Kenny Loggins couldn’t rock with Up With People
Kenny Loggins is just a couple years away from celebrating his 50th anniversary of when he and Jim Messina formed the hit-making duo Loggins & Messina.
But before he and Messina churned out “Your Mama Don’t Dance,” the 71-year-old Loggins remembers nearly being tugged away from rock ‘n’ roll — by Up With People.
This was when Loggins was a student at San Gabriel Mission High School in L.A. in 1965. This was just as Up With People, the educational young-people entertainment production company, was just taking shape. The organization was scouring the country seeking talented teenagers for its U.S. tours.
“I was just a kid, and someone saw me singing and said I join this Up With People thing, which I had just started hearing about,” said Loggins, who tonight kicks off a three-show run at Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas. He’s also onstage at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. “I loved the idea of being surrounded by musicians and artists, but why would I do that? God, it would have really changed things for me.”
Loggins instead took off on a highly successful, long-running career as a rock star. He scored a major hit solo with “This is It” in the late 1970s, followed by the first of his top-selling film songs, “I’m Alright” from “Caddyshack,” followed by “Footloose” from the movie of the same name and “Danger Zone” from “Top Gun.” Those songs will be in Loggins’ set list in the Encore Theater shows.
Loggins laughed when as he recalled a recent offer for a gig in Pasadena, Calif.
“I just was asked to participate in a Rose Bowl float,” he said. “It’s 60 feet long, flags going and things twirling around. It has like 50 dancers, flag-wavers and skateboarders. I said, ‘This looks like Up With People!’ They said, ‘What’s your point?’ I just said, ‘Never mind.’”
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts.Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
