One-On-One Interview with Summer Fest Band
One-on-One Interview with Summer Fest Band
ellicottvilleNOW Sits Down with Bill Champlin, Formerly of Chicago
It’s finally that time of the year again when we can put all the winter gear away and head outside to enjoy the fresh air and warm temperatures. That means it’s time for Ellicottville’s Summer Music Festival.
Headlining the concert on Saturday, July 1st will be The Players formerly of Chicago and Earth Wind & Fire. Members include Bill Champlin, Keith Howland and Jeff Coffey, formerly of Chicago and Gorden Campbell formerly from Earth, Wind & Fire.
Champlin and I connected by phone to talk about the upcoming Summer Festival gig and his long music career which started out doing background vocal work for the likes of Neil Diamond, Patti LaBelle, Kenny Rogers, Elton John and George Benson to name a few. That was just the beginning… the early days of his career. From there he joined the group Chicago for 28 years, and co-wrote two Grammy Award winning songs, “After The Love Has Gone”, recorded by Earth, Wind & Fire and “Turn Your Love Around” recorded by George Benson.
Launching his career in 1961, the singer/songwriter recorded his first solo album, “Single” in 1978 followed by 10 more solo albums, including his most recent release, “Livin’ For Love” in 2021, which came on the heels of prostate cancer and the death of his son, Bradford, from complications due to esophageal cancer. “Your bracket of what you care about and don’t care about changes real quick when stuff like that comes around,” said Champlin.
Before we even started talking about his career and music, we spent a good half hour going through everything from the weather to our health issues. Laughing he asked, “Now that we saved the world a couple times, what’s going on? What did you have for breakfast?”
The tone was set and our conversation felt more like two friends or a brother and sister catching up on life. Like many interviews I’ve done throughout the years, you start to realize that many artists are somehow connected through their musical history. Kind of like the game “Six Degrees From Kevin Bacon”. It’s exciting when the connections are revealed, and the anticipation of the next connection from the next interview is even more exciting.
Champlin is looking forward to playing Ellicottville’s Summer Music Festival and bringing all those great classic songs from two bands that were a big part of our lives. Come on out for what’s sure to be another amazing concert on the slopes of beautiful Holiday Valley and let the music and your mind take you back to the good old days.
For more information on Champlin and The Players, formerly of Chicago and Earth, Wind and Fire, visit billchamplin.com. For more information and tickets on the Summer Music Festival visit ellicottvilleny.com.
A CONVERSATION WITH BILL CHAMPLIN
HULICK: We’re looking forward to your show on July 1st at Ellicottville’s Summer Music Festival. You’ll be playing at the base of a ski slope… it’s quite the backdrop.
CHAMPLIN: Great! I’m looking forward to it. Chicago played a show once at the bottom of a ski lift and they had a freak snowstorm. Talk about a day on the tundra! (laughs)
HULICK: Reading through your biography, I can’t believe the connections you have to all these major artists.
CHAMPLIN: There was one point where there were millions of sessions going on in Los Angeles and records were being made and sold and retailed and wholesaled and all the stuff that’s supposed to go along with the music business was in place. At that time I was working on a million records. The earlier generation that worked with the Beach Boys and others were called the wrecking crew. I was part of the next generation wrecking crew. I was one of the handful of singers that were part of that. The others were Bobby Kimball, the original lead singer of the group Toto, and Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers. The three of us were going around doing dates all over the place, so it kind of kept us all busy, especially when we were on breaks from our bands. We could all kind of hop in and knock off some dates and it sort of became a regular thing. At one point my vocal range was kind of at the top of its game and I was getting hired a lot. Then when it was slowing down I took the gig with Chicago, but I had no idea I was going to hang with it as long as I did.
HULICK: 28 years, as a matter of fact. That’s crazy!
CHAMPLIN: Yeah well, money’s addictive. (laughs)
HULICK: You are from the era of musicians and singers all present in the studio when recording an album. Do you miss that?
CHAMPLIN: Yes. It used to be learn it, arrange it, sing it and go home or go to the next session. I remember one day that was really cool… I went into Sunset Sound in Studio A, with the two girls I was singing with at the time, and they were rolling Steve Lukather’s guitar rig out to Studio B. Steve was a guitarist, a singer/songwriter and original founding member of the band Toto. So we went into Studio A and did our work and then I noticed our next gig was right down the hall in Studio B. So we walked down the hall and they’re rolling Steve Lukather’s stuff out to Studio C. We go in and record in Studio B and then it turned out that our next gig was in Studio C. (laughs) It was ten feet from gig to gig. (laughs) No gas mileage here. It was pretty cool. Now that didn’t happen often, but I remember it happened that one time.
HULICK: I remember the musicians, even a symphony, and the artists recording altogether in the one studio. It just added so much history to that album…
CHAMPLIN: Oh, absolutely! People could hear the other person playing and so forth and it made you play better. I grew up in a world where I’m playing along and I can hear the guitar player and he plays a ridiculously good solo and it makes me play better. If he isn’t there with me and he plays a ridiculously good solo I can’t hear him, therefore it doesn’t make me play better. So there was this thing when we were all together and could hear each other playing, everyone would get expediently better. That’s kind of what I dig about playing with Keith Howland and Jeff Coffey with The Players is we’re just playing straight ahead. You can hit the wall if you make mistakes, but what’s Rock and Roll without a little bit of risk?
HULICK: Right. That’s the human aspect of it and that’s part of music… that’s the fun part. Who’s idea was it to start The Players, formerly of Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire?
CHAMPLIN: Well I got a call from Kim Reilly, who’s such a sweetheart and a wonderful lady, about a year ago and we went and did a thing with Keith and Jeff and we saw Tristan Imboden play - he was the drummer for Chicago for years. We were in Baltimore, I believe, and we had a good time and the audience loved it, so Kim asked if we wanted to do some more of these shows. Tris kind of baled out because he had other things he was doing. So that’s how it all got started and we are looking forward to doing these shows… I think we have two gigs, if not three in July.
HULICK: How about all the technology available today? It’s amazing what all you can do these days.
CHAMPLIN: The phones these days I just look at it. I was a lot happier with two orange juice cans and a long piece of string. (laughs) It’s funny… I have a friend that has a sailboat and he bought this new contraption that will automatically show you which way the wind is blowing. I asked him how much he spent on it and he said… oh, about $350.00 or so. I stuck my finger in my mouth then held it up in the air and said… you mean it does this? (laughs) It’s an economical replacement for a wet finger. (laughs)
HULICK:(laughs) You’re so funny! Any thoughts about retiring or are you having too much fun?
CHAMPLIN: I thought I retired ten or eleven years ago! (laughs) I’ve never been busier in my life! Covid brought down two years of no concerts and that put a cramp in everybody’s stuff.
HULICK: I don’t know how people in the entertainment world got through that time. I was having a real hard time with not being able to do my interviews and not going to concerts. I felt lost… like can someone flip the switch to on again and let’s get going.
CHAMPLIN: I went ahead and made a couple albums. When I needed horns for a song I sent the track to Walnut Creek, California to Marc Russo and he stacked some saxophone on my solo album and did one solo on the album that was just insane. He plays regularly with the Doobie Brothers and he was with the original Yellowjackets. He’s a screamer player. He’s one of those guys you just want to shoot because he’s so good. (laughs)
HULICK: (laughs) I wasn’t expecting that statement.
CHAMPLIN: (laughs) If you can’t shoot him then at least put a warrant out for his arrest! (laughs)
HULICK: (laughs) Is there anyone you haven’t worked with that you’d like to?
CHAMPLIN: I’ve never worked with Stevie Wonder. I’ve sang background vocals on some songs he was a part of or wrote, but I’ve never met the man. On my new solo album, “Livin’ For Love”, there’s a song on there called, “A Stevie Song” and it’s a little bit of a tribute to Stevie Wonder. You can go on Spotify to hear it.
HULICK: Is there anything in your amazing career you would maybe have done differently?
CHAMPLIN: At this point in the game I wouldn’t know how. I’ve thought from time to time what would I do if I wasn’t doing this… probably nothing. I’d probably be living under a bridge. I don’t see myself doing anything but music. I’m definitely not a fashion maven by any means. (laughs)
HULICK: Do you have a message for your fans coming out to Ellicottville to see you July 1st?
CHAMPLIN: Just have fun! Come on out and have fun! Don’t judge it… put down the gavel and just enjoy the music.