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Lee, you’ve lived in Sedona since 2010. What brought you here?
Lee: My ex-wife had a near death experience when we were living in Branson, Missouri. She was having trouble recovering, and this was the place she chose to recover. That’s how I got here. I have a 12-year-old son that I’m raising, too.
The documentary also shows you interacting with fans in Paris. Do you get a chance to interact with fans often and is it something you enjoy?
Lee: We interact with our fans every night. We do a meet and greet every night – we take pictures and sign autographs and talk for as long as you can talk before you have to get ready for the show. We’ll do that in Sedona, and then we will watch the documentary with the rest of the audience. Our fans are the ones who want to hear the music that we were lucky enough to have come through us. To blow them off would be a major mistake.
Robert: In general the band has always been very accessible. They are really a bunch of very nice gentlemen. We’ve never been afraid of our fans [laughs].
The model of your band is almost orchestral in the fact that there are so many instruments and no real front man, unless not since Peter Cetera. Chicago is still unique in that aspect. You’ve rarely even been pictured on an album cover. There doesn’t seem to be much ego in the band.
Lee: It’s a testament to how long we’ve been together. Even when we had a front man and he left, the band didn’t stop. In comparison with the amount of shows he does, we do thousands and he does less than hundreds. I’m just happy we can do what we love to do and what we’ve been doing since we were kids. I’ve been playing the trumpet since I was 11 years old. I’ve never had to get a job. The hardest part is the traveling and being away from your family. I can only take my son with me when he’s out of school.
Robert: The idea of not being on the covers of our albums came from our producer, who was a very wise man. He taught us that music is what is most important, especially if you’re going to take it seriously and be productive. That was a good vision on his part. We went along with it because we were young and stupid [laughs], but it worked out to our advantage.
What bands are you listening to today?
Lee: I like Bruno Mars. I like Justin Timberlake. I listen to Top 40 radio, if you can consider that anymore. My son and I listen to 102.9 out of Cottonwood every day on the way to school and on the way home from school. So I’m well-versed in Ariana Grande and Miguel’s new single. I love the fact that melody is coming back in vogue.
Robert: My taste is pretty broad. I listen to Brazilian music. I always have. It informed my composing. I listen to a lot of jazz from the late-40s to the late-60s. And I’m really into electronica and chill-out music – stuff that started being recorded in the 90s, mostly in Europe. As for current bands, I like Little Dragon, who are a Swedish band.
