Promotional Interview for Strange Weather Transcription
Interviewer: Unknown
Appears on: Strange Weather Promotional CD
Date: 1992
Abstract: Substantive interview discussing a variety of topics such as the differences between Strange Weather and past albums, tracks from Strange Weather, his favorite Eagles material, acting, and the fact that the Eagles will never get back together.
Click to download audio inteview
1. Strange Weather is less Rhythm & Blues than your last record. Why?
You know, I’ve never really tried to pre-calculate what I was gonna do musically in my career. I just sort of followed whatever my instincts were. I have a big place in my heart for American rhythm and blues, and the Memphis style in particular. I’ve explored a lot of that in my solo career, and not sold as many records as I wanted to! So I’ve decided maybe this guitar thing should come back to the forefront!
In all seriousness, this is just sort of the way this record turned out. I did talk with my wife and with my producer Elliot Scheiner and they both said, “Glenn, play more guitar this record.” So I said, “OK, I’ll pay more guitar this record.” And in starting to write vehicles for this, all of the sudden, I’ve got a lot of material that’s a little more topical. I think Strange Weather’s a more topical record than any record I’ve ever made from top to bottom. On my first solo album, No Fun Aloud, there’s nothing topical. It’s a romp. It’s sort of me spreading my wings and enjoying being out of the band and trying a bunch of things for the first time.
On The Allnighter – “Smuggler’s Blues” – the first and maybe only topical song before this album that I’ve ever written. And only because I just felt... you know, sometimes it’s not good to get on the soapbox. And if you don’t do a good job of reporting, it can sound awful shoddy. So, obviously, I wanted to write a song about smuggling for ten years, but never did, because I never quite had all the pieces to make it a song that didn’t glorify, didn’t condone... you know, it had to be just right.
Somehow in this record, I’ve managed to come... some things I’ve been thinking about for a long time, I’ve decided to write songs about. A little bit of this global warming thing. A little bit of this “I’ve Got Mine” selfishness that I see pervading society. You know, there’s just other things that I’m thinking about talking about now. It’s just the right time for it. So, I’ve sort of got an opinion about things and I’m playing electric guitar at the same time. Hopefully, we’ll capitalize on this global warming thing and make a bunch of money on the... you know... the world’s ending - why not pay me? I know all about it! [Laughs] If you feel bad about what’s going on in this planet, you’ll feel better if you buy this Glenn Frey record.
2. “He Took Advantage” is obviously a seriously political comment. What motivated you?
Well, on the surface, you would think it was about a guy who came in between a nice relationship – a third guy who was a no-good guy who sort of screwed things up for people. But you know, I kept thinking about Ronald Reagan and how we’re all living with the residue of Reaganomics. And he’s like, you know, riding off into the sunset, going to write his book, and everything is OK as far as he’s concerned.
I just thought he was a horrible president. And I thought he got on the television and told us everything we wanted to hear, and then did nothing of what he said he was gonna do.
He didn’t even take care of the rich, which was what we expected him to do! He didn’t even do that! I just think he was a really bad president, and I think we’ll be paying for the rest of our lives, and I just didn’t want to see him getting away with it without me at least saying, “Hey, you weren’t great as far as I was concerned.”
So, I think he took advantage.
3. There is one track on Strange Weather which is definitely not serious!
Well, you’re probably gonna ask me about “Big Life.” You know, I’ve heard two phrases that have really stuck with me. One is, “Money is seldom accompanied by taste.” If you were to go into ten homes in Beverly Hills, I swear to God, nine of them would be horribly decorated, and you’d wonder, “What a waste of money.” And the other one is that “Money never cared who it hung out with” – which is also true.
So I just started thinking... I’ve run into some people who I think give money a bad name. [Laughs] And so I just imagined this sort of obnoxious guy who was sort of a combination of Donald Trump and Ted Turner and George Steinbrenner and other media-type people who would be getting onto an MGM Grand flight from New York to LA and immediately, everybody in the plane hears what this guy’s talking about. You know, he’s “just been with Stallone, and I’m skiing in Aspen with Jack and Cher, and I own a baseball team, and by the way do you want to get into the movies, and what’s your name, and I’m going out to Hollywood, maybe you wanna come with me, we’ll just go in my limousine, we’re having a big party....”
I’ve seen this thing play out so often, and I just decided to take a crack at writing this song called, “Big Life.” And so, I wrote this tune, and basically it’s this sort of braggadocious, obnoxious guy who gets on this airplane and is trying to impress this girl with this long list of why he’s cool.... all his money and his accomplishments and his investments and stuff.
Actually, “Big Life” – the phrase “Big Life” – it’s funny, I’ve come to work.... my life has gotten more complicated in the last fifteen years. Life does get more complicated. I would just come into work sometimes and go [Huge sigh.] Like that. And Elliot would say, “What’s wrong?” And I’d go, “Nothing, just Big Life Syndrome.” You know, I’ve got a big life. So I’ve just been keepin’ that phrase. So that’s how that song came about.
4. Was “Hotel California” the high point of the Eagles?
Well, you know, the Eagles were together for nine years. And I would say that the first seven years was a highlight unto itself. Getting there is half the fun at least. Staying there is a little bit tougher. And all the way up through Hotel California was a really good time for me. The songwriting got better. The record production got better. The playing and singing got better. We were learning and creating and getting acceptance along the way, which is encouraging. I think it’s always better to have a hit record and say, “Oh, I really didn’t do very good. I know I can do better” than to not have a hit record and go, “Oh, what do I do now?”
5. What are your favorite Eagles tracks?
First would be “Desperado”, because it was the first song that Don Henley and I wrote together. I was 24 and Don was 26 at the time. And I certainly can tell you that the couple days that we spent writing that song, I wouldn’t think that eighteen years later I’d be sitting here telling you I’m still getting little blue checks for that record. It’s become one of our classic songs. So, “Desperado” is one of my favorites. It was also our opportunity to work with an orchestra. I’d always wanted to do that. And to have done it in London with players from the London Philharmonic and stuff... it was very... that’s one of my favorite records.
The song and record “One of These Nights” is one of my favorites as well. I like the mixture of fuzz guitars with Philadelphia R’n’B that we were sort of able to come up with on that record. So that stands as one of my personal favorites.
I’ve always liked “I Can’t Tell You Why” – the Timothy Schmit- sung song. I thought it was one of our better pieces of work. When we got Tim in the band – Tim had come from Poco – and most of the material he had sung with Poco in his high, soft voice was really sort of up-tempo, country, “goin’ to a hoedown...” And I remember Don and I sitting around saying, “You know, Timmy can sing like Smokey Robinson. We should write a song that suits his voice that’s got a little more soul than what he was doing with Poco.” And so, “I Can’t Tell You Why” is another one of my favorite records.
It’s hard to pick favorites. You know, I like certain ones for certain reasons.
6. Wiseguy is a TV series that has been shown around the world. Do you plan to be involved with more?
I don’t have any illusions of myself as a screen star, but Wiseguy was my best experience because I got to do it for the longest period of time. They gave me the most amount of dialogue. I had a lot of one-on-one scenes with Ken Wahl. And so I really felt like that was really the first chance I got to act.
And it was also really the first time I was comfortable. Acting... I guess just like if I was gonna play a new song for you guys here in this room – if I practiced it twelve times upstairs, and then came down and played it for you, I’d probably play it better than if I just picked up the guitar and decided to give you a rendering. And what I found out during Wiseguy was that the more you practiced off-screen, the more comfortable you were when you were on camera. And acting is all about being comfortable. The more comfortable you are, the more natural you appear on the screen. You’re not overanimated, you’re not underanimated... and it got to the point in Wiseguy where I was looking forward to scenes with more dialogue because I could string my character along a little in different ways. It got to the point where I would show up to the set an hour early and I’d immediately run to where we were gonna shoot and see if there was anything I could play with. You know what I mean? You start to... Instead of worrying about your lines, all of the sudden you’re playing out there because you feel good. I learned on Wiseguy to practice dialogue. I practiced it over and over again. I got an acting coach in Vancouver, a lady that worked with me... I really enjoyed doing that show, and thought I was just starting to get it.
7. You’ve moved to Aspen in Colorado, which is so famous. Are you afraid it will get too popular?
Unfortunately, you can’t put a padlock on paradise. It’d be just like getting to Hawaii – and I also am fortunate enough to have another home in Hawaii – and you just can’t go there and say, “OK now, I’m here, this is beautiful, nobody else can come here now. That’s it. Just me, OK? This place is great.” You can’t do that. You can’t close off Aspen, Colorado to Hollywood, and Houston, and New York City, and Chicago, and all the other people that want to come here.
Fortunately, though, this is the sort of environment – we only have a town of 6000 people. And if you get in your car and drive one mile out of town, you’re in the mountains. So it’s sort of a nice balance. And I don’t really mind the influx of people from Hollywood and stuff, if that’s what keeps all the store owners and the merchants happy... if it draws tourists to this place, then that’s just all part of it.
But Aspen, still, in spite of having all of its - I’d guess you’d say - glitzy drawbacks, we still have a very strict building code. There’s no buildings above three stories. You’ll notice there’s no blatant use of neon. We’re still somehow....we’re trying to hold it down and keep everything as controlled growth.
And the other thing I always keep in mind is whereas the rest of Hollywood just owns houses here, I live here. And so, if I have to put up with two weeks of nuttiness during Christmas because Cher and Robin Leach and everybody else is here, I’ll deal with it. I get the other fifty weeks a year here as well. I think that there’s just so many pluses to living here.
And I don’t mind a little of the cosmopolitan Hollywood thing. You know, if I wanna go and do a little... I can go to town and see a first-run movie, or I can go to a fancy restaurant and maybe run into somebody I know there... and that’s all part of it.
8. Is Strange Weather the first album you have recorded in Aspen?
The only way I could move to Colorado was to build a studio. And where we’re sitting right now, this is Jimmy Buffet’s old house. Jimmy was my neighbor for eight years right here. And the only way I could really move here was to build a studio so that I could make my records here. And I don’t think I would have made a record like Strange Weather in Los Angeles. For some reason, I just don’t think it would be as good or as inspired as the record that I made being here.
And it’s really great to have a studio so close to my house. Every idea I have for songs will now be turned into a 24-track or 48-track master. I’ve never had a backlog of material. I’ve never had the luxury of saying, “Well, you know, you have some extra songs left over?” I actually do. And I’m saving them to make a record in Nashville next year. So it’s really worked out good for me. I’m really happy that I did it.
And I have a studio. It’s a private studio. It’s not like I’m flagging down business and somebody’s gonna be in here recording next week. It’s a studio sort of built for me. I think it would have appeal to certain other solo artists who might enjoy doing their lead vocals or mixing their record up here. But it’s not a big enough studio to record a live band track. If you work with a drum machine and build your tracks the way I did on this last record, it’s ideal. But my feeling about the studio is that it’s mine and if somebody calls me and wants to use it, we’ll just have to talk and it’s possible. But I’m not trying to be a commercial recording studio here in Aspen.
9. Why so long in between albums?
Well, first of all, there’s a lot more to life than making records. The older I get, the more I want a little bit of time. A lot has gone on in the last four years. I’ve remarried, I’ve had a daughter. I’ve cut the cord with Los Angeles and moved up here to Colorado. I had major surgery... that took a little while to recover from and get my legs underneath me. So really, I guess, I’ve gone back to work – I’ve been working on this record for about a year and a half. Before that, the other things sort of took precedence. I wanted to do some other things like get married, start a family. So that took a little time.
10. Will the Eagles ever get back together again?
Let me tell you what happened, and why I don’t think that this will happen, and maybe we’ll just sort of get the air cleared because I know about a year and a half ago, two years ago, rumors were quite rampant that we were gonna get back together. About two and a half years ago, I felt that if the Eagles ever were gonna get back together, this seemed to be the right time. Henley’d had a successful solo career, I felt I was doing what I wanted to do with my life, and enough time had passed where maybe it was time to just open the book again and see if there was possibilities. I’m not the kind of person that wants to keep an 18-year-old kid in Holland from seeing the Eagles because he’s never seen them, but he likes our music. I felt that there was definitely a need... people wanted us there. It was there for us if we wanted to take it. I mentioned to Irving Azoff who still sort of takes care of the Eagles business that anything was possible in the nineties, and that I would keep an open mind.
I felt that the most important ingredient in doing something like putting the Eagles back together for a period of time was that there be new material, so that we wouldn’t just be slapping the band back together and we’d be coming out of whatever our individual lives were and just coming together and playing the same old stuff. I felt that it was important that if Don Henley and myself could write three new songs together, and record them, and put them on what they were gonna have as a repackage of all the Greatest Hits where they were gonna put both Greatest Hits packages together and add some new material – I thought if we could get together and have it together enough to write a couple songs, get in the studio, and record them, and have everybody on the same page, that it was not out of the realm of possibility that we might for one summer go out there and blitz a bunch of baseball stadiums and do it. But again, it had to be legitimate.
And all I had to do was indicate I was slightly interested and then leaks sprung all over America. And before I knew it, I was reading about the Eagles getting back together and I’m going, “But... all I said was maybe!” Anyway, things started to snowball in that regard.
The sad truth of the matter is, Don Henley and I could not get together artistically and personally the way we were together during our time with the Eagles. We tried. Don was busy. My life focus had changed. And over a course of a few months where we tried to get together to write, nothing really manifested itself. Also during that period of time I was able to get a feel for what was going on with the other guys in the band, and it appeared to me that, except for the money, there wasn’t much there for me.
And I felt that personally and spiritually, it would probably be a step backwards. When we started to not really come up with material, the question was tossed out, “Well, go on the road anyway. The Stones, the Who... you guys, it’s there for you.” But that didn’t seem like it was gonna be fun for me to do in this situation. Ultimately, I told Irving and I told Henley that I did not want to be a part of the Eagles reunion, that I felt it was not in my best interests, that I had just spent ten years of my life trying to direct my life a little bit away from rock’n’roll. We discussed earlier – a little acting, go down the Grand Canyon, take your wife to Venice... I was not ready to give up fifteen months of my life again just to go out there and make ten million bucks. It wasn’t worth it to me. So I told the guys that I just didn’t think this would work.
You know, it’s hard to balance what the downsides and the upsides of the Eagles reunion are. But imagine, first of all, I think there would be a tremendous amount of pressure on Don Henley and myself to write absolutely great songs. Anything we did might sell, but it would also fall under tremendous scrutiny.
Somebody told me this about the band The Byrds. They’d been broken up for four or five years and they tried to get The Byrds back together. And one guy said to me, “You put The Byrds in a room together five years after they – and nobody’s seen each other – they will revert to exactly the same way they were the second that they broke up, the last time they were together.” And I think that was sort of what I saw was gonna happen to the Eagles. We were all gonna just sort of revert to our same old roles... and “What do you think?” and “Let’s ask Don...” you know, just different things. It was gonna be a step backwards. It was not gonna be a step forward.
11. So the Eagles will never get back together? Why?
I’m sorry that the Eagles are not back together to play around the world for one year and entertain people with our old songs and new songs. That’s unfortunate. But I think only somebody in my situation or Don Henley’s situation can actually make the decision about whether you’re gonna do it or not. It was not an easy decision for me to make by any means. It pained me to ultimately say no. But that doesn’t mean it was my fault. It just means that I looked at the situation and I made a decision about what I felt was best for me.
