July 8, 1977 interview: Kenny Loggins

I got a chance to chat backstage with Kenny Loggins after his July 3 date in the Aud. 

July 8, 1977 Gusto

Kenny Loggins 

          “We’ve busted through that first growing pain,” Kenny Loggins says triumphantly. He’s shed his stage velvet and he’s sitting shirtless in blue jeans in the dressing room after his Sunday night show in Memorial Auditorium.

          Loggins is gratified because for the first time this tour he and his band seem to have everything working smoothly. Their performance now flows and, at the right places, it punches.

          Loggins isn’t used to going the bandleader route. Up until last year, he was half of the hit team of Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina. Singer Loggins took care of the crowd. Guitarist Messina took care of the band. Loggins would come out first, solo a couple numbers and then sing and emcee after the group slipped in behind him.

          But last year they conceded they’d lost that creative spark that brought them together for an extended partnership after producer Messina sat in on Loggins’ debut album in 1971.

          The decision to split up came after their seventh album, “Native Sons,” was completed. They did a farewell tour and that was that. Amicable, but final.

          Loggins has no idea what Messina’s up to these days. For himself, it’s meant starting all over again, but the breakup released a lot of new energy in him.

          “My writing seemed to change and evolve in ’76,” he said in a phone interview earlier in the week. “It was probably brought on by the impending solo album. Something kicked into gear and the adrenalin started flowing again. I began writing with a lot of different people.”

          One of them was Eva Ein, the woman who appears behind him in one of the photos on his new “Celebrate Me Home” album. The two were married last January.

          The new album, produced by Bob James, is a somewhat different side of Loggins. He’s glossier and he has more of a full-dress setting. In places, he sounds a little like Stevie Wonder.

          “A few people have mentioned that to me,” he’d said. “I’m not surprised. ‘If You Be Wise’ I originally wrote in falsetto, which was a strong Smokey Robinson influence. I was brought up on Fats Domino and Curtis Mayfield.

          “My two older brothers were so deeply into it that it rubbed off on me. My older brother Danny turned me on to ‘Hound Dog.’ That’s why ‘So Fine’ was such a cathartic album to make. I love those tunes.”
          Loggins, who’s 29, began as a songwriter after growing up in Los Angeles. His break came when a member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band heard him playing at a party. The group recorded four Loggins tunes on their “Uncle Charlie and His Dog, Teddy” album.

          Columbia Records A&R man Don Ellis, a friend of the Loggins family, brought him and Messina together. They worked for a year on that first magic collaboration.

          “With Messina,” Loggins had said, “I learned to perform. I learned the concept of bounding off each others’ energy. I’d step forward, he’d step forward. It took a couple weeks to reorient myself to when the band can come forward and when I can come forward. The only way you can make it right is to play the show 100 times.

          “I’ve worked harder on this than anything I’ve ever done. Now the goal is no longer to get out of me the most that’s in me. It’s for me to get the most in me and the most in them. Everybody pulls together. We share our ideas and it’s just great.”

          He’s not exactly working with strangers. Three of the old Loggins & Messina band are helping launch his solo effort. There’s horn players Jon Clarke and Vince Denham and there’s George Hawkins, who plays bass and is co-vocalist.

          “Wow, there’s a good audience tonight,” he smiles as a shout goes up outside the dressing room for headliner Fleetwood Mac. “Fleetwood Mac, aren’t they great? There’s a real advantage to playing a big tour like this. Tomorrow in Toronto I’ll see 75,000 people in one day. That’s like being on TV.

          “What’s important to me now,” he says, “is to make a good next album. I think it could definitely affect my career. Things have been moving really well lately. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.”

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IN THE PHOTO: Kenny Loggins performing at Saratoga Springs in June 1977.

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FOOTNOTE: A lot happened for Kenny Loggins now that he was out on his own, but some of his greatest successes still came from collaborations, in duet with Stevie Nicks on “Whenever I Call You Friend” in 1978 and with Steve Perry from Journey on “Don’t Fight It” in 1982. He also scored big as a collaborative co-writer, notably with Michael McDonald for “What a Fool Believes” and “This Is It.”

Out of the 39 dates Kenny Loggins played in 1977, only three have complete setlists on setlist.fm. The site offers this composite of them: 

Wasting Our Time

Why Do People Lie

Celebrate Me Home

House at Pooh Corner

Danny’s Song

A Love Song

I Believe in Love

Angry Eyes

Lady Luck

Vahevala