Going It Alone
For Some Musicians, Breaking Away from the Group is a Risk Worth Taking
Author: Steve Morse
Publication: Boston Globe
Date: June 26, 1992
Abstract: Glenn discusses subjects such as why he went solo, why a reunion won't happen, and why he feels the need to be more topical in his solo work.
Going solo. It's a dream and a curse in pop music. You might leave a successful "brand-name" band for creative, financial or mental health reasons, only to find new pressures and the scary feeling of starting over with less name recognition, yet more to prove. For every solo act that's made it - Bobby Brown after leaving New Edition, Robert Plant after Led Zeppelin - there are dozens who have crashed and burned.
[Other artists omitted]A more experienced solo explorer is Glenn Frey, who's been on his own for a decade. He sang many of the Eagles' top hits ("Take It Easy," "Peaceful Easy Feeling," "Lyin' Eyes," "Heartache Tonight") before the group called it quits.
"The Eagles taught me many things, but I was also without a life," Frey says from his home in Aspen. "I couldn't even take a vacation without asking three or four people if it was all right. . . . The Eagles had become a beast, a monster that had to be fed. I found myself making a lot of money, but the band had become a 24-hour-a-day job."
Because of that, Frey wasn't keen on a megabucks reunion tour proposed last year. "I'd get together with the guys to do one show if it was really important, but not nine months of touring," he says. "I have a wife and daughter now, and I'm involved in the community in Aspen."
Every few years, Frey resurfaces with a solo hit. There was "The Heat Is On" from the "Beverly Hills Cop" soundtrack in 1985. And there's been "Smuggler's Blues," "You Belong to the City" and "True Love." But none of it has been easy.
"You start back at zero when you go solo," Frey says. "When I think about it, the failure rate of people coming out of successful bands is very high. I knew there would be certain risks. But the bonus was that I could go at my own pace. Sure, I'd like to sell multiplatinum albums again like I did with the Eagles, rather than the gold records I sell now, but I wouldn't trade it for the sanity I've gotten. I measure success a lot differently now than record sales."
Having left his Eagles base of Los Angeles, Frey lives year-round in Aspen, where he also bought the house next door (from singer Jimmy Buffett) and built a studio in Buffett's old office. There, Frey recorded his new album, "Strange Weather," the first socially conscious disc of his career. A solid effort that marks his finest work since the Eagles, it surprises with barbed songs about Ronald Reagan's legacy of greed in "He Took Advantage" and "I've Got Mine."
"I'm an easygoing person, but like a lot of Americans, I've just been pushed too far," Frey says, admitting that some of his new consciousness was spurred by former Eagles partner Don Henley, who remains a friend.
"One thing I admire about Henley's work is that he takes on subject matter that's important to him, but he also makes entertaining music with good chord progressions. That's what I tried to do with the new album," says Frey.
"I'm really starting to enjoy my solo career," he concludes. "And I'm not going to stop. If this new album doesn't work out, I'm going right back in the studio to do another. Maybe experience breeds confidence after all."
