Rock Flashback: Terry Kath

Chicago's famous logo, as it appeared on the cover of "Chicago 11," their last album with Terry Kath

On January 24, 1978, the story ran on an inside page of my local newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal. Page 14 to be exact, right between the daily weather charts and a restaurant ad (complete butt sirloin dinner — swear to god, “butt sirloin” — for $2.95). It was topped by a blurry head shot cropped from a larger photograph. The headline read: “Chicago singer Kath accidentally kills himself.”

The wire service story described what happened the day before: Terry Kath and his wife were at the home of Don Johnson, one of the band’s technicians, in Woodland Hills, California. They were “having a party and drinking,” according to a police investigator. Kath, a gun collector and target shooter, was later reported to have brought two guns along. Earlier in the evening he had put a pistol to his head and pulled the trigger several times, but that gun wasn’t loaded. The story continues: “Then he picked up an automatic pistol, put in a clip, and put that to his head, telling his wife and Johnson, ‘Don’t worry, it’s not loaded.’”

It was. He died instantly. Terry Kath was 31 years old.

At the time of Kath’s death, Chicago’s latest single had just dropped off the Hot 100. In this live performance from the fall of 1977, Kath is the guitarist in the hockey jersey who shows up at the 2:30 mark. The irony of the title is almost too much to bear: “Baby What a Big Surprise.”

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