This Is It!: Kenny Loggins Winds up His Final Tour at the Bowl

The longtime Santa Barbara-based singer-songwriter/rockstar Kenny Loggins retiring from the road is like the pop music equivalent of final go-rounds of baseball stars like Miguel Cabrera or Albert Pujols, except by a factor of more than two as Loggins’ touring career is more than twice as long as any baseball player. Plus, rather than receiving gifts at each tour stop, after a few gigs in, Loggins posted on his website that he’d prefer that folks instead make donations to Unity Shoppe, the local nonprofit he’s been supporting since its inception. 

Loggins’ long trek across the country spanned only six months of intermittent shows, but it’s still a monumental moment, as the singer-songwriter spent decades atop the pop charts, going back to his early years in the duo, Loggins & Messina, through a series of solo hits and a sizeable span as a soundtrack superhero. 

Loggins, who is 75, is set to close out his road career with one final show at the Santa Barbara Bowl on November 4, one that is sure to bring both smiles and tears to audience and performer alike. We caught up with him for a chat as he drove back to his Montecito home after his penultimate gig concert over the weekend. 

Q. You’ve been on the road on and off since March. How has it been going? 

A. It’s been really rewarding. I’ve played a lot of bigger rooms, everything up to 30,000 people, and the audience response has been fantastic. They really get the fact that this is the final tour, and so the appreciation quotient has gone way up. They’re very present for me as an audience, and it’s made it a lot of fun. 

I’m told you’re playing most of the big hits, of course, but also diving for some deep cuts, songs that are personal. Can you say a little bit more about that? 

Well, I’m doing “Keep the Fire,” which is a song about persevering through difficult time, and “It’s About Time,” the last song Michael McDonald and I wrote together back in the ‘90s. There’s “Heart to Heart” and “If You Believe,” which I haven’t played in a long time. Our opening act is Yacht Rock Revue, so I thought I would pepper some of that stuff in the show, too. 

Can you still hit all the high and low notes? 

Actually, yeah. I’ve been working with vocal coach Ken Stacey for two years, and he’s helped me rebuild my vocal range, so I’m much more confident going out there knowing that I can replicate what I did back in the ‘80s. 

It just hit me that it’s almost a full circle thing. The record company paired you with Jimmy Messina to help you with your first album, and now you’re getting support to make sure your range is there for this tour.

Yeah, I guess that’s true. 

I’m imagining the Santa Barbara show feels particularly poignant to you as your hometown for half a century. What comes up for you? 

Here’s a couple of things: I recorded the Alive video – actually a laser disc, then a video and DVD – back in 1980 at the Bowl. During the show, I announced the pending birth of my first son, Crosby, and now he’ll be up on stage singing “Danny’s Song” with me this week. Also full circle: my daughter Bella sang the intro to the “Conviction of the Heart” song when she was two and a half years old, and now she’s passing the torch to my granddaughter Phifer, who has been practicing with her mom. It’s a theme. Mike McDonald will also be joining me for “This Is It” and “What a Fool Believes.” So much of my life has been in Santa Barbara, since I moved there in 1973. The town is sort of an extended family, which I’m sure I’ll be feeling emotionally throughout the show. 

What comes up as you contemplate how you’ll feel when you finish the final encore and take your final bow after more than half a century of touring? Has it sunk in?

I’m working on it. It’s a jumble of mixed emotions. It’s a moment where you look back and appreciate where you’ve been in the time that you call your life, and the ground covered and all the things you’ve gone through. It’s not just another day. But it feels very celebratory. I feel a lot of gratitude for the career that I’ve had and the life that I’ve gotten to live. How many people get to sing for a living for their whole lives? 

What happens after Saturday? 

Symbolically, it does feel like a retirement but I’m only retiring from the touring part of my life. My plan is to drop more deeply into songwriting, especially with other artists, young writers, and other people who want to try something new. I’m going to keep my feet wet with both writing and recording because that’s easy to do at home nowadays.