E Street Band guitarist/Neil Young session Guitarist Nils Lofgren coming to the Narrows

I grew up on Nils Lofgren’s music before I even knew who he was.

About halfway through “Speakin’ Out,” that deliciously slow-cooked blues-rocker off Neil Young’s 1975 classic album “Tonight’s the Night,” Young shouts:

“Alright, Nils!” And Lofgren launches into a solo.

As a kid, I thought Young was talking to himself: “Alright, Neils!”

It wasn’t until years later that I realized Young wasn't playing the solo. He was handing it off to the supremely talented Lofgren.

Lofgren, it would turn out, was on many of my favorite songs.

He’s on Young’s “After the Gold Rush,” “Trans” and "MTV Unplugged" albums, and toured with Young and Crazy Horse.

He’s a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.

He's played with Ringo Starr and Lou Reed, recorded with Jerry Lee Lewis, Del Shannon and Carl Perkins, shared stages with Willie Nelson, Rod Stewart, Bob Seger, Stephen Stills, Rick James.

You’re either a Lofgren fan, or you just haven’t yet realized you’re a Lofgren fan.

With Springsteen now on Broadway, the E Street guitarist has the chance to tour for his own intimate acoustic shows.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer plays the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River Sept. 26 with multi-instrumentalist Greg Varlotta.

“When I play with Greg, he adds a lot of color to the show, he bounces between keyboards and guitar, singing, trumpets, and tap dancing of all things,” Lofgren, 67, told me in our recent interview. “Greg’s like an expert tap dancer. So we use it like a percussion instrument.”

Well, that’s unexpected and awesome.

Lofgren, who lives in Arizona with his wife Amy, is a guitarist’s guitarist. With a new solo album set to release in early 2019, he’s far more than a talented sideman.

Born in 1951 in the south side of Chicago, Lofgren started out on accordion because it “seemed like a lot of kids were playing accordion” where he lived, he told me.

“After I studied waltzes and polkas, I moved into classical. It was a great background for picking up rock and roll, and just understanding music a bit once I fell in love with the blues through The Beatles,” he told me.

“The Beatles were what got me off classical accordion," he said. "I discovered all of it through them — The Stones, the British invasion, Motown, Little Richard."

Lofgren first picked up a guitar at 14. Four years later he was recording on Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush.”

"I saw The Who and Jimi Hendrix in the same night in Washington DC. I left the Jimi Hendrix [show] possessed with the idea of trying to be a rock musician,” he told me.

He left during his senior year of high school, and took off with his band Grin in the hopes of making it big.

“Just before we left, I’d met Neil Young… playing his first tour at Cellar Door in Washington DC, and I stepped backstage and asked for advice,” Lofgren told me.

“I’d sneak back stage a lot and try to get advice whenever I could because I knew nothing about the music business. And here I was, a drop-out trying to pay my bills, make my way with no real prospects at a young age, and [Young] was kind enough to invite me to hang out with him a couple days... He said, ‘We’ll meet up when you get LA.’ And true to his word, he took us under his wing.”

Producer David Briggs “moved us into his home… David Briggs and Neil Young were my two greatest mentors."

When Lofgren was 18, Young asked him to play on “After the Gold Rush.”

“I was largely playing piano, which is another funny thing—I wasn’t a professional piano player. Neil Young and David Briggs felt that because of my accordion days, I could play some simple parts… I knew to be quiet and say thanks,” he said with a chuckle.

“One day [Young] wanted me to play on acoustic guitar on a couple songs, told me to get my acoustic, and I didn’t own one. He laughed and let me use his Martin D-18," he recalled. "At the end of the album… he said, ‘You did a good job; keep the guitar...It’s one of my treasured guitars."

Wow.

In 1977, he had a run-in with more legends: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

“Tom Petty, just before they hit it big, opened a month-long tour of mine in the UK in '77. I got to see them every night and got to be big fans of them. Still stay in touch with Benmont [Tench], went to see the band in Red Rocks last year, not having any clue it was the last one with Tom."

Lofgren was tapped by Ringo to be an All-Starr, and did two All-Star Band tours in '89 and '92.

“In ’85, went to a birthday party for Ringo, and befriended him. I was living in LA; he had a home there, I’d see him more often. It was a wonderful friendship for me,” he said. We "still stay in touch... He just turned 78, he’s out playing with his band; it’s very inspiring.”

In 1984, Springsteen asked Lofgren to join the E Street Band, which Lofgren called a “once-in-a lifetime gift.”

I asked him which he prefers: the intimacy of an acoustic show or the fever pitch of a Springsteen show.

"I like it all. Playing by myself is a challenge, but it’s rewarding, it’s very intimate...of course being in a loud, roaring electric rock band is a beautiful thing, too. It’s something I enjoy A to Z, when it comes to playing in front of other people. Whether it’s alone or with a team of people, it’s my favorite thing— walking in front of an audience with a batch of good songs."

Aside from Neil Young’s Martin, Lofgren got to hold another famous guitar: Willie Nelson’s hole-y Trigger.

When Nelson honored Robert Redford at the 2005 Kennedy Center Honors, “Willie’s guitarist was under the weather, and they asked me to sit in for him…Willie’s manager asked if I could just tune his guitar and take care of it, and I jumped at the change to take care that beautiful old guitar,” he said.

As for who he admires as guitarists?

“I’d pick Jeff Beck and Tommy Emmanuel as the two guys I’d want to come and play for me,” he said.

With a career this storied, what even begins to stands out?

“It all stands out,” Lofgren told me. "At this point, we’ve had such horrible losses with Prince and Tom Petty and Aretha Franklin. Just to be alive — I’ve got my aches and pains and health issues — but just to be able to go up and down the highway and sing for people is a great honor,” he told me. “I love live music and I love creating it.”

"The audiences up in Massachusetts have always been great. It’s just amazing after all these years to drive up and down those roads and know people are going to show up to hear the songs, and hear me play and sing. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Amen.

Lauren Daley is a freelance writer and Spotlight music columnist. Contact her at ldaley33@gmail.com. Follow her at https://www.facebook.com/daley.writer She tweets @laurendaley1.