Joe Walsh After Two Decades, the Eagles’ Guitar Maestro Stands Alone Again by Russell Hall
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JUNE 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM JUNE 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM MUSICIAN acPherson M ndrew A JOE WALSH After two decades, the Eagles’ guitar maestro stands alone again By Russell Hall THE LAST TIME JOE WALSH RELEASED A SOLO ALBUM, Analog Man marks a return to the lyrical wit, melodic charm and grunge was the dominant new musical force, George H.W. Bush singular guitar work that distinguished Walsh’s finest recordings in was president and the internet was in its infancy. “I’m a deadline sort the ’70s. Notwithstanding the album’s title, the music was in fact of guy,” says Walsh when asked about the 20 years of solo silence recorded digitally—Electric Light Orchestra and Traveling Wilburys that preceded his new record, Analog Man. “A solo album just studio wiz Jeff Lynne joins Walsh on the album as co-producer. never got down to the wire. But it’s not as if I disappeared.” Indeed, Walsh’s wife, Marjorie, was instrumental in teaming up the two Walsh has been busy with the band he’s in—you know, the Eagles. men. “She said, ‘I love your music. It’s time for you to put it out. That said, Walsh carved out a considerable body of work even And by the way, here’s Jeff Lynne’s phone number,’” he recalls. “This before he became an Eagle in 1976. As the driving force in rock trio album probably wouldn’t have happened if my wife hadn’t pushed the James Gang, Walsh showcased his inventive approach to guitar me.” Guests on Analog Man include Graham Nash, David Crosby, on such classics as “Funk #49” and “Walk Away.” Launching his Rancid guitarist Tim Armstrong and Ringo Starr, who happens to be solo career in 1973, Walsh scored big with hits like “Rocky Mountain Walsh’s brother-in-law. “I’m blessed to have him in my life,” Walsh Way” and “Life’s Been Good.” But with the 1990s reunion of the says. “Just being around him gives me great energy.” From his L.A. long-dormant Eagles, and sporadic James Gang revivals, his days home, Walsh discussed the making of his new album, his formative of making solo albums seemed to come to an end. influences and how he achieves that singular guitar sound. ‘Technology ate the record business. I hope it doesn’t eat me.’ 50 M mag 20_cs6.indd 50 7/9/12 12:38 AM JUNE 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM JUNE 2012 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM MUSICIAN Onstage with Bruce Springsteen Images Winter/Getty Kevin at the Grammy Awards, Los Angeles, 2012 Inset: Henry Diltz ‘I had to get sober. That Walsh, Los Angeles, 1985 involved starting again from NORTHERN EXPOSURE the ground up.’ Walsh helped introduce the distinctive “talk box” sound to the world with his 1973 hit come out of a band with three guitarists, like What defines your sound? “Rocky Mountain Way.” Walsh recalls that the Eagles, and sit with just a drummer I always try to create spaces. Take electric he discovered the device through his and a bass player. You look around and rhythm guitar. If someone plays a rhythm connections to Nashville. “I became good think, “Where did everyone go?” But on part and a lead electric guitar is put on top friends with Dottie West, the classic country a good night, when everybody’s clicking, of that, that bothers me, because they get in singer,” he explains. “Her husband Bill West there’s nothing more powerful than a each other’s way. What I like to do instead is was a pedal steel player, and he actually three-piece band. You become a lead and a use an acoustic guitar for a rhythm part and invented the talk box. It was used once on a rhythm player at once. My main mentor, the then double that. The same part is there on record called ‘Forever’ by Pete Drake, then person who taught me “lead-rhythm,” was the recording, but it’s transparent—and that it went back into Bill West’s garage. In the Pete Townshend. Watching the Who perform makes the single electric guitar jump out. early ’70s, while I was at Dottie’s house, Bill Tommy, and watching Townshend play, was Through the years I’ve learned techniques gave it to me. He said, ‘Here, you put this end amazing. It showed what a three-piece band like that, about how best to place things into your mouth and … you’ll figure it out.’ For could accomplish. I miss those early days spatially. It all has to do with symmetry. The the first couple of months I sounded like a with the James Gang, because it does make symmetry and the spatial content of the severely injured duck, but eventually started you play a certain way. I don’t play that way music have to be there in order for me to to get the hang of it. After that I figured out in the Eagles. The fact that each member of be comfortable with it. That’s a gene I was how it was built and made one for myself. a three-piece band has to play a certain way born with. It’s in the way I’m wired, and it’s I still have the original Bill West gave me, creates a special magic. why my records sound the way they do. tucked away in a storage locker.” 52 M mag 20_cs6.indd 52 7/9/12 12:39 AM.