Transcripts For KQEH Tavis Smiley 20131224

And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Tavis twotime grammy winner Kenny Loggins has spent the last 40 years recording and fine footloose waslike good and top gun. His latest venture is a cdn picture book called frosty the snowman. He is still exploring musical styles and has a new band called blue sky writers which takes its cue from nashville. In my heart, i can still hear his drum i want to be the one whos going to find the sun these are the glory days cant let them slip away no tavis its clear youve still got it good but who started but who starts a band at this stage in life . [laughter] that was the big issue. A friend of mine told me i was being ridiculous and i should think about retiring. He made a lot of sense at first. That is kind of the rational thing to do. That,discovered years ago if i dont stay creative and if i dont stay in the studio and keep writing and recording, i get kind of depressed. I cant quite remember when exposed be doing with myself. Tavis does that mean there really was never a choice in your life to do anything else other than be a songwriter and performer . At 50, i was dropped from sony. So i had to start thinking, well, maybe its time to start thinking about a teacher or segue into the next phase of my life but nothing fit. It took me a year to figure out i had to stay creative and stay at it and it is really good fun. Blue sky writers is a really fun band. George has written three. They are great writers, great singers and it is really fun to start a new band. Tavis i have a whole show with you. I have been waiting 20 years. [laughter] then they better be good then. Tavis thats on you. [laughter] i have been waiting for a long time to talk to you. I love this guy. I can take some time to dig into this. I am curious as to what it feels like to be 50. I am approaching 50. Pbs could drop me at 50, well see. That what is it like to be summarily dropped by a record label after all of the hits, the millions of records sold, the soundtracks at 50, you get summarily dropped. How do you navigate that . That is a great question. For me, it wasnt so much that i was dropped. If you think about it rationally, in the rock n roll world, 50 is long past your invitation. Tavis some a stones that. Somebody tell the stones that. It would be good to have some we say, hey, kenny, i have to talk to. Come on. But i heard from the secretary of an underling vpn she said, oh, by the way, they are dropping you from the label. Personal notesy or thanks for a great 20 years, no gold watch, you know. [laughter] beingwas that kind of dismissed quality to it that felt kind of crappy. The mostly, the difficult part is what do i do next . So many of us go through that. I have done this my whole life. Im not really qualified to do anything else and what am i supposed to do now . And the process of reinventing what, you know, each one of us has got to go through that. Tavis it is one thing for a particular label to no longer want you on its roster. I is another think am suspect, at that age or any age, certainly at that age, to start questioning your gift. Did you ever question your gift or your purpose at that age, whether or not you still had it . Absolutely. I think that is part of the natural thing to because, in my career, i defined myself by my music. That onethe danger is defines oneself based on popularity. As you know, that goes up and down and you cant say you cant judge how you feel about yourself based on what your sales is your so that had to be reinvented. I had to take a look at and go, ok, well, what if i couldnt sell any records . What a why do . What do i do . How do i feel about myself . Where do i go with my career . I came out the other side. I use my own money to finish the record i had started. That got me back on track. I could see that i felt great as long as i was in the studio, as long as i was working and writing your so everything ive done has been how do i stay busy . How do i stay active . Frosty the snowman, which we will talk about, is one of the answers to that. But peter said, do you want to do that, yeah, it sounds like fun. The beauty of it, at this point in my career, fun becomes a big factor. If it feels like itll be creative and it will be fun and follow your bliss, is this where the juice is, then i will go there. Tavis do you feel like you have more license and more liberty at this stage than you did before . I always feltld, i had license and liberty. That is what drove the Record Company crazy. Tavis until they dropped you. [laughter] in a way it is. Corner,rns of the childrens album, i always thought of it as a parents album , but it was against the better judgment of the Record Company. But if you stick with may come i think i know what im doing here and it sold 2 million units. I thought they thought it would be the end of my career. But i just had the sense that there was somewhere i needed to go and i had that quality of, like, lets check out this direction. Tavis how did you navigate 20 years of trying to go your own way and having to have those fights its from those fights from time to time, as any artist to do with it does, with the label. Especially the more accounts get in there i will tell you, when i started on columbia records, it was clive davis. He was always open for Something Interesting and where we are going from here. He was a very creative leadership. As the accountants come in and start to say, well, we want a record like you guys record, you should sound like him there was one point where they actually wanted me to have other people write all my songs and to bring in other artists to sing them with me. Move. S the desperation and i had to get to where that is just not me. That isnt going to work. And i started on an album that would become leap of faith. Talk about a metaphorical title. It was a major shift for me. I wrote the whole thing and produced a whole record and i had to fight my way through it. I had one great a r man in the company who was the drummer of lead sweat and tears. Bobby pfeiffer me every sweat every step of the way. Five hit singles, the only record of my career. At one point, they were ready to drop me because they couldnt hear any hits. Will get to frosty the snowman, i promise. One of the reasons i have loved you over the years is because i have this list my staff has heard this over years i have this list of the most soulful white guys that ever lived. You are on that list. About yourearlier rockets and indeed you had those, but where does the soulful thing come from . How did that happen . I had two big brothers. One big brother was deep into folkways at and sort of country and Merle Haggard touching it to the folk thing. So he inundated me with the folk money folk music. My other big brother is in do r b. Here i am four and five and six years old and he is turning my onto the platters and Little Richard and the doowop stuff and all the things that really hit him. So i like to think that i have you create linkages. It does as a little guy, i dont see any difference. Its all just music to me. So i think thats why i can get away with it. Tavis its the Holiday Season and we will talk about frosty the snowman in just a second. Logginsl encourage mr. To see this and you will see the numbers jump in a couple of days. I want you to google celebrate me home, one of the greatest songs by nny loggins. Look up celebrate me home at the grand canyon by Kenny Loggins. When it comes on the radio, it sounds good all the time. But this live version you did with mark russo on the horn at the grand canyon, i dont know where i was at that point in my life, but i would have done anything to be at that concert just to watch you dude celebrate me watch you do celebrate me home there. Do you remember this . Oh, yes, it was a show that we did for disney. Tavis since we are in the Holiday Season, this song, celebrate me home is played directly year. But it finds a particular audience during the Holiday Season. Tell me about it. Came up withst that line, was writing a song in my mind. Three four in 3 and 3 4. Was scrabbletitle begs and i thought that was my scrabble begs. Then i took it to new york and i was irking with bob james and phil ramon. And fill those no, that is a great line. Celebrate me home. Go upstairs and finish that lyric. I was in new york and it was the beginning of the christmas season. Home for thee holidays as my opening line and that is now on the christmas album. Lady antebellum just picked it up. That is the dream of all songwriters to get a christmas copyright that will last forever. Tavis i assume at this point, when you are performing, there are a handful of songs that you cant get off the stage without doing or there will be a right in the auditorium. Is that on the list . Oh, yeah. Give me like five songs you have to do. Most of the songs that i had to do were never hits for me. Huskerdannys song, corner, celebrate me home, and of course footloose. That is the one that the younger audiences are waiting for. And danger zone is back in the winter thanks to in the window thanks to archer. Tavis your voice lends itself to both uptempo and down tempo and the melody doesnt exist anymore in music. It is a thing of the past these days. Have you filled over the years that your voice is better suited for uptempo or or ballads . Tavis yeah. Thats an interesting question. I go back and forth on it. Uptempo stuff for concert. If and not his will get up and dance, eight makes it so much more fun. Tavis the energy there. Yes. That is why footloose is so fun. Dannys song has been around forever. Tavis you mentioned Peter Yarbrough and he has been a guest here many times. He has written a number of books and when. You tell me how peter ended up calling you and asking you to consider doing frosty the snowman. I dont know why he did but im glad he did. [laughter] before. Met peter euro before. Yarborough it was a cold call that came just out of nowhere. So we had this project. He has a publishing imprint of his own and peter paul and mary have puff the magic dragon. Judy collins has somewhere over the rainbow. And a few other acts have done sing theies where they songs but you will see the cd at the back of the book. Other songs, they put the music and with the book and it becomes a great christmas package, a gift package. I love the idea that parents can sit and read the story and sit on the floor and read the story and listen to the music at the same time. Music the idea for the that matches the story, how do you come up with that . Frosty the snowman is a classic. It was written by, lets say, are there, steve nelson and jack rawlins. They wrote a 4g not tree who had had they wrote it forgen gene autry. Frosty the snowman became a huge hit for him and many people that followed him. So i just basically took my cue from the 1940s urgent or the 1950s versions and did my own version in that style. Tavis there are other songs cindy. Another version. I found an appellation version and synthesize that to the ricky nelson version and made my view my own. The fishing blues i did a blues version of it. Tavis take me back to the early days of your writing. Im thinking now loggins and messina. Performance is one thing. Songwriting is another. Talk to me about songwriting from your vantage point. I started writing when i was in guitar lessons. I was working with a folk singer who had writing as part of his reality. I remember i learned going in the wind from a songbook. I had never heard bob dylan sing it. I learned from a songbook that rod had in that got me writing. And i had an even caught and i hadnt even caught the dylan bug you. Bug yet. Wrote when i was a senior in high school before he even finished taking guitar lessons. These days, the inspiration comes from where . What i really love her and now is writing with gary byrne and george middleton, my partners. They are great songwriters. The three of us sit down and we always get a song a day. That is fast for me. For them, its normal. For me, i can take a week to write a song. Writeis really a blast to with gifted writers who have tons of ideas, who never get stuck, whose ideas are bouncing off the walls all the time. And we wrote our first record together as a trio. We are writing a second record now. We have a christmas cd we will talk about. Tavis lets talk about it now. Our album came out in february. Its called finally home. Its that one there. So we came out with a christmas ep of four songs, for standards called finally home for christmas, and it is only available online. I think itunes and amazon. Over theat do you make course of your 40 plus career, the way that technology has changed the music business . This whole story of beyonce putting out her record on itunes surprised everybody and it has been selling like crazy. She bypassed everything, everybody, straight to itunes. She sold more copies of this record than the last one or through traditional means. The Technology Age that we are in is changing. The business. You have seen that from cds and cassettes and eight tracks what do you make of the Way Technology is changing . It is obvious that we are into a whole new ballgame and she has the clout to be able to get away with self releasing anything she wants. , webeauty of the internet are discovering with blue sky writers is that we can reach the audience to wreck late. Theres no filtration system between us and the audience. But its tougher with an older audience. Up isd say fortysomething still not as friendly with the internet and with commerce on the internet as my kids are. My oldest is 33 and he is in i. T. His whole generation, they are totally comfortable. It is Second Nature for them to go to itunes or whatever Distribution System and just go directly and get their music, download exactly what they want. And pay for. Tavis thats the key. [laughter] as the artist, thats the key. You have done so much Live Performance and so much studio work, obviously. You still love at this point getting out in front of live audiences . Oh, yeah. We are in a town everyday. I still travel a lot. Especially now, its crazy because i have this new act and im also traveling and touring as Kenny Loggins. Figured we riders, i would integrate the two. Thelue sky riders will be opening act and then go sell t shirts and then come back. Tavis get paid twice. Thats how you do it here in [laughter] that is how you work that out. Kenny loggins, two for the price of that must be a joy and a treat for your fans to hear you do the stuff that they want to hear and then you being able to introduce them to the stuff that you want them to hear. And happy with the fact that my audience is very open to new music and dying for new music during so i new music. So i get up there and show them they are, like, yeah. It has melody. It has words. Tavis whats your sense for why they want new stuff . Artist ofet to be an your caliber, sometimes you get boxed in because your fans only want to hear the old stuff here in it is your old stuff. Is difficult. It is difficult to want them to keep up with you and stay present tense. That there has never been a big lag in my career between product, so to speak. I have constantly tried to pull my audience into what i am doing present tense and they have usually been happy to go there with me. Is i alsosic think that the audience, an older audience im talking maybe 40 and up they are dying for something that they can relate to. I love the music of my kids. My 16yearold daughter turns now to stuff all the time. But im also looking for something that i can resonate with. Where is my music here . And that is what i hope blue sky riders is doing. Tavis is there any song in your discography, in your corpus that is more relatable than this is it . [laughter] that is an interesting question. Tavis you have to know that that song has meant more to more people at various for me and others at various stages of their life. Be put on that song and it will get you ready. I have Mike Mcdonald to thank for that. He and i wrote a couple of really good songs together during that heat pbd that peak period of his career. He was in the zone. This is it, that was the second song we wrote together. We had the melody that came pretty quick, but we werent sure about the lyric and we were kicking around all of these boy girl lyrics. At the same time that we were working on that, my dad went into the hospital for major surgery. When i visited him, he told me he was prepared to die on the operating table. And i thought, that doesnt feel right to me. Where are we going to go with this . I went to write with michael thereay and we got have been times in my life when i have been wondering why. It was the only lyric and there was a line in the middle, you think that maybe its over, only if you wanted to be. It has to be about what happened today. I told him about my visit with my dad and this is it, the lyric, poured out of me. Then it got used in College Basketball finals that year here. People got it right away. Tavis thats what i mean. It is such a great song. There is so much rain this in your library and i am honored to have you in this program. Iq. Tavis the new book by Kenny Loggins is called frosty the snowman, performed by Kenny Loggins with three beautiful cds. His latest band is called blue sky riders and the latest release from them is finally finallyd there is now an apl called finally home for christmas. Good to see you man. Happy holidays to you. You, too. Tavis that is our show for it tonight. As always, keep the faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Tavis hi, im tavis smiley. Join me next time for a conversation with bell,med violinist joshua ms. A gift and a performance next time. We will see you then. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Be more. Pbs. hello, and welcome to this is us. 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