Danny Seraphine: the Chicago drummer’s days in a street gang
When you think about musicians who were hand-in-hand with mobsters, the first names that come to mind are the likes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. While their music may have oozed a sense of class and sophistication, they were also known for being in cahoots with several gang members and had several connections to some of the most dangerous men in the world. If these two heartthrobs could hold court with the Mafia, then surely there are plenty of other famous musicians with ties to them too.
A rock band with plenty of jazz influence and complete with a horn section, you’d think that Chicago might be a little too fun and lighthearted to have any sort of connection to the criminal underworld and that they’re more associated with organising their releases numerically than they are organised crime. However, former drummer Danny Seraphine, who was with the band from their formation in 1967 until 1990, had plenty of stories to tell about his time in some of the most notorious gangs.
Before you begin to wonder, the other members of Chicago weren’t also connected to the mob, and Seraphine’s dismissal from the group wasn’t in any way related to his past activities. The band weren’t at risk of running the wrath of the don by relieving him of his duties in the band either; there were simply some disagreements between certain parties within the group, and after a lengthy stint behind the kit, he was suddenly no longer required.
That did give Seraphine an opportunity to chronicle his entertaining life story in his book, Street Player: My Chicago Story, which contains some salacious tales of his escapades with the law in the earlier years of his life. While he would form Chicago at the age of 19, it was when he was 17 that he became involved with Jimmy Ford and the Executives, his first band with Terry Kath and Walter Parazaider, dragging him away from life in his gang, the JPs.
“I was more scared of the mob than the FBI.”
danny seraphine
Had he not had his drumming ability to fall back on, Seraphine admitted in an interview with Houston Press that he doesn’t know where he’d have ended up. “It wouldn’t have been pretty,” he claimed. “I quit school, I was confused, and I was with a violent crowd. I wasn’t headed in a very good direction, and that call sort of pulled me out of that and put me into music.”
It could well have been a different story, as Seraphine also claims to have known notorious Mafioso Tony ‘The Ant’ Spilotro, who Joe Pesci’s character in Casino was based upon. While known for being a violent and dangerous individual, he was allegedly proud to hear of Seraphine’s success after he joined Chicago. “He was always really nice to me and cordial,” the drummer claimed. “But you knew you were around dangerous people. At one point, the FBI came after me, but I was more scared of the mob than the FBI.”
As insane as all of this might seem, his issues with the law appeared to slow down after leaving the mob, although he’d clearly pissed off enough people to warrant an impostor committing crimes in his name around the country. After the fake Seraphine was accused of burglarising a house in Texas, the real Seraphine claimed that he had to keep his wits about him. “I had to have a police escort outside my room,” Seraphine explained.
Concluding, “I even went on the radio and said it wasn’t me. But I was mad and wanted a piece of this guy. I felt like I was in a movie.” While he may have left the mob, the mob clearly hadn’t forgotten about him.
