Singer Kenny Loggins (KL) doesn’t believe in standing still. At the age of 63, while most people his age contemplate retirement or have already retired, Loggins is on the road and continues to do what he does best—perform.
Last Saturday in Manila, he proved it once again. In front of a crowd of frenzied fans at the SMX Convention Center, Loggins, who has been in the music industry for four decades, didn’t miss a beat. During the Kenny Loggins: Live in Manila one-night-only-concert, the American contemporary singer pulled out his repertoire of songs including what he maybe most known for as the King of the Movie Soundtrack: Danger Zone (the Top Gun movie theme song), Footloose, For the First Time (One Fine Day’s theme song) and children’s classic Return to Pooh Corner. He also sang a duet with Filipino singer Martin Nievera.
A few weeks before leaving for Manila, Loggins spoke to the Asian Journal (AJ) about his return trip to the Philippines. Loggins had performed there in the 1980’s during the height of his career.
AJ: Tell us about your Asia Tour. How excited are you?
KL: I’m pretty excited about going to Asia. This time I’m going to the Philippines and Singapore. I have never been to Singapore but I have been to the Philippines before but it was many years ago. I understand things have changed a little bit when I was there last time and looking forward to it.
AJ: Tell us some of your most memorable songs that you have recorded in your career.
KL: In my career over the years, my favorites tend to be the songs not necessarily the pop hits but in this case, This is It, has a lot of meaning to me. Mike McDonald and I wrote that song when my dad was going in to the hospital. It really is a song about making a choice between life and death and trying to move consciously into either.
Another song I recorded but did not get the hit on is What a Fool Believes, which I co-wrote with Mike McDonald. I’m very proud of that tune. I have a song like Conviction of the Heart or Real Thing from the Leap of Faith CD, which was very important record to me in my life. Then there’s Danny’s Song, Return to Pooh Corner or Mama Don’t Dance… and all the movie stuff like Footloose, I’m Alright from Caddyshack, Danger Zone. I don’t know, there are a few I probably forgot myself.
AJ: You’ve been in the music industry for a longtime, I think starting in the 1970’s. How has music changed over the years?
KL: Well pop music has changed musically and form-wise, significantly since when I started in the 1970’s when I started as more of a country-rock act. Then in the 1980’s, I evolved into more of what was happening then, a coalition between pop music and smooth jazz. Mixing the two elements of pop and jazz had never been done to my knowledge. But you know the key to rock and roll and to real pop music as I’ve always said is music of the kids, by the kids, for the kids. The best rock and roll is made by kids who have that sense of angst and rebellion and need to show up in a big way so we learn to rock as young people and hopefully we can keep on rocking as we get older but we also integrate other kinds of music into what we do.
AJ: You are referred to as the King of the Movie Soundtrack. You’ve sung songs in cult classics like Caddyshack, Footloose and Top Gun. What do you think of that label?
KL: I’m not sure who tagged me with that. I’m sure it was my publicist, probably. Well, I’m grateful because that was happening at a time when disco was coming in really strong. Most of the acts in the 70’s were being replaced by the disco movement, which I wasn’t a part of and didn’t want to be part of, so the movie theme song thing came along to save me and to keep me going and selling tickets. I had a blast with it and it was really fun and I’d love to do it again. It was really fun to write songs for movies. It was a completely different challenge.
I remember for Top Gun, during that time [Jerry] Bruckheimer and [Don] Simpson were calling up everybody to write songs for their movie. I had just come from Caddyshack and Footloose so I had a little doorway in there but I got lucky with [Top Gun]. Danger Zone was not supposed to be my song. It was supposed to be a different act. The lawyers blew the deal so I got a call from Giogio Moroder, who wrote the song, and he told me, ‘hey I’m supposed to dub this song into the movie by tomorrow and I need a singer tonight. Are you available?’ I was in a studio down the street doing a song that I had written called Playing with the Boys for a different scene in the movie, so when I finished that up I went to his studio and sang Danger Zone. So luck had a lot to do with it.
AJ: You’ve been around for a long time but no one really knows your upbringing. Where are you originally from? How did you get involved in the music industry?
KL: I’m originally from Seattle, Washington and I moved to Los Angeles with my folks when I was little, probably six or seven years old. I had two big brothers who were deeply involved in music and they were the ones that turned me on [to it.] One brother, Bob, turned me on to country, folk and rock-a-billie from the early Elvis and Buddy Holly days. My other big brother was an R&B fanatic and would wake me up in midnight to turn me on to R&B that was being played only on the radio from midnight onwards, and that was Little Richard, The Coasters and Fats Domino, and later on Aretha Franklin—music that not everybody was hearing back [during] those days, unless Pat Boone would take a classic R&B song and turn it into a song that the radio would play. To hear the real roots of black rock and roll was very exciting [for] me. I could tell when my brother would wake me up and not my parents… [it] felt like the forbidden fruit. So I started two kinds of music. I like to say folk and country and R&B are basically my cradle languages. I learned both at the same time. I used to steal my brother’s guitar from his room and learn how to play the guitar. By the time I was 18, I had my own rock and roll band and was working on weekends. Then halfway into my second year into college, I got hired by a rock and roll band to go on the road so I dropped out of college and hit the road. I’ve been pretty much on the road, off and on, mostly on, over the years ever since.
AJ: You’ve accomplished so much in your career. You have 12 Platinum albums, 10 Golds. What else do you hope to accomplish in your career? What’s next?
KL: Well, right now I’m working on a brand new project. You either kickback and rest on your laurels or you keep moving into creativity. I met a songwriter in Nashville named Gary Burr. He and I hit it off. We wrote some great songs together and really had a lot of fun doing it and at that point, I thought if this were a few years ago, I’d have started a band with this guy because we sound like brothers when we sing together. And I thought what the heck—why not? I called him up and said ‘do you want to start a band?’ He said yeah. I called him back after a few months and I said, ‘I have a feeling we need a third. Do you know a strong female singer/ songwriter?’ He said, ‘yah the girl who sings on all my demos.’ I flew to Nashville. I met with both of them. We wrote a song together, cut the demo and the blend was extraordinary. The three of us together is an incredible blend like siblings. We call ourselves, Blue Sky Riders.
AJ: When you reflect on your career, how does it make you feel that your music has touched so many people’s lives?
KL: It’s really gratifying to know that people have adopted my music to be the soundtrack of major parts of their lives. I run into people all the time that have said, they’ve had babies to my music, or have gotten married to my music, or even funerals. It’s just gratifying to know, over the years, that my music has mattered to people and I think that maybe part of why I’m still at it, part of why I love what I do, and part of why people still come to show is because they have made the music part of their lives.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek May 25-27, 2011 MDWK pg.2)
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