RHS physics teacher Leslie Loggins has had a passion for music since she was young and recently picked up the guitar, rediscovering many of her favorite tunes.

“I love music, and so what I’m doing now with the guitar and singing is, I’m rediscovering all the tunes I used to listen to on the radio in the ’70s,” Loggins said.

Although she had never played guitar before, Loggins volunteered when asked to teach it, believing her background in music and music theory made her a good fit for the role.

“One of the cool things about learning guitar as I was teaching my students was that I could understand their difficulties,” Loggins said. “If you’re a good guitar player, you forget how hard it is to play a G chord.”

Loggins said her love for music grew because of influential teachers and the friends she played with.

“I started playing music when I was in fourth grade, but I didn’t practice a lot,” she said. “It wasn’t until I got into eighth grade when I met my best music teacher ever, Mrs. Fru, and she just had a way of making music fun.”

In her 20s, Loggins joined a traveling rock band, performing at venues across the country, including Las Vegas; Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Texas.

“In my 20s, I toured with a rock band and we did gigs in Vegas, and I knew it wasn’t going to last,” Loggins said. “One of the last times we were there, I got up on stage and was singing a song, and I had an out-of-body experience. I was thinking, you know what, you better remember this. You better look around the room and remember this memory.”