Kenny Loggins was a mainstay on the pop and adult contemporary radio charts from the 1970s through the ‘90s. Yet the veteran singer/songwriter/guitarist and his generation-defining music still turns up regularly in movies and television.
Tom Cruise told Loggins there couldn’t be another Top Gun film without “Danger Zone” – his iconic hit with Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock - and made sure the original version got included on the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack.
R&B singer/actress Chloe Bailey recently belted a cover of “Footloose” during a commercial for Pepsi’s Zero Sugar Cream Soda. More high-profile exposure came courtesy of a Michelob Ultra ad starring Serena Williams and Brian Cox that paid homage to the movie Caddyshack amid Super Bowl LVII. In recent years, Loggins has also done cameos in the Netflix comedy Grace and Frankie, animated series Family Guy and the Grand Theft Auto Online videogame.
Last summer, Loggins put out the well-received memoir Still Alright and just released At the Movies, a compilation of his soundtrack work on vinyl.
He embarked on a farewell tour earlier this month that runs until the end of the year. I caught up with the musician by phone from his longtime home in Santa Barbara.
Question: I read that you’ll be incorporating some deep album cuts into the setlists on this tour. What can fans expect?
Kenny Loggins: I decided to lean towards the material that matters to me emotionally. I’ve got ‘Keep the Fire’ in there and ‘It’s About Time’ - that is probably the last thing I co-wrote with Mike McDonald [who also plays acoustic piano and clavinet on the 2003 album title track]. There are a few ballads that I haven’t done in ages. I added about six deeper cuts. ‘Keep the Fire’ is pretty well known; ‘It’s About Time’ is not, really. That was on a self-released album.
Q: Various special guests might join you onstage throughout this tour, right?
A: We have the invitation out there, but I don’t know who’s coming when yet.
Q: Last September, you reunited with Jim Messina at the Hollywood Bowl to mark the 50th anniversary of Loggins & Messina’s first gig at the famous venue. What was the experience like for you?
Kenny Loggins: It was nice to touch into the nostalgia of our ‘70s music. Everything went well musically. We rehearsed for about four days. It’s sometimes hard to remember songs that go back that far.
Q: Did the muscle memory kick in once you started running through them?
Kenny Loggins: All the memories kick in. Mostly good.
Q: Since you started working with a vocal coach a few years ago, have you noticed a big difference in what you’re able to sing now?
Kenny Loggins: Absolutely. A lot of that ‘80s stuff was so demanding vocally. ‘Celebrate Me Home’ goes from my lowest note to my highest note into falsetto. I didn’t let the key changes and the stretch of a melody be inhibited because I had so many notes. Some of that stuff is really challenging now. I was just talking with my music director about lowering the key to a song called ‘Wait a Little While,’ which was on an early solo album [1978’s Nightwatch], because I could tell I’m struggling too much with that upper key. We’ll drop it one step and see how it feels.
Q: Has the public reaction to Still Alright, your memoir with Jason Turbow, met your expectations?
Kenny Loggins: Oh yeah. The market is so flooded with rock ‘n’ roll memoirs now that if you get any attention, you’re lucky. I think the book has done really well. It’s not over yet, so that’s always good news.
Q: Unlike some music autobiographies, yours isn’t a chore to finish reading in a few sittings. Did you try to keep everything at a fairly brisk pace?
Kenny Loggins: There was a lot of material to pick from. It’s a 50-year career. I had plenty of good stories and funny stuff. I really wanted to lean on the humor. My sense of humor comes forward on it.
I think that we were aware that if we bogged down in a story, we would edit. That’s the beauty of having a collaborator like Jason - he knows what he’s doing in that arena. Also, the publishers were very experienced in that form of autobiography, where they say, ‘Can you tighten this up? We want the whole thing to come in under X number of pages.’ So, we’re writing and thinking about how long we want to take on that.
The biggest issue was writing about the divorces. How important is it too address that? How much of that do I really need? How much is just in the way? Part of it is to humanize the story so that people don’t think I’ve just spent all my life writing songs and everything’s been hunky dory. If you’re alive, you’re gonna go through changes. You want to stay aware of that humanity in that part of your story as well.
Q: Did any past music memoirs you’d liked serve as a reference points?
Kenny Loggins: Yeah, I read the Doobie Brothers, Peter Frampton, Eric Clapton ones. I noted the parts that worked for me, and I really enjoyed listening to [Roger] Daltrey’s book [Thanks a Lot, Mr. Kibblewhite: My Story]. The Who have been one of my favorite bands for my whole life so eavesdropping in on his life and his relationship with Pete Townshend was interesting. I read the Townshend book and was disappointed and loved Daltrey’s. You never know.
Q: When you talked to old colleagues and friends in preparing to write your book, were you surprised at what some people recalled compared to your own memory?
Kenny Loggins: Absolutely. I remember reading recently that eyewitness testimony is no longer allowed in a lot of court cases because it’s just not trustworthy. I had situations where I would interview my A&R man, old friends and the record company president and they all have different versions of the same story.
Once, I was in the room with the record company president and my A&R guy says, ‘I was there with you.’ I don’t even remember him in the room. Then I asked the record company president, ‘Was he in the room?’ And he said, ‘I don’t remember.’ It gradually sank in for me that I might as well tell my version of the story because at least it’s my version and there are three others out there already. What’s the truth? I guess it doesn’t really matter if the point comes across.
Q: In the book, you write about how you tried to emulate the honesty of Jim Morrison’s expressionism onstage and were drawn to The Who’s search for truth in rock ‘n’ roll. Did you try to incorporate both qualities when you started touring with Loggins & Messina and later as a solo artist?
Kenny Loggins: Probably not until I got my stride as a solo artist where I could really have the freedom artistically to express that stuff. It wasn’t that I was trying to emulate them so much as I was inspired by them – the level of honesty Morrison brought to his performance. I’m not gonna wrap myself around the mike stand the way he did. That’s his thing. But I tried to write songs that move people in a deep way. I was very influenced by James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Carole King. Artists of that era that were writing honestly, autobiographically, and poetically. Also, Dylan, and of course, Lennon and McCartney. It’s not just the song form that moved me, but their willingness to be vulnerable emotionally in the music.
Q: Having gone on tour with the New Electric Prunes without a drummer as a teenager, did that “comedy of errors”-type experience provide you with lessons about what not to do as a touring musician as your career progressed?
Kenny Loggins: I’m pretty sure it did, but at the same time, it was really confusing to me. I was asked about mentoring the other day. My first real mentor was Jimmy Messina. Even though he was only one month older than me, he had so much more experience. I came into that duo with an open mind to learn what I needed to learn. I tried my best in the book to really give credit where credit was due with Jimmy.
Q: Did everything you gleaned from Messina prove beneficial when it came time to launch a solo career?
Kenny Loggins: Absolutely. Everything from arranging a song and hiring a manager and agent to being part of a record company and how best to navigate that. His experience was invaluable.
Q: When Loggins & Messina began releasing albums in 1971, freeform FM radio had been popular for a few years. Was that added exposure on radio shows without format restrictions a key to your early success?
Kenny Loggins: Absolutely, because we broke the 3 minute, 30 second song form all the time. We found out inadvertently that the DJs loved putting on a five-10-minute track, going outside and having a smoke. We were satisfying their need to take some time off the mike. Plus, for some reason, we hatched out of the nest cool. Something about Loggins & Messina clicked from the beginning. We were lucky to have that.
Q: When you went solo, one of your first big tours was opening for Fleetwood Mac on the Rumours tour. Did it take long to adjust to playing stadiums?
Kenny Loggins: Absolutely. The biggest lesson for me was to learn to play past the first 10 rows where all of Stevie’s fans were. I could play out where all the girls were and catch up with the people who were more likely to be Loggins & Messina or Kenny Loggins fans. It’s a different style of playing. With Loggins & Messina, our best dates were clubs. We had everything from basketball stadiums on through, but I enjoyed playing the different rock or folk rock clubs of the early ‘70s.
Q: Did you ever bristle at being called a ‘soft rock artist’ back then?
Kenny Loggins: Yeah, it was not a term that I liked. I tended to embrace the term ‘yacht rock’ when it first showed up because it was being taken seriously and managed a way of embracing the kind of rock and roll we were making in the ‘80s in a legitimized way. Instead of not being something, it was something. I think it was a good idea for those of us who were there inventing that and not even realizing it. Soft rock just sounds like ‘flaccid penis.’ I don’t think it’s a complimentary term.
Q: The yacht rock stations on SiriusXM and Pandora have certainly drawn more attention to your music lately.
Kenny Loggins: I agree. I think it’s because it managed to be named. Once it was named, people said, ‘What’s that? I want to hear it.’ Once they hear it, a lot of young people really like it. That’s why I’m touring with Yacht Rock Review out of Georgia this year. They’re strong.
Q: You mentioned co-writing the lesser known “It’s About Time” with Michael McDonald. The more high-profile collaborations - “What a Fool Believes” for The Doobie Brothers; “This is It” and “Heart to Heart” on your solo albums; “No Lookin’ Back” and “I Gotta Try,” which landed on Michael’s solo albums, were all top 30 hits or better on the pop or adult contemporary charts. What do you think has made your musical partnership so fruitful?
Kenny Loggins: I think we have a lot in common musically as far as knowing when we hit paydirt. For collaborating, when one or the other of us does something that really resonates, we immediately both know it. Because he’s keyboard and I’m guitar, we cover some different areas and styles that give us freedom to write in a number of directions.
Michael has a very clear wheelhouse. He knows very much who he is and what he’s doing. But he doesn’t extend out of that very far if I want to push our writing harder. For example, we wrote a song called ‘She’s Dangerous’ [off 1988’s Back to Avalon] for a movie that didn’t get accepted, but you can hear the balance of styles leaning more toward my style on that one.
Usually with Michael, I want him to lead because he has his groove, his style in his hands on the keyboard. That keyboard style is so unique. Every piano player I’ve worked with go, ‘We can’t even begin to replicate what he’s doing because his left hand is so important.’ Writing with Michael is like, ‘Just give me a piano theme like ‘What a Fool Believes.’’ It starts by finding a theme and then we can write from there. That often works. But we haven’t written together in quite awhile because we’re both shy and lazy.
Q: The major success of Top Gun: Maverick and the original version of “Danger Zone” being on the sequel’s soundtrack has given new life to the song – not that it ever left the public consciousness. You recorded an updated version of the tune as a possibility for the film, but it didn’t end up making the cut. Can fans still hear it anywhere?
Kenny Loggins: It should be available online, on my website and I suspect on YouTube. I also did a new working of “Playing with the Boys” from that first movie.
Q: I was impressed by what you and Butterfly Boucher accomplished with it. Now your fans can obtain a LP copy of it on At the Movies. Can you tell me how recording the remake went?
Kenny Loggins: She was in Nashville. I flew out there and stayed there for a couple of weeks. It was really fun working with her. She’s been in that pseudo-punk approach to rock and roll for years. She’s a smart player and handles all the instruments. In her rock band, she leans toward being a bass player. What a great voice. Just a great rock influence. Mixing those two styles was fun to do. I wish it could have gone into the movie. It makes sense that they wanted new material.
Q: On the subject of “Danger Zone,” what was it like working with Tom Whitlock, who died recently, to sharpen the Whitlock/Moroder-penned demo once you got the nod to do the vocal?
Kenny Loggins: That’s really the only encounter I had with Tom during that period of time. Giorgio sent him out to my house and what he showed me was basically a three chord song. I added chord substitutions, inversions, some melodic and lyric stuff on the bridge. Tom and Giorgio were very open to whatever lyric changes I brought. Tom was really dedicated as a lyricist and tried really hard to bring the best game he had to whatever Giorgio would present him with. Having Giorgio Moroder as your co-writer – you couldn’t ask for a better collaboration.
Q: I found the sections of the book where you write about participating in the recording of “We are the World” with USA for Africa and then performing at 1985’s Live Aid in Philadelphia fascinating. When you were in the studio surrounded by legends like Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, and Michael Jackson, etc., did you sense it was a once-in-a-lifetime event?
Kenny Loggins: Not really. It was a whirlwind era. I had Michael sing on my Keep the Fire record,’ so we were friends before he became a superstar. He seemed like a real sweet, gentle guy and obviously extremely talented. But as for the awareness of “We are the World,” we knew that it was going to be important for that particular cause because of Bob Geldof [spearheading Band Aid the previous Christmas season in England]. It was really an honor to be part of that assemblage and to get a chunk of masking tape on the front line. To get to sing a solo line was very flattering. I just loved being a part of it.
Q: Steve Perry immediately followed your vocal line in the song. You both had a big hit with ‘Don’t Fight It” three years before.
Kenny Loggins: There’s a YouTube video out there of Steve Perry coaching Cyndi Lauper on her lines that cracked me up. He’s standing on the grandstands behind her, sort of yelling out little things. You can tell he’s feeling a little exasperated because it’s probably like 2 in the morning at least.
Q: Until reading the book, I never realized that you dealt with horrendous sound problems onstage singing “Footloose” during Live Aid at JFK Stadium. Mainly because nobody got a soundcheck and legendary event promoter Bill Graham said something to the effect of “get out there now or I’ll unplug you.” How stressful was that?
Kenny Loggins: It’s always nerve-wracking when you’re in a situation like that. You just take the stage, do what you do and hope that your angels are working on the board.
Q: Were you bummed out to only get to do one song at Live Aid?
Kenny Loggins: I was disappointed, but I think they had time constrictions. We were one of the last acts added because we happened to have in opening in my tour and we could jump from wherever we were to do one day there. Because “Footloose” was the first No. 1 I’d ever had, it was obvious that it should be the song they focused on. I would’ve liked to have had two songs, but no. As much as everything in show business is about promoting your act, it was not about that.
Q: You devote a good chunk of space in the book to making the Leap of Faith album. Was that a pivotal point in your career? You really branched out sonically and lyrically more than ever before with songs like the environmentally themed “Conviction of the Heart” and others.
Kenny Loggins: The album definitely helped keep my career going. It did do over a million units, which was decent in that era especially. I think it was mostly pivotal in my life to move into that kind of songwriting, where every song had to matter. Instead of writing hit songs, what I really wanted to do was write songs that people felt moved and influenced by. It was a more mature approach. I’d never really thought like that before. It really influenced the rest of my career as a songwriter.
Q: I frequently hear your hits like “Footloose” and “I’m Alright” in movies and on TV. Do you ever turn synch requests down?
Kenny Loggins: They’re among the most requested. There are still unexploited songs. I’m sure you saw the Super Bowl ad with ‘I’m Alright.’ There are other songs like ‘Celebrate Me Home’ which are still unexploited. Every time I talk to a publisher, they say, ‘We could work this.’ But they never get anything. That’s something that could come into the window. As you get older, it’s your catalog that sustains you. So, I’m constantly looking for publishers who can exploit a catalog.
Q: Last fall, you were a guest on Pickled, the Stephen Colbert-hosted celebrity pickleball tournament for Comic Relief and sang the national anthem with him. How fun was that?
Kenny Loggins: It was a long day because it was filming a TV show. Will Ferrell really wanted it to be a way of exploiting his pickleball skills. It was fun, but I wanted to play, and they didn’t know I was a player. My lady and I went out and warmed up. About 10 minutes after I sang the national anthem, one of the producers came to me and said, ‘Some people haven’t shown up. Do you want to be on standby in case they don’t show up?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ We went to an off-camera court, warmed up and it didn’t happen. I was ready though.
Q: Are you always game to do something in good humor like The Art of the Deal: The Movie parody theme song/video for Funny or Die?
Kenny Loggins: Yeah, I’m usually up for that. It depends on what it is and how convenient it is.
Q: With the passing of David Crosby in January, what was the experience like working with him on “All the Pretty Little Ponies” for your 1994 album Return to Pooh Corner and then “Coventry Carol” four years later for December?
Kenny Loggins: He and Graham Nash were great to work with and real troopers. They hung in until 1 in the morning when we did ‘All the Pretty Little Ponies.’ David had just finished the liver transplant, so his energy was up and down. We did the classic ‘do-do-do’ - the sort of madrigal approach they do on ‘Pretty Ponies.’ I woke him up and said, ‘Can you do one pass on that for me?’ So, he did. Then Graham and I arranged the counterpoint to it. David was asleep so I couldn’t double his voice. But it came out great.
Q: Blue Sky Riders, your Americana band with Gary Burr and Georgia Middleman in the 2010s, didn’t get the attention it deserved. Were you still glad you tried something in a different genre?
Kenny Loggins: Yeah. I really loved it. It was really influenced from Lady A. I heard Lady A and thought, ‘This band would be so great if they could write their own material.’ They weren’t strong writers, but they had such a great sound. I’d already met Gary Burr. I thought, ‘Gary’s great and should be out there. Maybe he knows somebody, and we can start a trio.’
I did it partly as a way of recovering from my divorce. I was pretty blown away when that marriage came apart. I thought, ‘I have to put myself in a situation where I need to stay creative. I have to show up and keep performing to just get through this.’ Gary was that for me. We had a six-year run – which is as long as Loggins and Messina had.
We were told right off the top by one of my managers, ‘Radio is not going to accept you now because you’re too old.’ That’s where the idea for the Blue Sky Riders song “Too Old to Dream” came from. And he was right. I had never been confronted with ageism before and I saw it. People even said it to me: ‘You don’t fit our programming. You’re too old.’ I figured the music was pretty good: ‘Don’t you want to judge it on the music?
Q: Will there be a new Kenny Loggins album in the future?
Kenny Loggins: I don’t have any plans. At this point, I love the idea of getting off the merry-go-round and not having pressure to do something that sells records or has a big hit on it. I don’t even know what the fuck a hit is anymore. And getting off the road. The pressure of night after night after night being in a different city. It’s exhausting and I’ve done it.
I was listening to a book on tape the other day called From Strength to Strength [by Arthur C. Brooks] about evolving as we get older. It struck me that where my juice is now is in mentoring and not necessarily in competing on the pop stage. I’ve done that.
I was also watching a Netflix show [the documentary series Lost Tapes] about championship surfer Kelly Slater still competing at 50 and winning from time to time. He won eight titles. There’s an addictive thing we do to evolve as a human being. It’s more difficult for people who receive dramatic success at an early age. Think about all the child actors who evolve into Ron Howard status. It doesn’t happen very often.
Where do we go if we become addicted to one thing: ‘I need to become an actor. I need to be a star. I need to be famous.’ You get addicted to that thing and then you can’t evolve. I think to evolve as a human being is crucial. We’ve got to move to the next level. For me, mentoring is one of those directions I want to go in. Writing and producing for [young and upcoming musicians] and using the expertise I’ve gained in 60 years of music business to stay creative. It’s not about selling millions of records. It’s about staying creative. That’s what keeps us young.
Q: A few months ago, you were involved in Rock Cellar’s special charity cover of the Donny Hathaway classic “This Christmas,” which was arranged and produced by Ken Stacey, with vocals by you, Michael McDonald, Richard Marx, Melissa Manchester, and others. Can you talk a little about the experience?
Kenny Loggins: That song goes back to 2020 when nobody was working, and I’d do occasional shows on the internet. And my voice was atrophying. I noticed that I was losing high notes. Every time I did a show, I had one less high note. It became very troubling for me.
In the process, I called a friend of mine. I have a coach for pickleball, but I didn’t have a coach for singing. I said, ‘Do you know any great voice coaches?’ He turned me onto Ken Stacey in L.A. Ken and I started working five days a week. Before long, I had to learn a new technique for singing called Bel Canto which gets the voice off the vocal cords. He teaches Bel Canto where you get up above it. I got my high notes back and I even got higher notes than I’ve ever had in my life through using his technique. I feel much more confident about going on the road knowing that whatever the schedule is, I’ll be able to handle it.
Q: Tell me about your favorite charity, Unity Shoppe in Santa Barbara. How long have you been involved with it?
Kenny Loggins: Thirtysomething years. For me, as far as causes go, it’s like one stop shopping. They do food, clothing, books, toys, helping families who are in hard times. It’s really a big umbrella. We started a disaster relief program when the rains, fires, and mudslides came to Santa Barbara in 2018. It’s an organization that does a great job at what I want to be part of and to be in the community helping those in need.
People don’t think of Santa Barbara as that kind of community, but it is. Especially when we have disasters. That’s something I’m proud to have my name affiliated with. I usually donate a show to them and jump in around November-December time to help out with the annual telethon.
A version of this interview originally appeared in Rock Cellar Magazine (www.rockcellarmagazine.com) and was lightly edited for clarity. Photo by Nick Spanos.
This Is It! North American Tour Dates:
March 26 – Good Life Festival – Queen Creek, AZ^
April 28 – Dickies Arena – Fort Worth, TX*
April 30 – New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival – New Orleans, LA^
May 11 – FirstBank Amphitheater – Franklin, TN*
May 13 – Ameris Bank Amphitheater – Alpharetta, GA*
May 15 – Peace Center – Greenville, SC
June 14 – Wolf Trap – Vienna, VA*
June 15 – Wolf Trap – Vienna, VA*
June 17 – Virginia Arts Festival – Norfolk, VA^*
August 17 – Family Arena – St. Charles, MO*
August 19 – Ravinia Festival – Highland Park, IL^*
September 2 – Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheater – Park City, UT
September 8 – Fallsview Casino – Niagara Falls, ON
September 12 - Beacon Theatre - New York, NY
September 14 - Mohegan Sun Arena - Uncasville, CT
September 16 - Sound at Coachman Park - Clearwater, FL
October 6 - Pearl Theater - Las Vegas, NV
October 13 – The Venue at Thunder Valley Casino Resort – Lincoln, CA$
October 14 – The Mountain Winery – Saratoga, CA
October 27 – YouTube Theater – Inglewood, CA*
October 29 – Yaamava’ Theater – Highland, CA
* Yacht Rock Revue is support
$ Richard Marx is support
More dates to be announced.
.jpg)
