MUSIC

Being on the road is hard habit to break for rock band Chicago, keyboardist Robert Lamm

Margaret Quamme
Special to The Columbus Dispatch
Chicago will perform at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2 at the Palace Theatre, 34 W. Broad St.

Chicago has gone through some changes since it started as a rock band with horns in 1967.

One thing that hasn't changed is the band's keyboardist, Robert Lamm.

He'll be there again when the band performs at the Palace Theatre on Tuesday.

Lamm, 77, is responsible for writing many of the band's hits, including “25 or 6 to 4” and “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”

He spent much of his time during the pandemic writing songs for a new, as yet untitled, Chicago album to be released early in 2022. This one is the proposed first of two new albums, and the first by the group since “Chicago Christmas" in 2019.

Writing during the pandemic

“My experience of the pandemic was that I actually allowed myself, pretty much every day, to work on songs,” Lamm said, speaking by phone from Knoxville, Tennessee, where he was appearing as part of the band's current tour.

Robert Lamm, who was a founding member of the rock band Chicago in 1967, says he enjoyed returning to live audiences after a break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Ever since the early '70s, we've been on the road. Eventually, I didn't even have a piano at home. I just didn't have time for it," he said. "But this year, I allowed myself to think about what I really wanted to say, lyrically. And I allowed myself to reach out to people I wanted to work with. I'm not really worrying about, 'Is this going to get on the radio is this a Brazilian feel or a jazzy feel or a romantic feel?' None of that."

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He wasn't the only one in the band who was working.

“The newer guys in the band, who have only been with us for a decade or two or three (he laughs), this project also allowed them to be creative and contribute songs,” Lamm said.

New album will bring new direction

The new album will take the band in a new direction — something that has happened more than once before.

“Chicago has never been your average pop music or rock music. It's all over the place stylistically. I think that's why it took us so long to get into the Rock Hall of Fame,” he said.

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Chicago was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2016, and Lamm into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2017.

Lamm had a couple of revelations during his time off from touring.

“One was that I didn't know what home was. It's the longest I've ever been home for my entire life, and I'm an old guy. I didn't know that I would like it so much. I want to do it more. And the second was that I married the right woman. My wife is a wonderful, lovely person,” he said.

Lamm has been married to his fourth wife, Joy Kopko, since 1991.

Happy to be touring again

By now, the band has been back on the road since June.

“We've played about 50 concerts by now, and we have about 50 more to go,” Lamm said. “It's been fun rediscovering the thrill of performance, for an audience who might be fans, or might be curious or just might be looking for something to do.”

The concert moves chronologically through Chicago's long career.

“We start with material from the very first album, which remains popular. Even though most of our audience these days is younger than us, somehow, they've absorbed our music, either through classic radio or listening to their parents' record collections,” Lamm said.

“There are some acoustic elements, there are some really hard rocking parts, and the show has a beginning, a middle and an end. And it appears to be working. The audiences are standing and cheering. And that makes us feel so good.”

margaretquamme@hotmail.com

At a glance

Chicago will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Palace Theatre, 34 W. Broad St. Masks, as well as vaccination or a negative COVID test, are required. Tickets cost $52.50 to $198.50 (614-469-0939, capa.com)