Robert Lamm, Founding Member Of Chicago, Looks Back On Band's History Ahead Of Rock Hall Of Fame Induction

(CBS) -- Two music groups with ties to Chicago are about to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

One is Rockford's Cheap Trick and the other is Chicago.

CBS 2's Jim Williams went on a tour with Chicago's Robert Lamm to take a look at how much has changed and how much remains the same since the band's early days in the 1960s.

Millennium Park hadn't been built when Robert Lamm and his bandmates left town in the late 1960s to make their mark in Los Angeles.

So much has happened since then here in the city and in the lives of Chicago, the band, including their induction this year into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"It's an honor," Lamm said. "Absolutely. We were actually sort of taken by surprise after being passed over for so many years… a lot of things should've happened. A lot of things shouldn't of happened but they did."

Most of the original band members were natives of the city itself. Lamm, though, moved here from New York when he was 15. He attended CVS High School on the South Side before starting Roosevelt University.

"I knew that I needed to learn music. And I knew that they had a music program," Lamm said.

The school is right down the street from where, in 1968, anti-Vietnam war protestors chanted a line that would become famous: "the whole world is watching."

Chicago included the chant in a song on their first album, capturing a volatile time and a contrast to many of their pop hits.

Robert Lamm sees a connection to today's protests across the country and here in the city that gave birth to his band.

"Yes we were musicians, we're concerned with writing music and maybe taking people away emotionally from the troubles, but we also felt it was necessary to speak out or at least reflect on what everyone was going through," Lamm said.

Music serious and fun, keeping the newest Rock and Roll Hall of Famers on the road after nearly a half century.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is April 8.