WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 942 - Joe Walsh

Episode Date: August 15, 2018

There were two times Joe Walsh felt part of a community. The first was as a student at Kent State, but that all went away after the National Guard shooting. The second was when he got to LA and met a bunch of other musicians, including Don Henley and Glenn Frey, and that almost went away in a haze of substance abuse. Joe talks with Marc about his days with The James Gang, opening for The Who, Led Zeppelin, and every band under the sun, joining The Eagles, breaking up with The Eagles, getting sober, and going back on tour with the Eagles after Glenn's death. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Be honest. When was the last time you thought about your current business insurance policy? If your existing business insurance policy is renewing on autopilot each year without checking out Zensurance, you're probably spending more than you need. That's why you need to switch to low-cost coverage from Zensurance before your policy renews this year. Zensurance does all the heavy lifting to find a policy, covering only what you need, and policies start at only $19 per month. So if your policy is renewing soon, go to Zensurance and fill out a quote. Zensurance, mind your business.

Death is in our air. This year's most anticipated series, FX's Shogun, only on Disney+. We live and we die. We control nothing beyond that. An epic saga based on the global bestselling novel by James Clavel. To show your true heart is to risk your life. When I die here, you'll never leave Japan alive. FX's Shogun, a new original series, streaming February 27th exclusively on Disney+. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply.

Lock the gates! all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fucksters what's happening i'm mark maron this is my podcast wtf welcome to it how's it going what's happening everybody okay you're hanging in you're doing the thing Joe Walsh is on the show today Joe fucking Walsh right Joe Walsh James Gang Joe Walsh Joe Walsh solo Joe Walsh Joe Walsh Eagles Joe Walsh joe walsh great american guitar player folks uh i was excited to talk to him and i think it went pretty well uh he's a deeply sober man and he's uh been around a long time and i've heard some stories about him and i remember him from back in the day back in uh he used to show up at the comedy store in the 80s i tell him a story like i saw him he used to before he got sober he looked like a ghost man just as long sort of like horrible blonde

hair that just looks just beat like not from swimming but from drugs just like a shadow of a dude i just remember he just like he walked up an entire tray of greyhounds to sam kennison on stage either he sent it up or he walked it up i have i don't know if he would have had the energy to walk it up but but i remember him being around and not looking great folks but he looks good now he's's solid, he's healthy, and he's drinking Diet Coke. So that's happening. Joe Walsh is happening. Do you remember your first Joe Walsh records? Maybe you don't.

I don't know. Maybe this is a unique thing to me because how did I, you know, I was thinking about him, and right now I'm thinking about it. Like what got me the records? Here's what I'm trying now I'm thinking about it. Like what got me the records? I'm trying. Here's what I'm trying to remember. Folks, Rocky mountain way was the song when I was in junior high, high school,

it was around, it was already, you know, in the Pantheon of a great hard rock songs from the seventies. And you, it was, it was in constant rotation spent the last year Rocky Mountain White at the live version of it was really the one you heard a lot this is pre-Eagles Joe Walsh and I was

trying to think you know what did that song make me do I know this sounds weird but some of you my age remember the Columbia Record Club all right all right the columbia record club i believe is what it was where you'd get like 10 to 12 albums or cassettes for like a dollar or something but then you were in then you know you're going to be sent the record of the month every month you're going to get these you know and usually you know you either you took your parents credit card number or you got some cash somehow. You got them to throw for it. Get those 12, I believe it was 12,

before CDs, cassettes or records. And that's where I track it. That's where I track it back to. Because that's where I got, and I believe the album was, you can't argue with a sick mind, it had a mirror ball on it. And it had Rocky Mountain Way on it, had Walk Away, which I think was a James Gang tune.

The rest I didn't give a shit about. It was all about Rocky Mountain Way, really. So I remember ordering it. It was one of the cassettes, one of the 12. I can't, what I was the cassettes one of the 12 i can't what i was trying to do was remember the 12 and i am i must have been in junior high man somewhere in there that's when i i got that columbia record uh club package i was just trying to remember what those fucking cassettes were and i know it was that live joe walsh i know it was aerosmith's first album i know it may have been aerosmith's toys in the attic as

well elo's greatest hits probably for just their version of rollover beethoven because i didn't you know i didn't care for elo that much i believe skinner's second helping and i think maybe the smoker you drink the player you get the non-live version of rocky mountain way and then there was five other ones that i wish i could fucking remember i feel like there was a paul simon in there i just remember looking through that catalog and be like that day that shit came it was so exciting but then all of a sudden out of nowhere a month later you get another record and you're like i didn't ask for this record oh that's the record of the month that you pay for because of your deal now you got you know you're into us for a dozen records fucker and we're gonna get them unless you you know tell your parents that you're underage and get them to

write a letter or have an attorney friend write a letter you know i was like a i was 14 13 years old i think that's how i got out of it i wonder how often that happened yeah just having the folks call my son took you know was suckered by your i think that's how it happened i wouldn't call that cowardly i was just sort of like what do you want me to do you got to pay for these records i don't even want these records the ones that came the record of the month not always the not not the ones they were not they were not based on an algorithm back then they were just sort of like here you go here's your uh andy gibb record enjoy shadow dancing um yeah yeah that's in there that's in the catalog somehow just am radio right am radio seventh eighth grade before i got baptized in fm laid back krst in albuquerque the crest welcome

to the crest uh coming up now we're going to do the entire side two of Jesse Colin Young's. Yeah, that was a Jesse Colin Young record. Do you know that record? How about, okay, we're going to play side one of Dan Fogelberg's. Yeah, yeah, those, I know, they sound similar, the Fogelberg and Jesse Colin Young records. As I said, Joe Walsh is coming. Joe Walsh is on the way way but i wanted to share with you something that i did i i did a recording session don't get crazy i know a lot of you expect in the

double album then after that maybe the double live album of me just noodling by myself on stage in an arena that image just made me incredibly nervous as you know i did this movie with lynn shelton called sword of trust now in that movie uh it's an improvised movie with mikhail watkins toby huss um john bass jillian bell it's going to be good lynn locked picture i have nothing to do with that part but she did use and integrate some of the guitar stuff I do at the end of the show, which she was using as placeholders, I think, initially. And then she decided it sort of fit into it to the movie. And she had Brendan, my producer, Brendan McDonald, send her a bunch of those. There are hundreds of them of me just sitting here noodling by myself. And that became sort of the fabric of the soundtrack and at

the end over the credits under the credits i should say she wanted to have a song something like uh like who do you love but the john hammond version of it so you know we're going back into late 60s maybe very early 70s that tone you know standard louisiana uh jump groove but you know we didn't know how much the song would cost or what it would take to license it so we i created with uh with tall wilkenfeld and you music nerds know who she is but she's a comedy fan i played with her at these comedy jam things and i've seen her at the club the comedy store hanging out watching comedy i didn't really know.

I think when she first introduced herself to me, Tal Wilkenfeld, she was like, yeah, I sing, I play bass. And I was probably dismissive, as I was with Tiffany Haddish, who I didn't know when she said she wanted to do the podcast. She said she would come. Anyway, so Tal. So I just worked with her, and I know Lynn wanted to do this. So I said, look, I'll reach out to Tal. I kind of know her and she's the real deal. And maybe we'll try to get something together, record something for that, an original piece for that last bit.

So we did. So I talked to Tal and her and I put together an arrangement. I didn't know the whole process. So I met her at her house at her home studio and we laid out you know a thing with changes we got the form she called it we made some demos okayed them with lynn and then she was going to set up a studio session with her people and you know i thought like well this is a lot bigger than we thought but lynn's like lynn's like let's do it you know we got the you know we got some money let's let's do it. You know, we got some money. Let's do it. So we end up going to a fucking studio

after we made the demos. It turns out it's fucking, well, first of all, like Tal Wilkenfeld is this, she's like a prodigy. She's like a 31-year-old bass genius from Sydney, Australia. Jewish Australian woman.

But she's like this wizard on bass i mean she's fucking played with jeff beck she tours with jeff beck yeah she's recorded with herbie hancock macy gray jackson brown lee rettenauer ryan adams todd rungren i mean she's a bass wizard and she's also a production wizard and she's a solo artist as well she's like not only the real deal she's like you know gifted so we go to the studio right and she get like and as we're leading into it i'm sort of like you know why don't you get another guitar player to do this i mean you know you know all these people and she's like no no it's gonna be great you're gonna do it and i'm like okay okay we get, you know, the day before she's like, I think I'm going to call my friend Doyle Bramhall. Maybe he'll come down and, you know,

just listen because I'm going to need a set of ears while I'm playing. And I'm like, why don't you just have Doyle play? He's like a fucking wizard. Plays with Clapton and fucking, I mean, just, you know. But she's like, no, it's going to be great. You'll do it.

And I'm like, oh my God. And then she's like talking about like, you know, maybe do it i'm like oh my god and then she's like talking about like you know maybe uh ben monten she'll come down and do some organ i'm like what i just get just you guys just do it i you know i don't need to be there she's like no no no you're gonna be great so anyways we're doing it and we you know she pulled together this this group she's got this drummer tamir Barzillay, who plays with her in her touring band. And apparently they were playing together when they opened for The Who just last year.

So she brought in this piano player, this guy, Zach Ray, who's like Death Cab's piano player. He's also played on Leonard Cohen records and on Ringo records, Nora Jones. Like, just wizards and then this harmonica dude named jimmy z he was there fucking in the studio jackson brown studio where dylan recorded and we're there all fucking day everyone's fucking killing it geniuses and just the layers and then going in once you got the take you want and then working within that one

i don't know i get it now i understand the sort of like what it takes to make the magic that finally makes it into your head on a recording but also the sort of weird timelessness of doing that work laying down the track you know chipping away at it doing leads doing you know pickup chipping away at it, doing leads, doing, you know, pickup pieces. And like, like it was just, it was pretty, pretty fucking amazing, pretty fun. And I'm excited for you to hear it. And I, since I think I, I believe I co-wrote the piece with Tal, I imagine we'll have a, you know, once Lynn releases the movie, after that, I imagine I can play it for you.

I will play you the cut which i believe is now called new boots so look forward to hearing new boots here sometime you know next year i guess but what an amazing experience that's all i'm saying joe walsh is here he's currently on on the eagles 2018 north american Tour now through the end of the year. He's also doing his second annual Vets Aid Benefits Show on Veterans Day, November 11th at the Tacoma Dome in Washington State. Don Henley, James Taylor, Chris Stapleton, and Chaim will be doing full sets along with Joe. That should go to that if you can. All right. So this is me chipping away

at legendary guitar player Joe Walsh. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization,

it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products

in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction. Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th

at 5pm in Rock City at TorontoRock.com Halsh. What are you drinking, Diet Cokes? That's the thing? Yeah. I like Diet Cokes. Do you?

Yeah, they help. Yeah. Yeah, they kind of do. It's funny. I think I met you once before and you would never know where. Years ago, I was a doorman at the comedy store when I was 21 years old, 22 years old. And you were sort of like an apparition, a kind of a ghost-like presence that would come in. A phantom.

Yeah, a phantom. And I remember one time you sent Kennison up an entire tray of Greyhounds. The waitress had this, she had about 20 drinks on it, and you're like, yep, that was, that was back then. Yeah. You remember that shit?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do. I do. Sam was, what a good guy. You spent some time? Oh, yeah. A lot of hours looking into each other's eyes, talking. Yeah. Yeah, that kind of stuff. Figuring out the universe. Yeah, he was good at that. guy you spent some time oh yeah a lot of a lot of hours looking into each other's eyes talking

yeah yeah that kind of stuff figuring out the universe yeah he was good at that yeah and it mostly revolved around him which was it did didn't it which was a lucky coincidence yeah that uh yeah if he just talked about himself it just spread out from there yeah yeah man i i just uh those days are kind of a a haze for me. But I remember pretty good. You were 21? 22, 21. Yeah, and I was a doorman.

I was hanging out with him. Were you doing improv? I was doing stand-up. I still do stand-up. Yeah. But I was doing a lot of coke. A lot of coke. That was the graduate work I was doing. A lot of blow.

Yeah. Up at the house. You majored in that. Yeah, yeah. It's my second major. I know it well. Yeah. Up at the house. You majored in that. Yeah, yeah. It's my second major. Yeah. I know it well. Yeah.

You've been sober a while, right? 25. 25. Better, right? It's better. Yeah, yeah. I'm coming up on 19. Yeah, man.

I mean, it's like I think about, because I was listening, what was I listening to today? The Confessor. And I remember the first time I heard that, I thought, this joe's got to be way underwater on this one i mean where were you when you when that that song i was like he this is this is what bottom looks like was it yeah and uh stevie nicks helped me a lot oh that album. Oh, yeah? Yeah. How so? Well, we buddied up for about a year. Yeah. She had some solo album hits.

Yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah. And toured. Yeah. And I opened for her. Uh-huh. And in the process of that, we just ended up hanging out together more and more right

you guys were dating for a long time yeah yeah yeah but like when you do something because i'm she's not she's not on that record though right no she's not on it but she helped me write it yeah put it a process confessor was a lot of her and you know mostly encouragement yeah yeah yeah because well she's got a mystical bent yeah right so you got that element yeah yeah man she's a good witch yeah good way yeah yeah you know there's a it's weird when you meet the bad ones right yeah oh yeah in hollywood there's no shortage of the bad witches, especially back then. The 80s seemed to be very full of bad witches. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, you just couldn't, you think they're good at first. Well, yeah, it's kind of like, you know, in the worst case scenario is that you marry one. Yeah. And then you find out. So do you remember, like, where'd you grow up? Oh, boy. Okay, I was born in Kansas. Yeah.

I spent some time in Chicago, Illinois. Yeah. My family moved to Columbus, Ohio. Yeah. Spent about three years there. Yeah. We went to New York City. Why all the traveling?

My father was in the legal end of insurance, professional insurance, like malpractice insurance for doctors and stuff. So Chicago was continental casualty. Yeah. He got a promotion to Nationwide. Yeah. That's Columbus. Right. And then he went to,

we went to New York City, an independent firm. Uh-huh. Picked him up. And then he ended up back in Ohio? Went to junior high school in New York City. That was a hoot. Yeah.

And then high school in Montclair, New Jersey. Montclair? Yeah. So you're sort of a Midwest guy, but you ended up in Jersey. Where did I grow up? I mean, I'm not done yet. And then I got accepted at Kent State in Ohio. Yeah, right.

So I went back there in 1965. Oh, right before the badness. And I left at the end of 1970 pretty much because of the shooting. So you were on campus when that happened? Yeah, I was right there. I talked to Mark Mothersbaugh. Yeah. Yeah, he was there too. Oh, yeah. So you were on campus when that happened? Yeah, I was right there. I talked to Mark Mothersbaugh. Yeah. Yeah, he was there too.

Oh, yeah. Did you know him? Yeah. Back then? Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. You were in sort of the same circles?

There was the fraternity guys. Yeah, right. And you weren't there. And then there was us. Right. The sides were drawn. Yeah. Right. The sides were drawn. Yeah. Yeah.

So I can't even imagine what it was like to have been there for that. I mean, it sounded like- No, you can't. It's just chaos. Yeah. Yeah. Of total dysfunction authority. Yeah. Not knowing what they were doing.

Yeah. None of them. Versus a very naive, innocent student body. Yeah. And did you know any of the people that were killed? Yeah. Really? Jeffrey and Allison.

Yeah. Really? Jeffrey and Allison. Yeah. Holy shit. So at that point, did you feel a call to arms or you just wanted to get the fuck out? Well, Kent died. Yeah. Kent was a great place. Yeah. It was like Austin.

Yeah. Texas is. Yeah. was a great place yeah it was like uh austin yeah texas is yeah it was like seattle when the grunge right sure yeah it was like uh san francisco right yeah before that mutated yeah it was just this this little island of us. Yeah, yeah. Creativity. Kids who got accepted at college and were going to college and didn't really know what that was. Right. But it did seem like

there was a lot of creative people there, too. Like, it was kind of... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Kent was great because it was the second biggest school in Ohio, which was 20,000 people. Right, yeah.

And five bars downtown. Yeah. And on any given night, you could go downtown and hear a band. Yeah. And because of the college, Kent was the place. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where the girls were. Sure, yeah.

So bikers would come up from Youngstown and people would come up from all of Ohio and down from Cleveland. Right. Weekends, it was crazy when school was in. Right. So in the 60s, we're just starting to happen. So it was like the big change culturally was starting to happen. People were doing wild shit out in public. And I remember when LSD was legal.

Yeah. Before anyone knew better. Probably 15% of the student body was on acid, you know? Yeah. And we were good to go. Yeah. And I got in a band and played downtown, and then school was out, and I stayed. Which band was that? Do I have to tell you? Sure.

The Measles. Yeah, the Measles? Yeah. And how long have you been playing up to that point where when did you start playing the high school yeah yeah and did you guys uh you were pretty serious about it the measles well yeah yeah and uh and we learned cover songs yeah and that was all you needed to know yeah and and Yeah. But when school was out, the first summer, I stayed and became a resident of Kent. Yeah.

After the shooting? No. Before. No, no, no. This is 1966, 67. So you were just living there. Well, it was still Kent. Yeah.

Still, everybody came. Yeah, yeah. Even when school was out. Yeah, yeah. So you were just living there. Well, still, Kent. Yeah. Still, everybody came. Yeah, yeah. Even when school was out. Yeah, yeah. There just weren't any students. Right. And that's where I put in my 10,000 hours. Playing.

Playing. You know, three nights a week, four sets a night. Oh, wow. Yeah. And that's when I was good. Yeah. When it was still raw yeah yeah yeah and so okay it was this place well when the shooting happened they closed the university because the

fbi was investigating and um everybody went home and all the places to play closed. And the town people didn't like us anymore. Right. And Ohio didn't like us anymore. Right. Because Nixon represented us as dirty, hippie, communists who are a danger to America. Right. That's how he justified the shooting.

We weren't. We were just kids. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Just doing what kids do. Yeah.

And so there was nothing there. Yeah. Oh, it really just felt awful. Dead. Yeah. Yeah. Literally, Kent there. Yeah. Oh, it really just felt awful. It was dead. Yeah. Yeah. Literally, Kent died.

Yeah. And I was on a roll. I had gotten myself in the James Gang. Yeah, great. Great fan. And in- That started in Ohio? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

In Cleveland. Yeah. So I had worked my way up. And word of mouth in the Midwest is we were bitching. Yeah, yeah. And we were. Yeah. And so, sadly, I left Kent.

Right. But you went to Cleveland? Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you did the first James Gunn album uh james uh james gang album that that was out by then yeah but we did the second one that was the big one right the second one yeah that's what funk 49 was and uh yeah that riff man yeah yeah james gang rides again yeah so when you

started playing like who were the guys that were the guys that you kind of modeled yourself after? Who were the cats that you thought were great? Oh, when I was really little, Les Paul. Oh, you used to listen to Les Paul and Boyd Moore and Ford records. God, he can move around, right? Oh, he invented a lot of it. Yeah, yeah. And I played some stuff in orchestra, and that didn't work so good. With what instrument?

Well, I ended up playing oboe. Wow. Yeah. It's tight. That seems difficult. Yeah. Yeah. Limiting.

It was pretty cool, but oboe players don't get a lot of girls. I don't know if you knew that, but they don't. I assumed. Yeah. But the ones you got, they'd stay, you know? Yeah. If you're an oboe player. Yeah. You're locked in. Yeah. But they don't. I assumed. Yeah. But the ones you got, they'd stay, you know? Yeah. If you're an oboe player. Yeah.

You're locked in. Yeah. So you switched to guitar? Well, I just found on my own that I could figure songs on the radio out. On the guitar or the oboe? On the guitar. Yeah, yeah. And I could also sing.

Yeah. You can't sing if you play oboe. No. It doesn't work at all. That's sing. Yeah. You can't sing if you play oboe. No. It doesn't work at all. That's true. Yeah. Yeah, you got to take, you know, kind of back and forth a lot. Yeah, so I, at that point, was figuring out all this stuff on the radio.

And I grew up with all the 50s, doo-wop. Yeah. And all of that. Yeah. That's my influence. Yeah. It's good old rock and roll. And here come the English guitar players.

Right. Which was back in Clapton and- Peter Green. Peter Green. Yeah. Big time. Right. Page.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I was pretty dumb. Uh-huh. Most, America was really dumb in the pretty dumb. Uh-huh. America was really dumb in the 50s. Uh-huh. It was wonderfully, wonderfully dumb.

Yeah. You know? Everything kind of looked the same. We knew everything we needed to know. Yeah, and that was enough. Yeah. Yeah. It was plenty. We didn't even know enough to respect the guys that the English blues players actually took into their hearts.

Well, they started talking about all these blues guys yeah yeah and they were just down at south and no one and in chicago i had no idea that was never on the radio where i live right it took them to bring it back 50s doo-wop was yeah yeah you Yeah. If it was blues, I would have learned it. Yeah. But, so I studied the English guys and gradually got into their influences. Right. Go all the way back. Yeah. Like Freddie King, Albert King. The Three Kings.

Yeah. Albert, Freddie, and Bebe. And then you got to work with Bebe, right? I worked with them all. So when you started touring with the James Gang, you'dbe. And then you got to work with Bebe, right? I worked with them all. So when you started touring with the James Gang, you'd done your time and you're doing your own riffs, but you're meeting a lot of cats, right? You're on the road with a lot of guys.

Yeah, I really started to meet people. We got really good in the Midwest. We were a big draw. Yeah. Our album, our first album got really good reviews the Midwest we were a big draw yeah our album a first album got really good reviews yeah it didn't sell a lot right but but people liked it yeah word of mouth sure in the Midwest we had a lot of people coming yeah the headliners would come and they would get us as an opening act yeah because we

would make the show sell out. We couldn't headline by ourselves. Didn't have enough songs? Weren't that big. Right. But you could bring the locals in. In the Midwest, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So that's how I met all the guys. Yeah. And I met Paige. We opened for the Cream in Detroit. Like the first time they were over here? At the Grandy Ballroom. Oh yeah? And then you got to meet Clapton? He heard me.

Yeah. And I got to meet him briefly. And another one was we opened for the Who. Yeah. And Peter Townsend came early that night. And he saw you. He saw me. And did they say anything that first time? Did you build a relationship with those guys?

That was the beginning of a long-term relationship. With Pete? Yeah. We bonded really well. Keith Moon decided he liked me. Yeah. That was the scariest thing that ever happened in my whole life. the scariest thing that ever happened in my whole life but they asked us to open for them in europe oh really so for the tommy tour so so james gang was opening for the who in europe yeah so you you

see yeah how i just started meeting people right well what was the relationship with keith moon why it's like this it wasn't good because he took to you? Because you got to keep up with him, right? Yeah. He's pretty out of control? Oh, yeah. I mean, if he liked you. So it's a battle to the death? In 24 hours, we stayed up for a couple days. Yeah.

Yeah. We stayed up for a week in two days. Yeah. Yeah. it in two days yeah yeah but at that time though like weren't they like really the the first band to really kind of be destructive off stage yeah oh yeah so a lot of that was keith but you were you were friends with him a long time right i mean until the end probably yeah yeah yeah did you play with that you played on one of his records, too. Yeah, I did. I think it got reviewed as the worst album ever made. Was it?

I'm pretty sure. But was it fun making it? Yeah. So when you toured with The Who, like watching Townsend, because he's like a rhythm-based guy, too, really. He taught me how to play lead and rhythm at the same time. That's his style. Right.

Three-piece band. Yeah. So you had to fill the his style. Right. Three-piece band. Yeah. So you had to fill the gap. Basically, we were a three-piece band. And there's a style, because you're the only melodic instrument, there's a style called lead rhythm. Yeah.

And that's what Pete did. Yeah. And I picked up on that. I was figuring it out but i my he was like the the main guy yeah for that yeah and of course page oh you were friends with jimmy too yeah still yeah we opened for led zeppelin yeah in cleveland yeah uh their first album had just come out. Oh, wow. Yeah.

And they were over in the States maybe five weeks too early because everybody came expecting to hear the Yardbirds. Right. Because that's how they knew Jimmy Page. Right. So they had no idea.

Jimmy Page's new band. Yeah. And the audience hadn't heard anything from the album right so and it's a whole different sound man right oh yeah holy shit and you nobody could grasp it and they were just like figuring out how to play live yeah you know that must have been insane so like how would the audience react? Well, we got a really good, you know, Cleveland's hometown. Sure. So, you know, we just played to our people.

Yeah. And they went crazy. Yeah. And I had met Jimmy. I worked my way backstage and met Jimmy at a Yardbirds show. I just went to hear the Yardbirds. When they were in Cleveland? No.

No, this was somewhere else. But he remembered me from that. Yeah. And, yeah, we just kind of buddied up. Yeah. And, you know, he played a Fender Telecaster in the Yardbirds. Right. And then he changed to Les Pauls at some point.

When you get into a three-piece band, you can't use a single-coil guitar. Right. Too thin. Too thin. Yeah. You need... Power.

You need a Les Paul. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I had one. Yeah. And he realized that. He was in the process of realizing that a telecaster ain't going to make it for Led Zeppelin. Right.

And so he said, do you know any way I could get a Les Paul? Weren't they available? In England, they were non-existent. Really? In the late 60s? In England. Yeah. Yeah.

And in the States, yeah yeah and in the States yeah they were around and they weren't expensive yeah they were around I mean everybody was getting new stuff everybody was getting like what the Beatles played Rickenbackers Rickenbacker yeah yeah country gentlemen Gretchen's the phone yeah yeah and so Les Paul was like, that came out in the late 50s. And no one cared. Nobody had really bothered to plug one in. Yeah.

And I happened to have two, because I found one from a guy in Akron, and I found another one in a music store. You know, there was no guitar center or anything. Just a family owned local music store. They had one in the basement. Les Paul that no one wanted. Yeah, it had been lying around since

the 50s. And so I had two of them. And I gave Jimmy one of mine and I said, well I have two. Yeah. I'll keep the one I like.

You can have this one and see how you like it. Yeah. And that was it. And that is the bulk of Led Zeppelin's work. Right. That guitar. He calls it number one. The one you gave him. Yeah. The magic guitar. Yeah.elin's work. Right. That guitar. He calls it number one. The one you gave him?

Yeah. The magic guitar? Yeah. That's amazing. And you still play Les Pauls mostly, or no? It depends what the other guitar player's playing. I have found that if the other guy's playing a Les Paul, you need to play a single coil.

Oh, okay. A strat. Yeah. Just to balance it out? Yeah. Get the high end going? You can hear both single coil. Oh, okay. A strat. Yeah. Just to balance it out? Yeah. Get the high end going? You can hear both of them. Right, right. As opposed to just a mess, a humbucking mess.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when you start to, like, who else did you, like, where else did you pick up tricks? Because I did a little research on you, and it seems like just by virtue of touring with all these guys or opening for them, because who would I talk to? I talked to Billy Gibbons about opening for Hendrix in Texas.

Yeah. Yeah. You guys must be friends, right? You and Billy? Oh, yeah. Yeah. He married us. Oh, he did?

My wife, Marjorie. Hi, Marjorie. I love you. Yeah, he married us. He did? He's a... Yeah, Reverend Billy Gibbons. You bet. yeah he married us he did he's a he's a what yeah reverend billy gibbons you bet but he talked about it was funny he shared this story with me where he said you know he was open

for hendrix and they were back at the hotel and hendrix would have a whole stereo console delivered to the hotel and he said to billy so let's go try and figure out what jeff beck is doing yeah like jeff beck was this tower towering guitar wizard that everybody was baffled by. He still is. Yeah. Jeff has mutated to where he made the guitar into an instrument that is, yeah, he's playing the guitar, but that's not the instrument. Yeah.

He's playing the guitar, but that's not the instrument. Yeah. He figured out a way to make noises and a way to play, especially with the tremolo arm. Yeah. And the knobs. And the knobs, yeah. And nobody can figure out what the hell he's doing.

Never could. Yeah. And I met Jeff, too, of course. Yeah. So when did the life get large after those first two James Gang hits? Well, life got large when I joined the Eagles, I would say. Right. But when can you track? Because you write a lot of songs about the rock and roll lifestyle,

and certainly you're sort of mythic in that. But when did you? Because I guess in the late 60s, early early 70s it was just what everyone was doing but at some point you must have upped the uh the game yeah there was a lot of people doing it yeah um the james gang did really well yeah the second album was in the top 100 for a year. Yeah. And the third album, Walk Away, was on that. But I started to get toasted. Yeah. I was hearing other singers than me.

Two vocals. Right. I was hearing, like, keyboard parts. Yeah. I was hearing, like, a rhythm guitar player. Yeah. And when I say that, I mean, I was writing that kind of music. Right.

Bigger than a trio. Yeah. Yeah. Those songs were nice, but they weren't for the James Gang. Right. We couldn't go play those live. And I also thought I was kind of painting myself into the corner as a great, great grandfather of heavy metal and uh i didn't want to do that you wanted to as opposed you wanted to make more hits or how'd you what's the opposite

of that i was starting to really write original material yeah that's all we did yeah just play it was play. Yeah. That was my whole life, you know? It wasn't writing necessarily. It was just playing. No, it was playing. Yeah. And going to the next show and driving. Yeah.

What'd you do in the car? And setting my own stuff up. Yeah. What I do in the car, listen to the radio. Right. No songwriting in the car? Or nothing. You're in there with two other dudes, right?

Just talking, at least? Well, I drove the equipment truck. Oh, okay. The other guys were in the car? I lived in the equipment truck. You did? On top of the PA columns, yeah. That was my bit.

Yeah, for a couple months. Anyway, I decided that I was going to try something else. Right. Which is terrifying and makes no sense. Because when you're in a big group. Yeah. And you're working. And you're working and you're filling the house.

Why quit? Yeah. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And you guys are getting along? Yeah. But I was just fried, man. I was just fried playing the same songs over and over and over and over and over. Yeah.

And having to get a buzz to do it. Right. Yeah. This was serious turn up. Right. Right. Marshall stacks and stuff. Right.

So when you decided to break away, you just told the other dudes? Like, how does that go? I did. Yeah. I did. I said, I'm going to play out the existing shows. And I got to take a break. And I got to get out of Ohio.

Yeah. And so I did. Where'd you go? I went to Colorado. That's nice. And I did that because Bill you go? I went to Colorado. That's nice. And I did that because Bill Simzik. The producer? With the name that nobody can spell.

I'm glad you said it before I brought him up. Bill Simzik. Yeah. Yeah. No vowels. Yeah. Polish. Uh-huh.

He found us in Ohio. He produced the first album. Yeah. He produced our second album. He produced the B.B. King song album that The Thrill Is Gone was on. Yeah. That's how I met B.B. Yeah.

What'd you learn from bb anything i went to see him about four months before he died oh yeah uh actually he opened for me at a casino uh-huh and so i went and sat down and we talked for a while because i'd known him since 69, something like that. And I asked him, what have you learned that you would pass on to me? Yeah. Because I'm going to keep going because you did. You showed us all how. Right. I'm going to keep going.

What would you say? He says, Joee get your money get your money that's it yeah i said what so that's what i learned from bbk and he was a perfect gentleman he was just a real gentleman so how long were you in Colorado? Is that where Rocky Mountain Way came from? Bill Simzik quit the label. Yeah.

Which label? ABC Dunhill. Uh-huh. So now he's freelance? He's just out in the world? Yeah, it was the earthquake. I think it was 1970-something. He got out?

Yeah. Oh, he left the next day. Yeah. Yeah. So he's in Colorado. Freaked him right out. Yeah. Yeah, he moved to Colorado and started a label.

Yeah. And I said, I don't know where to go, but I'm going to wrap it up. And he said, well, come out to Colorado. Yeah. And so I did and out of that came the Barnstorm concept which was my solo group yeah

and it was good how many were you? first it was me and Joe Vitale drummer yeah now he's from Kent so you knew him from back in the day? yeah but he was you know when I said there's the fraternity guys yeah Sally, drummer. Yeah. Now, he's from Kent. So you knew him from back in the day? Yeah.

But he was, you know when I said there's the fraternity guys? Yeah. He's one of them. Yeah, a good one. And so we didn't talk much. Right. So how'd you get, you just called him up? Yeah, I called him up and said, hey, I'm in Colorado and I don't know what I'm doing.

What are you doing? He said, nothing. Yeah. You know how I'm doing. Kent's dead doing? He said, nothing. You know how I'm doing. Kent's dead. And so he came out. We made model airplanes for about four months because it was too cold to go outside and get his drums out of the car. It was awful. I had no idea. We lived in Nederland above Boulder. That's where Caribou Ranch was being built, which was James Gershio's studio.

He was the producer of Chicago. That's a big band. Yeah, and Caribou Ranch became a famous studio. Not when you were there no they were still building it yeah so where'd you record at caribou ranch oh you waited you built the model airplanes and yeah and we then we wrote some songs and then we got a bass player and we went and did that and the first barnstorm album got great reviews. Yeah. And we played some shows, and we were really good. This is three of you again?

No, there was four of us. There was a keyboard player. And that's when you did Rocky Mountain Way, the smoker you drink, the player you get? Well, the second Barnstorm album was just coming out, and Rocky Mountain Way was on it. And I wrote that about, I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. I moved to Colorado, and I'm starting to run out of money,

and my first solo album flopped, and I'm scared, and maybe I really screwed up. And that's what the words kind of say. And then I looked up and saw the snow on the back range, and I said, wait a minute. It's better than the way we had. Yeah, yeah. Which was Cleveland. Right, right. So that's the back story.

So what happened then was Barnstorm, I was running out of money. And we were playing for, I don't know, $350 a night or something. Like touring or just around Colorado in the Southwest? Whatever. Right. Whatever we could get. So you had no traction. And the record company was really not too excited.

But those were those... Except Rocky Mountain Way was on the Smokey You Drink the Player You Get album. It's a huge record, man. And about the last show that Barnstorm was going to play was at the Roxy. Here. The whiskey.

The whiskey. The whiskey. Yeah. The Whiskey A Go-Go. Yeah. And this guy came up to me, little guy with a beard, and he said, I've been trying to find you, and I'm from the Midwest, and I'm an agent. I'm a booking agent. Mm- agent, and you need some booking.

Yeah. And I tell you what, I don't want to book, but I know how. But I want to be a manager. Yeah. And so why don't I manage you? And I had told him my affairs are a mess. I don't know. Yeah.

I don't know. I don't have any direction. I'm not showing records. It's not going the way I had hoped. Yeah. And he said, well, I tell you what, I'll manage you. We'll get your stuff all figured out, and you got to keep going. Yeah.

And by the way, Rocky Mountain Ways hit. Yeah, that's what he said. And that was Irving Azoff. Oh, wow. Yeah. And that was pretty much the last gig Barnstrom was going to play. So, all of a sudden, I had a huge single. Yeah. And a new manager. And he went on to become a huge manager. Yeah, still is. Yeah. Are you still with him? Yeah. Wow. That's wild. So, you were there

at the beginning. Were you his first client? Me and danny fogelberg dan fogelberg did he pass away or is he still yeah danny died of uh prostate cancer oh i don't know 15 years ago yeah did you know dan before that no not before that yeah irving made me produce dance album souvenirs souvenirs yeah yeah yeah that was a big record yeah and difference definitely different style than you you know yeah well I just couldn't believe the songs at that this guy wrote he's sitting there with an acoustic playing me these incredible songs. And Irving said, he needs to do an album. Why don't you do it? Yeah.

And so I did. And it was a big record. Yeah. Yeah. And so. That was the first time you produced, too? Yeah. So he helps you get Rocky Mountain Way on the charts,

and that changed it. I mean, that song. That changed everybody's attitude. Changed the whole country's attitude. I remember hearing that song that changed everybody's attitude changed the the whole country's attitude i remember hearing that song at least three times a day when i was a kid like yeah in albuquerque new mexico driving around and then the live version that was even that was a big record too yeah yeah yeah and you figured it he must have been the first one to use that voice box thing yeah where'd you find that there was just i found that in nashville there was a country

singer named dotty west yeah and she was uh one of the grand old girls of nashville yeah old time i think she was married to porter wagner for a while and uh her husband was Bill West, and he was a pedal steel player, but he was also a mad inventor. Yeah. And he had invented the talk box, which basically, it's not a speaker, it's the back end of a speaker.

Right. In a little cardboard box and a piece of surgical tubing stuck in it yeah so the sound comes up the tube right but you don't really hear it yeah yeah and pete drake is a legendary pedal steel player he used it once did he play with george jones yeah yeah he's so good that guy but pete drake had a hit where his pedal steel talked but then the thing went back in bill west's garage and uh anytime the james gang played nashville we'd go to dotty's after the show, and she'd invite a bunch of friends over, and we'd all sit around and play guitar.

Yeah. And Bill West came in from the garage and said, here, take this. I made this a long time ago. Here's how you do it. Maybe you could use it for something. And I'm cleaning out my garage. And he took it. And that's Rocky Mountain Way.

And then, of course, someone manufactured it after. Well, Peter Frampton called me up and said, what the hell is that? So I told him. And he got rich, too. With Frampton Comes to Life. Yeah. Yeah. Do you feel like I do?

Yeah. Yeah. It's such an odd piece of equipment because you don't hear it. Besides you guys, you two, you and Frampton, I don't. Who else did it? Jeff Beck a little bit. Oh, yeah? Yeah.

Jeff Beck a little bit. Oh, yeah? Yeah. So it's interesting because you can use your mouth and your throat as like this, another riffing instrument, you know? Yeah. Yeah, and make a completely bizarro sound. Yeah. Do you still-

You know the people who have heavy smokers? Yeah. Who have no larynx. They had their larynx removed. Tracheotomy. And they have this buzzer that they put. Yeah, yeah. It talks like this.

Yeah. It's basically that. That's basically what it is. Yeah. Yeah. If you sit here and talk to me, but just move your mouth. Right. That's what you do.

Right. And you put this tube in your mouth. And there you got it. And that's your sound. Yeah. Do you take it on the road with you? Yeah. I love that.

That's where it came from. Bill West. Is that his name? Bill West. In his garage. He also invented the first fuzz tone. Did he really? Yeah, but he never got a patent on it.

So he missed the boat on that one. He missed the boat on that one, yeah. So, okay, so now you're with Azoff. I'm with Azoff. You produce souvenirs. You've got Rocky Mountain Way. Rocky Mountain Way came out. It's all happening.

And I got out of Colorado. How long were you there? Three years. Yeah. So are you getting married? Are you turning through wives yet? Is that happening? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I got married and had a kid. And actually, my wife at the time had a car accident taking my kid to school. Somebody ran a stop sign and wiped him out. My wife's alive, but my kid got wiped out. And so... How old? Four. Oh, sorry, man. So that's a long time ago yeah uh uh that was a great excuse to be mad at god yeah and go on a 20 year

trash myself that's where it started yeah yeah yeah well i was doing pretty good without that but you know and an album of mine called so what right yeah that was a reaction that was that could have been called fuck you yeah right yeah i get it. Yeah. Yeah. How'd that album do? Oh, it did great. It did great. But right in there, right, I was in California more and more and made friends with the whole Southern California team. Who was it like?

Group, community. And this was a lot like Kent. This was in L.A. Yeah. There was tons of places to play. Like J.D. Souther and those guys? Yeah, lots of musicians, and everybody had come to California. Yeah. Like, for example, me.

Yeah. Then Glenn and Henley. We knew that where we lived, which was Ohio, Colorado for me. Yeah. Glenn was in Detroit. Yeah. Henley was in Texas. Right.

Linden, Texas. Yeah, right. We knew that we'd gone as far as we were going to go. In those places. In those places. Yeah. And we didn't know if we would ever make it. We didn't know if we would ever make it, but if we were going to make it, it would be in Los Angeles.

Right. Yeah. So, yeah, everybody was here, and that was Laurel Canyon. In the 70s. Yeah. So after the 60s. So it's not Crosby and those guys. It's your generation.

Yeah, 70s, 72, 3, 4. So they were all still there too, right? David Crosby, David Crosby. Jackson Brown, yeah, you know. You were up in Laurel Canyon? Me, I was a rocker, you know, but it was John and Glenn. And they were in Linda Ronstadt's band. Yeah, yeah. Linda was having hits.

Was Graham Parsons ever around? Graham Parsons and the Burrito Brothers. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, all kinds of people. Right. All kinds of people. So it felt like you're in a creative community again.

You landed in the right place. Yeah. And none of us had made it yet. Yeah. So if somebody played the troubadour, everybody else would go and hang. And then more often than not, we would kind of split off into groups and go sit up all night and play guitar for each other and help each other write songs and stuff. Yeah, that's great.

Yeah. Well, out of that think tank, out of that community, a couple of the guys got focused, and that was Don and Glenn. Yeah. And out of that came the Eagles. But you're still doing solo at that point, right? Yeah, but I had a big hit. With Rocky Mountain Way?

The Eagles opened for me. Yeah. And I opened for Elton John. Right, okay. That was the pecking order. Yeah. Yeah. So I started hanging with them.

And you were also doing a lot of studio work, right? Yeah. Yeah. I was playing on people's records. Yeah, man. Yeah, a lot of people. And that must have felt great. So you're like working, right?

Yeah. You worked with a lot of guys. I didn't realize you were. I just listened to Thunder Island the other day. Oh, Jay. Yeah. Yeah. It's the weirdest thing because I was like going through songs that for some reason I

felt guilty about liking when I was a kid. Yeah. Yeah, I know. And Thunder Island was was a kid. Yeah. Yeah, I know. And Thunder Island was one of them, and I listened to it, and it was like, it's a good riff. Was that you on acoustic? What were you playing on that? Slide. Oh, you were slide on that?

Yeah. Where'd you fucking pick that up? Dwayne Allman. You open for the Allman Brothers back then? Open for the Allman Brothers. For a while, or just one or two dates? Oh, three or four dates over a summer. That must have been something to watch.

Oh, yeah. Oh, man. With Dwayne, yeah. So you guys, so you're all doing it, but you're working, you're playing with Al Cooper. Yeah. Big Al. Yeah. I played for-

Zvon. Andy Gibb. Wow. So you're in this mix. Well- You're watching Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles, guys. The Eagles, their guitar player, Bernie Ledin, was a purist, guitar purist. Oh, right.

I remember. I watched the doc, but it was like nine hours long. He only played acoustic. Country. Country. Bluegrass. Well, they were kind of doing the Burritos Brothers thing, right? They were purists, right?

Yeah. He played banjo and he played acoustic. And Don and Glenn wanted to go more towards rock and roll. They were worried about getting Painted in the Corner as a country rock band. But they'd already done, like, what, four or five records, right? Yeah. Yeah. So Bernie said, you, what, four or five records, right? Yeah, yeah. So Bernie said, you know what? I'm not getting off.

I can't play rock and roll. You guys go ahead. So who were they left with? And Felder wasn't in the band yet, right? Yeah, they had... They had Felder? They had Felder for about a year. And when Bernie left?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Felder and they went a little more rock and roll and On the Border album. That's a good one. And Bernie looked at Felder and said, Felder's got it covered. You know. You don't need me anymore?

I don't, yeah. I don't want to do this. Is he still around, that guy? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. And Irving said, what if we get Walsh yeah and uh glenn said yeah and don said no what was don's problem oh why didn't he want you i don't know yeah i don't know what his problem

was but you know so you'd already made you'd made so. I knew them all, yeah. Yeah, you'd made so what already or not yet? Yeah. So that was out. Yeah. And that had a hit on it, didn't it? Yeah. Yeah.

So now what happens? Shortly before that was when my wife had the accident in Boulder, Colorado. Like in 73 or something? Four. Yeah. Yeah. So you were pretty fucked up, bad shape. Yeah, and I got out of Boulder.

Right. Our marriage didn't stand a chance. That's a lot of strain. Yeah, so I just went to LA because I didn't know what else to do. Yeah. I didn't feel that I had the strength to continue a solo career with getting over what I had to get over. So when I was asked to join a band, you know, it was great. James Gang was great.

I got in my own band. I was the leader. I found out that the leader has to sing everything, has to decide everything, has to tell the other people what to play. I didn't do that in the James Gang. I didn't care what they played. Right. I didn't care what they played. And in terms of writing, if you have to write everything, it gets lonely. There's nobody to bounce stuff off, nobody to... And also you're using a lot. Yeah.

So you're going down. Yeah. Yeah. And so I was happy to get in a band so what what turned henley around he wasn't totally against it oh uh i was crazy oh yeah and they didn't want to deal with it yeah he didn't he didn't want me to bring in matt yeah so you when you guys all hung out and stuff you were the guy who was out of control and fucking wild yeah funny

yeah Walsh is here and nobody got hurt yeah just coked up and clowned well Keith Moon was a bad influence

he taught me how to do it all here's how you glue shit glue shit yeah here's how you super glue somebody in their room.

They won't get out for two days. All the important skills. Yeah. This is how you throw a television off. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you're a full-on drugged-up prankster.

Yeah. And Henley was like, fuck this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know about that. Yeah. And Henley was like, fuck this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know about that. Yeah. I don't know that this is really intellectually sound thinking.

Yeah. It doesn't seem like a responsible fella, this Walsh guy. Yeah. So we decided we'd try it. Yeah. And so I learned all of Bernie's parts. Yeah. And we rehearsed for, I don't know, a month.

Yeah. And then we went to Japan and played the Eagles catalog up to On the Border. So many fucking hits, right? But we had Funk 49. From you, yeah. And Rocky Mountain Way. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And Rocky Mountain Way. Yeah. I mean, I was the closer.

And walk away, right? Yeah. You know, in baseball, they bring a guy in. Yeah. In the ninth. Yeah. You just got to get three people out. Yeah.

That's what I was for the Eagles. On the encore? At the end of the show to get an encore. Oh, you'd like to throw... They could almost get an encore, but... Yeah. They had, you know... They all kind of went at the same tempo.

So you had to like put it over the top. Yeah, put it over the top. Right, man. And that's what made the most sense, especially to Irving. Yeah. And Irving said, John, it doesn't really matter if you like him or not. Yeah.

You want to do encores? Yeah. You know? Yeah. So we went to Japan, and it worked. The chemistry worked, because I settled down. I did what I was supposed to do. I was happy to be in a band.

I loved those guys, their harmony. It's a dream to have vocals like that and be a guitar player. Yeah. And play to that. It's nice. And Felder and I got along good. In the meantime, we didn't really play in the States that much. We went to Japan to try it out.

Yeah. And we went to Australia. But we got Bill Simzik. Yeah. Your old producer friend. Yeah. Yeah. And we did what became Hotel California in the studio.

Yeah. Took a while to put it together, huh? And it was just like Kent. We were a real band, man. Yeah. We played all together in the same room. On a lot of tracks? Yeah.

Yeah. And then we'd put the vocals on. Don and Glenn would write the words. They'd put that on. And then Felder and I would put on guitar parts. And that was it. Felder must have upped your game a little. I mean, he seemed like a real...

Oh, we were great together. Yeah, man. that hotel california is like that's that's the one man yeah and so hotel california came out and uh there was no turning back so here we go yeah huge record and i saw you in the documentary talking about that riff on Life in the Fast Lane. That was just some practicing you used to do? Just fucking around? Yeah, that was a warm-up exercise to get your right hand and your left hand talking. Yeah. That you came up with? Yeah, I would warm up with that.

It's such a great riff. And Glenn came in and said, what the hell is that? And I said, I don't know. Glenn said, that's an Eagles song. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So how long did it take you to put together that record, Hotel California? A year.

Yeah? Is that about the average time? No. Longer or less? Should do it less. average time no longer or less should do less uh the long run took two and a half years but we we toured right while we were making it so once hotel california came out i mean that changed everything right then you toured the states you're the biggest band in the world yeah yeah and then you just stuck with it through thick and thin yeah so when does sobriety hit you man what happened uh i was in really really bad shape when i saw you at the comedy store you were

like very thin and then your hair was all fried and yeah. Yeah, you look like a ghost. Yeah. Yeah. I was able to play rock and roll Right. pretty effectively Uh-huh. for a long time. Fucked up.

Yeah. Yeah. In retrospect, most of the audience was fucked up. Yeah. And a good 50% of the musicians weren't that far behind me. Right. And 15% of them were ahead of me in terms of getting trashed.

But you were seeing guys drop, I imagine. Yeah. I had buddies, yeah, I had buddies who didn't make it. They OD'd first. They OD'd before they hit bottom. Yeah, right, right. And what happened to me was I hit bottom before I OD'd. Yeah.

And it was pretty close. Do you remember where you were and what happened? I was in New Zealand. That's in that pretty place. Yeah. Yeah. You were just hanging out? And I was at a place called Hawke's Bay.

Yeah. Which was the Maori capital 3,000 years ago. And there's an old fort there where about, I don't know, 4,000 people had lived. And this is the ruins of it, but for the Maoris, that's a holy place. And I had gone to New Zealand

and produced a band called The Herbs, H-E-R-B-S. Reggae band? New Zealand, yeah. Reggae band? New Zealand, yeah. Reggae is weird. New Zealand is Polynesia. It was Polynesia. It's like reggae, but it's not the Jamaican one.

Yeah. It's, you know. Different. Yeah. A little Polynesian flavor to it somehow? Is it a different rhythm? Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And they were the biggest band in New Zealand, so I made an album for them. And so I got accepted into the Maori community. So these were Maori guys? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Anyway, they took me up to the fort and I

looked out and felt a lot of mojo from where I was and I had a moment of clarity, shall we say. Yeah, I know the phrase. Yeah. Yeah. And that was, you're going to have to do something about this. Yeah. And it wasn't too long after that. I thought, look, I thought I would go in, do laundry, get some sleep, gain a little weight, get people off my back. That one, that part. Yeah, and then go out and pretend that I was only going to drink beer. go out and pretend that I was only going to drink beer. But I realized about a week into rehab that I can't say my life got better,

but it stopped getting worse. Yeah, yeah. And that was huge. I'll take it. I'll take it. And you're eating. Yeah. So I stuck around. Yeah. And I was huge. I'll take it. I'll take it. And you're eating. Yeah. So I stuck around.

Yeah. And I was done. Yeah. It's a lot easier when you're done. Yeah. And I saw in me, my health and my behavior, everything that my buddies who flamed out were doing. Yeah. Right. I knew it was inevitable.

You were going to die. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I didn't want to. Yeah. I didn't want to. So I decided that I would go in and get sober.

Yeah. Eagles, in the meantime, had broken up for 14 years i think so that's good timing for you i guess well don and glenn came to me out of a blue sky a clear blue sky and said we're thinking about getting the eagles together we can't do it without you and we can't do it unless you're sober. Do you think you could get sober? And I said, I don't fucking know. I'm pretty

sure I can. And this is the best reason I can think of. That and not dying. Yeah. Yeah. And you're going to get the eagles back together.

So I'll go in. Oh, that was the incentive too, yeah. Yeah. That was it. Oh, yeah. Between my moment of clarity. Yeah. And then when they did that.

And then at that time, when he first gets over as i remember like so you yeah there's there's no coincidences you're like you had the clarity don and glenn show up you're like no yeah yeah it's time to do this yeah yeah exactly and and so in early sobriety uh i became an outpatient i i i was gonna go in for a week and I stayed you know five weeks sure and inked it in yeah and then we started rehearsals for hell freezes over how is that for you really hard yeah really hard to play sober i bet after what 20 30 years really hard to yeah really hard to do anything sober right because you're self-conscious right

yeah terrified yeah yeah so i drank in the first place yeah terrified to get up in front of people. Yeah. So what helped you out? I just stuck to the program. I mean, I bumped into these guys at men's meetings, guys older than me who had been sober 30 and 40 years. Yeah. And I liked them. Yeah, yeah. They made sense. And they had been where I was. Yeah.

And- Makes it made sense. Yeah. And they had been where I was. Yeah. And. Makes it seem possible. Yeah. And I realize, you know, I'm not unique. Yeah. And different. Yeah. And one of a kind.

Yeah. Like I always have thought I was. Right. You're the special user. There's me and then there's everybody else. Yeah. No, I'm an alcoholic. Right.

And I thought, geez. It's a relief knowing who you are. Yeah. I get it. I'm an alcoholic. And these guys, I can tell them my worst nightmarish secrets. They can top it. Yeah.

And somebody knows what to do. Right, right. So somebody knew what to do about I'm terrified, what do I do? Yeah. And you got in the present and you dealt with it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And Hell Freezes Over came out and here we go. Yeah. A couple of big hits, and here we go. Yeah. A couple of big hits, back out on the road. Yeah.

And here I am. Yeah, and you're going again. Yeah. So, this is the first tour in a while? First tour after Glenn passed. That's right. We- That was sad, huh?

Wow. Yeah. Sorry, buddy. We thought he had more time than that yeah it was a it was a perfect storm of a couple things when you go in the hospital and you get an infection or you get pneumonia i don't know exactly what happened but that wasn't supposed to happen yeah yeah we thought that was it. I mean, Henley said, that's it.

There's no way to know. We can never, we can keep going. Yeah. And that's the way it was. And we were all sad for a long time, for a year. and Irving and Don and I kind of agreed, you know, we've got to at least try. Maybe we'll suck, and then we'll know.

Yeah. But we've got to at least try. And how are you, obviously he's irreplaceable, but how are they divvying up the songs who'd you bring in? we got Glenn's son Deacon who's really good 25

he doesn't have a clue what's going on and it's great it's great standing next to him and he's singing his dad's parts? he's singing his dad's parts does he sound like him? enough looks like him Great standing next to him. And he's singing his dad's parts? He's singing his dad's parts. Does he sound like him? Enough.

Looks like him. Sounds like him. Yeah. But he's Deacon. I mean, he's doing it his way. But, I mean, that, to me, makes it spiritually okay. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's almost like the next generation is the next step. It's an evolution. It's respectful. It's not like, you know. Yeah.

It's not like Journey. I mean, we couldn't just audition people that sound like Glenn. That would be weird. That wouldn't work. And the fans would be mad. Glenn was a lot more than that yeah right exactly and we asked vince gill to come and play he's on the tour yeah no shit he's in the band now holy fuck so we got deacon fry and vince gill uh we rehearsed vince had wanted to be in the Eagles

since he was 11 so now he is that must be a whole other and now you're playing with Vince yeah he's a fucking

monster on that guitar yeah jeez and he's the the the vocal part of

backgrounds and harmonies. He's real good at it. That were needed. Yeah. That's a hell of a band, man. So we had to at least try. Yeah. And we did.

Last year we played, I think, four shows. Oh, you did the big thing with Fleetwood Mac and all them, right? Yeah. And it worked. did the big thing with Fleetwood Mac and all them right yeah yeah yeah and it worked yeah and so then we decided we were going to tour and so far it's been great great man and and you know everyone's getting along and yeah that's great and Don's happy Don's happy how often does that happen well I spent the first three years of being in the Eagles just trying to figure out if he liked me or not. And then I realized, yeah, he likes me.

He's just hard on himself. It's the way he is. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's like, now do you find, I mean, maybe it's an offbeat question. I mean, it doesn't seem like you guys need the bread. You like doing it, right? We're doing it.

Yeah. Well, it was a bitch after Glenn passed. Yeah. We all dealt with it this way and that way. Yeah. But we had to at least try. Because, boy, you know, we broke up a lot of times for a couple weeks. Right. And then everybody said, geez geez do you miss playing yeah you know what were we mad about well i don't know okay let's go play and you love

playing yeah i love playing i don't know what else i would do and and neither does don yeah and do you find that like now that you've got all that sobriety, I mean, what is the primary difference between playing as sober as you are now and playing as good as you were of high? Yeah, yeah. What's the difference? I learned how to do it.

But does it feel different? I mean, do you appreciate it more? Do you get off on it more? Well, in terms of self-esteem i can do it not drunk right i never thought right that yeah do it yeah how can you be crazy rock and roll and do it sober yeah i never thought i'd be funny again yeah i i thought i was you know i didn't know what sober was i thought i was gonna just have a job and wear a tie you know and come home and read the paper you thought that was what's gonna happen yeah but when you play like you said before like you know you got to the point when you

were using that you could you like it's almost like you service the using like you could get away with playing and be as fucked up as you were. Yeah. Right. So now that you're clear-headed, I have to assume that playing takes a different dimension. Playing is so much fun. Yeah.

I mean, I got it as good as it gets. Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. We all do. Do you find that you learn new things? I have a band that's loved, and the audience knows all the songs, and I could be moving pianos. Right.

But do you surprise yourself on guitar? I imagine working with Vince now, you're sort of like, what the fuck? Yeah. Just to get in it with him has got to make you go like, holy fuck, this is something new. Well, I learned how to do it. Yeah. It took a while. Yeah.

knew well i learned how to do it yeah uh it took a while yeah and uh to not suck we really have to take care of ourselves and i hate that you know well we're all you know you know if we were drinking yeah we wouldn't have to do this stupid show no no we'd be sleeping we'd be sleeping. We'd be drinking. Yeah. Yeah. But- No one's getting any younger. To play. Yeah. And to do Eagle songs. Yeah. Right.

I got to go to the gym. Yeah. I don't like that. Yeah. I play better if I go to the gym. Do you? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And eat and take care of myself and discovering sleep was huge. Yeah, Oh, yeah. Yeah. And eat and take care of myself. And discovering sleep was huge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure, man. Yeah. Can you do it, the sleep? Can you do it all right? Yeah.

I don't sleep as much as I used to. I like to. Yeah. But I sleep. Yeah. And it's a bitch getting to the shows now. It's a whole different world. The big scale.

Yeah. Production and all that. You're traveling first class. It's comfortable now. Yeah. It's just a lot of hauling around, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.

But it's worth it for those two hours, two and a half hours on stage. Great. It just is. For every night. Come and hear us. I'd love to man so i i know that you got you guys um you've done a lot of you know uh good work philanthropically i read so yeah what what do you what are you doing to help man uh i i started a foundation, I don't know, a tax-free deal, a benefit cause called Vets Aid. I have a lot of buddies that went to Vietnam, and they didn't get a very good deal starting when they got home. It's a forgotten war, but we're still at war.

We are. We're at war. The guys that are coming home are shattered. There's been more vet suicides than people that have been killed over there. Wow. And I noticed between the coasts, there's this vast wasteland in the middle of the country that's different than L.A. and New York.

And if you're a vet there, you're all alone. And there are these little communities, little groups of vet-run places that you go to, you know? Yeah. And they work without a budget. Right. And I decided to follow Willie Nelson's lead and start Vets Aid. And this is to help the people I described.

Right, in the communities that don't get help. In the communities, in the counties, you know. And how does it work? Well, last year we did a concert. And Keith Urban came and Zach Brown and Gary Clark Jr. I asked them and they came, and I played, and we raised about a half a million dollars. Yeah. And that money went to keep all of these organizations going.

That's great. Yeah. Yeah. So you're going to, there's a- And we don't have a budget. Right. So you got a- I got another one coming up. Oh, great.

This is the second year. We're going to play in Tacoma, Washington, because last year was Virginia there's a huge military base there and it's November 11th who's playing? Chris Stapleton and James Taylor

and me so far we help Gold Star families those are families where a family member didn't come back. Special ops families don't come back. And so we started scholarships for the children to go to school. And there's prosthetic people still waiting for limbs. Yeah.

We help them, and we have job training for them because it's hard to get a job if you're missing a limb. Right, right. But if you have training and you can do something. That's great. And on and on and on. And the suicide prevention is the big thing. Yeah.

Yeah, because it's like when I came into AA. I'm not all unique and individual and alone. Yeah. I'm an alcoholic. Well, they got to think I'm not unique and individual and alone. I'm a vet. Yeah. Let's get them together. yeah yeah and we we invite families to the concert yeah and give them seats and we invite veterans

and handicapped there and give them seats and uh all the families get to meet each other and bond it's a really good thing. That's great, man. So that's November 11th. Is there a website? Yeah, vetsaid.org. Great, man. That's good. That's great you're doing that, Joe.

Yeah. And it was great talking to you. It was a real honor to meet you. I loved it. Thanks for coming. You're welcome. Thanks. We made some headway, didn't we?

That was Joe Walsh. If you somehow turned it on and you entered the middle of the conversation. It was great to meet him and talk to him. It was nice. And right when we walked out, he apologized for something. But I can't fucking remember what it was. So I guess it didn't bother me that much. But it was nice. It was a sober thing. Man, man i'm still stuffed up i'll try to play a little something Thank you. Boomer lives!

Boomer lives! Yes, we deliver those. Gold tenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth

at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction. Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th at 5 p.m. in Rock City at torontorock.com.