Ex-Eagles Fly Together
Author: Gary Graff
Publication: Houston Chronicle
Date: June 13, 1993
Abstract: Glenn discusses why he's working with Joe Walsh again despite past problems. Joe chimes in that they're not done yet!
When Glenn Frey explained to reporters last year his reasons for scotching a reunion of his old band, the Eagles, Joe Walsh was one of them.
"I don't even want to get into the case of Joe Walsh,'' Frey, 44, said at the time. "Just try to imagine yourself saddled at the hip for over a year and a half with that guy!''
Frey isn't imagining anymore. This year, he and Walsh have saddled up together for some live shows in which the two ex Eagles play their own songs and then fly together on some of the band's enduring radio smashes.
Obviously there's been a change of heart during the past 12 months.
"Joe's fine,'' Frey says now. "There was a time when maybe I wasn't so sure. But right now it's fun to play music with Joe. Joe likes playing on my stuff, I like playing on his stuff, and we like playing the stuff we helped create together.''
And Frey acknowledges, "Joe and I together are worth a lot more in the marketplace than we are separately.''That's because the Eagles' drawing power has remained strong in the years since the group's acrimonious early-'80s breakup. Even Don Henley, the band's most successful solo act, gets the best ovations at his concerts for Eagles hits such as Hotel California and Life in the Fast Lane.
And as part of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band, Walsh regularly pulls out Eagles tunes, including some - such as Desperado - that were recorded before he joined the band.
"The best one was this 9-year-old kid who came up to me and wanted my autograph,'' says Walsh, 45, who was born in Kansas and reared in Cleveland. "I said, "What in the world are you doing? How do you know about me? ' He said, "Hey, man, my grandfather turned me on to you. ' I said, "Gimme the pen, you little brat. '
"But it's a good feeling. I think it's important that some of us old timers keep going. We're not done yet; the Eagles was probably the high point of my career . . . but we've still got a lot of good music left in us. ''
Both musicians say they're having a ball playing together again - perhaps an even better time than they had in the Eagles.
Both have calmed markedly. Walsh - whom Frey calls "one of the wildest guys I've ever worked with'' - no longer takes along the chain saw he once used to carve up hotel rooms.
