Growing up in Chicago, we had our own array of real rock and roll stars. I remember my sister Claudia running in the house with a New Colony Six record exclaiming that her girlfriend was dating Ronnie Rice, the lead singer.

Who doesn’t feel that Chicago hometown pride when they hear The Shadows of Knight’s version of “Gloria?”

When I’m in the car with my daughters and the American Breed’s “Bend Me Shape Me” is on the radio, we always do the hand clapping parts during the verses. How can you not do that?

For years I couldn’t figure out what those wacky background vocals were during in the Buckingham's “Kind of a Drag,” but I always pretended I did know them when the song was on the radio. You know the part…Maybe you sang them like I used to…

Listen to me what the blah blah

Girl you know that la la la la

I blah blah that you’ve been cheatin’

La la la that we’ll be meetin’

Oooo, I still love you.

When they were little, my daughters would always yell out, “You don’t know the words!“ 

“Those are the words!” I would yell back with a smile and we all would start laughing.

When I was in high school, our band got tickets to be in the TV audience for a local program called In Concert. The show was broadcast over Chicago’s public television station, WTTW.

The show we attended featured a local Chicago rock group who was supposedly “up and coming.” The group sounded great, but they performed one song that really stuck with me. The song was titled “Lady,” and the group was Styx. Yeah, I’d say they were up and coming.

In the early days, our group, Jade 50’s, was performing at local schools and colleges. In the spring of 1975 we were booked to perform at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois. We were to be the opening act for a band called Jim Peterick and the Chitown Hustlers. I had never heard of the group before and actually thought to myself, “With a name like that, they must be an “oldies review” too.” (Sorry Jim)

As it turns out, it was Grammy award winner Jim Peterick from the Ides of March! (Jim also starred in and wrote the hits for the music group Survivor as well as hit songs for other artists including .38 Special).The guy blew me away. We have stayed friends over the years.

One of the things I like about Jim Peterick and The Ides of March is our shared love for a specific pizza. Let me explain.

In Chicago there are at least six different styles of pizza. There is one pizza that fits perfectly in between the different assortments of thin-crust and deep-dish and that is Salerno’s Pizza. The “Jade boys” and I used to eat there at least once a week and we learned that the Ides of March had those same cravings. Every once in a while, when I produce a show and book the Ides, I import Salerno’s from Berwyn.

In an age where the back stage food can range from a complete deli tray to cracked-crab, it is so refreshing to see grown men feast on a childhood favorite and make you feel like you served them “surf and turf.”

In my late 20’s I used to play a lot of basketball and racquetball to keep in shape. One Saturday I walked onto the b-ball court waiting for the next pick-up game. When it was my turn, I was teamed up with two guys with longer hair and diamond earrings. I thought to myself “OH, great! We’re gonna get killed and I’ll be sitting in a few minutes,” but I was wrong. They were good ball players who held their own. We ran the court for about four or five games.

After about 90 minutes of playing, “Bobby and Pete” asked, “Hey Joe, do you play racquetball?” Soon we were playing three-man “cut-throat.”

It wasn’t until about halfway between the second game that it hit me. Bobby and Pete, longer hair, huge diamond earrings, California tans…Holy crap, I’m working out with Robert Lamb and Pete Cetera from Chicago! (Not the city, the rock band!)

I walked up to serve, and I turned to both of them and said, “You’re Robert Lamb and Pete Cetera.” Cetera kind of shrugged as if his cover had been blown and said, “Yeah.” We’d been working out for about two hours at that point and they were very normal (if you know what I mean). I can’t ever imagine guys like Prince or Sir Elton John being regular guys and playing with us commoners. But the band Chicago was/is HUGE! They have more hit records then they can fit into one show, a Beatle-like discography that only a few bands have.

I told them who I was and Lamb said he heard of us. (I think he was just being nice.)

I found that many of my rock and roll buddies are very good athletes.

Gary Loizzo, the lead-singer from the American Breed is an “Open” (top rated) racquetball player. I know this firsthand because he has “opened” up a can of “Whoop-ass” on me several times. I think that in all the time I have played against Gary, I have scored only one point, and that was while he left the court to get a drink! I walk off the court dripping wet in sweat and he still has a chill, from me whiffing.

I love my long phone conversations with Jimmy Pilster from the Cryan’ Shames. It turns out that his one-handed birth defect has never kept him back from anything, including golf. The guy is a very good golfer and an awesome percussionist. I wonder how many people with a similar birth defect have been inspired by Jimmy’s will and his always present, enthusiastic attitude.

Once while rehearsing with Carl Giammarese from the Buckinghams for a show we were doing together in Berwyn, Illinois, he taught me the real words to the background parts of “Kind of a Drag.” I worked on them for days and at show time I nailed them. After the gig, Carl made a point of letting me know that we sounded great together. (I hope he meant that.)

Once during a show, when we were opening for the Buckinghams, I thought I would be funny and I said, “Hey, if you liked us, we are Joe Cantafio and the Giant Killers. If you didn’t like us, we’re The Buckinghams.”

That brought a laugh out of the thousands waiting to hear the Bucks. Soon the laughter turned to cheers and when I looked around, I saw the Buckinghams, all of them, walking onto the stage. It was like a scene from a Rat Pack concert.

Carl grabbed the microphone out of my hand as I sheepishly smiled at the audience. He said smiling, “We heard that. You think you are so funny, don’t you, Joe?” The crowd loved it. I just kept smiling and looking around. Then with some quick thinking and some tap-dancing, I took the microphone and said, “Well, if you guys are so good, why don’t you sing a song with us?”

The audience erupted. Carl looked at me as if to say through his smile, “I’m gonna kill you.”

So there we were, 12 Giant Killers, 5 Buckinghams and about 6,000 people. What could we do? We called a huddle. A few seconds later the audience was treated to an awesome, one-time, stretched-out version of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime.” That is one of my favorite moments in rock and roll.

Anyone who has seen the Buckinghams knows that Nick Fortuna used to be a “90 pound weakling,” and now he can bench press a house. He used to tell me that he worked out three or four hours a day, and now he only has to do it two hours a day.Yikes! I prefer “The Ronnie Rice Workout,” burn calories singing all night long, and then have a nice dinner. It takes about the same time. 

Speaking of Ronnie Rice…he is one class act. He called me before we went to Iraq to wish me luck and called when I got home. Ronnie is one of funniest guys I have ever met. When I was doing my Let Freedom Sing project for the firefighters of Engine 55 in New York, Ronnie showed up, for FREE, at about seven shows and performed with me.

Cliff Johnson, Mike Gorman and Mike Redman from Off Broadway did the same. They rocked more than once for the FDNY firemen and at the “coming home” party for our band’s triumphant tour of Iraq and the Middle East in 2004. All of the guys from Off Broadway were there. The “giving back” is what I’ll never forget about these guys. Mike and Cliff would even call me and ask if there was anything else they could do.

My “Beatle Brother” buddy Jay Goeppner (now of Instant Karma) and local rockers Rich Hofherr and Andrew Blake from 7^th Heaven have stepped up dozens of times. Recently, Jay, Rich and Andrew help me kick off “Forgotten Heroes.” “Forgotten Heroes” is a project created by my Vietnam Veteran hero Bob Kolling and myself, designed to bring entertainers and visitors to local Chicago VA hospitals. I can’t do this alone, and having such wonderful, caring, compassionate friends who believe in giving back is a true blessing.

As I look back, it wasn’t the “famous” rock and roll celebrities or superstar athletes that impressed me. I can say without a doubt, the most impressive people I have ever met were the firefighters that I was honored to meet during my Let Freedom Sing Tour and the men and women of America’s Armed Forces I entertained in February of 2004. Those people put it on the line every day to help others. Nobody cheers for them; they never get a standing ovation or huge signing bonus; and they work overtime for little or no pay so we can sleep in peace at night. It has been my honor to know them.