A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, GRAMMY Award-winner, and the original drummer and co-founder of the legendary band Chicago. Critically acclaimed as an instrumentalist and a composer, Rolling Stone magazine has ranked “the father of jazz rock” as one of the top 100 drummers of all time. His storied career has also included producing, as well as working with a variety of Broadway musical and theatrical projects. In 2020, he received the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the former CEO of Guitar Center calls him one of the top five living drummers. He also published a memoir, titled, “Street Player: My Chicago Story,” and, he is still active today, performing with his band, the California Transit Authority.
“Our band, current band (California Transit Authority) just respects the original Chicago, some of the guys grew up with that music, and have a great appreciation for the musicianship and challenge of it.”
“Mark Bonilla is one of – to me, to me – one of the greatest guitar players in the world, and I truly believe that. The late Keith Emerson agreed with me.”
“I hear on the AM radio, ‘Here’s the latest hit from Chicago’ … and I pulled over to a pay phone… and I called our manager… he said, ‘Danny’ … ‘it’s being played on 75 percent of all the AM radio stations in the country!’ And I said, ‘Oh! Can I go buy a Mercedes tomorrow?’”
“I still love to play. I still play at a high level and while I can I’m gonna keep playing.”
“I love connecting with the audience… It’s just great to still be able to play the music that I loved and breathed.”
“I have a practice pad – which, every dedicated drummer has close to them – to keep my hands and keep my technique.”
“I enjoy working on my craft still. I feel like I have a standard that I have to uphold every time I step on that stage.”
“The day that I feel like I really can’t do it anymore, I’ll probably stop. I don’t see that anywhere in the near future, to be honest with you.”
“I feel like I’ve had a great life. And I feel like I have to give back where I can and the one way that I can really give back is music and trying to mentor younger musicians… and help them through some of the things that I had to struggle through.”
“I grew from the adversity that came when the band fired me.”
“There’s a lot to offer (in Las Vegas) music-wise, but still, L.A., Nashville, New York are still probably the greatest music meccas at least in the United States and probably the world.”
“As long as there’s an audience for me to play in front of and there’s people that enjoy the music that I perform, I’m grateful.”
“Introduction” (California Transit Authority)
“Street Player” (Chicago)