41 Facts About Terry Kath

Terry Alan Kath was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the rock band Chicago.

Terry Kath played guitar and sang lead vocals on many of the band's early hit singles.

Terry Kath played bass in a number of bands in the mid-1960s, before settling on the guitar when forming the group that became Chicago.

Terry Kath's guitar playing was an important component of the group's sound from the start of their career.

Terry Kath used a number of different guitars, but eventually became identified with a Fender Telecaster fitted with a single neck-position humbucker pickup combined with a bridge position angled single-coil pickup and decorated with numerous stickers.

Terry Kath struggled with health issues and drug abuse towards the end of the 1970s.

Terry Kath died in January 1978 from an unintentional self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Terry Kath was born to Raymond Elmer "Ray" and Evelyn Meline Haugen Terry Kath on January 31,1946, in Chicago, Illinois.

Terry Kath was raised in the Norwood Park neighborhood of Chicago.

Terry Kath's brother played the drums and his mother played the banjo, and Kath attempted to learn these instruments too.

Terry Kath was later influenced by George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Mike Bloomfield, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix.

Unlike several other Chicago members who received formal music training, Terry Kath was mostly self-taught and enjoyed jamming.

Terry Kath joined his first semi-professional band, The Mystics, in 1963, moving to Jimmy Rice and the Gentlemen in 1965.

Terry Kath then played bass in a road band called Jimmy Ford and the Executives.

Terry Kath became close friends with Seraphine as they formed the rhythm section, as well as with Parazaider.

In 1966, Terry Kath joined a cover band called the Missing Links, taking Parazaider and Seraphine with him, and started playing clubs and ballrooms in Chicago on a regular basis.

Terry Kath received an offer from Guercio to play bass for the Illinois Speed Press and move to Los Angeles, but declined as he considered the guitar his main instrument and wanted to sing lead.

Terry Kath sang the lower range of lead vocals in the group in a style reminiscent of Ray Charles.

Terry Kath was regarded as Chicago's bandleader and best soloist; his vocal, jazz and hard rock influences are regarded as integral to the band's early sound.

Terry Kath has been praised for his guitar skills and described by rock author Corbin Reiff as "one of the most criminally underrated guitarists to have ever set finger to fretboard".

Terry Kath wrote at least one song and contributed at least one lead vocal to every Chicago album released during his lifetime.

Terry Kath continued this style on the following year's Chicago XI, contributing the funky "Mississippi Delta City Blues" and the aggressive "Takin' It on Uptown", which counterbalanced some of the material other members were producing.

Terry Kath used several guitars in his early career, but many of these early ones were stolen while on the road.

Terry Kath's first main instrument that he used when Chicago were still The Big Thing was a Register guitar that cost $80.

Terry Kath used a Gibson SG Standard, as pictured on Chicago Transit Authoritys inner sleeve, and a Gibson SG Custom, and was one of the few well-known guitarists to make regular use of the 1969 Les Paul "Professional" model, which sported a pair of unconventional low-impedance pickups with a special impedance-matching transformer for use with a standard high impedance-input amplifier.

Terry Kath tended to favor light strings, though for the top E string, he used one from a tenor guitar.

Terry Kath was an early investor in the Pignose company and served in the management of the company and decorated his Telecaster with 25 Pignose stickers, a Maico motorcycles decal and a Chicago Blackhawks logo.

Terry Kath experimented with a wide variety of amplification and distortion devices and used a wah-wah pedal frequently.

Terry Kath played lead guitar and sang lead vocals on the closing song "Tell Me" in the 1973 drama movie Electra Glide in Blue.

Terry Kath had a self-admitted history of drug abuse, including alcohol.

The night before he died, Terry Kath visited bandmate Laudir de Oliveira.

Guercio has said that Terry Kath was finishing writing a solo album before he died, and Pankow has adamantly denied that Terry Kath was suicidal.

Terry Kath enjoyed target shooting and by 1978 was regularly carrying guns.

Terry Kath then replaced the magazine in the gun, put the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger.

Terry Kath died instantly from the gunshot, at the age of 31, eight days before his 32nd birthday.

Terry Kath left behind his wife, Camelia Ortiz, and a 20-month-old daughter, Michelle Terry Kath.

Terry Kath had been married to Pamela Robinson from May 1970 until they divorced in May 1975.

Band members have since wondered if Terry Kath would have stayed with Chicago had he lived or started a solo career.

Terry Kath was his own person when it came to different things.

In 2012, Kath's daughter Michelle Kath Sinclair announced that enough funds had been donated to complete production on a documentary of his life, titled Searching for Terry: Discovering a Guitar Legend.

Michelle Terry Kath Sinclair accepted the award on her father's behalf.