Kenny Loggins a success in so many genres

Kenny Loggins believes in being in the right place at the right time. That’s something that certainly has served him well.

He has 12 platinum albums, Grammy awards and numerous Top Ten hits.

One such hit, “Don’t Fight It,” came together because he was hanging out with some friends.

“Mike McDonald, Steve Perry and I got together that one time,” he said. “We did a show together at a big outdoor venue. I loved Journey and it came about that way.”

A similar thing was behind his big hit “Whenever I Call You Friend” with Stevie Nicks.

“I was Fleetwood Mac’s opening act on the ‘Rumours’ tour,” he said. “I became friends with Stevie and that song came out.”

But it wasn’t all about others.

“’Pooh Corner’ was about my own childhood and I wrote it as a senior in high school,” he said. “It was based on the first book I ever read, ‘House on Pooh Corner.’ I was about to graduate and felt like that last chapter when Christopher Robin is leaving.”

Among his hits are such movie classics as ‘I’m Alright,’ ‘Footloose’ and ‘Danger Zone.’

“It was lightning in a bottle with those songs,” he said. “My good friend Dean Pitchford came up with a screenplay for ‘Footloose’ and he asked me to write some songs for the movie to help him. That’s how I got involved. With ‘Danger Zone,” I wasn’t going to sing it, In order to get a song on the soundtrack I wrote a song for the volleyball scene, ‘Playing with the Boys.’ Then Giorgio Moroder called me and asked about ‘Danger Zone.’ He said the act he was going to do it wasn’t going to so he asked me to do it.”

With “I’m Alright” from “Caddyshack,” Loggins was friends with Jon Peters who was making the movie.

“’Caddyshack’ was his first movie and he showed me the film and asked if I would write something,” he laughed. “It became a huge cult classic.”

His hits have crossed into multiple genres as well as charts.

“I’ve always been schizophrenic with music and that’s because of the influence of my brothers,” he said. ”My oldest brother was into folk and rockabilly and my other brother was into rock and R&B. As a kid, you soak it in.”

So as a musician, that means that Loggins goes with whatever inspires him at a particular moment.

“I am kind of a moving target, stylistically influences,” he said. “Year after year I will do jazz, the pop thing, rockabilly. I go wherever the spirit takes me.”

Of course there are some challenges.

“I am 66 so I have to change keys so I am not singing so high on the scale,” he laughed. “Steve Perry used to complain about singing at the top of the range, and everything I recorded was way up there. But I still love being out there.”