Never looked back after split: Peter Cetera

Never looked back after split: Peter Cetera

These days, "four people in Sweden write all the songs in the world".

Peter Cetera, former frontman of US rock band Chicago, is reminiscing over the phone from his home in Idaho, US, about a time gone by when pop songs were written by the people who performed them.

He would know.

Cetera's written most of the hits that Chicago, the group he left in 1985, is still known for, including You're The Inspiration and Hard To Say I'm Sorry.

The singer will be in Singapore next month to perform at The Star Performing Arts Centre.

While some of these great songs will be part of his repertoire, Cetera, 68, has never looked back, not joining Chicago on stage even once for a reunion.

"What's very strange is that I've actually been out of the group longer than I was in the group," Cetera told LOUD over the phone two weeks ago.

He left Chicago because of a difference in opinion over the group's busy touring schedules and his own solo career, which he had started in 1981 with a self-titled album.

ENJOYING LIFE TOO MUCH

It never occurred to him to return to the band because Cetera, who is single, has been much too busy enjoying his life in Idaho doing outdoor sports and spending time with his two daughters, Claire, 29, and Senna, 16, from two different relationships.

"I've certainly had a more rewarding personal life since going solo," he said.

"When The Beatles broke up, I was one of those people who wanted them to get back together, but if it were so wonderful, they would have stayed together."

In Cetera's case, his strength as a songwriter and his friendship with producers like David Foster - with whom he visited Singapore in 2010 as part of the David Foster & Friends tour - helped buoy his solo efforts, with his 1986 singles Glory Of Love and The Next Time I Fall, with Amy Grant, reaching No. 1 in the US.

But all that success came after years of treading a long hard road as a working musician, way before he found fame with Chicago. "I was always working. Ever since I was 16, I was always in a band," said Cetera. "Now, there's not that same process of allowing people to grow into things. It's so hard, this whole thing of instant success." Chicago, for example, only got their first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 in 1976 - nine years after they formed - with If You Leave Me Now, from their eighth album Chicago X. "The music business is so different now," said Cetera. "Nobody wants to take the time to put together a group and stay together." Still, he believes there are a few fundamentals that can keep a musician going in the business. "What I always tell them is show up on time, and be in tune," he said. "You can't go wrong if you do those two things."

julrasul@sph.com.sg


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