorado,

a year after I met him

that made me realize What an amazing man he was,

and I fell in love with him.

- [Interviewer] Caribou is probably a family deal,

work at the ranch in Colorado.

You guys record.

I guess live, too, Jim.

Does anybody live there? - No.

Hang out, well we lived

when we worked it. - Uh huh.

- [Jim] Terry, you live ther - - [Ferry] I used to live there,

and hung out there pretty much,

but I'm based in I., back there.

- [Jim] No, well it's not out of range.

It's not out of range. - No, no, no, no.

- [Interviewer] Who wants to talk about Caribou?

Peter, you wanna tell us about the ranch?

What actually happens out there?

The size of the spread and all that.

- [Peter] You really want me to say What happens at the ranch?

- [Interviewer] What happens at the ranch?

I think people wanna know. - Nothing.

- [Ferry] The record guy says don't tell them

What happens at the ranch!

I Don't you go once or twice

I Think that you are very nice

I Now, trust me, I'm easy

I Hey girl

I I think you got a pistol

- [Michelle] Why do you think Caribou Ranch

was such this place that was like this big draw

for him that he loved so much?

- Nature.

It was just one big playpen.

That was amazing to have that time to ourselves

and Caribou Ranch, live up there,

spend all our time together

doing Whatever the hell we want

all over that ranch.

Horseback riding, riding motorcycles

all over the ranch, shooting guns,

whatever you wanted.

It was just fun.

When I first met Terry, I said, "Why do you have to carry a gun?"

Because when we were at Caribou Ranch,

he literally wore a holster with .38 in it.

One of his favorite movies was Taxi Driver.

"You talking to me?"

And he'd do that in front of the mirror

with a gun, "You talking to me?"

But if you knew him, it all made sense.

It was just part of the way he lived.

We went out and set up cans out in the fields

at Caribou Ranch and blasted all of them

with different, "Oh, try this one.

"Oh, try this one, okay.

"This one's got a real kick."

To him it wasn't something used to kill anything,

and he didn't believe in hunting,

it was just something he loved.

He loved cars, he loved motorcycles and he loved guns,

and he loved guitars,

and so it became something that was just there.

They were in the house.

- Meanwhile back at the ranch,

which is a video we shot with Dick Clark,

and they flew up a bunch of kids from Colorado University

and they built a stage,

and we did a live concert.

We were doing our normal being bad boys in the house,

and came out and Terry's got this big,

I don't know What you'd call it,

.45, .38 special, and he walks out there

and he brings it right on stage,

and before we start playing,

he just raises it up and fires a shot

straight in the air,

and everybody just, "Woah."

We just saw, but that was Terry.

Terry being Terry, scaring the hell out of everybody.

- When we'd go to record,

I would be the tour manager or the one

most responsible, I have this picture,

and we had stayed up all night

and we were gonna go out shooting.

We thought, "Oh, What a great idea."

And it was six or seven in the morning.

The sun was right in our faces,

and here we are with this plastered on smile

of us leaning on his blazer before we got in the car

and went out shooting, chopping down Aspen trees.

(upbeat music)

- It seemed like a fairytale.

For a very long time, life was really good.

It was a lot of fun.

They did a world tour While I was with Terry.

That was incredible.

Traveling through Switzerland

and beautiful trains with private cars

and he took me to Paris for the first time.

The room was full of flowers.

- Oh, Paris and flowers. - Yes.

Took me shopping, then we went to Amsterdam,

which was so much fun.

Amsterdam with him.

We traveled a lot with Diane and Peter, too.

We seemed to do a lot of trips together,

to Hawaii, to Europe together,

and when Chicago traveled, they had private planes,

and it was just fun.

It was just unreal.

- [Man] All the Chicago girls were very close.

All the Wives.

We hung out, they hung out.

It was really a family.

The Whole Chicago organization.

You really felt you were in a family.

We were all from Chicago.

Well, some of the girls weren't.

The closest friends I ever had were during that time.

- Whenever Chicago had time off,

I just never knew what we were gonna do.

I would wake up in the morning and he'd look at me and say,

"Do you wanna go to Hawaii today? "

"Yeah. "

"Let's go to Hawaii today, okay. "

We loved going to Hawaii.

I bought a vintage dress,

a vintage lace dress.

We got up really early

'cause we wanted to be out on the beach

when no one was there

and we went out to a point

out by the waves and we married each other.

(romantic music)

- [Jim] But he was very proud of the fact

that he had a daughter,

and was looking forward to the little things

that would go on.

- [Man] Well, it was a source of pride.

Just in some of these pictures, you can see

when he's holding you

and those are very, those are infant pictures,

the smile on his face.

- But he was very excited.

He was a big part of the process.

He never walked away from me then.

He was really into it.

We took you on the road in a little harness

and you went everywhere with us.

You just became part of the Whole family on the road.

- [Michelle] He would have been around in my life?

- Absolutely. - For sure.

- [Man] Maybe more than you wanted,

but yes, he would have been around.

Certainly he would have taken a strong role

in your life, there's no doubt in my mind.

(cheerful music)

(playful music)

- [Ferry] The road and home life are two different things.

They're two separate ideas.

The road living is totally a different way of life.

- [Man] We toured a lot and we toured really hard.

- I remember him telling me on the phone time,

"Well, last year, we're gonna take a break.

" Last year we played

Can you imagine taking the entire group?

- (Togethefl 278 one-fighters.

- We were beginning to deal with

not only the physical hardship of being on the road.

It got tough because we started taking knocks

for always having songs in the top 40,

so What began as an avant garde underground thing.

"Hey, have you heard this band?" kind of buzz.

We became very mainstream very quickly.

- Is this a horn band with guitar support,

or is this a lead guitarist, lead singing front man

backed by a horn section?

That was the dynamic that rubbed, that rubbed,

and created tension,

and the music is wonderful because of that.

I Waiting for the break of day

I Searching for something to say

I Dancing lights against the sky

I Giving up I close my eyes

- "25 or 6 to 4", that's probably the one

that was on the radio all the time,

on FM radio, that was on,

and it had that nice long solo.

I 25 or six to four

- "25 or 6 to 4" is brilliant.

I guess that's the landmark signature Chicago song for him.

I Staring blindly into space

I could never figure out What the title

of the song was,

because I was stoned.

Is it 25 or 64?

Is it 25 or six two four?

I Wondering how much I can take

I Should have tried to do some more

- But 25 is like- - 25 or 64.

- That song- - But What's 25 mean?

- 25 minutes or 26 minutes to four in the morning,

and you're trying to decide

whether you should do more.

(rock music)

- It's amazing 'cause he seemed

to take those studio recordings

and bring it to a Whole new level playing live.

There was a little more ferocity.

It was live and What he did in that context

was even greater than the record.

Really kind of brought it to a new place

and fun to watch, fun to listen to.

- It's a performance that is right up there

with all the great guitar solos I've ever heard.

- It was just like any riff, really.

Just wanging up and down that neck like a loony.

It was brilliant.

- Most of the time I ever saw him,

he had a telecaster, with stickers for that instrument.

- There was one guitar in particular

that traveled with us and it got its own seat,

'cause he didn't wanna put it through

with the equipment and he didn't wanna

give it to the, put it on the truck,

so it got a seat,

so we would get three seats,

one for Terry and I and one for the guitar.

It was great, never had anyone sitting next to us.

- Do you know Where that guitar is?

With all the Pignose stickers?

- I don't know What happened to that guitar.

- Hank is my dad's roadie, personal roadie,

and was one of his closest friends,

and after my dad passed away,

he acquired a lot of my dad's things.

According to Jim Guercio, he might have the guitar.

(phone rings) (upbeat music)

- [Woman] Your call has been forwarded

to an automated voice message system.

(beeps)

- Hi, Trevor.

It's Michelle.

It's been a while since we talked,

but I'm still interested in meeting up with you

and seeing if you have some guitars.

I hope to hear from you 'cause I know

it's been a While and we haven't talked or Whatever,

but give me a call.

Hope you're well, bye.

He didn't answer again.

Again.

He really just doesn't answer my phone call anymore.

I don't really know What to do

but I guess just keep trying.

- I could tell you a story that made us close.

He had just gotten this brand new Porsche

and it was green so we went out

and he started drinking a lot,

and used to have a bad thing to pull us out,

'cause it stimulates you and-

- We're talking about coke? - Cocaine.

- [Michelle] Okay, just to clarify.

- I'm reluctant to say it, but it's What it is.

It's just What it was.

So we drove back and we were in my neighborhood

and we got up onto Winnetka

and I will never forget, this was a 35 mile an hour zone,

and he went through all three gears,

and I figured, we have to be going 90, 100 miles an hour,

we went up a hill and at the top of the hill,

turned down to the right, right at the top,

well, that car went out sideways on us,

and we spun around on the back tires,

hit the curb, rolled it, end over end and up a hill.

We were upside down and I got out of the car

and these people came up,

these people are going,

"I can't believe you're alive."

I said, "Where's Terry?

"Terry, Terry, where are you?"

He goes, "I'm in here."

I say, "You okay? "

He says, "Yeah, I'm looking for my pot.

"I'll be right out."

- When I first started on this journey,

it was like, all those kind of questions.

Was he dark, was he depressed, was he angry?

What kind of things were going on there?

And I think the reality of the situation

is that he just liked to do drugs

and drink. - We all did.

- I think that was his- - We all did.

- Yeah. - Yeah, we got high.

We all got high.

Everybody got high.

The whole audience was as high as we were

in those days, but we all partied.

We were young and we were on top of the world.

(inspiring music)

- So I remember calling Terry on the phone

after a tough tour and I had just smoked a joint

and I'm sure he was smoking a joint,

and I said, "Terry, I think that on the next tour,

"we need to play every fucking hit we have."

And he said, "Man, you're such a hypocrite."

And I said, "I just don't think it works

"just playing What you wanna play. "

Terry was such an artist that he wanted to stay true

to the original vision of the band

which was, "Let's just play what we wanna play. "

And he was not happy at all about being successful

and having to play the game,

and he got more and more unhappy about it.

- And really Terry was the first one

to say, because he didn't have too much of a filter,

when he talked.

He was (vocalizes).

He'd just spew it out,

and he would always say,

"I'm gonna do my own album

"and none of you fuckers are gonna play on it."

It was like, "Okay, I get it.

"That's fine, man."

- [Man] There is one thing about your dad you should know.

I gave him the studio and said, "There is no rules.

" Roll the tape, you'll figure it out."

And that was a process that he was coming to terms

with who he wanted to work with.

He says, "You know I'm not doing it with these guys."

And I said, "You do it with Whoever you want."

I don't know, I don't wanna hurt anybody's relationship.

He had ideas.

- I talked to him and the conversation was about

moving forward in this area of music

and maybe forming a new group.

We were gonna take a year off.

We needed, we'd been working so hard.

I Here I go again

I Why does the ghost of love still haunt me

I It's all been cried about before

I It's all been cried about before

- I think he didn't like the music anymore.

That's fair to say,

and he certainly wanted a band with no horns in it,

that's fair to say.

And so that's Why, deep down in my heart,

I know that Terry died, the way he died was an accident,

'cause he was starting a solo album that night

and there were a couple of people around

that I think encouraged it,

and it's too bad because he pulled away

even from the guys in the group a little bit,

and started spending more time with these strangers.

- He was hanging out with a guy who was a drug dealer.

He was a bad guy.

- And we had this thing in the band

because we should have done an intervention,

but we had this mindset in the band,

"Well, we're all men. We know our limitations."

That was bullshit, we didn't.

Because it was out of hand.

Drugs were so out of hand in our band

at that time, Michelle, it was scary.

We had a meeting with him,

maybe six weeks before it happened at the Caribou Ranch.

- I had the Whole group in there

and I said, "This guy is gonna be dead in six months.

"These drugs are out of control.

"I don't wanna contribute to this,

"what you're doing with your success."

- And he said, "No, don't worry.

"I got it under control.

"It's all okay. "

- It was not good.

He wasn't the same guy,

and I'll never forget what he said.

He got exorcized, he was upset,

and he said, "The only one that can

"say anything to me is Gert.

"It's like the pot calling the kettle black.

"You guys do more fucking drugs than me, fuck you."

And he walked out of control room.

- [Man] Terry had a hard time, and we all did,

but he was, especially with the fame part of this.

It bugged him.

It bugged probably all of us,

but he had a hard time dealing with that.

- Some people handle it better than others

because it really messed with him.

He was a really down to earth person

and a very genuinely good person,

the trappings of success trapped him.

- We decided that we would just move out to Malibu,

build a house.

He would start a band, no horns,

just guitars, drums, bass, just basics,

just really hardcore soulful music.

The band was gonna be called Cook County.

He wanted to take Cook County on the road,

and in that time was when he really started

getting in trouble with drugs,

and we started growing apart,

and he just started becoming really reclusive,

spending a lot of time by himself.

I could sense something was off,

something was way off, he wasn't happy.

"If we can just get through this album,

"I'll take the garbage out."

I remember him saying this to me.

"I will take the garbage out.

"I am here for you.

"We're gonna start over again.

"We're building this house.

"Our baby's gonna be a healthy, happy girl,

"and we're gonna move forward."

That was the last time I saw him,

and that was the last time I saw him.

- I had talked to Terry in the morning

and he says, "Okay, I'll go over to Don's house,

"and I'll wait there and then my Wife's working

"and when I get home, I'll come and get you

"or come over. "

And when I got back from the city,

I called over there 'cause I was late.

I called over to Don's house and a policeman answered,

and I just lost it.

And later on, I grabbed Don,

and I says to him, "Tell me what happened."

He says that it was late morning or something

and Terry's sitting on the couch

and Don was talking to him

and he got up and he turned around

and he walked away and Don says,

"You know, you should put the gun away. "

Terry says, "Yeah."

And Terry was playing with the gun,

that stupid little automatic he had.

Well, when you've been up for a couple days,

things get discombobulated, the processes,

and what happened was, Terry took all the bullets

out of the gun.

With an automatic,

he ejected all the bullets out of the gun,

then he let the clip go, left one in the chamber,

so he made a mistake.

There was one in the chamber

and he put the empty clip back.

Terry thought the gun was empty, period.

And he just played with the gun,

and he just went like that, anytime, boom, boom.

- [Anchor 1] The band Chicago suffered a loss today.

- [Anchor 2] Terry Kath, the guitarist of the successful

pop band Chicago died today.

(news casters speaking over each other)

- [Anchor 3] Terry's death shocked fans across the world.

(somber music)

- So it was my dad's birthday last week,

like a week ago, and there's balloons there

for my dad's birthday, how cool is that.

(somber music)

Terry Alan Kath, 1946 to 1978,

composer, guitarist, singer.

The memory of love he left on eaflh

all the world has shared.

Rare and gifted gentleman Whose fiches

were a symphony of songs for young and old

because he cared, our loved one.

Is this it?

Is that the gate?

- Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

- Hi, so good to see you.

- God, you look great, wow.

You guys are the last people to be on this ranch.

- [Michelle] To be on this ranch.

- [John] And the last cameras ever filmed anything.

- Well, here we are.

This was our playground, let me tell you.

- [Michelle] Look at this, this is amazing.

This is so beautiful.

Oh wow.

Amazing to be back here, isn't it?

- I know Where we are.

This is the house that Terry and I lived in.

This is crazy.

- This is the house? - Yes.

- [John] That's it.

- [Michelle] Oh, cool.

(laughing)

Oh, this is so weird.

Oh, this is so cool. - It's so weird

being with you.

- This is the room Where Terry wrote

"Song of the Evergreens." - Yes!

- Looking right out that Window.

I I woke up that morning

I Feeling so rested and young

- Oh, this is so cool.

Oh, Mom. - You know What that is?

That little brown spot? - Where?

- That's a patched bullet whole.

Yeah, one went off by mistake.

We had our own little world up here.

- [John] No, you did.

- It was wonderful. - It was really great.

- There was music, food and nature.

What a place to spend the first year of your life together.

- Yes, life with him. - Yeah.

- This is it.

His personality.

- Look at the face. - Isn't it?

- You look like him.

- [Together] She does.

- Wow. - She does look like her dad.

- Those eyes are his.

His eyes, boy the smile.

It's really beautiful.

- It was meant to be.

Well, he's here with us now.

- Yeah, he is.

- To meet his grandchildren.

- Thank you, great spirit. - That's right.

Oh, wow, this is great.

Coming back here.

- [John] Wait 'til you see, Terry's daughter, Terry,

we'll see you.

Come on over, bye.

- It's amazing.

- It's amazing to bring them here.

I wasn't gonna do it Without 'em.

Oh my God, look at this.

Is this the studio?

Wow.

- I was explaining to Hamish that

that was all glass and they would stand back

there and record and the sofa was there.

We would always sit here.

That was all glass.

The guys would be behind that glass recording.

Look how beautiful this way.

Especially in that day.

Look how pretty it was.

Fireplace was always roaring.

Wow, look how beautiful it still looks, wow.

Oh look at this.

Dennis, he was such a trip.

He was a fun guy.

- Yeah, he was. - Oh, my God.

- What, that's the actual flag

from the album. - Yep.

- Well, it's great that this part survived,

'cause this is so wonderful to be here again.

It's beautiful.

Let's see this video, come sit with us, Hamish.

I can't take anymore of this.

Oh.

- [Man] This was a Dr. Pepper special done in '73.

- [Woman] I remember, this was really fun.

- [Man] This is hilarious.

- [Woman] Oh my God, yeah.

Yeah.

(upbeat music)

- [Man] They were the greatest band in the fucking world.

- [Woman] That's true, true.

Look at Terry. (laughing)

- The crazy thing, too, about being there,

being nostalgic with my mother is one thing,

but all these guys, this is the last day they'll be here

as well, you know?

They literally are gonna lock the gate

and pass over the key when we leave here,

so watching those videos in that room

with all those guys, and I was looking at their faces,

I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is it for them as well."

What a crazy moment to sit and be a part of, you know?

I feel transported.

(somber music)

I Tell me

I About the rain

I Tell me

I About the fields

I Tell me about the plan

So if you could call me back, that'd be great.

I'd love to hear from you, thanks, bye.

Trevor won't get back to me.

It's driving me nuts.

Like, seriously.

I guess in terms of finding the guitar,

I think what we need to do is go to Florida,

because my uncle said that my grandpa

took some guitars and he might have that guitar,

the Pignose guitar.

My grandfather passed away a while back,

but his Wife has kept all this stuff for me there,

cross our fingers that the guitar is there.

- It is so wonderful that you're here

and are finally gonna get rid of the guitars.

- Yeah, she's nervous about having them

in her house.

She actually said that every now and again

people call asking if she wants to sell them

and she just tells them they're not here.

- They are not here.

I don't know Where they are.

They are in storage, but I don't know Where.

- The shape is interesting.

Should we open it here?

It's really small.

I don't know too much about guitars.

It looks like, ovation.

What was that?

Not that small actually, that's pretty.

This is model number 16,244.

Very nice condition.

Very well kept, good job Alicia.

- [Alicia] Yes.

- [Michelle] Grandpa didn't play any of these, did he?

- [Alicia] No, no, he never did.

- [Michelle] 80 would you say

that my dad was the last one to play it?

- That's right.

And now, I never open it,

so it's like you're putting your fingers

right on top of his.

All these things here. - Wow, look at that.

- I know it's a treasure,

but now it's going to your hands,

and I'm gonna be relieved.

- Wow, look at this case, jeez.

Oh wow.

Look at that. - That is an old one.

- Thing is raw.

It looks like it was ready to get rebuilt,

all the hardware is out of it.

Gibson.

- [Fogether] Item number two.

- Yeah, there's two more?

Oh my god. - Okay, this is secret.

And even if the thief came

and say, "Where do you have the guitars?"

They were never gonna find them.

- [Michelle] There's one, yeah.

Careful 'cause it's kind of open.

- [Alicia] Okay.

- This is a beautiful case right here.

- [Alicia] Okay, I take the other one.

- [Michelle] Okay.

God, I don't know which one to open first.

That one says Fender on it.

- [Alicia] You got this first.

What's that?

What does it say on that one?

- [Michelle] This one says Fender Stratocaster,

and this one says Terry's favorite.

So which one first?

Jason says this one first.

- [Alicia] These traveled with him

when he went to play

because they got the USA.

- Look at this case, oh, beautiful, wow.

I Just roll on home

Number three is on it.

That's insane.

Number three.

This doesn't open.

Yes!

Score!

Yes, you don't even know Alicia.

Finally.

That's the guitar.

I And I'm trying to get along

Super stoked right now.

The search is over.

- [Alicia] And your grandpa is smiling.

- Yeah.

- [Alicia] Because that's What he wanted.

He always say, "She's gonna have the guitars

"when she knows the value of them."

- I know the value now, huh?

The search is over.

Last touched by my dad, look at that.

That's crazy.

Check out the back.

- [Alicia] Very handy.

- [Michelle] I don't even know What's going on there.

- [Alicia] Me neither.

- [Michelle] That's so brilliant.

There's tape with picks in it.

Mission accomplished, Alicia.

- [Alicia] Yes.

(guitar music)

I Sleepless hours and dreamless nights and far aways

I 000000000, Wishing you were here

I Heaven knows and lord it shows when I'm away

I 000000000, Wishing you were here

- One of the regrets was that I didn't do more for him.

- Yeah.

'Cause I really miss him.

- I still feel so close to Terry.

I still dream about Terry.

Every show I sing "Saturday in the Park"

and there's a verse Where I'm writing about Terry,

and I always look upstairs when I'm singing every night

in the show, so he's always with me.

I really miss him.

- When that tragedy happened,

when he left us so early,

it was as Walt said, it was divine intervention,

it was Terry's and God's way perhaps

of giving us the strength to regroup,

to realize What's really important in our lives

and to move on and that's by virtue of that.

He was almost a martyr in that degree.

That's Why we're still here 45 years later.

- He saved us.

He saved us.

- [Michelle] I'm crying.

- Sorry.

Can't help it. - No, it's true.

- He did.

- But I say one thing,

and it's to replace Terry, it took two guys.

And nothing will ever replace him.

- Nothing has happened since then

that has been more difficult than dealing with that

so the other stuff, no matter how difficult it has been,

it was easier to get through it than losing Terry.

- As a creative person, he wasn't done yet,

and he was up and coming

and a lot of people were noticing him.

- I would hate to be the guy

that had to walk in afterwards and fill that slot

'cause it's unfillable.

There's no one like him since,

and I really think it's wonderful

that you guys are doing this

and there's gonna be some awareness

and maybe some younger cats will go back and go,

"Dig this guy, Terry Kath, Who's an unsung guitar

"giant hero legend, that should

" be getting a lot more press than he is."

- That's the tragedy, that which could have been.

- [Michelle] That which could have been.

- That's the ball game.

We made some great records.

We had some great records. - Definitely.

- I miss him.

(bagpipe music)

- When I was 12 years old, I was on my way

to a hockey practice with my older brother

and for all intents and purposes,

he raised me when I was a young man,

and we're driving to practice

and some news came over the radio,

and it was terrible news,

and my brother pulled off the highway,

and he put his head in his hands

and he started to weep,

and I had never seen my brother cry

to that point and I've never seen him cry since

and What had come over the radio

was that a really brilliant musician

and songwriter, a man named Terry Kath,

who was in a band called Chicago

had prematurely passed away.

And it was such a profound moment for me

to see my brother so deeply moved

that I never forgot how important this man must have been.

This was the last song that he performed live,

and he dedicated it to at that time

his beautiful, beautiful three year old daughter,

and the lyrics are very simple.

Little one, it's so nice to have you near me.

To feel once again the love you bring dear.

Oh my little one, I am so sorry for the pain you felt.

Say the word Daddy and I'll make it disappear.

Oh my little one, bring your love here.

Little one, I need you near.

Little one, don't live in fear of the future,

'cause I will always be there.

Oh my little one, let your love flow.

Oh my little one.

From your father to you.

I I hope you understand

- [Michelle] Finding my dad's guitar

does not conclude my journey.

In fact, this is only the beginning

of getting to know my dad.

I realized that he lives on through those that play his music,

through his grandchildren,

and every time someone shares a story about him.

The reality is, I don't want the journey to end

and I hope that everyday I can find a moment to honor him,

and through this film, Terry Kath's legacy lives on.

I Put your love close, precious one

I Like a flower you'll grow, little one

I Someday you'll have your own little one

I And you will always be there

(applause)

- [Woman] Ladies and gentlemen, Rob Thomas.

- In 1967, a group of musicians came together,

and they were weaving their city's diverse musical

influences into one bold, beautiful sound.

It was a sound that was built on a tight R and B beat,

beefed up with big-band horns and jolted with riffs

from Terry Kath, who is one of the best

and most underrated guitar players of all time.

(applause)

These guys are legends.

They are true musicians, and they are a bad ass

rock band with horns.

It is my honor to finally induct Terry Kath,

Peter Cetera, Danny Seraphine, Walter Parazaider,

Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, and Robert Lamm,

Chicago into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

(applause)

- I'm trying to imagine What my dad would say right now,

since I'm accepting on his behalf,

and he wasn't too into fame,

but I think he would be beyond honored

and extremely excited to be recognized

along with his very talented band mates

for this great honor in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame,

and I'd just like to thank you guys

for letting me get to know my dad

through his music and the fans,

I see you with the Terry Kath sign over there.

(applause)

Thank you Hall of Fame for getting Chicago in

and honoring this amazing band.

(applause)

- [Man] Thank you.

I Today when I woke

I The morning blues hung over me

I So I looked it straight in the eye

I I jumped into the shower for about an hour

I Oh, it was fine

I Yeah, it helps me all the time

I It's soothing to my mind

I Just to see those blues go slipping down the drain

I Now I usually have my breakfast

I Which consists of taste and smell

I Yeah, I could eat it all day long

I But I only have one prayer

I And I can find it way out here

I So I have to take a pass

I Save it for some pass

I What I drive, you're not here

I Oh, sweet, sweet smile