Kenny Loggins has an ex-girlfriend to thank for his House at Pooh Corner hit after Disney bosses blocked the tune, citing ownership of the literary bear.

The Footloose singer wrote the song when he was in high school and admits he didn’t stop to think about the fact he didn’t own the copyright to A.A. Milne’s creation.

“I went to this party where different writers would show up and we’d take turns showing what we wrote,” he told fans during a Sunday night (27May18) show in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

“At this one party the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, an up and coming band, loved the song and wanted to record it. I was really excited because I never had a song recorded before. Then, about a month later, John McEuen called me from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and said, ‘Kenny, I’m really sorry but we won’t be able to record that song’. Turns out they were getting calls from Disney lawyers telling them they were not allowed to record a song about Winnie The Pooh.”

Loggins turned to his then-girlfriend and explained the problem only to learn she was the daughter of a Disney boss.

“I told her what happened and how bummed out I was about the song and she said, ‘Disney lawyers? I’ll talk to my dad about that!’ I did not know I was dating the daughter of the CEO of the Disney corporation! The next thing you know everything was fine.”

Loggins updated the tune two decades later when his fourth child was born: “It struck me to write a new verse to House At Pooh Corner from my perspective as a dad. So I wrote a third verse and my oldest boy named it Return to Pooh Corner.”