Hey, this is Paul Martin and Ray the Roadie for the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. How are you doing today, Ray? I'm good. I'm having some pizza.

Are you? Yeah. Yeah. Chicago style pizza.

Cold? Yeah. Cold is good. It is cold.

It is good when it's cold, isn't it? It's good fresh and it's good cold. Never reheat. So is it thin crust or is it deep dish? It's actually, it's not really Chicago style.

It's thin crust. Well, then it's Chicago style. See, I have a gripe about that.

Okay. Is it because, because that's what started out, that was Chicago pizza was thin crust for years until they invented the thick cut. And everybody thinks that's Chicago pizza.

Well, not really. No, I think it was Numero Uno downtown that came out with the first thick crust and then Giordano's and Milnati and everybody else, which is good once in a while, but just a regular old good pizza has to be cut in squares, though. Oh, definitely squares.

No triangles. No, no, no, no, no. No folding your pizza.

No, no, no. Got to be squares. Right.

If it's not cutting squares, I'm not eating it. Right. Right.

It doesn't taste the same. No, no. And I'm sad.

And the best pizza in the world comes from Chicago. You cannot get a better pizza anywhere. That's right.

And there's a lot of other great things that come out of Chicago. Believe me, I live an hour and a half to the south of Chicago and I can't get any good pizza. Yeah, I know.

I've got friends in Florida. I got friends in Texas and they cannot get good pizza down. What they think is good pizza until they try ours.

So you say there's some other good stuff coming out of Chicago like what? There's a lot of great stuff, a lot of great musicians, a lot of great music comes out of Chicago. That's kind of like why we're here. That is.

That is why we're here. Yeah. We've got another great Chicago musician or Chicago and now he's in L.A. But spending time out there and doing a doing a thing, his thing out there.

And that's Kenny Saterra. Kenny Saterra, brother of Peter Saterra from the band Chicago. And Kenny's got his own group called Kenny Saterra's Chicago Experience.

See all this Chicago tie in pizza, music, the podcast, everything goes together. It all goes together like like sausage, mushroom and green pepper. Oh yeah.

That's my favorite too. That's right. Onion too.

Yeah. Onion. I don't have onion this time, but sometimes a little onion helps out too.

No anchovies. Oh, I love anchovies. Not on a pizza.

Pretty good. I don't know. In a salad maybe I can do that.

But well, let's get on to our interview with Kenny and we had a little surprise guest join us this week. Yes, we did. We had one of Kenny's old bandmates from the band Freewheeling, Ed Kammerer joined us to help help along with the interview and of Kenny Saterra.

And we had a lot of fun with them. Yes, we did. And you can also find Eddie on the Dancing Noodles episode as well as the Freewheeling episode.

So if you want to hear some more stuff about Eddie and his bands, check those episodes out. All right. All right.

Let's do it. Let's find out what Kenny had to say. Let's go.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the show. Today, we're speaking with the one, the only Kenny Saterra.

How are you, Kenny? Hey, how you doing, Paul? How are you guys? Hey, Kenny. I'm doing great. Thank you very much.

We've also got guest interviewer today, Ed Kammerer from the Dancing Noodles and Chicago Six band. Hi, Eddie. Hey, Paulie.

Hi, Brian. And our old band, Freewheeling. Yeah, there you go.

Freewheeling. Freewheeling. We're going to talk about that a little bit, Kenny, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. We'll get to that.

Well, tell us, Kenny. How are you? I mean, I know you come from somewhat of a musical family. So, tell us a little bit about how it got started.

Well, my uncle played concertina on the south side of Chicago, and that was how it all started. You know, I was the youngest one in the family. By the time I was aware of anything, my older brother, oldest brother, Peter, was already playing rock and roll and playing clubs six, seven nights a week.

I hardly ever saw him, you know, because I was, I mean, I was little, so I didn't get to go out. But I know he kept really late hours. And then my other brother, Tim, he started playing bass.

So they're both bass players. Of course, Peter Cetera, my oldest brother, and then Tim, my brother, he was a bass player too. And yeah, before I could read and write, I mean, they were both playing musical instruments and working clubs in the Chicago area.

And I guess I just kind of followed along. We all grew up, you know, in a Catholic parish, singing. My mom loved singing around the house.

And I think that was a big influence on all of us. She played musicals. She had records of musicals that she loved to sing along with.

And yeah, we all kind of sang around the house doing dishes. And I remember my mom and my sister and I doing three-part harmonies and stuff like that, while we were cleaning the dishes. So yeah, it was a love for singing.

I just, I wanted to play an instrument. I was a frustrated musician because both my older brothers were playing and I, you know, there was always a bass or a guitar, acoustic guitar on the house. And for the longest time, I tried to get comfortable on it and it just, it just didn't fit.

I don't know. I never, I could never find the groove like they did with playing bass or guitar. My sister, my sister Peg, who's two years older than me, I have two older sisters.

I had two older brothers. And so Peg, my sister, older by two years, she took piano lessons. And so we had a piano in the house.

I hammered out 96 tiers and a couple other things. And I was just kind of like, I was lost. I mean, I didn't really find my, find my groove until high school when I got a little endowment from my older brother, Peter.

And I bought my first set of drums. I was already singing. You graduate, you gravitated, I should say, toward the drums though, didn't you? I gravitated toward the drums.

I met, I met a good friend of mine, Scott Beinshire, like maybe sophomore or junior year in high school. And I started palling around with him because I was a frustrated, you know, wannabe musician. And I loved singing and I always wanted to get involved, you know, so he was in a band and I was like, wow, that's so cool.

None of, no one in my neighborhood that I knew of was a musician. So when I hooked up with Scott who lived in Blue Island, maybe, anyway, yeah. So I used to hang out with him and then go up and see his band and I just, yeah, I started, I started gravitating toward the drums through Scott and bought my first kit and started playing a little bit.

But I was already singing, you know, I had finally hanging around with him. I got hooked up with a band and some other stuff, but it wasn't until, yeah, it wasn't until later in high school. Did you have any formal training in the drums or you just pick it up on your own? Yeah, as a matter of fact, well, after I met Scott, it turned out his older cousin was a drum instructor.

And so I took some, I started taking some lessons with him, went through a little bit of syncopation stuff and, but I didn't. A little bit, a little bit of set stuff, but I didn't get heavily into it. So, so what was, what was the name of that first group that you were in? Do you remember? Snake.

With Dennis, Dennis Wood, a good friend of mine, Dennis Wood, Eddie probably knows him. Sure. So does Paul.

Yeah. Huh? So Paul knows Dennis Wood real well too. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Dennis is a great guy.

But anyway, yeah, it was Snake. That was the first band I got in. We had a few gigs.

Let's get to the freewheeling connection then. When did that happen? That's what I was going to ask you next, Kenny, because was it Snake that you were playing with when Tom Seymour and I came to see you? No. No.

Because I know Scott was on the drums, I think. Scott was on the drums. So what happened was I left Snake, went and joined Scott's band, Buchanan.

There it is. Oh, that's right. Yeah.

Sure. I remember them. Yeah.

Yeah. And we used to play, you know, we played some high school stuff, but M&R Rush, you know, they were like the big dogs that had all the nice gear because they were working or something. I don't know.

They had somebody. I don't know how we got it, but somehow we got it. I don't know.

They were a big prom band. I was always jealous of all the nice gear those guys had. You guys.

Yeah. So then I quit Snake. I joined Scott's band Buchanan for a while.

We had two lead singers and then the other lead singer left. And then I was the other. I was the only lead singer.

But then since I was practicing drums and playing drums, we incorporated two drums in the mix. So, you know, we loved I mean, Allman Brothers and Doobie Brothers were like big favorites of ours at the time. So we were doing some of that stuff.

And then we lost our guitar player, our bass player, moved to Arizona. And there were brothers and the band basically just died. And then Scott got into this like club thing with just him on drums and this organist.

It's a two piece. And they were just doing lounges. I mean, like serious, like, you know, oh, my God, tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree.

So I'd go see them because they were playing not too far from the house. And I'd go sit up and I'd sit in and sing, I don't know. It was like really, really hokey.

See, I have a feeling that that's when you guys came. That's the band I saw. Yeah.

Because it was very loungy. Yeah. That's when you and Tom came out and heard me sing, I guess I was sitting there with those guys.

I was just this close to like joining full time with them, making a trio. But thank God, Eddie and Tom came in and rescued me. What year was that, Kenny? Oh, man, dude, I couldn't even tell you.

Would it have been seventy seventy four? No, because I was I left freewheeling in seventy four. But you made the move down to Champaign. OK, so.

Oh, no, no, no, no. You're right. You're right.

It might have been seven. It might have been like seventy three. Seventy four.

Yeah. Seventy four. I'm thinking.

I just remember the bicentennial year being with being with freewheeling. I think actually on July 4th, we played some kind of bicentennial celebration. Yeah.

In Centralia, Illinois. In Centralia. Because I just came across pictures from that.

I'm going, oh, my God, look at these little babies. Oh, my goodness. So you joined freewheeling.

Freewheeling had gone through a couple of member changes. And I was shocked. I was shocked when I met you guys, because there's Chuck Newberger that I went to high school with.

There's Kevin Fabish that I went to high school with. I'm like, holy crap. There's actual other musicians, my peers, guys that I knew.

I had no idea they were musicians when I went to high school with them. Right. And so then you joined freewheeling.

We had nice gear, kind of. Yeah, we did. And we were a manager.

And a manager. And a manager and a sound man. And we rent a truck and stuff.

Yes. And roadies once in a while. And a nice truck.

You guys had a nice truck. I remember. Oh, yeah.

That truck. Yeah. I got started with that truck.

Oh, yeah. I was going to bring that up. I'd like you to tell that story at some point, because that's a good one.

Well, the problem is I don't remember much of it because I got knocked the shit out. Excuse me. Okay, then if I could, I'll relate this story, even though this is Kenny's interview.

I think Brian was driving, though. Yes. It was just me and Brian in the truck.

Yeah, they were driving. It was post-gig someplace. And they were driving down Southwest Highway in Oak Lawn.

Oh, is that where it was? Yeah. And coming down Central, somebody ran a red light and T-boned the truck with all our equipment in it. He spun it around, knocked it on the side.

Flipped it on its side. And I'm at home in bed. And I get a call from our sound man.

It was kind of late, wasn't it? Yeah, it was like two in the morning, two or three in the morning. At least that's when I got the call. Were we coming home? Was he giving me a ride home or something? Yeah, something like that.

Oh, okay. But I got a call from our sound man and road manager, Tommy McDermott. Maybe from Harlow's, huh? I don't know.

Maybe. I don't think it was Harlow's back then. It might have been Joshua Tree.

We're talking about a club on the Southside. Anyhow, I get a call from McDermott. He says, you got to get in your car.

Come and get me right now. No, I go right now to Christ Hospital. Tommy McDermott was our sound guy.

Right. Yeah. So I go to the hospital and Kenny and Brian are there in the emergency room.

Kenny now has his wits about him some, but Brian was not silly. He was like throwing up and spitting into a thing and he kept looking at Tommy and saying, I haven't seen those pants in a long time. Because Tommy had some green pants on or something.

So I was the guy with the car and I had to rescue these guys and get them all back home safely. But yeah, our truck with all our equipment, boom, right on the side. Ruined a lot of stuff.

I don't remember anything. I think I kind of came to a little bit when the ambulance came and took us out of there. That explains Brian now.

I didn't know this story, but that explains what happened to Brian now. No, there's more. So now when you joined Free Will, did you join as a drummer or as a singer? No, no, no, just as a lead singer.

Just as a lead singer. I was always frustrated. I always wanted to play drums with them.

So one time after I left the band, eventually I finally got invited to sit in and play drums because they had just lost their drummer. I don't know if it was CB or what. It was CB, right? Yeah.

It was CB. They had just lost their drummer. I had left the band.

I was about 76, 77 already probably by this time or 78. I don't know. I actually went to work with the manager in the office for a little while booking the band for the high school shows we used to do, the history of rock and roll shows.

The assemblies. Assemblies. Yeah, yeah.

And then I think maybe it was while I was working there that coming that you guys needed somebody. I don't remember. But anyway, it was kind of cool because it turned out to be at Danny Serafin's Club Beginnings.

Right. In what genre? Genre. Genre.

Yeah. So I got to play drums with my old band at Danny Serafin's Club. That's cool.

The one and only time. Now I thought that was a couple of gigs you might have played. But yeah.

Oh, okay. At one point, and this isn't about Freewheel, it's about Kenny. So at one point, Freewheel was kind of like Spinal Tap.

We kicked out a drummer, brought a guy in that was real good, but he was real mercurial in a way. And then he was told to leave, and Kenny came in and covered for a little bit. And then we got Mike Clare.

Mike Clare. He was a forever guy. Mike was great.

Kenny, I got to ask you another question. And this sounds funny coming out of my mouth. But do you remember the other time that you had amnesia? Oh, yeah.

From blowing up the damn beach ball for one of our assembly shows. You did? I used to have to blow up this, like, four foot damn beach ball for those assembly programs. To bounce around the audience? Huh? To bounce around the audience? Yeah.

I remember, man, getting really lightheaded. It's like 9 o'clock in the morning, and I'm blowing my brains out trying to blow these balls up. And I remember that.

I don't know. Is there another time? Yeah, there is. There is.

We actually played it. I remember the back of Johnny Icorn's car once. He was just nodding out.

No, this was. I was driving. We were playing at Rockford Boylan High School.

We're driving up there, and I'm hearing this weird sound in the back of the car. And as I get there, I get out of the car, and I go. I'm looking at.

I'm on my knees looking at one of the back tires. You get out of the back seat, stood up, and stood up too fast, and immediately passed out, bumped your head, and bounced off the asphalt. And I looked at you, and everybody's going, what the fuck just happened to Kenny? So we get you up.

He was blowing beach balls in the back seat. That's what the problem was. Hey, hey, hey, now.

No, no, no. This was just a regular gig. There was no beach balls involved.

No beach balls, I said. I know. I said, anyone or anything.

So we start playing, and you want to sing. But we're telling you, just sit and chill. I think I do remember this.

And you had your driver's license, and you were looking at it and going, Kenny Saterra. And then saying your birthday over and over again. Are you kidding me? Yeah.

No, I'm not. So then we're nearing the end of the first set. You get up, you go to the mic, and you actually sing a verse of a song.

Then you look at Chuck and said, what's the next line? And we're like, Kenny, sit back down. Just chill. But eventually, you snapped out of it and finished the gig.

How do you ask somebody if they remember amnesia? That's why I said it. That's why I said it's so funny coming out of my mouth. I don't remember the bit about looking at my driver's license.

Oh, yeah. We were all very scared. Wow.

Yeah, well, that explains everything. I have to have my wife. Elisa is going to have to listen to this interview.

She understands me better now. So you moved on for freewheeling. What happened after freewheeling? OK, so, well, we were living all in the same house in Champaign-Urbana.

And I don't know. I was kind of getting weirded out. I don't know what was going on.

I was going through some mental changes or something. I needed a change of pace. At the freewheeling house, there was a whole lot of partying going on there.

There was a lot of partying going on there. And I was just feeling claustrophobic. I think I was just feeling very claustrophobic in the band.

And I guess, you know, I just wasn't feeling like the direction was for me. So I went and I moved back to, well, my parents had already moved out of Chicago area by this time. They were living in Tennessee.

And I went back to the Chicago area. And I moved in with Scott's family for a little while. And I just kind of like hung out there for, I don't know how long it was, better part of a year or a year.

I don't even remember. And then eventually I ended up moving down to Tennessee for a couple of years. Lived with my mom.

My father got ill. Yeah, so it must have been, it had to be sometime around 76, 77, because then my dad got really ill. And I went down to stay with my parents down in Tennessee, kind of help out with my mom.

Get my dad back and forth to his chemotherapies. He passed away in 77. And then I stayed for a little while longer.

I played, I got, actually it was kind of cool because I got with a, I joined a country band in Tennessee. And I mean, man, this was, we are talking real country music back in Tennessee. This wasn't no like, this was not, well, this was like a little town.

My parents found this little couple acre farm, like 90 miles south of Nashville, between Nashville and Chattanooga. You know, it was in a beautiful, gorgeous country, but it was, you know, small town. It was 12 miles to, or it was about, probably about eight or nine miles just to get into the main town from our, this little farm that they bought.

But I joined a country band and I always hated country music, but I was just like, I just wanted to play, you know? So I joined this band. They loved me, man. They loved it.

Did you sing with a twang? No, actually it was kind of funny because we didn't, we didn't do country music. We had a lead singer and he sang the twangy country stuff. But we also did some, some pop stuff, you know, so into you.

And I mean, the guitar player loved pop music, even though they were all from that area. And so, so we did some, some pop and some rock stuff too, you know? And I got to sing a few of those things, but it was just, it was really fun to, to learn to appreciate playing drums or playing country music and learn to appreciate country music in general. And something I probably wouldn't have done so much if I hadn't actually gotten involved in a band playing it.

So that was good. I enjoyed the fact that I, I did get that appreciation for it. Did you guys just play locally? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We just, we were just a local band.

But once again, the place we played was a shit kicking bar and there were fights like almost every week, almost every weekend at this place. I remember my brother Tim coming and hanging out. He stayed with us for a little while.

Yeah. The one night he came out and the big fight broke out then, that night too. He was, we didn't get involved, but we just both were laughing about it.

After, after I stayed there for a little while, eventually then I decided, my brother Tim got married and he invited me to be his best man out in California. He was living in San Jose at the time. So that got my butt out of Tennessee out to Cali and I never left.

And then I got, I got involved in a top 40 disco club band up in the San Jose area, playing drums and singing. And we had a good run. They were, they were good.

They were a very popular local band. We did a lot of playing around. Our first gig, my first gig with them was in Palm Springs, which was kind of cool.

So my first gig in California, I'm out in Palm Springs for like four weeks. But yeah, that was at the time that was in the, what was it? Late seventies, early eighties. So very early eighties.

And that's when you could stay at a club for two weeks, you know, play house gigs and pick up five, 600 bucks a week or something. And I stayed up there for a couple of years. And finally in like 82, I moved South to Pasadena with a girlfriend at the time, whose family owned the house in Pasadena.

So it was really cheap. And I was like, okay, let's go. I'll go.

That's perfect for a musician, right? Yeah, exactly. Oh yeah. Yeah.

I mean, that was all I was doing was playing. I got a gig in a restaurant up in San Jose area, but that didn't last too long. And then I got the gig with the band.

So I quit the restaurant gig. Sure, honey. You got a house.

You got a house. I can say it. Sure, that's perfect.

Did your parents own a liquor store? Even better. So we put together a four-piece band. And we were doing a lot of weddings.

We got booked, started getting booked pretty quickly and started getting a bunch of weddings. And then my brother, Peter, asks me if I want to sing some background vocals on the new album they're working on in 83. Kind of the rest is history.

So, I mean, yeah, I went and did that. And then I got involved in some other project with Bill Champlin, Richard Marks, doing background vocals on Kenny Loggin, well, Kenny Rogers, Leo Iglesias album. And then the big Chicago tour was, you know, like the album and the tour.

You toured with them, right? Yeah, I did one tour. The last tour my brother was on. That was Chicago 17? That was Chicago 17.

Still their number one grossing album of all times. Wow. All because of you, Casey.

That's right. Well, I'm not saying I had anything to do with it, but I did. You were on it and it's number one.

How was it working with David Foster? It's intimidating, but it's, you know, it's good to look back on. Intimidating and exhilarating at the same time? It is, yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't, you know, I didn't know who he was.

I didn't know how, maybe I didn't respect him as much as I should have at the time, I don't know. But I would just kind of like, just go in and do what I'm told, basically. Right.

And it wasn't like, you know, it was a lot easier for me, of course, because I'm Peter's brother and he's bringing me in. You know, it wasn't like I had to pass. I mean, I'm sure if it wasn't sounding good, it wouldn't have brought me back for more than one day.

Right. So, yeah, I did a few days and like four tracks on that album. That's fine.

But yeah, David and Peter are both perfectionists. But David, really, really perfectionist. Going over lines over and over.

It's like singing, Peter and I both in the studio together too. And there was an inspiration, it's just Peter and I on the whole song. And he sings 90% of it and I sing 10.

It's harmonies, you know. Well, I've heard that David Foster would get you to sing something and you may get it right the first time. He may like the first take, but he'd still make you do it 9 or 10 more times.

That's what it felt like. Yeah. At one point, I remember a couple of times, I remember Peter and I will be in the studio together.

He'd be looking at me like, what the fuck was wrong with that one? You know? And then he'd have to say, David, I think we got it. I think it's good. We don't need to do another one.

Did you do anything with your brother and any of his solo stuff then? I did one or two albums, backup vocals, yeah. I couldn't remember, I couldn't tell you which album off the top of my head, but maybe Solitude, Solitaire. Somewhere in there, you made it to Star Search, right? Oh, Pauly, good job.

I was going to go there. Right then. You had to go there.

I tell you, I tell you, I watched it, and you nailed Fool Around, Fell in Love. I tell you, that was a great song. And you did a great job at it.

Yeah, I was nervous as all heck. That show was really nerve-wracking. That was 87, right? That was sometime shortly, that was 87, yeah, a couple of years after the Chicago tour.

The Chicago tour started in 84, ended in early 85. Started like the end of summer, mid-summer 84, and like July of 84, I think. And then we ended about April, March, April 85.

And then, yeah, Star Search was 87. Ed McMahon. Kenny! Satyra! Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! Ho, ho! Yeah, Star Search.

Yeah, it was nerve-wracking, though. I'm bummed I didn't score better than that. Two and three-quarters stars! Yeah.

The guy that beat me actually went on to win the whole season, so I'm like, okay, whatever. Let's take a timeout here for a second. Hey, Ray, Ray, what are you doing? I'm getting my blue wrists on.

I'm playing my banjo, except there seems to be something wrong with the strings. Well, you know, Ray, GHS makes strings for all types of instruments, electric and acoustic guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, ukulele, and even banjo. Then I'm getting new GHS strings and my banjo will sound better.

Uh, I don't think it's the strings, Ray. GHS are easy to play with rich, full-balanced tone available in many different gauges. Great for all musical styles, so if you play... Play with the best.

Play GHS strings. Didn't you do some original stuff, too? Uh, I've done a few, um, demos, you know, original demos for other people, but I don't really have any, you know, any compilation of original stuff of my own. I found some, uh... I found Falling Into Love or something, and I know you didn't write it, but, uh... Yeah, that was written by some other people.

Right. And I just, you know, they asked me to come in and put some lead vocals on it. I've done some really, really nice tunes.

Yeah, it was a good song. I think that tracks you into the 90s now. Now, what did you do? What were you doing 90s and into the early, you know, 2000s? So after the Chicago tour, and I didn't get invited back on the tour because they parted ways with Peter and it wasn't very amicable, so I guess they just figured we won't... we won't be bringing a brother back either.

I got involved with local music out here and played around, you know, a bunch of big corporate kind of gigs locally with a band for a while, and then I just kind of like, I kind of got out of music altogether, and I wanted to have a family, and I got a straight gig through most of the 90s. I was working as a rep for a company selling lumber and flooring and plywood and I started... I moved around to a couple different companies, and then, you know, 2008 and 2009, the whole market crashed, and I kind of went, well, maybe this is an omen. Maybe this is a sign for me to get back into music, so it was about that time I had hooked up with a bass player who was really into Chicago, really plays the crap out of my brother's stuff, and I wanted to put a Chicago tribute together, and I thought, yeah, you know, tribute bands, I was hearing about tribute bands, and... That was right about the time that tribute bands were really getting hot and heavy.

No, I was like, no, it was like 10 years before that, like 1999, maybe, maybe even earlier, I don't know. They were already, you know, for the last eight, 10 years, there was already a lot of tribute work going on. So anyway, so then I put the Chicago tribute together with my buddy Joe, and we started getting that off the ground, and then I found another tribute, doing a Steely Dan tribute, because I've always loved that music.

I joined that one for about 15 minutes, and then I found an Eagles tribute that I was with for about three years. So I was with that Eagles tribute for a while, and then, yeah, now it's just all the Chicago tribute, and then the Morgan, and then we have the pandemic, and everything stops. So how have you survived the pandemic? Have you been playing at all? Have you gotten any gigs there? I don't know what it's like out there in California, but... No, the last gig we did was end of February, February 28th, I think.

Wow. Last year, 2020. Right.

So we're looking forward to it. We have some shows booked in Indiana and Michigan coming up in July, if they don't fall through. So that'll be the first... So far, those are the first ones that... So you do a lot of traveling with this band.

We'll be doing... You know, we do a lot of... We had an agent. We were exclusive with an agent that was just booking a lot of stuff on the West Coast, Arizona. So a little bit of traveling, you know, Phoenix area, and up and down the coast a little bit.

But now I'm still booking with him, not exclusively, and I have other agents who are booking stuff back East. So we've done some shows North Carolina, South Carolina. We have some stuff in Florida that'll hopefully happen.

And we have one in Illinois that was supposed to happen in early May, but now that's going to get pushed back to 2022. So more travel. Yeah, more travel to Texas.

You know, just not a lot of travel. This might not be a bad time to plug those gigs, Ken. Yeah, it might not be.

But I don't have a date for the Illinois one yet. In Glen Ellyn, Illinois, we were supposed to be there last year, and then we scheduled it to like May 2nd, and now that's going to get pushed back to 2022. And we have been over to the Philippines.

I've done some shows. Now, there's another thing I just kind of forgot about, but in 2009, I got hooked up with Marty Greb. Marty Greb, wow.

Marty Greb, Chris Pinnick, and Tim Scott. Marty Greb, I know that name. Where do I know that name from, Ed? Fabulous Rhinestones.

Oh, yeah. Marty's a Chicago guy. And he passed away recently within the last year or two.

Yeah, it was like New Year's Eve 2019, 2020. Yeah, he was also with Bonnie Raitt, saxophone player. So he and my brother worked together in Chicago area in a band called The Exceptions.

Marty is a sax player, singer, keyboard player. He had been to the Philippines with a Buckingham's. I don't know if he was with the Buckingham's, a tribute to the Buckingham's.

I think they were doing kind of like a bunch of different bands. They did some Buckingham's. They did some Chicago.

They did, you know, a few other horn bands, probably. The Philippines is really big on oldies stuff. They love, at least there is a contingent that loves old rock and roll music.

And so Marty had known this promoter over there who brought him over. They put a band together, did the stuff. Then the promoter tells him, hey, Marty, why don't you put like an old Chicago band together? Just do all Chicago.

So I get a call from Marty saying, hey, or Chris, maybe. I don't remember who contacted me now. But hey, would you be interested in doing some shows in the Philippines with us? Playing drums and singing.

Singing all my brother's stuff and playing drums. I said, okay. I could give it a whack.

So I did. I had to work my butt off learning to play all of Danny's stuff because I'd never actually rehearsed it before. I did the best I could.

But we went over there. We had a great time. But then this was in 2009.

We get over there. We had like five shows lined up. And we're at one of the shows and this package comes to all of us.

Brown envelope. And it's a cease and desist from Chicago Music Inc. Telling us we were stepping on their toes for selling it as what happened was some of the Filipino newspapers were billing it as former Chicago members.

And they caught wind of it. And so we weren't official members of the band. Marty had toured with the band as a sideman or as a sub for Walter, I think, for a while.

And I had done the one tour with them as a backup singer and utility guy, basically. But we just kind of ignored the cease and desist because it wasn't really our fault. But a couple of the venues pulled out.

So we ended up doing, I don't know, three or four shows instead of the five or six shows we originally had booked. I kind of became friends with the promoter and he brought me over there to do some Chicago stuff along with Bobby Kimball from former singer from Toto. And Bobby did the Toto stuff and then I come out and do a set of Chicago stuff.

You are my love and my life inspiration Just you and me Simple and free So it was a double bill kind of thing and I did that a couple of times over there with him. And then I also went over there with the, I brought my, I got my Eagles tribute to go over there and do a bunch of shows. And then I went over there with my Chicago tribute one time and did a few shows over there too.

That's fun. But that's been a few years now. Yeah, it's fun.

Long flight, but those people, the people are beautiful over there and they really, really love music. And half of them can sing better than anybody. I mean, they're really good singers.

Karaoke is alive and well over there. Nice. Bernie can attest to that.

Yeah, right. They're a new lead singer. Okay.

And that brings us up to date and here I am. So you've got the Chicago experience, Kenny Satara's Chicago experience. Kenny Satara's Chicago experience.

Yes. And now what about your band members there? Have you got anybody who's come from other bands or that we may know of? Well, I do, as a matter of fact. Yeah, I've got some great players, all seasoned LA veteran guys on trumpet.

Well, George Pandis, he's played a bunch of studio gigs with, he's got a million credits, people he's played with. Dan Heffernan, my saxophone player, woodwind player, he played on Gene Simmons' Family Jewels show. Really? And a bunch of session dates and my trombone player was with Ray Charles, with Ray Charles' band for 12 years.

Wow. Literally with Ray Charles, not just like a tribute to Ray Charles, but he was in Ray Charles' band. Wow.

Yeah. Very cool. And my drummer, Tony Pia, was with the Doobie Brothers.

He played with, oh my God, Keith Emerson. Oh, Edgar Winard band. So you've got some talented folks there.

Definitely, definitely. It's a rocking band. It's a rocking band.

We have a lot of fun. How does somebody find you? Or learn more about the band via social media or website? Yeah, yeah. I mean, right now I don't, I had a website up for a while, but I don't have one now.

It's basically through Facebook or Instagram or YouTube. You can look us up on YouTube and see some shows. One of the first gigs we did in North Las Vegas, we did a two night run out there at the Cannery East.

I'm sorry, not the Cannery East, Cannery North, but the Cannery Casino. And my brother Peter showed up unbeknownst to all of us and sat in and sang a few songs. And there's a couple of videos of that up on YouTube.

So that was a lot of fun. That's a great video. Baby, what a big surprise.

So you've got Peter's blessing with this band, I assume, right? Yeah, yeah. At one point he said, well, so what have you been doing, brother? I said, oh, not much, not much. He's like, so is this thing approved? And I looked, I kind of looked around and said, well, I think it is now.

Now that you're here. He's a funny dude. That's awesome.

Yeah. He just retired. About a year and a half, two years ago himself.

So he was out doing solo gigs. He'd been working solo ever since he left the group in 85, but he'd hung it up, decided to retire finally. It was a long run.

It was a long run for Peter. Very long run. Are you kidding? I mean, like I said, he was working before I can even, before I was even counting to five, probably.

I don't know. He's 11 years older than me, of course. I was going to ask you earlier, if you remember him when him hitting the big time, I guess you might say.

Yeah. Yeah. I remember being at grammar school, elementary school, whatever you call it.

Jake Margaret said, can I come at home? Maybe I had a transistor radio or something here in 25 or 64 on the radio going, wow. He's my brother. Yeah.

He's on the radio. That was pretty cool. That was pretty cool.

Now, when did they leave Chicago? And I mentioned it with LA, right, to do most of the recording. Yeah, it was early. I mean, I think they left in 68, 69.

Maybe even earlier than that. I don't know if it was earlier than 68. I just think of what's the song on Chicago One where there's, where the chanting goes out and the whole world is watching.

The whole world is watching. And that was about the 67 Democratic National Convention. So, yeah, I wonder.

I don't know. They might have written it back then and brought it out to LA. Well, you know, I think they already had a lot of music, but they were all kind of like freewheeling.

They were all living in a house together when they moved out. Well, that was the inspiration. They moved out to California.

That was really the inspiration for that whole freewheeling plan, that scheme, you know, live together, rehearse as much as we could, play as much as we could, you know. It was, you know, I recall somebody saying that when Chicago, when CTA first moved out, they were living on, you know, bologna and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sure.

So kind of like freewheeling. Yeah, they were on a, you know, they all were getting like a little allowance until they got tired of it. And then some of the guys decided to branch out.

Do you communicate at all with Danny or Bill Champlin or any of those guys? Well, I have with Danny and Bill a little bit. Yeah. But none of the other guys.

Yeah. I mean, not, not regularly, you know, but yeah. But Peter, Peter has a good relationship with both of those guys.

Not so much with the rest of the band anymore. Yeah. That's just the way it goes.

Yep. Yeah. That's just the way it is.

And that's the music business. What kind of freewheeling stories can you relate? Danville. We played the place in Danville.

I just remember. Upstairs. That was in Mattoon.

Yeah. I thought that was in Danville. Okay.

So two stories. I remember one. I think one of the first ones I remember was, was champagne when we did Chinook air force base.

And we had never been there. I had never been there before. I don't know if you had, you guys had played there before.

I just remember we, we got. You know, setting up and it was just kind of weird because, you know, I mean, here we are kind of long hair. Right.

And we're playing an air force base with a lot of really short haired dudes, you know, and it's like, and I don't know where the women came from, but. Couple of guys ready to kick your ass. Right.

If you don't do a good job. I don't know. You know, we all set up, but I just, I remember we hit the stage.

And it's like, you know, Lights and stuff. And the first thing I do, I walk up to the mic. And I'm like, hello.

And it's like, Oh my God. I was like, my hair. I was like, okay, it's going to be a good night.

Yeah. I was in. Right.

The roar from that crowd. When I said that was just unbelievable. And then it was that other place in the tumor.

Or Danville. Charleston. We had to carry.

Yeah, there you go. Hammond Oregon up two flights of stairs. Son of a. And Ted's warehouse.

Ted's warehouse. I remember. I just remember tearing down.

And it's probably like an hour. I don't know, 45 minutes. Maybe it's only a half an hour.

I don't know. We're tearing down. There's still people like, you know, Loitering around.

And finally over the loudspeaker. We're closed. Get the fuck out.

And I just, it always sticks with me. I'll never forget that. Get the fuck out of here.

That's a good one. There was Ted's warehouse. Where was that? Yeah.

Charleston. Yeah. Charleston.

And Eastern, Eastern Illinois university. Right. Yeah.

Those are the two funny stories. I remember. I have this one great picture of us.

I don't know. You probably have this too, but this was from the reunion. This was from the reunion.

Back in. When was I there? He's got a frame, did everything. Was it 95 or something? But this is such a great picture of us and Tommy and.

Oh, wow. Do you have a copy of that? No. I bet your glory does someplace.

Yeah. Somebody must, but that's it. I said, look at Tommy.

Tommy looks great. Oh, man. Brian.

Brian's brother. Ray. Ray.

Ray. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a great. I've had that up on my wall here.

Anyway, Kenny. Chicago experience. We, we will be in.

Let me look up these dates here real quick. July 15th, 16 and 17. We're going to be in, we start in.

Michigan. Now we go to Fort Wayne on the 16th. And then back to Michigan on the 17th.

Where. Okay. So we are going to be.

First show. Is Flint, Michigan, the capital theater. In Flint, Michigan.

July 15th. And then Fort Wayne, we're going to be playing it. The Follinger theater.

On the 16th of July. And on the 17th of July, we are booked. Dearborn.

Ford. Performing arts center. Dearborn, Michigan.

So we're going to be there, folks. If you're listening, come on out. Call ahead for your tickets.

Let's sell it out. Let's have a party. All right, guys.

Thanks so much, Kenny. You're welcome, man. Thank you guys.

Good to talk to you, Kenny. You too. Thanks.

So that was Kenny's. Of Kenny's. Chicago experience.

He's got some great players playing with him. And he's having fun playing some of his stuff that he grew up with. We all grew up on.

But he especially grew up right there in his own family. That's right. He grew up right around by all of us down here on the south side.

Down there by the jewels. That's right. That's right.

And yeah, it was a lot of fun talking to Kenny. Getting some of the old stories from his early band days with freewheeling. It was great having Eddie with us to talk to Kenny about their time together, traveling around the state and doing their assembly shows.

Yes. Yes, it was. It was a lot of fun.

Thanks to Eddie for joining us. We appreciate it. Yep.

And don't forget, you can catch him on the, on episode one of the dancing noodles and episode 30 of freewheeling. So check those podcasts out too. All right.

I will. And I want to thank GHS strings for sponsoring the show. And I think the, the Illinois rock and roll museum on route 66 in Joliet.

Don't forget to sign up to become a charter member. And I say. 66.

Is it. Do you. Is it route or route? I say route.

I say route. I'm okay. I don't know who's right, but.

A route to me is, is like something that you would, you know, it's like a vegetable or part of a tree. Okay. Okay.

All right. Well, you know, the, the, that, that, that roadway was rooted in the ground. Yes.

I guess so. So make sure you check out the museum join today. And join us next week for another exciting episode of the rock and roll Chicago podcast.

Thanks for listening to everybody. Bye. The rock and roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music.

That's played on this podcast. The music is used to promote the band or musicians that are interviewed.