Erick Sanchez is 29, and his dream of having Kenny Loggins play a concert in his living room is about to come true. Sanchez is a communications consultant for the communications and government affairs firm Frontier Solutions. He grew up in the DC area, attending Oakton High School in Fairfax as well as George Mason University. And he insists his Loggins quest is sincere: “If it was a joke, it was one that took a lot of work to get here,” he says.
Last July, Sanchez launched a Kickstarter campaign to get the soft-rock legend in his living room. The goofy goal earned him national press, including an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Even Loggins contributed. Last August, he hit his goal.
But then Sanchez ran into a problem. His condo building in Eastern Market wouldn’t allow him to hold a concert there. So the show moved to another Sanchez living room—the one belonging to his parents, in Oakton.
Sanchez says the move is, in fact, an upgrade. “I think people will appreciate having enough space at my folks’ place to enjoy the concert,” he says. His parents, he says, “have been willing to put up with my shenanigans for a long time.”
In fact, it was Sanchez’s parents’ experience that partially informed another one of his recent online campaigns. This past July, he launched a Change.org petition calling on celebrity chef José Andrés to pull out of his project at the future Trump International Hotel at the Old Post Office Pavilion after developer and presidential candidate Donald Trump made disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants. Nearly 3,000 people signed. Soon after, Andres decided to ditch the project.
Trump’s comments about immigrants hit close to home for Sanchez, whose father, Fred, left Iran for the United States in the 1970s, just prior to the Iranian Revolution. His mother, Yolanda, grew up in Texas, and her family is originally from Mexico. When they married, Fred decided to take the Sanchez family name instead of his harder-to-spell Persian name, Kianpourian.
”I didn’t know whether or not it would have any impact,” Sanchez says about the petition. “Donald Trump made it a hostile business environment for his partners. I feel like Jose made the right decision.”
Sanchez clearly enjoys the spotlight. As a student in college, he organized political fundraisers at his parents’ home for local politicians and introduced them as the host. Now he spends a lot of his time chasing celebrities and name-dropping on social media. He managed to strike up a Twitter friendship with Sinbad. In fact he and the comedian hung out together during a weekend Sinbad spent in DC earlier this year, dining at Del Frisco’s and grabbing drinks after his show at The Hamilton.
Alas, a few celebrities have resisted Sanchez’s charms. He’s had no luck with J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans or Dwayne Johnson. Steve Guttenberg, he says, “has been particularly elusive.”
A comedian on the FX show Archer (on which Loggins has appeared) even used Sanchez’s campaign to get a little publicity for himself. H. Jon Benjamin, who provides the voice of Archer’s title character, jumped into the Loggins Kickstarter campaign to promote his own Kickstarter campaign. It was called “I want to introduce Kenny Loggins in a guy’s living room.” Funding was unsuccessful.
So Benjamin won’t be there. But there’s another celebrity who Sanchez would like to get out to Oakton this weekend: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. “She’s someone I really admire,” he says. So Justice Ginsburg, if you are reading this, you are invited to join Kenny Loggins this weekend at the Sanchez home for the private concert.
Sanchez says his folks are ready. “I think Fred knows what will unfold,” he says. “I’m just trying to make it palatable with what I told my dad in advance. But once setup begins, I’m sure he will have a panic attack.”
