Chords for The Tragic Death of Terry Kath & Danny Seraphine's Last Words to Him

Hi, this is Joe Chambers.
Today's guest is Danny Serafin, founding member and drummer of the great band Chicago.
Danny talks today about a day I'll never forget,
the day that Terry Cath passed away.
As a guitarist, he was who I wanted to be and
_ still would love to have a
just an inkling of the talent that he had both as a guitarist and a singer,
performer.
_ Danny also talks about the effect that it had on the band for years, probably to this day. _
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Hope you enjoy it.
Danny Serafin.
_ What was Terry Cath like?
He was free spirit, very free spirit, down to earth, completely down to earth.
A no bullshit kind of guy.
_ [Bb] Didn't like_
Success and stardom did not agree with him at all, which was [C] part of his tragic [Bb] ending.
Of the [Bb] drugs and [G] he just, he was not happy with, [Gb] he just loved the play.
[Bb] He was a true, he was the true warrior of the band in my opinion.
And [G] so it,
[Bb] the
corruption that kind [D] of comes along with
superstardom, so to speak, it really affected him, you know, in a negative way.
It was hard.
_ [C] Wonderful person.
He was the best guitar player I've ever played with.
It changed my life.
You know, I mean, I really, really miss [Bb] him as a person.
[A] But I really also missed him as a musician.
The band was never the same.
[Bb] I mean, we were, I'm not saying we weren't, there wasn't greatness, but we really lost_
[E] I guess my analogy of Chicago, [A] if you had to, it was almost like an anatomy of a human [Bb] being.
Like, I always [G] thought of myself as the heart of the [Bb] band and Terry the soul of the band and
[D] the band, the horns, the [G] identity of the band and Peter the voice of the band and
_ where else is left?
I don't know.
There's not much else left, but that's kind of how I always looked at the band, you know.
And
so losing Terry, we lost, we lost [E] our soul, you [G] know.
And we had to, it took us a while to find it.
[Bb] We were lost, [Bb] we were lost for a few years after Terry [D] passed away.
_ Well, you know, as a fan, yeah, I
remember that day.
I was devastated.
I couldn't even comprehend it.
It changed.
[Bb] Of course, I still went to see you guys.
_ But to me, especially [E] like being a guitarist, [D] it's pretty hard because I could have gone to see Terry just play by himself, you know.
[C] Yeah.
Me too.
[Gb] Like I said, there was no guitar player.
I've never played with one as good.
I played with some great guitar [D] players, Larry Byrum,
you know, Chris Penick.
_ I played with some [Bb] great guitar players, but none compared to Terry. _
_ [D] _ Yeah, to me, he had it all.
He did.
[Bb] He really did.
He did have it all.
Amazing rhythm guitar player, incredible soloist.
[E] Acoustic, free form, electric.
Got a great [Gb] voice, wonderful, like [Ebm] Ray Charles type voice, a soulful voice.
[Eb] Yeah, Terry was one of a kind, no [E] doubt.
When I got the call, _
got the call from our manager, we had just gotten a new manager and called me and said,
I don't know if you're going to believe this, Terry shot himself.
[Bb] It didn't surprise me because he was a player, he always carried guns around,
did way too many drugs, and he was in a bad space.
So I heard [N] that he was at one of the road crews, his name was Don Johnson, one of our roadies.
And so I said, I don't believe it.
And he said, [D] you stay away from there because all the press is going to be there.
I said, no, I got to see.
So I shot over to Don's house and
he [Cm] answered the door like I was almost like a life preserver.
The guy was freaked out, he just flipped out.
He [C] said, I didn't mean it, Danny.
I told him not to play Russian.
I told him to put his guns away.
And Terry was sitting [Bb] on a couch with his head down like this, just peaceful. _ _
And I just went and sat down next to him and said _ goodbye to him.
I said, [Gm] I know it's been hard on you and I hope you're going to be happy and I'm going to miss [Bb] you.
And it was just, [C] I'm kind of glad in a way I was able [Bb] to do that.
I feel like I was lucky to be able to say goodbye to him _ the right way.
And it was really tragic.
It took the band years to recover from that emotionally.
[C] In some ways, it brought us closer [D] together.
It really formed a very, very strong, unique.
We were already a brotherhood.
[Bb] That's the one thing about Chicago, [N] _ _
at least the way I want to remember it,
is that we were a real brotherhood.
Terry was really an integral part of that.
And losing that made us appreciate each other even more.
And how tenuous life is and what we're doing and how careless we were and how careless we were living.
And we continued to live carelessly.
Drugs continued on in the band after that, which I hated because I hated_
I mean, I didn't like drugs to begin with because I saw what it was [Bb] doing to the band
and to the individuals and I didn't like what it did to Terry.
And [C] I couldn't handle [G] it, fortunately.
That's probably_
It's not like I was a better [E] person than any of them.
I just couldn't handle it.
I couldn't handle playing high.
You know, I [Bb] just_
I had to have my wits about me, you know.
[Am] And also, somebody had to be, [C] you know.
I was like the designated driver [Bb] of the band, so to speak, for many years. _
And it just_
It was just a grim reminder of our foolishness and carelessness with life.
I mean, I think all of us, especially from that era, can relate to that.
How careless we were with drugs and sex and rock and roll.
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _