I Knew You When, released Friday, is Seger’s 18th studio effort, latest in an album catalog that stretches back to 1968’s Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man,” whose hit title track, fittingly, featured Frey on backing vocals.
Nostalgia courses through the new project, including a black-and-white cover image of a 21-year-old Seger in ’66 — the year he met Frey on the Detroit music scene and forged a lifelong bond as they blossomed from unknowns into household rock names. Inside is a photo of the two backstage at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 2014, Frey’s final visit to a Seger concert.