What is Jim Messina’s Net Worth?
Jim Messina is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and recording engineer who has a net worth of $4 million. Jim Messina is best known for being half of the soft rock duo Loggins and Messina, along with Kenny Loggins. Jim was also a founding member of the country rock band Poco and a member of the folk rock band Buffalo Springfield. At 18 years old Messina recording an album with Jim Messina and His Jesters. As a duo, Loggins and Messina sold 16 million albums worldwide. Their best known songs include “Danny’s Song”, “Your Mama Don’t Dance”, and “House at Pooh Corner”.
Jim played bass for two songs on Buffalo Springfield’s final album and also served as a producer and recording engineer for the band. Messina helped form Poco in 1968 and played lead guitar and provided vocals as well as songwriting for the band. He left Poco after they recorded two studio albums and a live album. Messina signed on with Columbia Records as an independent producer.
Early Life
Jim Messina was born on December 5, 1947 in Maywood, California. He was raised in Harlington, Texas until he was eight years old. His parents then divorced and he split his time between his father’s home in California and his mother’s home in Texas. His father was a guitarist and greatly influenced his son’s musical career. Messina began playing guitar at the age of five. In addition to being influenced by his father, he also became interested in the music of Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson
Career
When Jim was 16 years old, he recorded an LP with some band members. The group went by the name Jim Messina and His Jesters and the LP was titled “The Dragsters.” It was released in November 1964. One notable track from the LP was “The Jester” on which Messina played lead guitar. He then joined the group Buffalo Springfield. He served as a recording engineer and producer for the band and then replaced bass player Bruce Palmer on two songs for the group’s final album, “Last Time Around,” in 1968.
After Buffalo Springfield disbanded, Messina and Richie Furay, one of the founding members of Buffalo Springfield, formed the group Poco in 1968. In Poco, Messina switched back to playing guitar and also provided vocals and some songwriting to the band. While with Poco, he played on the albums “Pickin’ Up the Pieces” in 1968, “Poco” in 1969″ and “Deliverin'” in 1970. He then left Poco due to exhaustion from touring and in order to focus on becoming a record producer.
After Poco, Messina signed a contract with Columbia Records as an independent producer. In the summer of 1970, Messina was introduced to the idea of producing Kenny Loggins while he was still performing with Poco. The two had first met at Messina’s house in December 1970 where the two recorded several Loggins compositions. At the time, Loggins had no agent, no manager, and no prior experience as a performing artist.
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When he was deciding how to produce Loggins’ first solo album, Messina had a meeting with Clive Davis who was then the president of Columbia Records. Messina suggested to Davis that he be allowed to sit with Loggins on his first solo album in order to provide more upbeat and diverse appeal as a pop music artist. Among the material Messina contributed were the songs “Listen to a Country Song,” “Nobody But You,” “Same Old Wine,” and “The Trilogy.” Messina also provided the rehearsal space, amp, and instruments and additionally lent his talents as an arranger, vocalist, and guitarist. The two worked long hours together on Loggins’ first solo album and Messina also assembled The Kenny Loggins Band.
Though the album was meant to be Loggins’ first solo album, the two decided that. Messina’s contribution was so substantial that the album was released as “Kenny Loggins with Jim Messina Sittin’ In” in November 1971. By the end of 1972, the group was renamed Loggins and Messina. The two toured extensively and eventually went on to sell over 20 million albums. In total, Messina wrote, performed on, and produced seven more albums with Loggins. In 1976, Loggins decided to strike out on his own and the duo split after a final concert in Hawaii.
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In 1979, Messina began working on his first solo album. His debut LP had a sound that tended towards Latin jazz with a rock edge and was released on Columbia Records. Messina signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1981 and recorded and released his second solo effort, “Messina.” In 1983, he released a third album called “One More Mile.”
In 1989, Poco’s original lineup, which included Messina, regrouped for a successful reunion tour. The same year, they released the album “Legacy.” Messina played guitar and mandolin on the album and wrote and sang on three of the songs.
In 2005, Messina and Loggins reunited and began touring again as a duo. They had a successful nationwide tour that resulted in a CD and DVD entitled “Live: Sittin’ In Again at the Santa Barbara bowl.” They then reformed again in 2009 for an extensive tour.
In 2009, Messina released a solo album called “Under the Mojito Moon Part 1” in which he plays flamenco guitar. In 2012, he released “Jim Messina LIVE at the Clark Center for the Performing Arts.” The album includes material by Buffalo Springfield, Poco, and Loggins & Messina, in addition to his solo material. Messina also created and facilitates “The Songwriters’ Performance Workshop,” which is a six-day intensive workshop designed for songwriters and singers that he hosts at retreats and resorts around the country.
Personal Life
In 1970, Messina married actress Jenny Sullivan. They remained married until 1980 and had no children during the course of their marriage. Messina was in another relationship in the early 1990s and had a son, Julian Messina, with the woman in 1992. In 2001, Messina met his second wife, Michaela Laza Messina, an opera singer and music teacher. They had a daughter together named Josey in 2006. Messina currently resides near Franklin, Tennessee.
Ojai Ranch
When Kenny Loggins was a senior in high school in 1966, he penned a song that would later became one of Loggins & Messina’s biggest hits, “House on Pooh Corner.” The song was inspired by the Winnie the Pooh books he read as a child and featured lyrics that referenced the characters. The song would later help him land a contract with Columbia Records. One of the first moves Columbia Records suggested was that he pair up with Jim Messina to form a duo. After they became a huge success, thanks partially to that song, Jim decided he no longer wanted to live in LA. At the urging of his wife Jenny’s father, actor Barry Sullivan, he looked at real estate in Ojai, California. He soon settled on a 20 acre ranch that was then called the Cim-Bam Ranch. He paid $200,000 for the ranch and renamed it the Mother Lode Ranch. Jim and Jenny converted the barn into recording studio and between 1974 and 1976, this is where Loggins & Messina recorded three hit records, “Mother Lode,” “So Fine” and “Native Sons.”
Around the time of Jim and Jenny’s 1980 divorce they sold the Mother Lode Ranch. That buyer owned the home for the next two decades until it was sold, in an interesting twist, to a woman named Mimi Milne, whose uncle A.A. Milne created Winnie-the-Pooh. In 2018 Mimi Milne sold the estate to actress Charlize Theron for $4.2 million.
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