Few songs capture gratitude toward a parent as powerfully as “Leader of the Band” by Dan Fogelberg. He wrote the deeply personal 1981 tribute song to his father while his dad was still alive to enjoy it, and through the emotional folk-rock song’s success, it became a gift that has resonated for generations.
Fogelberg’s father, Lawrence Fogelberg, was a musician, educator, and band leader. Dan has spoken extensively how his dad’s influence as a musician shaped his life and career.
“He gave me everything I am. My mother and he were both musicians, and the idea of being a living legacy is really the truth,” said Fogelberg in an interview. “I don’t think I’ll ever be as accomplished a musician as he was, but I’ve had a different gift. It came to me in a different way. I’ve been able to reach and touch people with these songs that I write, and that one has probably touched more people, more deeply than anything I’ve ever done.”
“Leader of the Band” emerged as part folk-rock song and part extraordinary thank-you note. Fogelberg sings, “I thank you for the music and your stories of the road / I thank you for the freedom when it came my time to go / I thank you for the kindness and the times when you got tough / And papa, I don’t think I said I love you near enough.“
“I was so gratified that I was able to give him that song before he passed on,” Dan expressed on his website. “In his final years, he was interviewed many times by the national press because of it. He went out in a blaze of glory, which meant a lot to me and my family.”
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The universal themes Fogelberg explored in “Leader of the Band” struck a chord with so many listeners. The song’s well-expressed gratitude and plain-spoken admiration for his father provided other adult children with a kind of script for starting important conversations with their own parents.
“That song is maybe one of the most important I’ve written,” said Fogelberg, “simply because it has helped bridge the gap between fathers and sons—or daughters and fathers. You know, there’s a lot of women, that have said too that it helped them to communicate their love to their father and to be able to solidify that relationship and express that relationship while there’s time.”
Fogelberg’s vulnerable vocals, along with the gentle acoustic arrangement, created a tribute song in the most sincere sense. The brass quintet riff pays homage to the marching band and his dear father, a school band director. Without cliché, he expresses regret and a great love.
When he sings the chorus, “The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul,” it’s hard not to consider one’s own life and family legacy.
Dan Fogelberg’s seventh studio album The Innocent Age, also a double-album, was officially released in August 1981. The “Leader of the Band” single was released in December 1981. By February 1982, track became Fogelberg’s second No. 1 song on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and by March, it peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
In 2017, Grammy Award-winning singer Zac Brown recorded the song for a tribute album to Dan Fogelberg. He dedicated is version to his father.
Over 45 years later, fans still embrace the folk rock classic across adult contemporary radio stations, and to date, the song has more than 98 million streams on Spotify alone. The song’s timeless message only gains more momentum as its fans get older. Rolling Stone included “Leader of the Band” in their Readers Poll of the “10 Best Songs About Dads,” which also includes “Father and Son” by Cat Stevens and “The Living Years” by Mike and the Mechanics.
“One of the worst things I think that can happen to people is if they don’t express the love to their father and their mother while they’re alive.” said Fogelberg, “There’s always difficulties in family relationships, but I think it’s one of the most important things you can do in your life is to make sure that’s all done while everybody’s still around.”
Lawrence Fogelberg was a small-town bandleader, a husband, and a father. His son wrote him a song that continues to make people want call their father.
Fogelberg’s father, Lawrence Fogelberg, died at age 71 on August 5, 1982. Fogelberg never stopped performing the song in concert, always noting what it meant to him personally. Dan Fogelberg died on December 16, 2007, at just 56 years old.
Listen to Dan Fogelberg discussing what “Leader of the Band” meant to him:
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Here’s Dan Fogelberg performing his hit song “Leader of the Band”:
Listen to Zac Brown’s cover of “Leader of the Band,” also dedicated to his father:
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