Joe Walsh

• 1. Introduction

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  Joe Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980 on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone." He promised that if he won, "Life's Been Good" would become the new national anthem. He was only 32, three years short of the 35 the office requires, and he knew it. He said he simply wanted people to pay attention to the election. The joke candidate was already one of rock's best-known guitarists. In 2011, Rolling Stone ranked him No. 54 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. His career has lasted six decades. It has taken him through the James Gang, the Eagles, a reggae band from New Zealand and a long run of solo albums. How does a pilot's son from Wichita, Kansas, end up there? What happens when a famously careful band hires a guitarist who might be too wild? And what did a hilltop visit in New Zealand have to do with whether he got through his own success?

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• 2. Wichita To Kent State

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  Joseph Woodward Fidler was born on the 20th of November 1947 in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was an Air Force pilot. He died on the 22nd of July 1949, in a mid-air collision during maneuvers over Okinawa, flying a Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star. His mother, Helen, was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry. At the age of five, the boy was adopted by his stepfather and took his surname, Walsh. He kept Fidler as a middle name.

  The family lived for several years in Columbus, Ohio. When he was twelve, they moved to New York City, and Walsh later settled in Montclair, New Jersey. At Montclair High School he played oboe in the school band. He also played tight end on the football team for a short time, until an injury ended it.

  In his late teens, Walsh would take the bus into Manhattan and stand outside the Bitter End club to hear the Lovin' Spoonful. He was too young to be allowed inside. He did the same outside the Peppermint Lounge, where Joey Dee and the Starliters were playing.

  Walsh got his first guitar at the age of 10. After he learned the Ventures' "Walk Don't Run," he decided he wanted to be a guitarist. The success of the Beatles pushed him further. He replaced Bruce Hoffman on bass in the Nomads, a locally popular group in Madison, New Jersey, and his career as a rock musician began.

  After high school, Walsh briefly attended Kent State University in Ohio. He planned to major in English and minor in music. In 1965, he and three other Kent State students formed a garage bar band called the Measles. Walsh led it and sang. Two of its songs, "I Find I Think of You" and "And It's True," ended up on the Ohio Express album Beg Borrow and Steal. An instrumental take of "And It's True" was retitled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the Beg Borrow and Steal single.

  Walsh has also said he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. In 2012 he recalled, "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he left college to pursue music. The band that would make his name was one he joined by knocking on a door.

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• 3. The James Gang

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  Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz decided to leave the band and move to California. There he went on to form Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked for a tryout as his replacement. He was accepted. The band stayed a five-piece for a short while. Then Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school, left, and Bill Jeric followed in the spring of 1968.

  In May 1968, the group opened for Cream at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit. At the last minute, Ronnie Silverman, who had just returned from the military, told the others he would not play the show. The band badly needed the money, so it went on as a trio. The members liked the sound and kept it that way.

  Manager Mark Barger was also handling the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." He put the Gang in touch with ABC Records producer Bill Szymczyk. Szymczyk signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969. Their debut, Yer' Album, came out that year.

  In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss quit. Fox later recalled Kriss telling him and Walsh, "I hate this band. I hate the music we're making. I don't think I can play it anymore." Dale Peters, from a group called the Case of E.T. Hooley, took his place. That lineup became the most successful the James Gang ever had.

  Walsh was the star attraction, known for inventive rhythm playing and creative riffs. He hot-wired the pickups on his electric guitars to produce his trademark "attack" sound. In 1969, he also sold his 1959 sunburst Gibson Les Paul to Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin for "about $1,200." Page called it his "Number 1."

  Later in 1969, Szymczyk arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah. Two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," were used in it. Vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in for those recordings so Walsh could concentrate on guitar. He was gone by the time the group reached Mexico to shoot its scenes.

  Shortly before the release of James Gang Rides Again, the band opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Pete Townshend met with them and was impressed enough to invite them on the Who's next European tour. Walsh said, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good." In 1970, Walsh gave Townshend a 1959 Gretsch 6120. Townshend used it in the studio on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.

  James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971) produced "Funk 49" and "Walk Away." James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with the band, as he had grown dissatisfied with its limitations. Peters and Fox carried on with vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano, and released Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru in 1972. Troiano left in 1973. Tommy Bolin, recommended by Walsh, took the guitar seat.

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• 4. Barnstorm In Colorado

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  In December 1971, Steve Marriott of Humble Pie asked Walsh to move to England and join his band after Peter Frampton left. Walsh declined. He moved to Colorado and formed Barnstorm with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale and bassist Kenny Passarelli. The albums credited Walsh as a solo artist.

  Recording for the debut began right after the band formed, at first with only Walsh and Vitale in the sessions. Chuck Rainey played the first bass tracks, and Passarelli soon replaced them. The album Barnstorm came out in October 1972.

  Taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh used an ARP Odyssey synthesizer on songs such as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go." He also experimented with acoustic and slide guitar, effects pedals, a fuzzbox, a talk box and keyboards. Running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 gave him a swirly, organ-like tone. Critics liked the record, though sales were only moderate.

  The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get arrived in June 1973 and was the commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. Its leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way," got heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40. Keyboardist Rocke Grace joined, and Walsh shared vocals and songwriting with the other three members. The album moves through blues, jazz, folk, pop and Caribbean music.

  Duane Allman, co-founder of the Allman Brothers Band with his brother Gregg, taught Walsh the slide guitar technique. Allman had already made a standout turn on Eric Clapton's 1970 double album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, as a drop-in contributor to Derek and the Dominos. In late 1974, Walsh played slide on Vitale's debut solo album, Roller Coaster Weekend.

  Barnstorm disbanded in 1974, and Walsh carried on alone. Its final tour ran in the spring of 1975, shortly after he joined the Eagles.

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• 5. Eagles Years

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  Producer Bill Szymczyk suggested Walsh to the Eagles. In 1975 he joined as guitarist and keyboardist, replacing founding member Bernie Leadon. There was early concern that Walsh could not fit in. Drummer and co-lead vocalist Don Henley in particular thought he was far too "wild" for the band's sound.

  Hotel California, released on the 8th of December 1976, was the Eagles' fifth studio album and the first with Walsh. It took a year and a half to finish, which drained the band along with touring. Its title track, the second single, topped the charts in May 1977. Henley sang lead, and Don Felder and Walsh played the guitar duet. In 1998, a Guitarist magazine reader's poll named their solos the best guitar solos ever. Guitar World ranked the song eighth in its Top 100 Guitar Solos.

  The hard-rock "Life in the Fast Lane," released on the 3rd of May 1977, was built on a Walsh riff. It reached No. 11 and helped secure his place in the group. In 1973, Walsh had supplied the slide solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters." He later lifted part of it for the Eagles hit.

  Founding member Randy Meisner abruptly left after the 1977 tour, and Hotel California was his last album. Timothy B. Schmit replaced him, as he had earlier done in Poco. The next album, The Long Run, took until the 24th of September 1979 to finish. Some critics found it a letdown after Hotel California. It still topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. "Heartache Tonight," the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why" all reached the Top 10. Walsh's "In the City" also got heavy airplay. He had first contributed it to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979. The band also recorded the Christmas song "Please Come Home for Christmas," which reached No. 18 as a single in 1978. The Eagles broke up in July 1980.

  In 1993, a country tribute album called Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles appeared, thirteen years after the split. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy," and they agreed. The band formally reunited the following year. At the first live show in April 1994, Glenn Frey announced, "For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation."

  The tour produced the live album Hell Freezes Over, named for Henley's recurring line that the band would return when hell froze over. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and sold 6 million copies in the US. Its four new studio songs included the Top 40 hits "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive." The tour paused in September 1994 when Frey's diverticulitis recurred. It resumed in 1995 and ran into 1996.

  In 1998, the Eagles entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame followed in 2001. At the induction, all seven members played together, including Leadon and Meisner. They performed "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California." In 2007, the band released the single "How Long," written by JD Souther, and then the album Long Road Out of Eden. It was their first album of all-new material since 1979. It debuted at number 1 in the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway. A world tour followed in 2008.

  With the Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards. The last of them, in 2009, was Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "I Dreamed There Was No War."

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• 6. Solo Albums

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  In December 1974, Walsh released So What, his first album not treated as a Barnstorm project. It was more introspective, with songs such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song for Emma." Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles sang backing vocals on a few tracks.

  Emma Kristen was Walsh's eldest daughter. She was born on the 29th of April 1971 and died on the 1st of April 1974, just short of her third birthday, from injuries in a car accident on her way to nursery school. Walsh has said the album's title came from the feeling that nothing else seemed important in the months afterward. The strain contributed to the end of his marriage to his second wife, Stefany. He placed a drinking fountain and memorial plaque in North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado, where she used to play. In 1984, while touring with Stevie Nicks, he took her to the fountain. That visit inspired Nicks to write "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" for her 1985 album Rock A Little.

  In March 1976, Walsh put out the live album You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles. In May 1978, while the band struggled to follow up Hotel California, he released the well-reviewed But Seriously, Folks... Its single "Life's Been Good" is a comic portrait of rock stardom. It peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains his biggest solo hit.

  After the Eagles split, Walsh kept making solo records through the 1980s, though sales never matched his earlier success. There Goes the Neighborhood peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. Its lone single, "A Life of Illusion," topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1981. Walsh had recorded it in 1973 with Barnstorm but never finished it. It later opened the film The 40-Year-Old Virgin and is the first song on its soundtrack.

  In May 1983, You Bought It - You Name It drew mostly negative reviews and peaked at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Its single "Space Age Whiz Kids" found moderate success with a song about the height of the 1980s video arcade craze. The next album, The Confessor, involved Stevie Nicks, his new girlfriend. Her old friend Keith Olsen produced it, with Los Angeles session players such as Jim Keltner, Jeff Porcaro and Waddy Wachtel. Got Any Gum? followed in 1987, produced by Terry Manning, with vocals from JD Souther and Survivor's Jimi Jamison. It was a commercial disappointment.

  Ordinary Average Guy arrived in 1991 on the Epic label, with Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison and Joe Vitale among its guests. In 1992, Walsh released Songs for a Dying Planet and brought back his old producer Bill Szymczyk. Its song "Vote for Me" peaked at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. In all, Walsh has released 12 solo studio albums.

  His most recent, Analog Man, appeared in June 2012, co-produced by Jeff Lynne. Tommy Lee James co-wrote some tracks. One of them, "One Day at a Time," describes his struggles with alcohol and drugs earlier in his career.

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• 7. Detours And Sessions

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  In late 1984, Australian bassist Paul Christie, formerly of Mondo Rock, invited Walsh to play with the Party Boys. This all-star band had a floating lineup of Australian rock musicians, including guitarist Kevin Borich, who became a good friend. Walsh toured with them and appeared on their live album You Need Professional Help. He stayed on in Australia and assembled a short-lived band called Creatures From America, with Waddy Wachtel, Rick Rosas and drummer Richard Harvey. After the disappointment of Got Any Gum?, he went back in 1989 to tour with another version of the Party Boys.

  That same year, Walsh toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, and he did so again in 1992. He mixed a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other members. In 1989, he recorded an MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. He also filmed a concert at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.

  In 1989, while producing the album Homegrown, Walsh briefly joined the New Zealand reggae band Herbs. He had left by the time it came out in 1990, but he sings lead on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright." The album also holds the first recording of "Ordinary Average Guys," sung by the late bassist Charlie Tumahai. It later became Walsh's solo hit "Ordinary Average Guy."

  In late 1990, Walsh joined a band called the Best, with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. It played several shows in Hawaii and Japan, and a live video came out of them. In 1993, he teamed with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States. That year he also formed an informal group called the Flew, with Terry Reid, Nicky Hopkins, Rick Rosas and Phil Jones. It played one show, at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. It was the last public performance of Nicky Hopkins before his death.

  Walsh's session work reaches back to 1974, when he produced Dan Fogelberg's album Souvenirs. He also played guitar, ARP bass and backing vocals on it. He called on Graham Nash to sing harmony on "Part of the Plan," which helped lift the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard chart. In 1981, Walsh and Joe Vitale worked on John Entwistle's fifth solo album, Too Late the Hero, which became his best-charting solo record. Walsh played the first guitar solo on Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry." He also contributed to albums by Ringo Starr, America, REO Speedwagon, Andy Gibb, Wilson Phillips, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Steve Winwood, and to Richard Marx's single "Don't Mean Nothing."

  In the mid-1980s, Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles station KLOS, and he guest-hosted far more often than anyone else. On screen, he appeared in The Blues Brothers as a prisoner dancing on a table, and played Ed in seven episodes of The Drew Carey Show. In 1998, ABC wanted a classic rock song for Monday Night Football. It asked Walsh to rewrite "Rocky Mountain Way" for Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway. The result was "Rocky Mountain Elway," and Walsh appeared in the video.

  The James Gang reunited too. In 1996 the classic lineup of Walsh, Peters and Fox played for President Bill Clinton at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center, on the 4th of November. In 2006, they made new recordings and played a 15-date summer tour. In September 2022, the reunited band played the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium in London. Dave Grohl sat in as a second drummer on "Funk 49." Three weeks later they repeated the three-song set at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, with Grohl again on "Funk 49."

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• 8. Beyond The Stage

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  Walsh says he struggled with alcohol and drugs for most of his early career, and he has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with Herbs, he visited Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand. In 2004 he returned and told the people there, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity." He credited that visit with starting his recovery. It also gave him the courage to seek help once he was back in America. That October, he gave talks across New Zealand warning of the dangers of substance abuse, as a thank-you to the people who had taken him there.

  He also describes a second turning point. In 1991 he blacked out on a flight to Paris and arrived with his passport but no memory of boarding. He has been sober since. Stevie Nicks told the UK's Q magazine, "Joe and I broke up because of the coke." She also called him "the great love of my life."

  While living in New York City, Walsh developed a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class license, and his callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006 he donated an autographed guitar to the American Radio Relay League in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has supported the league's "Big Project," which brings amateur radio into schools. He has hidden Morse code messages on two albums. "Register and Vote" is on Barnstorm, and "Register and Vote for Me" is on Songs for a Dying Planet. He also provides the theme song for the podcast Ham Nation, which debuted in 2011.

  Kent State University gave Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001, and in 2008 he funded its first talent-based scholarship. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded him an honorary doctorate, along with other members of the Eagles. He has given to halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita. He has served on the board of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation since the 1980s and is now its President, working to preserve the island's parks.

  Walsh's jokes about running for office did not stop in 1980. In 1992, he ran for vice president alongside Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" In 2017, he contacted the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr. and Keith Urban to organize VetsAid, a concert series modeled on Willie Nelson's Farm Aid. In 2012, he told WASH in Washington, D.C., that he was considering a serious run. "I think I would run for Congress," he said, adding that Congress was so dysfunctional that things were "dead in the water."

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