Eustis native Jeff Coffey
remembers his childhood listening to the band Chicago. Now he’s a part of the group’s lineup and is returning to Central Florida this week.
Jeff Coffey was not yet 2 years old when Chicago released their first album, “Chicago Transit Authority,” in 1969. “I remember as a kid, hearing all those great hits on the radio in the ’70s,” said the Eustis native on the phone from Denver. He saw them for the first time in 1986, when “Chicago 18” came out. “The ’80s was really my era.”
Now the bassist and vocalist is in the storied band and heading back to Central Florida for a show at Orlando’s Dr. Phillips Center, 8 p.m. Friday. (Remaining tickets are $80.50-$126. Details: drphillipscenter.org.)
Coffey, 50, has been playing and performing on his own and with other bands since 1994. He toured with Brian Howe of Bad Company and released two solo albums in 2003 and 2007 respectively. “I love writing and recording my own music,” he said.
But eventually his solo career took its toll: “I got burnt just trying to make it on my own.”
Contacts Coffey made in Nashville introduced him to Chicago last year when the band was looking to replace Jason Scheff, who had been its bassist for the past 30 years. Coffey was asked to send in a video audition. “They liked what they heard,” he said. They invited him up for a twoweek run of concerts. “I did the audition, the next night was the show. It was kind of a trial by fire.”
Going from playing bars and gigs on his own to the audiences that Chicago draws has been a completely different scale for Coffey. “This is a whole other level,” he said. “We’ve been playing in front of arenas and down in Mexico.”
He recalled playing 4th of July weekend for three nights to sold out crowds of 18,000 at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. “I had only been with the band for a month or so at that point,” he said. “Fireworks, L.A. Symphony Orchestra, it was an amazing weekend.
“As an artist, it was something that I always wanted to do. So I’m getting to do some bucket-list things, play some bucketlist venues.”
Though Coffey was mostly familiar with the years of Scheff, he notes the live shows have been focused a lot on the earlier era of bassist and lead singer Peter Cetera, which produced hits such as “25 or 6 to 4,” “Saturday in the Park” and “If You Leave Me Now.” “When I had the audition, I had to learn their whole show and started digging into their whole catalog,” he said. “From the fans, a lot of the compliments I get are more about Peter.”
Coffey describes the fan response to his performances as “warmly welcoming. I knew it was going to be … winning people over one show at a time.”
Yet for all the fans he’s played in front of, he’s excited to have the opportunity to come to his hometown. “More people who have supported me in the past now have a chance to come see it,” he said.