Unique rocker Greg Kihn had that ‘it’ factor

CLAYTON, CA (Sept. 20, 2024) — Greg Kihn wrote, “They don’t write ’em like that anymore” in his 1981 hit “The Breakup Song.”

So it was fitting that Robert Berry, his friend, songwriting partner and bass player in the rocker’s band, offered this sentiment in talking about Kihn’s death: “They don’t make them like him anymore.”

Berry added: “He had that ‘it’ factor.”

Surrounded by his wife, Jay Arafiles-Kihn, and his son and daughter, Kihn died on Aug. 13 at the age of 75 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

Kihn and his wife lived in Clayton from 2000 to 2019. “Greg led an extraordinary life,” she said. “He will be missed.”

Active imagination

Berry recounted how, for many years, Kihn would make the drive down to Soundtek Studios in Campbell every Thursday to write new songs and record for a new album.

Kihn usually had some kind of idea rolling around ready to ignite the next song, book or radio show bit. On one of the rare occasions when his friend didn’t have a new idea, Berry recalled asking him to think of an odd sighting along the way, and Kihn mentioned a trailer park he passes where this woman had pink flamingos everywhere in her yard.

“Yep … that song was on the last album,” Berry said.

He described Kihn as a gentle soul and a kind man.

“Stardom yes, but he would talk to everybody like they were an old friend,” said Berry. “His death has left a huge hole in my heart.”

Illness taking its toll

When the duo got together for their last writing and recording session at the end of 2023, Berry noticed that Kihn’s condition had become more pronounced. They worked on a song called “Flying Car,” as it seemed to them that the flying car was coming soon. Kihn would bring in the basic lyrical hook and Berry came up with some chords.

“Usually Greg would break out singing missing verse lyrics. But today he seemed to not be able to remember lines he was coming up with,” Berry said. “Unusual for Greg to not get inspiration right off the top of his head and rattle off something cool. But this day, it was more obvious than a few times before that he was having trouble with focus and memory.”

Albeit a struggle, piece by piece, line by line, that song eventually came together.

“I pushed him and he came through like the trouper he was,” said Berry.

New material

At that point, they had finished 18 songs, 10 good ones ready for the next album and eight songs that fell short.

“I just listened to those eight, and I have to say that even with the sadness I’m feeling right now, those songs are better than we thought,” said Berry. “So, we have two albums of new, unreleased Greg Kihn material.”

Along with writing and recording music, the latter years of Kihn’s life saw him behind a radio mic. He worked as a DJ at the San Jose classic rock station KUFX-FM (also known as KFOX). Taking a job initially to host a nightly show in 1995 led to him becoming a weekday morning host for 16 years.

In an interview later, Kihn recalled being fired from the station’s new owner, probably because he was making too much money, on the very day he was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame.

‘Revolutionary rock’

Born on July 10, 1949, in Baltimore, Kihn had an early baptism into a career in music when he won a talent contest sponsored by a local radio station while in high school. In 1972, he made his way to San Francisco and the next year, the Beserkley label signed him. He released his first album, “Greg Kihn,” in 1976.

“Greg helped write the book on revolutionary West Coast rock and roll,” Skyler Turtle wrote in a eulogy posted on Kihn’s website, www.gregkihn.com.

In a 2018 interview with Music Recall Magazine, Kihn said, “We weren’t like the other SF bands. Our music was derived from the British bands like the Who and the Faces.

“We were always writing new songs, and the fans came back week after week to see what we’d come up with. It was all about the songs, not the jamming,” he noted.

The hits

As they say, the rest would be history for Kihn. Hits like “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ’Em)” in 1981 and 1983’s “Jeopardy” launched him to the stratosphere of 1980s popular music and video icons. This included an additional boost for “Jeopardy” courtesy of Weird Al Yankovic’s parody “I Lost on Jeopardy.” Kihn even had a cameo in Yankovic’s subsequent video.

Years later, Kihn expressed pleasure that “The Breakup Song” was included in the “Grand Theft Auto V” video game, saying the song “is attracting a whole [new] generation of fans.”

Forbes reported that Kihn returned to the Billboard charts posthumously on Aug. 31. His most famous songs have opened at No. 6 and 15, respectively, on spot purchase-focused ranking for the Rock Digital Song Sales chart that week.

Titles of Kihn’s albums, with hits like “Remember” and “Lucky,” often included puns that played off his name. These ranged from “RocKihnRoll” to “Kihntinued,” “Kihntagious and “Citizen Kihn,” and 2017’s “Rekihndled.”

His claim to fame even included being the first to record a Bruce Springsteen song. With The Boss being a fan, Kihn proudly took on Springsteen’s “Rendezvous.”

Helping out vets

Kihn also lent his support to Operation: Care and Comfort for its work with veterans.

“He didn’t just talk about it. He would purchase trunk loads of care package items from Costco monthly for years,” said Julie DeMaria, OCC’s president and founder, who met Kihn in 2004.

“Greg was so proud of his father Lt. Stanley Kihn’s military service. He would honor his service by reading through letters he wrote while in WWII on the radio,” she said.

Away from the stage, Kihn, a horror buff, nurtured that interest as an author and even forged his own genre: the rock and roll thriller. He published six novels, starting with “Horror Show” in 1996. He also edited a short-story collection with original work by fellow rockers Ray Davies, Pete Townshend and Joan Jett. In addition, he was passionate about his niche insect hobby, raising rare praying mantises.

On his birthday this past July, Kihn posted on his Facebook page – addressing his fans as Kihnfolk. He thanked them for the birthday wishes and apologized for not posting an update for nearly a year.

“After so many years of touring as well as doing radio shows … it’s finally time I get to chill out,” the post said. “Thank you to each and every one of you for all your love and support now and over the years. Rock on!”

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Kihn’s name to the Alzheimer’s Association.