Poco reunion and Legacy album and tour 1989-1991

For the Poco reunion and Legacy album and tour, the original founding members of Poco from 1968 (Randy Meisner, Jim Messina, Rusty Young, Richie Furay, and George Grantham) reformed. From approx. 1989-1991 they toured and recorded an album called “Legacy”, which was released September 23, 1989 and is Poco’s 17th studio album. They received a gold album award for “Legacy”.

Bill Lloyd and Radney Foster, along with Rusty Young, wrote Rough Edges for Randy to sing on the album. The story of Randy Meisner being invited to join Sky Kings by Bill and Radney in 1991 is below.

There is also a two-part audio interview on this page with Jim Messina, Rusty Young, and Randy Meisner where they talk about reforming and reuniting Poco and the making of “Legacy”. A Canadian radio personality hosts that interview. The Poco reunion was covered extensively in the press, and below is just a sampling of the newspaper articles about Poco reforming.

There are music videos from the album and other videos promoting the album with Poco appearances on various TV shows (Countdown in Holland, Arsenio Hall, Johnny Carson, Pat Sajak, Jay Leno, Farm Aid) throughout this page. Scroll down the page or click on the links below to go right to each Poco video.

Poco reunion and Legacy album and tour audios & videos on this page:

Two-part Canadian radio show interview with Jim Messina, Rusty Young, and Randy
Rough Edges
Rock History Music interview with Richie Furay
Sinners and Saints
Legacy VH1 Special
Countdown TV show in Holland – “Call It Love” Rusty Young
Countdown TV show rehearsal in dressing room
“Crazy Love” – Rusty Young
“The Nature of Love” – Randy Meisner
“Nothin’ To Hide” – Randy Meisner
The Bottom Line in Japan – “Call It Love” – Rusty Young
The Bottom Line in Japan – “Follow Your Dreams” – Jim Messina
The Bottom Line in Japan – “Legend”- Rusty Young
The Bottom Line in Japan – “Lovin’ You Every Minute” – Jim Messina
The Bottom Line in Japan – “The Nature of Love” – Randy Meisner
The Bottom Line in Japan – “Rough Edges” – Randy Meisner
The Bottom Line in Japan – “Take It To the Limit” – Randy Meisner
The Bottom Line in Japan – “What Do People Know”- Rusty Young
Arsenio Hall Show – “Call It Love” Rusty Young
Tonight Show with Johnny Carson – “Call It Love” Rusty Young
Pat Sajak Show – Medley of hits including “Take It To the Limit”
Tonight Show with Jay Leno – “Nothin’ To Hide” Randy Meisner
Farm Aid at Hoosier Dome – Medley of hits including “Take It To the Limit”

Canadian radio show hosted by John Donabie
2-part show with Randy Meisner, Jim Messina, and Rusty Young

Part 1 of Poco Legacy Canadian radio interview:
Canadian radio personality John Donabie interviews Randy Meisner, Jim Messina, and Rusty Young about the Poco Legacy album in 1989.

Part 2 of the Poco Legacy Canadian radio interview:
Randy Meisner, Jim Messina, and Rusty Young respond to a set of 23 questions/topics.

These are the questions/topics that are being answered in the Part 2 audio above.

Poco reunion and Legacy album CD front

Poco reunion and Legacy album CD insert & back
with George Grantham, Rusty Young, Jim Messina, Richie Furay, and Randy Meisner

George Grantham, Rusty Young, Jim Messina, Richie Furay, and Randy Meisner

Full-page magazine ad & poster

Full-page ad in Billboard Magazine – Oct. 7, 1989

Legacy poster

Poco reunion and Legacy album and tour publicity photos

Full-page ad in Radio and Records magazine – Nov. 10, 1989

Richard Marx and Poco in studio –
David Cole was the album’s producer, but Richard produced the one song “Nothin’ to Hide”, that he co-wrote along with Bruce Gaitsch.

6 Marx in studio producing Poco 1989 per Marx cropped marked

Rusty Young, George Grantham, Richard Marx, Randy Meisner, and Richie Furay

Rusty Young, Radney Foster & Bill Lloyd wrote “Rough Edges” that Randy sang on the “Legacy” album.

Rusty Young, Randy Meisner, Radney Foster, and Bill Lloyd
Annual RCA Records party on the General Jackson riverboat located at Opryland in 1990

“This picture was taken on one of the Opryland boats that RCA Records rented for one of their corporate musical shindigs and we’re singing that song! We were floating on the Cumberland when this shot was taken.” per Bill Lloyd

Bill Lloyd (of Foster & Lloyd) on Randy Meisner being invited to join Sky Kings in 1991:

randymeisnerheartsonfire.com

Whatever success that afforded us, we still had to play rodeos … and that’s where I met Rusty Young. Rusty, steel guitarist/singer-songwriter and founding member of Poco, was playing in Vince Gill’s road band. Vince, our pal and a labelmate in those days, made the introduction and I was jazzed to meet Rusty as I was a longtime Poco fan. So there we all were sharing the bill amongst the cows, the cowboys, the bulls and the bullshit.

Radney, Rusty and I all agreed that we should do the Nashville kind of thing and write some songs together when we got back home. We eventually did, which led to Poco recording a Young /Foster/ Lloyd song called “Rough Edges” on their reunion album, “Legacy” in 1989.

In the search for other like-minded musicians, there were a couple of false starts. I called Gene Clark’s manager, Saul Davis, who I’d met a few years prior and asked him what Gene was up to. He gave me his number and I left a message on his machine but I never heard back. Gene, sadly, died only a couple of weeks later in May 1991. Ex-Eagle and Poco member Randy Meisner actually flew in to town to talk with us about joining but he had second thoughts once he considered the work schedule and time table we were talking about. Well, that’s what I remember anyway. He phoned in his change of heart once he got back to LA.

Rough Edges

(The Rough Edges live video of Randy Meisner and Poco at the Bottom Line in Japan on Oct. 21, 1990 is near the bottom of this page.)

Poco reunion and Legacy album and tour – 1989-1991

Poco was featured on the Nov. 3, 1989 cover of The Gavin Report with a 4-page article inside.

Jim Messina, George Grantham, Richie Furay, Randy Meisner, and Rusty Young

You can read the 4-page Poco reunion article below.

(Click on each image below to enlarge)
(pdf version of entire article)

Pg. 30

Pg. 31

Pg. 32

Pg. 47

classicbands.com

John Beaudin talks briefly with Richie Furay about reuniting with Poco for the Legacy tour

“The single’s credits revealed the reason for the tune’s Eagles-influenced sound — ‘Don’t Mean Nothing’ featured musical and vocal contributions from former Eagles Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit and Randy Meisner.”

“We just sat down and played a little bit, just to see if it felt right,” Meisner said. “We each had a song that we played, and everybody just sort of joined in. It sounded great. We decided, “Yeah, we should do this again.”

South Florida Sun Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) – Apr. 8, 1989

Richard Marx and Poco at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip

Cash Box – Sept. 16, 1989

Jim Messina said “I see Poco as five different individuals who were brought together for one reason or another and who separated, and who, in their time apart, grew into the people they are now. Whatever happened to us, it was that original idea of five different individuals playing together that has brought us back again.”

The Province (Vancouver, BC) – Sept. 17, 1989

“Poco was formed by Messina and Furay in 1968 after the demise of Buffalo Springfield, a year after Springfield’s only big hit, ‘For What It’s Worth’, made it to the charts.”

Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa, Ontario) – Sept. 18, 1989

“Because everyone was really worried about whether we could write songs again. We had label people actually say, ‘Can they still sing’?”

Billboard magazine – Sept. 30, 1989

“With the album, Legacy, on the charts and its first single, Call It Love, a Top-40 hit, a 1990 summer tour looks promising.”

The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, FL) – Oct. 4, 1989

“As Meisner remembers, when the newly formed band was rehearsing in the summer of 1968 at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, the interested parties observing them in the audience included members of The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the yet-to-be formed Eagles, as well as JD Souther and Neil Young.”

Edmonton Journal (Edmonton, Alberta) – Oct. 8, 1989

“Young had kept in touch with the other Poco founders, and by the mid-80s he had drummed up interest in the reunion. Messina and Furay — now a pastor in Boulder, CO — suggested re-forming the original quintet, and Meisner and Grantham readily agreed. Reunited, they formed a pact to not let the ego battles of the late 60s get in the way of this project.”

Detroit Free Press (Detroit, MI) – Jan. 24, 1990

“It was their first album – the album the original Poco should have made 20 years ago, but didn’t.”
“It was almost staggering for the five of us to stand there and hold that gold record.”

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, MO) – Jan. 25, 1990

“When it formed in 1968, Poco was among the first bands to blend country harmonies with a driving rock beat. We used a steel guitar as the primary instrument, says Richie Furay, who plays guitar and sings. That was very innovative for a rock ‘n roll band in those days.”

The Des Moines Register (Des Moines, IA) – Feb. 1, 1990

“In the beginning, Messina recalled, we were too rock for country and too country for rock. It was a curse. It was too new. People were stuck in pigeonholes. If it wasn’t for the FM underground, we wouldn’t have gotten airplay at all.”

Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT) – Feb. 13, 1990

Poco received the gold album award for “Legacy”

Radio and Records magazine – Apr. 6, 1990

LA Times (Los Angeles, CA) – July 13, 1990

“It’s fun again, says Meisner, 44. It seems to be working out real well, as opposed to maybe 20 years ago, he says. Basically the music in the show will be what people remembered, only better. Our age has done us well. I’m thinking when we played 20 years ago, we were all young and wild. There’s something to say for that. Hopefully we’re older and wiser now and the music should be better.”

Lansing State Journal (Lansing, MI) – July 19, 1990

“In a recent phone interview, Young said that a hot new pop name, Richard Marx, helped Poco secure a record deal. Marx agreed to write and produce a song for the Poco project, a selling point that Young said nailed the RCA Records deal.”