Joe (Fidler) Walsh

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Biography

Joe is an Amateur Radio Operator, Callsign: WB6ACU

Joseph Fidler was born on November 20, 1947^[1] in Wichita, Kansas, United States of America to Robert Newton Fidler and Dora Jay Newton. His mother was an avid piano player who brought music into the family’s humble home before Joe was old enough to discover rock n’ roll on the radio. He was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five after his biological father was killed in a plane crash. In the 1950s, it was common practice for Social Security, school registration, and health records for children to take the name of their stepfather, but Walsh's birth father's last name was Fidler, so he took that as his middle name.

When Joe was still young, he and his family relocated to Ohio, New York City, and then Montclair, New Jersey. In 1965 after high school, Walsh attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express: "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). After one term, he dropped out of university to pursue his musical career.

While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. Walsh holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU.^[2]

Joe Walsh has been married five times.^[3] He was married in 1967 to Marjori (Unknown) , divorced 30 September 1970

Married in 1971 to Stefany Amaro (born about 1950), divorced in 1978 with daughter Emma Kristen Walsh (1971 - 1974)

Married 10 April 1980, Santa Cruz Co., CA, to Juanita Jo Boyer , divorced in 1988 with daughter Lucy Marie Stanton Walsh

Married 15 May 1999 to Denise A. Driscoll , divorced in 2006.

Married to Marjorie Bach (Parents : M Howard Irwin Goldbach 1922-2001 & F Marjorie Mary McKnight 1921-1997) and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr)^[4] in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008.

He really came into his own in 1968, when he joined the Cleveland-based James Gang. One night in May, 1968, on the way to Detroit for a show at the Grande Ballroom opening for Cream, half the band quit. Needing the money to pay for gas to get home, the James Gang took the stage as a trio, and Joe was forced to learn on the fly how to carry rhythm and lead duties simultaneously. It proved a revelation. Reconfigured as a trio, the James Gang quickly developed a huge following in the Midwest and landed a record deal, leading to a 1969 debut album, Yer’ Album, that became an FM radio staple and drew the ears of guitar aficionados like Pete Townshend—who personally invited Joe and the James Gang to join the Who on tour. Townshend regarded Joe “a fluid and intelligent player” with few peers.

Soon the American public caught up in a big way, as the James Gang scored hits with singles like “Funk #49” and “Walk Away” and gold certifications for the albums James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), Recorded at Cleveland Recording Company, before Joe’s departure following the landmark 1971 live album, Live in Concert, recorded at New York City’s Carnegie Hall.

Despite the band’s upward trajectory, Joe found himself at a creative crossroads: the music he was hearing in his head no longer fit the trio format. He impulsively walked away from a band with consecutive gold albums and moved from Cleveland to a former mining village high in the Colorado Rockies to pursue an as-yet-undefined sound with a new set of collaborators. In typical Joe Walsh style, he found out about a new studio being built nearby and arranged to record there for next to nothing in exchange for working out the kinks in the untested room. The album became the much-loved self-titled 1972 debut by Joe’s next band, that included Kenny Passarelli and Joe Vitale and was called Barnstorm, and the studio became the legendary Caribou Ranch.

Passerelli and Vitale would also be the core backing band members for The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get (1973). While the albums were categorized by many as solo efforts, the three men functioned as a unit, and even played together on Friends and Legends by Michael Stanley. Even after Barnstorm broke up, Vitale continued to be a collaborator and friend of Walsh. Their most famous collaboration is the magnificent Pretty Maids All in a Row which appeared on the Eagles' Hotel California (1976).

Walsh made a name for himself as a solo artist with the hit Rocky Mountain Way off of The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get (1973). The song was inspired by Walsh's move to Colorado with his wife Stephanie and small child Emma Kristen. Tragically, Emma was killed in a car accident in 1974 while on her way to nursery school, an event which haunts Walsh to this day. He had a small drinking fountain built in her memory in her favorite park in Boulder, denoted by a simple plaque. His next album, So What (1974), contained a tribute to her entitled Song for Emma. He has said that even the album name was a result of Emma's death - that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain would eventually contribute to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany.

Unable to enjoy Colorado anymore, he moved back to L.A. He released a live album called You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind in 1976, but by that time he was tired of working alone and was looking for a band to join. He found it in the Eagles, who had just lost their main guitarist Bernie Leadon to creative differences. Once on board, he helped the Eagles craft their most famous album Hotel California which was released later that year. Adding a more rock-oriented edge to the Eagles in the place of Leadon's more country-flavored style, his contributions to the guitarwork of the title track and the famous riffs of Life in the Fast Lane are especially notable.

Walsh's tenure with the Eagles did not preclude him from releasing more work as a solo artist at the same time. The Eagles' slow pace making The Long Run (1979) was convenient in this aspect. He had time to release But Seriously Folks (1978) which produced his famous satire on rock stars, Life's Been Good. He also wrote In the City for the Warriors soundtrack, a song which would later appear on The Long Run.

All was not well within the ranks of the Eagles, however. Walsh's dissatisfaction with the heavy-handedness of Glenn Frey and Don Henley when it came to creative decisions led him to go so far as to discuss forming another band with bassist Randy Meisner and co-lead guitarist Don Felder (his seriousness here is debatable; when Meisner left and tried to pursue the idea, Walsh definitely wanted to stay with the Eagles). Regardless, the discord in the band led to tensions and hostility so pronounced that Henley was to call Walsh an "insidious troublemaker." The amount of alcohol and drugs circulating didn't help much either; Walsh had developed a drinking problem that he wouldn't be able to shake until the nineties.

It reached the breaking point when Felder and Frey got into a confrontation at a benefit show in 1980. Frey called it quits and the band broke up. Interestingly enough, Walsh seemed to think they were only on hiatus. He told an interviewer in 1981 that they weren't broken up but were just taking a break for solo careers. He stated that the band would no doubt get together again in a bit to record once more. While his hopes were dashed by the official announcement of the Eagles' breakup in 1982, ironically, he turned out to be right in the long run!

In the eighties, Walsh released the solo albums There Goes the Neighborhood (1981), You Bought It - You Name It (1983), The Confessor (1985), and Got Any Gum (1987). He also got married a third time and fathered a daughter, Lucy, who has entered the music business herself as a singer/pianist/songwriter. After that marriage failed, he was involved with Stevie Nicks for a brief period; Stevie wrote "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You" for Walsh.

In 1989, he went on tour as a member of Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band, a collection of former solo musicians that toured together, each one playing a couple songs. These "all-starrs" included musicians like Nils Lofgren and Billy Preston. (He was to tour with the band again in 1992, this time joined by former and future Eagles bandmate Timothy B. Schmit). He also recorded an MTV Unplugged in 1989. Despite these positives, a brief attempt to reunite the Eagles in 1990 failed largely due to Frey's disapproval of the lifestyles of Walsh as well as Henley, and Walsh became discouraged. By 1991, he was even telling interviewers that he didn't care about his albums anymore when "promoting" Ordinary Average Guy (1991). His alcoholism was just as bad as ever, if not worse, and it had gotten to the point where he couldn't even remember the words to his songs half the time in his 1991 concerts opening for the Doobie Brothers. His 1992 album Songs for a Dying Planet quickly slid into obscurity.

In 1993, though, things started looking up. Walsh and Frey mended fences and toured together briefly as the "Party of Two." To this day, the Party of Two occasionally resurfaces for corporate gigs and even a public gig once in a blue moon.

Then, the Travis Tritt video for Take It Easy that same year sparked the famous Hell Freezes Over reunion in 1994. The reunion had a condition that Walsh couldn't ignore: Frey demanded that everyone be sober. Walsh related the story that in 1994 he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.^[5] Finally, Walsh was able to kick the habit that had plagued him for so many years. (In 2005, Walsh's struggle was the inspiration for his song One Day at a Time, and he has appeared at functions to inspire recovering alchoholics many times. Walsh has speculated that his addiction may have been triggered by "self-medicating" for his ADD). The MTV special, album, and tour were wildly successful, thrusting Walsh into the spotlight once again as he proved to audiences that he had not lost it - that he was in fact better than ever.

The upswing continued when a few years later, Walsh married a fourth time to a lady named Denise who gave him two sons. Additionally, in 1998, he joined the rest of the Eagles as an inductee into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2001 he received an honorary doctorate from Kent State University.

The Eagles toured off and on from 1999-2006, promoting greatest hits packages and a live DVD called Farewell 1 (2005), before releasing what was to be their last new album.

In 2007, they released the long-awaited Long Road Out of Eden. This album included the Walsh/JD Souther song "Last Good Time in Town," as well as Walsh's cover of the Frankie Miller song "Guilty of the Crime." They toured extensively for this as well.

Despite the busy schedule of the Eagles, Walsh found time for projects of his own. In 2006, his old band the James Gang reunited for a short tour. Walsh also conducted a brief solo tour in the summer of 2007. On a personal note, he married once again; his current wife is Marjorie Bach, sister-in-law to Ringo Starr. With her encouragement, he released his first solo album in twenty years: Analog Man (2012). He engaged in a tour to promote the album, including filming a special CMT Crossroads, in between Eagles tour stops.

In 2013, the Eagles releaed a documentary called History of the Eagles and toured for two years, playing all over the world. Then, in 2016, Glenn Frey tragically died at the age of 67. Everyone thought the Eagles were finished without their leader and co-founder. Even Don Henley said so.

However, Henley changed his mind, and in 2017 Joe Walsh was called upon to join a new Eagles which would now find Glenn's son Deacon and Vince Gill on stage beside him. How long the band will continue like this remains to be seen.

Sources

1. ↑ "about: Joe Walsh". JoeWalsh.com. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
2. ↑ Universal Licensing System – WB6ACU". Federal Communications Commission.
3. ↑ Joe Walsh Biography, JoeWalshOnline.com, retrieved May 18, 2014
4. ↑ Joe Walsh & Ringo Starr: Bandmates, Brothers-In-Law, WZLX, July 27, 2012, retrieved May 18, 2014
5. ↑ Whitaker, Sterling (August 2, 2012), "Joe Walsh to Run for Congress?", Ultimate Classic Rock, retrieved May 1, 2014

See also:

• Wikipedia contributors, "Joe Walsh," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joe_Walsh&oldid=708428552 (accessed March 6, 2016).