David Foster Discussed His Career With Chicago and How His Fandom Led to Some Members Being “Pissed Off”

Releasing their first album, Chicago Transit Authority back in 1969, the band Chicago took over the airwaves with hit songs like “Questions 67 and 68” and “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is.” Dominating the Billboard chart, the album stayed on the chart for over 170 weeks. And in 2014, the Grammy Hall of Fame inducted the album. While the band went through some lineup changes over decades, record producer David Foster recently recalled his time with the band and how his fandom led to some “pissed off” bandmates.  

Discussing his legacy with Chicago, Foster explained how his excitement got in the way. He told the Los Angeles Times. “I get it — I get why they were unhappy. I just came in like a young, arrogant barnstormer: ‘OK, I’m playing all the piano now,’ and Peter let me play the synth-bass on everything because he didn’t want to play bass anymore.” Wearing numerous hats, Foster added he was “the bass player, I was the piano player, I was the co-songwriter. I was the producer, I was the arranger for the most part. I didn’t know then that I was making them be more like me than I was trying to be like them.”

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David Foster Kept Producing Hit After Hit

While some members might not have liked Foster’s enthusiasm at the time, he knew how to make a hit as Chicago 16 became a platinum-selling hit. And the hits kept coming with Chicago 17 and Chicago 18. 

With Foster sharing a love for Chicago before entering the studio with the famous band, he said, “I was trying to imitate them, but I guess more of me came out than should have – and they got annoyed because they didn’t want to be a ballad band. I mean, my mission with Chicago was I wanted to remind them of their greatness. I was such a fan in the late ’60s when it was the [Chicago] Transit Authority. But by Chicago 16, they’d just forgotten their greatness, that’s all. Bottom line is: I don’t blame them for being pissed off.”

Although helping Chicago create hit after hit, Foster gave himself little praise for the band’s stardom as he insisted, “They’d had a ton of success before.”

(Photo by Jeanette D. Moses/Variety via Getty Images)