Kenny Loggins
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Yes, I have actually stayed at Airbnbs from time to time. And truth be told, I do really like them. I'm being totally honest right now that I've had great experiences with them. Yeah. I mean, you can have your look at you go get your own place, get your own pool, your own living room. You're not going to walk in an elevator. You're not going to see people when you're walking around in your undergarments. Yeah.

Yes. And if you don't understand what we're talking about, you should go online. What we're saying is you have a house with a kitchen and a bathroom and it's just for you, tailored for you. You liked your Airbnb over a hotel. Yes. And I do think I've had relatives stay nearby and sometimes it's very nice for them to do an Airbnb and have a little house and they're not underfoot. The last thing you want is your house guest to say, excuse me, um,

Where would I find a towel? That's a toughie when it's because they're naked. Well, it's like the 1800 time you say on the towel rack. Yeah. Thank you. I was going to look there. People don't even think hotels sometimes just go, hey, I'll go there. I'll get an Airbnb. So you won't regret it.

You think we're talking about Sandler, we're talking about Kenny Loggins. We're punchy. We're in a bunker. Dots? Somewhere. Dots, anyone? Yeah, these have sugar. What are you eating now, paper? These are dots, guys. Jesus. Remember these? No, is that sugar? Yeah, I only had one, that one.

Kenny Loggins. Kenny Loggins. What a stud, dude. By the way, I saw Loggins, Messina, Day on the Green.

What's that? Angry Eyes. Remember that lick? I don't think I do. Anyway, this was a really fun podcast for me personally because I love music and I love musicians. And Kenny Loggins can really, he's one, like in high school, he wrote, he just sat down with a guitar. He's one of those savants. I mean, somebody who just knew how to sing and play guitar well.

At a very early age, we really talk about his songwriting prowess and how he comes up with songs. I mean, he sat right here. Remember? He came over. He sat here. We had a blast. Looks the same. He's a stud. Talk about how super famous he got there. Stadiums and just, you know, he's obviously a

Such a big songwriter, Loggins and Messina, just Kenny Loggins. Yeah. Hit songs and hit movies. Soundtracks. That was big, big money. Yeah. I mean, footloose. I mean, come on.

And many, many others. I mean, his song in, what's the top gun? Top gun. That they wanted, he wanted to redo it. And they said, no, we want the exact same song. Oh, we, you know, we had a big controversy because AI sang him Fruit Loops parody of, you know, Footloose. And,

And I couldn't remember the goddamn comedian that did it, but I was doing the other comedian's bit, but singing it to Kenny Longs was a blast. And he hadn't heard it and he thought it was funny. And then on Top Gun, I always thought until the day I saw him, it was, I went to the danger zone and it's highway. And we get in a big argument because I said, there's not a highway in the sky. I don't even understand what you're talking about. Highway to the danger zone? Yeah. Highway to the danger zone. I said, that makes no sense. That song shouldn't have worked.

So we fought about that. It got very tense. I know. Ed, look, was it going to get physical? I never thought it went to that level. He stood up.

We cut tape. You don't need to know this stuff. This is a behind the scenes. Anyway, by the end we were friends. But put it this way. Kenny Loggins is one of those people in the last long time, maybe 50 years, has been a huge part of American music. You don't even realize how much he's done. Wall to wall hits. And he's still out there touring. He looks great. I mean, he's like, he's Kenny Loggins. He's a rock star. So I found this really, really interesting cue to the audience. Cool.

It was great. And it made me realize how boring I was. Because when I was hearing about his history, and he was playing the Hollywood Bowl right after that. We couldn't go. But anyway, he was- Because we couldn't find it. I drove over there and I went round and round. I couldn't find the Hollywood Bowl. I just started rolling down my window and went, Kenneth! Kenneth? Kenneth?

Sometimes he answers the cat. But remember, toward the end, he handed you a ukulele and you played a beautiful song. I said, love the world who holds a little paper cup. Hey, guess what? What song does that go? Paper cup. That's called Paper Cup? No, Danny's song. Danny's song. And even though I don't have money, I'm so in love. Now you know why I'm a comedian. Jesus. Guess what? Newsflash. We can cut this. What was the first big...

badass song globally we're talking about the 19th century yeah that was like heavy metal in those days oh that's the that's the only row row row your boat gently down the stream i'm not kidding this was a heavy metal huge global hit gently gently yeah life is about a dream that was very edgy that was like metallica in 1860 stop i don't want to hear it let's look at a clip

Okay, well. Anyway. That's the only one we might actually cut. No, I'm kidding. No, I just need a second. You got to take that? Kenny? Yeah, yeah, we just did the thing. No, no, Spade's cool with you. It's fine. We talked about Danger Zone, Highway to the Danger Zone. All right, next time you're at the bowl, hit me up. Okay, buddy. All right, let's throw to it. That was your mom.

What is it? People smile and tell me I'm the lucky one. That's a great song. You know that song, Heather? And even though we ain't got money, I'm so in love with you, honey. Didn't we sing that to his face? Did he write that or not? Oh, he wrote it. Someone else did it. Oh, he wrote it. He wrote it. He lived it, motherfucker. Okay, here's how this one goes. You can do it. It's a...

I go, give me a little darn, darn, darn, darn, darn. And he's like, God damn. That's the beginning. Even though we didn't got money, I'm so low we honor. People smile and tell me I'm a lucky one. Life's just begun. I think I'm going to have a son.

He will be like you and me as free as a dove. This is the hard part. No. Conceived in love. Sun is going to shine above. Here's the hard part. Even though we ain't got money. Oh my God, he's good. What the fuck? Damn it. I'm so in love with you honey. If me and me, I heat a hot. Hello, head of A&M.

I'll call you later, A&M Records. I think I have someone you might want to meet. They ran out of film about an hour ago. All right, that's good. Can't wait to get to this grilling. Okay. I want to start with that song parody thing. No, I want... I want to say one thing. Yeah. You're on. I finally saw, it was about a year ago, I saw your...

Audition reel for Saturday Night Live. Oh, I haven't even seen it. That tape is fantastic.

Thank you. It was a tape when I saw it. By the way, how have we not seen these for this whole time? I've never seen it. They're coming out with so many things that I've never seen in my life. Rehearsals. It's on YouTube. Anything they tape, they can sell. I mean, I guess back then, but they held it for so long because I just saw a video, a rough video, Dana, of Thursdays doing promos. You know, they do promo with you. You would be in it. Well, they keep releasing them. And you do it with the host, the music, and then maybe one of the cast members.

And I would write those. That was sort of my jury duty when I got there. And so you get to meet people like you. And so it was me.

Lauren's up there sort of monitoring. The first Lauren impression came early. And then it was Emilio Estevez was the host, Pearl Jam was the band. And so I'm explaining how to, you know, this is what you say as you say. And then I step back. They don't just show the promo. Step back and watch. And Lauren watches. They try it. And then they go cut.

But still rolls and they go. When you say they try it, you mean not the actual actors? No, the actual actors are really taping it to record it. Take after take. It had to be exactly 30 seconds. No, no. It had to be like. What? Like nine. Yeah. It was very hard. Oh, the really fast one. You had to put the host, the music name, and then you had to do a joke.

Hi, I'm Emilio Estevez. So that's online. And this is, I'm hosting with Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam. And then we have four seconds for a joke. And so I had to write like 12 of those jokes every week for a host. That's quite an exercise. Yeah. Did you do promos when you were there? You had to do that on Thursday probably. No, back when I did it, we didn't do promos. Oh, for real? The musical act didn't do that. Who was your host? Do you remember?

You don't have to. Okay. Not one bit of research. It's only five from 1982. No. I'm going to guess the host was, I don't know, Mary Taylor Moore? No. 82. Not that far back. 82, I was graduating high school. 82, you were doing- I was graduating Swarovski High School in Arizona. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

But that was right in the pocket of me loving SNL for sure. Yeah, me too. Because high school is like... Me too. People think that when I do those movies, then, you know, do you hang out with Bill Murray? And do you... All right. You know, all that with like... Right, you're on the set all day. Yeah, yeah. And I...

You never meet, the music's the last thing they do. Yeah. You never meet, the actors are on to their next or next, next movie. Yeah. The band is always the badass. I mean, look, if we were talented like you, I would have gone into music that we all wanted to do what you did. Jealous of singers. This was our fallback. I was in a little band. I had a Hardy Boys book was my snare.

and I would kick a little hamper. - Tragic. - And my brother had a one string guitar. - How old were you when you did? - I was two and a half. No, I was like seven or eight, but rock stars. But what I wanted to ask you, I just had a flight of fancy 'cause of this song, Danny's song, which is really super iconic. Even if you haven't heard in a while, it's like the chorus like, ♪ Even though we ain't got money ♪

I'm still in love with you, honey. Do you think that still rings true to you? You just reminded me, I did Gilbert Gottfried's show. You did? About two years ago. Oh. And we sang Danny's song together. Oh, really? Did he change the lyrics? I'm still in love. Oh, my God. It was so funny. But it's very romantic and very youthful because in modern society, it's like, even though you're out of cash, I'm leaving real soon.

real fast and all that kind of, but that's that young youthful, you were that kind of in high school. Instagram followers, I'm still in high school. Senior in high school. You sat down with a guitar. Yeah, my brother wrote me a letter about, you know, having a baby and pooping.

And so that's why it's called Danny's Song because it was taken from Danny's letter. Some of the lines in the song are actually- I know one of them. But what was your first chord? I Seize Virgo Rising was a very good sign. Strong and kind. But the melody, I mean, how do you start with the- You know the album version, see? That never made the single version.

Oh, really? He researched it. Oh, really? That's such a great line. Yeah. I don't know why. It never got high, right? They weren't going to play that on the radio. It never got, oh, Boy, I Was a Lucky Guy, is that what you're saying? Yeah. Boy, I Was a Sorry Guy? What was it? No, Boy, I Was a Sorry Guy. Yeah. Because that song was a tearjerker. Well, people adopted it, you know. Hard to get a hook like that. The funniest part for me is playing benefit concerts where it's, you know, $10,000 a plate and they're singing, you know, even though we ain't got money.

money was there ever a time you didn't have money even though we're trying to recall i was at a catholic church once and the priest was going we you know in the name of the lord we all need money and the whole church was there and then i saw jeff basos going up and getting communion i thought well this guy could help out maybe he did buy the church he buys everything you can see

Anyway, but that song is amazing because I'm always fascinated by someone who can come up with a hook, a melodic hook like that. You're just strumming and then that comes to you, right? Some people are better at it than others.

Well, you're kind of one of the best. It's just the thing that was there right from the very beginning. You had it. Then I knew what a hook was. And what was your guitar? I'm sorry, this is maybe too technical. We don't really need him. We don't really need him at all. Take it over. Because you talk a lot about in your book how you got better with the guitar over time.

And how proficient were you on the guitar? How many chords did you know when you wrote Danny's song as a kid? I think I used all the chords I knew on that song. It's like five. Did you do bar chords? Not at first. Nobody does. Anyway, that's the last thing you want to learn. David, you can have the next question. We're going to take team today. Speaking of bar chords, you're from Alhambra, California, which I've only heard about that city on traffic reports. No human being really knows where it is.

If you know where Pasadena is. Yes. But Alhambra, like, where is that? Are you thinking of Altadena? Well, Altadena's there too. We played sports against these towns. I hear that on weather reports. Okay, so you ask, tell him he's got that rock star life. That's really Dana's big takeaway. Well, I just, yeah, I love the very end of your book because you kind of sum it up saying you don't really want to be crazy.

Kenny Loggins anymore in a sense, but we never had your fame or were a rock star. And that is a motherfucker. You're kind of a rock star in your world. Well, thank you. I was hoping you were going to say that. Yeah. I take back everything I said. Right. But you, and you know, I was just thinking the ride of that. And when you become that famous and you were a full blown sex symbol, right? I mean-

Still am. Well, of course you are now. The ladies must go crazy. I deal with it every day. You are finally preserved and very handsome. But in the 70s and 80s, that's just heady stuff. Do you have a question, David? My question is- I was waiting for your question. There's no question. I'm just defining you. Okay. But that must have been amazing. But go ahead, David. Well, I think his fame-

sort of, I'm not relating you to me at all. You're a huge fucking rock star, which, but when I got fame, it was a little easier to deal with because it was so incremental. And I, you know, got on like locally in town, I was doing standup and then some people knew me there. So that was a little weird. And then,

And then I got on like an HBO Young Comedian special. Then a little more people, SNL, but didn't do much. Then I got a part in a movie, but it wasn't the starring role. So over time, people started to know me, but it took 10 years, 15 years. You got famous at 51. Yeah. It was a rock star. But you did like, it was 21, right? Basically 22. 21, yeah. That first-

My oldest son says, dad, that fucked you up right from the very beginning. What do you mean by that? Well, you miss out on the parts of life that you should be learning about. Right. Because it's all- And writing about. Because then you're writing, you're not anonymous anymore and you're not walking on absorbing life and getting a real reaction about the real world. Yeah. The real world evolves. Yeah. I never had to learn how to cook for myself. Yeah. It was one of the things I wished that I would have gone through that phase of getting more friendly with the kitchen.

Yeah. How do you cook now? I mean, do you have... I asked Lisa to cook.

Especially just getting wealth too. Like when did wealth come in for you? Like real wealth. When did you first make a million dollars? That was right up, right? Very close to the beginning. Yeah. It was the opposite of your story. I was trying to say we had the same story and then I started to back out of it. Yeah. We, uh, Loggins from Sina played the troubadour as the opening act for Curtis Mayfield.

And then two weeks later, I think it was, they brought us back as headliners because I guess the headliners dropped out and Weston needed somebody in a hurry. So they pulled us back in. So it looked like the rise to –

Oh, back then that was a huge deal. FM radio was still a new concept. FM was, oh yeah. And so they adopted the Loggins and Messina record because we had these seven minute tracks where they could go out back and get stoned and then come back in and continue playing. What was on that first album? The first that got hit, Angry Eyes? That was Sittin' In. Angry Eyes was the second album. But what were the hits off that Sittin' In album? Sittin' In had Danny's song. Oh, Danny's song. Which Ann Murray covered before we got to it. And

And it had- Anne Murray, of all people. Believe in me? Is that what she sings? Believe in me? No, no. Well, I can't believe it. But she did Danny's song, but she also- She covered it. She was her own star. Oh, yeah. And then you sort of gave that to her? You said, do you want to cover it? I gave it to her, yeah. She was with a- I had a friend and-

That was her friend, so I met her through her friend. So you still get checks today from Anne Murray's cover, and then you get checks for your own. You did your research, didn't you? Yeah, well, I'm into royalties and money. I want to know your net worth, but I'm not going to. So anyway, just to put that in context, I'll be like Howard Stern. You're 21, 22. You've got a huge hit album. You're getting famous. Girls love you. You're getting really wealthy. Then what happens?

You do more of it. Then what happens? More girls. Well, in those days, you know, I didn't have a girlfriend or a wife or anything, no family. So, you know, 21 years old, you mean I would go on the road for...

300 days a year. Good God. We just lived out there because there was nobody at home. The day you get famous, do they deliver cocaine to your house or do you have to go buy it? Your underwear is made of cocaine and then you use it. You gradually just take it. You have a vending machine at every gig. Yeah. So 300 days, but you were young. You got it figured out. That's what I asked for. Wow.

Wow, is that on a bus or are you flying commercial? I mean, that's just- Well, it's both. On the East Coast, you'll tend to bus because the venues are closer together. On the West Coast, you usually fly. And they start to grow exponentially like it was two theaters or 3,000- Well, we started on a college tour, so we played the gyms. Yeah, that's what we did. Gymnasiums. And then that grows out to-

Real venues. The word gets around a little bit. What size would be the real ones? Because I don't know if we really got past that size. Well, things happen pretty quick. So we probably did a short bit of what they call Performing Arts Centers, which are 2,500 people. And then we were suddenly in outdoor venues. I remember a show we played in, I think it was Oakland.

Well, I obviously don't remember that show. In Paramount Theater? And it was, opening act was Peter Frampton, then Fleetwood Mac. Jesus. Stevie and Lindsey had just joined the band, so that hadn't caught on yet. And then us and then Rod Stewart. Wow. And I told the balloon story in the book about- Goddamn. When you walked off stage- Jimmy bribing the kid holding Rod Stewart's balloons to-

He gave him 50 bucks and said, let him go now. That's funny. So hundreds of balloons take off for our encore. Did you guys like with comedians, it's always a pecking order. Like if there's comedians, your opening act tries to blow you away, even though he's your friend. And if you're the headliner, the middle tries to dominate you. Do you like to follow that motherfucker, Rod Stewart? Or did you feel that then? Or you're just- Where were you in that lineup? We were third. Third. But you followed Fleetwood Mac. Followed Fleetwood Mac. They were pretty good. Well,

Were they? They were okay. What happened to them? I don't know. I mean, I'm still jealous that you even knew Stevie Nicks and also rang her up to do a song, which is such a great song. Well, you know, because I was their opening act for the better part of a year.

They opened for Loggins and Messina when they started, and then I opened for them when I went solo. And it was really the duet with Stevie that launched my solo career on the radio. The amount of people that era that you've worked with and interacted with is extraordinary. Yeah.

Had we known that we were iconic. You should have tried to manage Fleetwood Mac or something. Yeah, really. I'm new to this, but I bought a manager. You were asked to manage somebody though, right? What's that? You were asked to manage someone? No. Yeah. Dana, nice try. Shave that joke for- No, I thought you said in the book- None of that's true. No, I swear to God, I thought he said-

And you kicked him to your manager or they asked you who's a good manager. Oh, well, that was Michael Jackson. See Dana? Oh, a little fella named Michael Jackson. A little guy. A little guy. I wrote down something cause I was listening to some of your stuff.

I listened to five, four this morning, four years ago. I was listening last- On my iPod without knowing this was coming up. They're already on, no bullshit. Cool. This phony over here. This guy's a showbiz phony. I'm totally for real. Look at these notes. He gets competitive sometimes, but he's good. You know, it might be helpful to give your notes to the people watching and-

And they can pick the best questions. We have a crowd in here today. No, I have great crowd. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, I love. And that was early on, right? Yeah. You wrote songs for them? Well, no, I wrote a couple of songs for them. Yeah, a couple of songs for them. Great. Not actually for them, but I had these songs that I was playing. We'd go to parties, different parties around town, and there'd always be like five or six musicians with their guitars playing.

And we'd just sit around in a circle and we'd take turns playing songs. Oh, my God. And they would say, we want that one? Two of the guys from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band were in the circle. So they would do songs that they knew. And then they came to me after this whole thing and said, that one you did about the bear, we want to do that one. And can you come up to Little Canyon and sing your stuff for John McEwen? So when you started doing your thing, did people get kind of quiet then? Wait, wait. Kenny's got something.

But you were a songwriter. It's so valuable for a band to have a guy come in and write to their style. They recognized the style I was writing in was the style they were recording in. I'm a nibbler, Dana. And I think you are too. But you always know me that I just have to keep the energy going. And I think because I learned from my dad, pistachios are a good source of just nibble, wake you up.

They're always delicious. I actually named a character in a movie I did called Master of Disguise. The lead character's name is Pistachio. That's how much I love pistachios. Yeah. Well, wonderful pistachios have literally come out of their shells. It's the same taste. It's delicious, but...

It's a lot less work. As you know, cracking them open can be a little bit of a job. Less cracking, more snacking is what I say. That's what I say. That's what you say. And I'm going to use that when my wife goes to the store. Wonderful pistachios. No shells flavors come in a variety of award-winning flavors, including chili roasted. Honey roasted. Honey roasted.

Sea salt and vinegar, smoky barbecue. Sea salt and pepper is one I like the most. And I'm going to try this jalapeno lime. They don't have a red, red necky flavor just yet. Yeah, look at him there. Red, red necky loves pistachios. I like to crack things open and put them in my mouth.

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I just wanted to insert this because it really made me laugh. But in 1969, you were in a band called the New Improved Electric Prunes. Is that real? I don't know about the New Improved part. That's what it was on Wikipedia. The New Improved Electric Prunes. No. Are they around anymore? No, there was an Electric Prunes that did I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night and a couple other hit records. And of course, they got in a fight and the lead singer left. And so they needed...

A couple new people in the band. And so I got a call from my friend who was hired to do the new music direction. And I was going to Pasadena City College. And he called me and said, you want to go on the road? I said, yeah. And you were a teenager, basically. Well, yeah. Close. 19? 19. Anyway, I was just leaping ahead here stylistically. This is it.

Hearing that song and your voice on that thing is supernatural. And it really reminded me.

Or it was sort of a similar style to Michael Jackson that you can reach these notes. I don't know. Did people talk about your vocal performance on that song in specific? You had so many, but I was just kind of blown away by how you hit that. Thank you. Yeah. No, that I'm still struck. The problem with all that is that recording in the eighties, everything was up there. And you could do it though. We're all competing with Foreigner. Foreigner, I love it. It's all kind of whispered. But you could hit those notes.

It was something, yeah, it was doable, not necessarily healthy. Not sustainable. Yeah, exactly. Taking all that on the road now, sometimes I have to drop a key here and there. Now I'm going to say this is it. Now, Dana, I'm going out on a limb because I might be confusing things. Was it about dad had, went to the hospital with a heart attack? Yeah, yeah, that was. And you were putting together the song and then you sort of, that song wrote itself where you go, this is where it's headed. This is. Yeah, well.

The intro that I use in concert, okay, is that when Mike, and that was the second song that Michael and I wrote together. Michael McDonald, Dana. Yeah, he's good. Not Michael Jackson, because I knew you were thinking Michael Jackson. Yeah, I was thinking Michael Jackson. Michael McDonald's another unreal singer. Go ahead.

And the first one we wrote together was What a Fool Believes. Oh. And then we waited about at least a year before we wrote a second song because The Fool won a Grammy and it was like, oh. It's too hard to follow. Most people with intelligence would go, well, we should write 12 more songs. Sure.

But we were intimidated by the success of the song. So we kind of avoided each other. Did you produce it together? What a fool believes because- No, that was Teddy Templeman. So elemental and almost cartoony in that hook. Are there any words? I've never heard a hook like that. Those are the original words, Michael. Oh, really? Just to make it like something and then you fill it in? Did you say you walked in and he was playing the beginning of that? Yeah. I was standing outside.

his living room, the door was ajar and I was hearing, and he sang the whole verse and stopped.

And my imagination kept going to this. Oh, that's it. Knock on the door and say, I think I know the next part of that song. That's amazing. That's so fascinating. Yeah, you walked right in and started doing it without even. Yeah. But you matched it. Like that opening is so brilliant. You always need that other thing and you got it. Yeah, the release, the B section. Release the beast and then it goes. B sections don't exist anymore. Have you noticed that in pop radio? The Beatles called them middle eights. Is that what they are? Well, that's a Nashville thing, middle eight. Okay. Yeah.

And the B section is just going someplace else for eight bars. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's the thing you were talking about, Leonard McCartney. Yeah. The answer to that question upstairs was that I think McCartney brought the bridge to a lot of the songs where John would come in with a verse idea. And then you'll notice in the bridge, the bridge gets a little more chord-y, a little more intellectual and moves into a different kind of vibe. And then it comes, the classic example of that is Day in the Life.

I woke up, got out a bit, grabbed a comb across, it was a piece of, that was a McCartney melody. Yeah. Anyway, we, what's the word? Diverge. Well, no, because you were a part of a duo, incredibly successful duo, which...

Not important, but I saw it in 1977 or 78. I think it was Stanford University. It was like a brass green thing. We were all huge fans. So just delve into that a little bit, how you hooked up with Jim Messina. Yeah, that was...

I was looking for a producer. I wanted to be a solo artist. And I heard that Jimmy was producing acts. And what he'd done is he'd left Poco, which was a band he'd started, to be a producer for Columbia Records. Poco. Dennis Willis, whatever band. Fucking Poco. What do you mean? Steppenwolf wasn't available or something? Poco in there? Okay.

Anyway, he's our favorite. One of our favorites to do. But so you met Jim, Jimmy, James. Oh, yeah. So I went over to his house. And I sang, you know, a bunch of songs that I had. A lot of the songs that I played for Poco. Poco. No, I didn't play. Poco was big. Actually, the Dirt Band. And...

And in the process, you know, we talked about working together, but I found out when I was writing the book that

that Jimmy said in his interview, he wasn't that blown away. He didn't want to do a folk act and he saw me as a folk act. Was that based on Danny's song or something? Probably. That's one, but you also got, you rocked it on as you continued, right? Yeah. That was a conscious choice. And collaboration helps with that, you know, writing with writers who are already writing a particular style. Yeah. But what turned him? When did he kind of go, I'm going to work with you?

Just called the next day. Well, no, Clive called him and said, Clive Davis, Clive Davis. Sorry. No, not all. I meant he was an impressive guy. Clive Wilkins? Very smart. Clive Owens? Okay, gotcha. Clive for 10, Bob. Kenny Loggins has the board. Okay, so then he changes his mind.

Yeah, Clive calls him and says, you know, you've been on salary for a year and you haven't done anything yet. So maybe you should pick one of these artists. And Clive had sent him Andy Williams and acts of that ilk. Slowpokes. There was one act that he would have probably produced instead of me, and that was Dan Fogelberg. Oh, I remember him. But Fogelberg made one big mistake and he said, I want to do an act just like Poco.

And Jimmy was like, no, I don't want to do that again. So Jim Messina is in a room. He's got an Andy Williams eight by 10 and a Kenny Long is eight by 10. I'm not sure. Let's go with the long hair guy. One's the future. You know, Andy,

Williams had a great run. Andy Williams, incredible voice, nothing against Andy Williams and his family. But what's more exciting, you know, get a guy. Or Claudine. Or Claudine. That's his wife? Don't you remember that? Claudine Lange, that was the invitational ski thing that SNL did. Yeah, that's a Dennis. Dana's new. Let's go hit the slopes. There's something he would do a bit about. That guy's got an AK-47 going down the bunny hill. What's that about, huh?

I'm going backtracking to Danny's song. We can bounce around. It'll be easy. There's Eddie's song too. Yeah, my big brother had ADD so I can keep up with you. I do too. Oh, there's a butterfly. I got to tie my shoe. What'd you say? So this is Danny's song is about your brother. But it was similar that my brother, Andy, my older brother is very cool. And I went to high school with him, but he was always embarrassed me. It sounded like you said something like that.

where you were a little younger and he told me i dressed uncool and he would always go don't they don't want people want you guys at the party and i go it's a party for freshmen he's like i know but they don't want you there yeah that's what we need is somebody who always thinks you're an idiot yeah to help you but maybe i have three of them that thought i was maybe that beating is you know uh dana is from his dad's montana i think your dad might be from a

to Montana. That explains a lot. And it was a, it was a, his dad was very tough on him. He's like an old school dad. He had it in for me. And I don't know if you had that similar situation, just, just old school tough. I'd say that, you know, and my dad was tough till he left. And then he ran off. Have you considered therapy at all? Would that fuck up your career? My favorite subject. No, I got into therapy five years ago.

And I should have got it at age 30. I learned a lot. But you might not have been who you were. Well, how would you just generally for you?

Because I did read your book, but- I thought you were going to say, how would you describe me? How would you- Yeah, enough about me. What do you think of me? How would you describe your childhood? Just a normal, kind of weird, really fun, you know, or all the- He takes a big breath. Yeah, right. How do I put this? It did say- But I was the third of three boys, youngest. I was the fourth and I was the youngest. Yeah. And the middle brother, Dan-

was kind of the outsider. He was kind of the James Dean of the family. Yeah. And so, you know, I tried to be like him. You've had one of those, I think. Yeah.

And it wasn't very easy to do because none of his clothes fit. Can't live up to them. So you're trying to wear hand-me-downs. I even tried to wear some hand-me-downs because they were cool, right? Yeah, he was cool. Whatever he wore was cool. It didn't look the same on me. Such an illusion. But that's what I was referring to in the back of the book. Was that in the process of trying to be like my brother...

I realized, thanks to him, that everything about me was uncool and really stupid. So you have to work at changing those things to become not so stupid and to try to be cool. And so there's a process of creating a persona that I carried into rock and roll because I thought if I'm going to be on a camera, if I'm going to be out in front of people, I better fix those things that don't seem to be working.

Yeah. You got pretty cool though. You obviously, at some point you realize, I don't know how you were in high school. I saw your high school senior, you know, but you became kind of movie star, good looking, right? Weren't you almost in A Star is Born or is that just a rumor? Oh, that's a crazy. That's a rumor? Yeah. Did you ever hold hands with Barbra Streisand? No. We sang together though, which was pretty cool.

And, um, no, at one point she said, have you ever acted? Would you have any aspirations for acting? And I said, no, that wasn't my thing. And that was that. So that was my audition. I would say where, where did your, you know, I I'm fascinated by drive and where did, where did you think yours came from? And when did you realize that you had it?

You know, like you're willing to go through a lot of pain and keep writing songs and just the drive to get to where you got. When did you, were you like that and had to win at games as a kid and stuff like that? I was always competitive in sports, but not at school. School was sort of a side thing for me. But, you know...

I think the drive came because I knew that I had some talent. I didn't know how good I was, but I knew I could pull off, you know, I could go to a party and sing songs and there'd be people listening. But other than that, I didn't know how far it could take me. But I knew that rock and roll is a high turnover business. And sooner or later, I'm going to get a shot at it. And I better be good because I want to hang out there for a while.

And then one thing just led to another. I think the motivation when I got married and had kids was, you know, I got to bring in some money here. I got to support this family. And so I just kept pushing, kept writing, kept recording. It's a tough life. Did you have bands in the seventies that were your peers? You'd listen to their album or watch where they got, who did you, you know, like James Taylor's got something. I want to beat that. Or just even as friends, did you, were you, did you have sort of Seeger anyone? Well, I think there is that,

That friendly competition that happens. Yeah, it's so friendly. With other players, like other guitar players and stuff. They take their guitar to school. We'd sit around and trade tunes. And that's where you learn things, you know. When you're working with your friends, it's friendly enough that

There's a one-upsmanship that usually happens, but also that you're paying attention to what they're doing because if somebody does something really good, you're going to go, God, I got to remember that. Or show me how you played that. I remember the first time I was, I think I'd smoked marijuana. I was with a band in Tahoe. I think you still do. Yeah. No, I did. Well, we tried at the ranch and the house vibrated. We took an edible, my wife and I, only because we wanted to

test drive it for her mother for her mother of course yeah you know it was irish i'm not sure you're practicing for the police then we didn't give it to her because the whole house was going like this you know

But anyway, I digress. I didn't know that story. You didn't know that story? Yeah, we just took a teeny bit. I didn't know. And then we were watching The Godfather at Cottonmouth. Then I woke up at 2 a.m. And then the room was vibrating. I could barely walk. Sounds like you took Indica.

Jeez. Oh, yeah, this guy. Do you have a brand that you sell? You have the Kenny Longans? No, I don't. Dude, I went in- I was thinking good poo would make a good name for a brand. Good poo. Yeah. I went into the stoner store and the guy's like-

Hey, you know, I'm like, I need a weed pen. And he goes, I go, my neck's always screwed up. He goes, hey. I go, which one? He goes, which one of these 600 do you like? I go, that's where you come in. I don't know. And then the owner comes out. He goes, hey, Spade, you know, Jimmy, let's get him some fentanyl crab cakes. And you know what? Why don't you have some PCP candy corns? I'm like, no, no, no, I'm okay. I'm actually just a new guy. Just want a weed pen, like a little Z-quill. I just want knockouts.

But I have another question for Kenny. It's more of a statement, which they all will be and you don't have to talk. - We're starting the podcast pretty soon. Okay, let me know when we're on. We call this the precursor. When I press this button, we're on. - The first hour. - Go ahead, David. - No, this might be a lie, but Kenny, I think, I remember we did a corporate gig.

Is it possible? Yeah. Do you remember MCI? I was doing one 800 clock commercials. Beep boop bop beep boop. Remember that in the payphone during SNL? And I was, I was sent to part of my gate. My deal was to go to St. Thomas.

And do a show. And I did stand up at the pool. The real St. Thomas or somewhere else? I don't know. It was an island. There's an island, right? I went down there. There's a saint too as far as I know. And then I think it was you was the headliner and I was just doing, but I did it around a pool, which was a tough situation. They're scattered all around the pool. They didn't even cover it up.

So I'm like on the diving board and they're around here. Anyway, I do that. So you're doing standup on the diving board? Yes, something like that. That's dangerous. They were working out a chart to see which way I could bomb the most. And they were like, I think the best way for him to not do well is to put him on the diving board and he can balance. That keeps all the people apart. Yeah, and they're like naughty at comedy. I did a corporate in a hot tub.

And I was fully clothed. They said, get in the hot tub. And there's like five CEOs. Five high rollers. Yeah. And they're naked. I have a suit on. They took an edible on the whole hot tub. No, anyway. I think Kenny was a headliner because I swear this is true, but you wouldn't remember, but we...

you know a couple of us got to come back and say hi to you uh but you were it's not really a big story it's just that it was you and you were coming on but you obviously crushed and uh and i think it got to meet you and i think it was fun how could i ever forget that how could you forget check your diary um another thing my buddy this guy that i did on the road had the greatest footloose parody oh we haven't talked about footloose yet well remember footloose the song

You know, Dana, I think we have a connection. We've been friends for a long time. And for this episode of Fly on the Wall, we've partnered with eHarmony, which isn't us. eHarmony is a dating app to find someone you can be yourself with. We are not dating. I want to clarify that. But the connection is what you want in a dating partner.

Just someone like, if you found someone that listened to this podcast, that's somewhat of a connection. And then you sort of build on that. You want someone with some common ground. Yeah. It's not, it, look, if you want to connect romantically over, you know, super fly or fly on the wall, uh,

It just makes us happy. You don't want to be watching The Godfather and the person next to you goes, this movie sucks. So dumb. Yeah. You want to connect on all issues and harmonize in life. Similar sensibility, similar sense of humor, and similar sense of sense. I don't like when they watch The Godfather and they're like, everyone in this movie is so old. I'm like, they're 40.

Watch 2001 Space Odyssey. Too much of this movie is in outer space. I don't like it. When do they land? When do they land? Why is that stupid red light acting so silly? Who's friends with a robot? We know dating isn't easy. That's why we partnered with eHarmony because dating is different on eHarmony. They want you to find someone who gets you, someone you can be comfortable with.

Yeah. I mean, the whole idea is you're going to take a compatibility quiz, helps your personality come out in your profile, which makes all the profiles on eHarmony way more interesting and fun to read. So I think this is the goal of dating sites, and I think eHarmony does it great. It's just finding somebody you're compatible with.

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That's $50 off with CodeFly at BlueNile.com. BlueNile.com. Well, basically, like you said in your book, you had all these albums and all these hits, and then you went solo. Then there's all these soundtracks that blew up and are still iconic. But you...

You and Jim, you're still friends now. Jimmy Messina. We're doing a gig Thursday and another one Saturday. I know. Like I said, you're really good friends. We were going to wail on you for comps, man. I can't, I'm going on the road. Is that the only reason I'm here? I know. I want to go because it's going to be so fucking huge. I'm a kick a day drummer. I just wanted to be able to sit in on angry guys. Do you still have your book for your snare drum? No, I graduated. No, I just, I just drum in my head all the time. The guitar players played tennis rackets.

He played with you, too. I'm always drumming. Sounds... I played with you, too, live from Satellite. I'm pressing. Live from Satellite. It never does. Is Dennis Miller here? By the way, can we bring him in? Poco. Christ sakes, he's doing the whole beatbox thing with his mouth, huh? To the master of rhythm, Kenny...

I had it against him. Has anyone ever called you Kenny G? No. Okay, sorry. So you leave Jim. Not till now. That was a big confidence boost. Gilbert Godfrey didn't know who I was. Is that true? He didn't? Is that true? Well, it was just a moment where he had to be reminded. Let me, you look familiar. I, sorry. But God rest his soul. Yeah. It was great. Okay. So let's go through some of these moments.

Well, one of the hits, Don't Fight It. I just had questions because it was Steve Perry. And I remember that when I read it. And then I listened to it again. Of course, I know that song. And it's sort of like, whenever I call you friend, it's you and Stevie Nicks, which is huge. By the way, one of the greatest intros of all time. Oh, thank you. I just heard it again. I go, this is what I love. You're screwing around at the beginning. And I think people get too perfect these days in songs. And they go, oh, we had a glitch. Let's redo it again. And you go, no, it's funny to hear people talk in the background or

Do something odd because that's what you remember and how you memorize it. And I think the imperfections are really fun. And that was on purpose, obviously. Which imperfection? What you did at the beginning, just screwing around before and harmonizing. We had the song recorded and then Bob James was producing it with me. And Bob says, we need an intro to this. And I said, I'll just go out to the mic and just- Was that just you? Who?

That thing. You remember that, Dan, at the beginning? Oh, yeah, yeah, totally. It's so fucking cool. I love anything like that. Yeah, I was raised on the Beach Boys and that whole counterpoint thing was part of my brain. Genius. These boys are. Just weave these things together. It's smart. When we talked to McCartney, he was like,

when do you know when it's done? Like, cause you know, the Beatles, they would put another layer and another layer and they finally go, that's enough. But you go, when is enough? Cause it feels perfect. Like so much going on, especially a day in the life. There's, it has change ups and different things. And that's why I know I can never write a song. It's too complicated. Well, you just keep plonking, you know, you're plonking. John and I would face each other with the guitars. It was like looking in a mirror and we just keep plonking away. Then we came up with Strawberry Fields, you know. I love the understanding. I'm going to ask you a question about,

as such a great vocalist, because you are, you got the cans on and you're going to sing with Stevie Nicks. Must've been cool to hear you sing with her. The blend, yeah. Yeah, must've been a thrill, right? Yeah. Because she has such a unique kind of tone. We didn't perceive...

to the way you're describing. We were just working. You know what I mean? It wasn't Stevie Nicks. It was just Stevie. Oh, what year was it? Like 70s? So they weren't... Or early 80s? No, no, it was late 70s, yeah. Late 70s. So she wasn't quite, yeah. Yeah, because as long as I'm seeing her broke up in 76...

And so it was probably 78. And it is when songs become remembered and stick out decades later, it just grows bigger. I mean, it just is. Well, it gets legendary. You know, working with old comedians or actors in old movies and people go, what was it like on this and this? And you go, wow, because...

In the beginning of the morning, you get up, you look at your lines, you go, let's get out there and you do it. You're just working. Yeah, and you go at the end, you go, I think that was all right. And then later, if it works, it works. I did a thing with, I did a show for Coca-Cola's 100th birthday with...

George Burns. Oh, yeah. And he was 90 at the time. And at the end of the show, I said in front of the audience, I said, George, this was so much fun. Let's get together and do it again when you turn 100. And he takes a cigar out of his mouth. He says, well, you look like you're in good shape. You might make it. He ran into John Lovitz when he was like, I guess 98. He goes, I got 18 months. Yeah.

What? He's got 18 months left. He says I got 18 months to live. To live? Yeah, he just kind of rounded it off, you know, but it was an incredible life. Do you remember the Norm Macdonald joke on Update when he goes, George Burns today died at 100, which proves once again, smoking kills. A lot of those guys had double martinis and highballs and cigars and just went on forever. Yeah.

But when you're recording like that with someone like Steve, are you hard on yourself or are you kind of like, I think I got it? Or do you want another take? Do you feel when you nailed it, you know it? Yeah, when you're in the zone, you can feel it. The danger zone? Do you feel bad if you- Oh, that's perfect segue. And we're not going to take it. Do you feel bad when you have Stevie Nicks in there and you go-

Close. Going again. Stevie did say in a number of interviews that I was the rough taskmaster. Oh, wow. Because we had, I only had that one shot to get that vocal because Fleetwood was passing through and we recorded in New York. Oh, and you got like one session. And so we had that one night. How does Kenny Loggins become a taskmaster? Because you're like-

Stevie, what are you doing? What do you say to her? Let's do it again. Oh, just go again. Or like in the movies when you do a take, they go, perfect, going again. You go, yeah, I loved it. I loved it. You guys are great. We're just going to go. Well, Stevie, it would be hard. I guess you weren't intimidated back then like everyone would be today with her. She's also just a stunner like in real life. I mean, there's so many super talented, but

Do you agree? You come in, you got a great... I think you agree. So she's a talented girl. She comes in, got a great voice. It matches up. And then you just cross your fingers and go, I hope this fits in the song because I don't want to waste her time. I don't want to waste her time. You know, you just cross your fingers, I guess. Yeah, we didn't know...

much about what we were going to do. We had to make it up as we went along. In the studio. In the studio? Yeah. You had to write in the studio? Because the vocals were crossing parts where...

where it would be too high for her or it'd be too high for me. And so we'd have to switch parts. So sometimes she's on the melody and sometimes I'm on the melody. And we had a harmony where the first two lines, I'm harmonizing to her melody on the chorus. And then I switch over to melody and she goes up above and does the harmony. I'm in awe of people who can harmonize. It seems like the toughest thing to hold a harmony.

All the way through. My big brother, again, Danny, got me into music and singing when I was little. And so he had me learn all the harmony parts.

And when I met Olivia Newton-John, she said, yeah, her big sister was the same way. Her big sister was the one who had all the melodies and she had to sing all the harmonies. Unbelievable. Damn. So you really started young. Yeah, you do. Well, you liked the Beach Boys too and they were all harmonies. Yeah. It was all about that. When you have, we have someone like Stevie Nicks or someone else, let's say Steve Perry in there, you're doing a song. Do they ever say, I want that line?

No. I've had that. Yeah? I've had that in movies. So when someone wants to take your punchline? Yeah. Yeah. Not good. It's very weird. Yeah. Who wanted to take your punchline? I'll tell you later. You know him. So it is tough, but I guess it's whoever's doing it. Like when we were doing Grown Ups, applause. Yeah, thank you. 280 million. There's five comedians there. So this isn't.

the example I'm talking about. But Adam was pretty cool about, you know, you have five comedians and when you're, the scene is the scene and we all have a joke, but we're all obviously capable of coming up with more jokes. So on every take, Adam will go, Spade, do whatever you want in this one. And then Rock, and then I'll come in, we'll huddle up after a take and,

and might say, what about this line? And Adam will go, you know what, Rock, you say that. And then we'll say, I go, Adam, and he'll kick them around. So he was producing. He was producing, he's a producer. And then, and you have to have a boss and we have to go, okay, whatever Adam says. Now you do them all. And then when the movie comes out, he was pretty fair. You could have made that the Spade movie because every scene I had a funny line. You had a line. But he goes, Rock's funny in that one.

He's already had one. Give it to Kevin James here. He had a great line in that one. And I think even it out and doesn't hog them all for himself. He could have been every joke because every time we, you know, everyone have something. But I think that's good. How do you, is that intimidating for you? It was hard. With, you know, other four or five other great comedians. They make you get funnier. But it's work. It's the same thing. If there's a chemistry. Yeah, if there's a chemistry, you get it. Well, Saturday Night Live definitely made me go from being a not,

really good writer or maybe just a decent writer for my own standup. But Lauren said, I like that writing. We want it in here. And then I, you know, can you write for Dana, Mike Myers, whoever. And that was harder to write for other people, but it would seem liberating to me. It makes you better. Just imagine anybody doing that. Well, it's a style that I can write for myself. And then I'd give it to someone. They go, I think you can do it better. Or I think that's

That's more your thing, which is a polite way of saying it's not good. Or how would you do this? Yeah. Or, you know, I don't want to give line readings, but I go this. And I wind up, I wasn't as good writing for other people, but I think it made me better to go to a read-through and watch good writing and watch people write. And you just, like you're saying, you get around good people. It's the key. It should be. Like I did a...

Oh, good memory moment. Documentary? Hopefully you edit this. Take on all bosses. I did a Wine and TV show, Wine and Family. Okay. And they did a moment where I think Michael was on, McDonald was on the show with me. And about six or seven really strong lead singers were,

And each one of us had a solo line that we would take. And then they would point, you take this. Oh, wow. We're singing the song, learning the song, and then jamming on what the solo line was. And we are the world. We are. The world was like that too. Did you hear the world? You asked for a different one. Can I have four lines? I want Cindy's line. Oh, oh, oh, oh.

We are in the world. Yeah. Did you go, did someone go, hey, Cindy, on this take, ham it down. Yeah. It looks like she's trying to get a fan. Go to the YouTube competition. Go to the YouTube moment where they're trying to get Cindy's line over and over again. And look in the back on the stairs is Steve Perry.

And he's making the funniest faces. It's like, Oh, he's clowning. Well, not clowning, especially. I think he's just grimacing because there were moments where, you know, she would kind of miss the note. Was that a long, that was, it must've been a long shoot. I heard. Right. Oh, it went a long time. Yeah. Not just Cindy. I mean, everybody. Yeah. Just who was that real dick?

Did anyone say that? We want a trend. There you go. Spade needs a hard out in an hour. And everyone's like, well, yeah, I'm what? You're right. Does anybody want to get out? I'm sure everyone wanted to get out of there. Dylan didn't want to do anything live with the people because he has his own thing and he doesn't want to have to sing in the group. So they brought him in separately. He sort of rocked and swayed. Yeah.

To the song a little bit, but he didn't really sing along with it. Didn't they show him in a wide shot? Well, he's just not that kind of singer. He's Dylan. He's just Bob Dylan. Did you hear about Aerosmith? What's his name? Steve. Steve Tyler. When he sang the national anthem. Did you see that? Was it recently? A couple years ago, I think. And he sings, Land on the Prairie.

And he gets all this criticism and he says, "What'd you expect them, Steve and Tyler?" That's how I say it. That's me, yeah. What are you doing? Why would you ask me if you didn't expect me to do that? I love, 'cause that early Bono was on "We Are the World." He sounded cool from "You Too." And Mike Jackson was on it. He was? Bono was in there. He was?

Wasn't he? Wasn't he? Okay, we got to Google this because I don't think so. Google it somebody just because I've been lying so much in this podcast. I can't afford one more. I hope I'm not booging you. I didn't mean to boog you. I did a Michael Jackson video once. I think I told you Dana and he cut me out of it. Anyway, sore subject. I knew Michael Jackson in 1975. I was a busboy waiter bringing him his carrot sticks before the show for a week. I knew all the family, Tito, Marlon, everybody.

Tito. Tito. And Michael was charming and I brought him carrots and Janet was tan and she was dumping them down on the bed. I said, please don't do that, Janet. She goes, Miss Jackson, if you please. That's nasty. That's the joke part. I wanted to get into something we talked about earlier.

Is when you collaborate, you said that you're in a room collaborating and at the end of the day, no one really remembers who came up with what. Oh, right. And you collaborate, your big collaborators, like Michael McDonald, was he like your favorite? You did like seven songs with him or something? Yeah, I guess five. But you guys kind of went back and forth, but that's kind of- Do you remember Michael McDonald? It's interesting that people don't know. Okay, we're going to start with the basics. Like when I came up with the Hollywood Minute for David-

He's obviously being facetious. I said, David, this is so you. Give me something. You should have this. You should do this. This is you. And he does a great job with it. He did great. I thought it was generous of you. Bob Odenkirk actually helped me. Robert Odenkirk from Better Call Saul. He helped me come up with that. So I'll ask you these two questions. What was your, as you probably don't have it, your favorite collaboration or the collaboration that was better than you dreamed it would ever be?

turned out better or someone who you enjoyed collaborating with, you sought them out. Miss Piggy. Did you do it? Oh, you did. Oh yeah. You were a big, one of those things. Yeah. Yeah. But no, but I didn't write with her. You didn't write with her. Frank Sinatra. You ever seen with Frank Sinatra? You know, I've, I've always opted for the Fred Astaire answer to that question, which is that he, he refused to ever say which was his favorite. Sure. Right.

All my children are my favorite. I have a good question for this guy. Okay. Kenny Loggins. Steve Perry. Pipes Perry. The answer is yes. Just to clear the air because you're in the business. Kenny Loggins has the board. Everyone loves Steve Perry. Everyone loves Journey. And they...

They went on with that. I don't know if it was a money thing or whatever, but everyone sort of was hoping he would come back and do it with them. Was it his voice? Do you have an answer? I have an answer. Okay. Because someone we know, our business manager, used to work with a lot of these acts. And so you had, I think it was the Commodores, but Lionel Richie wrote the song, so he had the publishing. So he's going like, I think I'll go over here. He's got all the money. So apparently Steve Perry had all the publishing.

And so he didn't want a tour anymore. Once you get a lot of money, you might want to tour a little bit, but not a three year tour. So that was what I was told. Three hour tour. A three hour tour. Sorry, you were, sorry, I was going. But when you got, when did you, what was your highest net worth? Steve Barry, what happened?

Steve Perry, because he didn't want to go on the road like that. I really don't know. You don't know? I don't know. I know that he had personal issues. His mother died at the time. And that kind of pulled him out of the band. Well, what was Steve Perry's net worth? We'll do some Googling after the show. Okay.

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Find it on auto trader. See it. Find it. Auto trader. Obviously Caddyshack was the first big sound. I think first big soundtrack song. I'm all right. It's impossible to get three. You have three that I know of three, at least I know of, but Caddyshack four Caddyshack. You don't like you said, you don't meet Bill. You don't go on the set. People think you're hanging out and singing with the, with the cast. It happens later. Right. Yeah. And they tell you what, here's the movie. Do you see it first?

Or here's the feel of the movie. I saw a screening. It didn't have an ending and it didn't have a gopher when I saw the screening. Wow. Yeah. The gopher dancing to it was pretty funny. The dancing gopher, right? And everybody loves the gopher. But when John Peters made the movie and John said, okay, so this next part, man, this is where we have a gopher come out of a golf hole and dance. It's a hand puppet. Yeah.

And I went, that's stupid. You're going to make that worse. It sounds horrible. I was so wrong. I mean, it does sound horrible. If you came up with that, they'd throw it out, right? Yeah. Let's do it. Well, how about a puppet over here then? And Bill Murray's going to talk to the puppet. I have Lamp Chop with me. Right. Lamp Chop was a star. You bring Lamp Chop in, I understand. He made the big money. So you bring some Lamp Chop, that was a big part. You should check his net worth.

- Big bar. - So, so. - Net worth? - So you write it to the, you write it to the imaginary gopher. - You just wrote the song and they adapted it. - Yeah, I wrote a couple of songs for that. The opening song where Danny, the lead character is riding his bicycle through suburbia and the temp music, temporary music that they had for that spot was a Bob Dylan song.

And I thought, this is really strange. Why would they be playing a Bob Dylan song showing a kid riding his bicycle? Nothing is happening here. And then I figured that, you know, Dylan is like the ultimate rebel. So why is that going on? What are they trying to tell me? And then by the end of the movie, you see Danny changes his character from wanting to be a part of the country club to wanting to go his own way. Mm-hmm.

So he does become the rebel. So that's where I'm all right, nobody worry about me came from that idea. Wow, I didn't even put that together. Interesting. Oh, that's cool. And they had no ending though. And so you were talking about giving a lion away. They brought Rodney back out onto the golf course, Rodney Dangerfield. I tell you, I get no respect. And they said, give us an ending.

And this was, who wrote that? You would know that. Who wrote Caddyshack? Yeah. Was it Harold Ramis? Harold Ramis? Yeah, Ramis. It was Ramis, yeah. Okay. And great writing and a lot of improvising. Yeah. And,

And so Rodney just goes out and goes, hey, we're all going to get laid. And that was the end of the movie. And that was the mic drop. Great. It works. And then everyone starts dancing and they dance to I'm All Right, is it? I guess, yeah. That worked. Yeah, okay. So that one obviously hit. That one was great.

You've got, oh, Top Gun is huge. Yeah, Heart to Heart, obviously. Heart to Heart, I love. I heard it this morning. Heart to Heart, another with Michael McDonald or? Yeah, yeah. That's another. And David Foster, remember that? Yeah, I've met David Foster a few times. Yeah, he's- Great writer. He's great, right? David and I wrote the chorus in New York and then-

When we had that chorus in the bag, I said, I want to hold the rest of the song for Michael because it feels like a Mike McDonald song to me. And he was on piano and you were on guitar when you wrote the chorus? David was, yeah, on grand piano. Were you playing an instrument or just like guiding him? Usually I don't pick up a guitar unless I need to find an idea. But because, you know, the chordal thing, the whole piano thing is so much more fluid.

Yeah. Quarterly places. So when you collaborate and they're playing, you're going that, that. Yeah. How about over here? No, no, not that one. This one. Put that in the bass. Yeah. And so then I went to Encino to Michael's house and I played the chorus for him and I said, let's write a verse. And so he just, do, do, do, do, do, do. He came up with that in about five minutes. That's it. Let's do that. Yeah. Yeah.

And did you, I think you said in the book, you had David Foster and you had him and you had to pick. We went into the studio and because I'd promised that I would never record a song I wrote with Michael without Michael on the piano because he's a unique player.

We put David in one room on the grand piano and Michael was in the main room on the Fender Rhodes. So Michael played the verses and then he would lay out and David would jump in on the choruses. And it's Michael, when you say unique style, is it kind of rudimentary intentionally? Or how would you describe it? Because it is sort of, it's rhythmic. You mean the way he plays? The way he plays piano. Michael plays with his hands apart and his bass line is moving all the time.

And David plays like thumb to thumb. So there's these big cluster records that are real lush and more R&B kind of vibe. So there's a wider range in the chords. It's just a different style. Michael's more like that stride gospel style. Okay. So what about footloose? How'd you come up with that? Did I skip one? He skipped Top Gun.

No, but Footloose is before Top Gun or the right round of football? No, Footloose is before Top Gun. Okay, Dave. That was a friend of mine, Dean Critchford wrote the screenplay. Yeah. And he asked if he could write some songs with me to make sure that he got the deal with Paramount to also be a songwriter because they only saw him as a screenwriter. Ah. So as a favor to Dean, we wrote a couple of songs, one of which was Footloose, one of which was I'm Free. And it turned out to be a favor to me.

And you, at that point, had transitioned into electric and you were into the Fender because you have that... Yeah. That kind of started... Well, I came up with that idea backstage, so I was sort of warming up on that. Oh. I wrote it on acoustic guitar, but I knew that it was going to be an electric guitar part. It was like a Dwayne Eddy kind of thing. Do you think Kevin Bacon's...

danced to it well or how'd you feel his dancing was? I think Kevin and all the people that danced to that. Pretty amazing. You know, if you look at the video, that's not Kevin entirely. Right.

There's all the flips and the twirls and everything. Most of that. Dana's gonna start crying. I don't believe you, Mr. Hogan. Kevin Bacon can dance any way he wants. Should we just touch on SNL for a second? No. What that, no? No, because I want to tell him the parody of Footloose that he's heard a million times. Oh, okay, yeah. But who is the guy? This is the one I heard, and just bear with me and we'll cut it later.

It was been sleeping all night, worked up an appetite. I'm lying on my head. It's like a weird alley. Mom says, get out of bed. I see the toucan. He says to follow his nose, run fast as you can, follow wherever he goes, because I got to eat loops, fruit loops, one of the four food groups. Well, that's been a weird alley for me.

Milk, please. Louise, eat the whole box with ease. Funny. Heart attack. Need a snack. My vitamins and minerals I lack. I lack. Wow. It's funny. Yeah. I can't believe you got that. The guy went on before me that and killed. He just put the guitar down and left and I didn't even go on stage. I can't follow that shit. I gotta have loops. Fruit loops. One of the four food loops. Okay. So that's a hit and was song parodied.

And that was a good one. Okay, so Kenneth, before we talk about me again. The Kenster, the Loginator. That's not bad. I was gonna ask you just quickly what it meant to you in 1982, if Wikipedia was right, to go on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest. Was it nerve wracking or? Both, yeah, it was very exciting. You hope you're ready.

And, but cause it's live and, and the sound is really difficult to make it right on a TV studio. Oh, you must go in there and tweak and get scared. I had my own engineer to be in the room and make sure it approximated the record. Do you remember what song? I did the show a couple of times. Oh, you did? Yeah. I had one time was Heart to Heart and I'm pretty sure I did Footloose. Okay. Okay. But I did the other one that was way better was Fridays. I think that was called.

Goddammit, don't you dare. How dare you, Mr. Lawrence? Good day to you, sir. Don't tell Lauren. I'm sorry, I turned British first. Now, does it bump the record? That's the idea, right? It bumps the sales. Well, hopefully, yeah. It's just to keep the record moving up. Also, it looks cool.

Yeah. But it was a status thing. Doing Saturday Night Live was always a status gig. 100%. And you feel for your, if you look back on it, do you feel like you did great each time or were you coming off going, ah, did you kill it? No, I felt good about it. Yeah. Did Lorne say anything to you? The Lorne Michaels, our boss? I don't think so. Because he'd be very understanding. I think he was busy. He would levitate the room. He'd say, oh, it was a nice job.

I thought it was breathtaking. Okay, well, we touched on SNL. Right, we did. That's what the show's about. Yeah, but it's too fun to talk about this other stuff. And the book is obviously still All Right by Kenny Loggins. But lastly, we'll talk about Danger Zone because it was obviously a-

Yeah, I don't know what the- Could you still sing that in concert? Oh, yeah. And how, is that an easy one relative, because it's kind of raw or you don't have to reach for the high notes as much? Well, there are high notes in that. Oh, okay. You know, my Dana is a rookie, so. How dangerous is the zone? It's just a question.

You wrote that down, did you? That's a little bit of country. He wrote it down and he's been sitting on it all night. That's not an ad-loop. I let the judge and the jury decide. Have you heard the song, I've Been to the Fruit Loop Zone? Fruit loop? Now I'm going to be singing that all day. Fruit loops, fruit loops. So how did that song come about?

You got contacted by Jerry Bruckheimer or did you record company? Okay, so yeah, that was contacted by Jerry Bruckheimer to see a screening. But I think it was a cattle call. They did a bunch of screenings for a lot of artists to come in. And I was sitting there, I was making a record with the producer, an Austrian producer named Peter Wolf. Yeah. We do the music. Kelly Longans comes in and he does the music for the people. That sounded...

Nothing like it. It's going to be a big smash. Amazing. Oh, Adam's over two here. What are you talking about? Chris, thanks, Kermit. Just stay quiet. I got no respect around you. So then you still- When you say cattle call, do you know who else auditioned? I'm going to try and pick up where I left off here. I went in for the cattle call and saw the movie, and there was about six other acts in the theater. You won't say who they are. I knew everybody. I don't remember. But Aerosmith- Was not there. Oh. And that-

I thought the opening scene with the jets and everything, I figured, forget about it. Everybody's going to write for that. And they got to the middle scene and the, uh, the volleyball scene. Right. And I turned to Peter and I said, nobody's going to write for this. We got to write this one.

Because then you're on the album, right? And then you're one of 10 or 12 songs that can be chosen for a single. That's clever. But Kenny, do you write, that's so interesting. You write for a scene because they have to put music throughout the movie. So they're trying to vie for the first scene. I knew that scene was going to need music. And so that's what I went for. So I got playing with the boys in. And then while I was recording that, I got a call from Maroder and his office. They said,

you know, we have a song, we got a dub in Friday and we don't have a singer for it. Cause I guess the lawyers blew it. And that was danger zone. That was danger zone. So, so I went, I listened to it. I made some changes and then made some changes and then went into. Did they give you a writer's credit? Well, here's the deal. Writing credits are tough. This is actually, I don't think I put this in the book. Oh, right. That, that, um,

Giorgio and Whitlock, his co-writer, they were trying for an Academy Award for their music in the movie. But it had to be the same two writers. So they couldn't add me as a writer altogether.

Because that would be one of the songs they needed to get that Academy Award nomination. Because they need four, right? It is in your book. I thought it was five, but you know better than me because you're a big movie star. Well, I read the book. It is in the book. Okay.

So let's say it's four or five. And then, and you, so you do wind up with it or you don't get it? Well, I said, okay, then just give me a piece of the publishing instead of writers. So we, you know, financially we can work it out that way. But then when he sold his publishing company, something got lost in the shuffle. And my name was dropped off the record for about actually more like 10 years.

So nothing came in just from the publishing on that part. And then nobody was watching the door, right? So I didn't get paid for at least 10 years, maybe 12. But then you got a credit later? We had to straighten it out and go through all that stuff. But that's always, but so my name was not on his writer for years. Does that eat at you a little bit?

The missing money is what ate at me. Yeah, also that someone would drop the ball like that and no one gave a shit. No, no one's watching the hen house. And you, and then when Danger Zone comes back again-

On the new topic. I don't know if you've seen it, Dana, but it's a big hit right now. It's like an amazing worldwide smash. And here you are again, front and center. Yeah. And just as a fan, when I watched the movie and then I heard that again, I was like, oh, I was just completely elevated. It brings everybody right back to that moment 35 years ago.

But it was like, you guys were just, you know, like what five? I was so young. Thank you, Kenny. I want to meet your dermatologist, but we'll talk after. Kenny's looking good. Yeah, you're looking good. We should let Kenny go. I think we covered everything SNL we could. Well, I just want to know how you, this resurgence, what has it meant, if anything, just that you're front and center right now in the culture of,

With Danger Zone. Do the people go more crazy when you play it? Absolutely. That's just kind of cool, right? Tommy Dowd, I worked with on a record. He produced Derek and the Dominoes and a few things like that. And Tommy said, success is like a moving train. And for a minute, you're in the window and people can see you. And then the train moves on.

And so my train is like a Lionel circle, you know, it just keeps coming around because now this danger zone is back in the window and it's cool again. Footloose went through a period of time where it was just not cool.

Yeah, but it's such a toe-tapper. If and when I go to your concert, which I want to because it's great, you're the kind that if I brought a friend that wasn't 100% familiar, every other song they'd be like, oh, he does this one? Oh, and there's so many hits. I don't think it's – you can suffer from too many hits. Yeah, it's great. Although he also did that. But then with music, you have the young people keep discovering it.

And it's kind of hip. My kids love stuff from the 80s and 90s. You can see that the whole yacht rock thing is really big. Oh, yeah. I want to talk about that briefly. Yacht rock. How do you define that? Well, I don't. But actually, there was a period of time, I will, a period of time where smooth jazz was influencing pop music. And so-

a lot of us were leaning in that sort of Stevie Wonder kind of vibe and trying to get things that were a little funkier, you know, more of a jazz groove. And I was working with a lot of the New York guys like David Sanborn and Eric Gale and Steve Gadd and people like that. So,

You know, like Heart to Heart is a good example of that kind of jazz, smooth jazz vibe. Smooth jazz and pop rock. Yeah, a lot of saxophones in that era. Yeah. And so I think that the Yacht Rock thing was kind of partly defined by the guys that created the internet comedy bit on Yacht Rock. So it was like wealthy men on their boats. Yeah.

I'm never sure about that. That's one of the things I hear is like, is it music you listen to on your yacht or is it if you own a yacht, do you listen? It might be just more of a concept of just like it sounds cool, it sounds fun and it sounds like old school hits that maybe middle-aged guys are.

which I'm fine with. Yeah. Yeah. They all, they all work. Yeah. Dana's, um, one. I'm like a young, a young, yeah. I am his father. We haven't never announced it, but I think they're allowed to laugh back here. They've been either. They're holding it in or nothing's been funny yet. Um,

We haven't really started the show yet. The book is still all right. The guest is the great Kenny Loggins, who just keeps- I prefer Kenny Loggins the great. Kenny Loggins the great. And wait, there's more. He keeps coming at us in society and now Danger Zone and Top Gun and all that's super hit. And we just thank you for coming on our humble show.

I appreciate it. I'm glad, I'm glad you got, when I heard you had one, these kids are good. They're going to, they stick with it. I love being called a kid. Can I hang out with you more? If they stick with it, you know, they, they just might make it. Well, thanks because if you, if you get a chance to see him in concert, he's, it's all, it's just great. I would love it. And, I'm going to look at your tour list and just show up backstage. Just anytime. Yeah. Work up any song you like. I'll do Chopping Broccoli. It's the thing I did on SNL. If you got a piano, it's a,

Broccoli. Chopping broccoli might be a good collab. That should be a good, we'll take an intermission that night. You can just stand up there. We'll so merch while you do it. The whole crowd leaves. You could be the opening act. All right. Thank you, Kenny. And thank you, Dana. And David, once again. See you next time. Thank you both.

This has been a podcast presentation of Cadence 13. Please listen, then rate, review, and follow all episodes. Available now for free wherever you get your podcasts. No joke, folks. Fly on the Wall has been a presentation of Cadence 13, executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Chris Corcoran of Cadence 13, and Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman with production and engineering support from Serena Regan and Chris Basil of Cadence 13.