life's been good to joe walsh

7/28/2019 Life's Been Good to Joe Walsh

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0[I haoe a mnsion, forget the priceAin't neaer been there, they tell rc it's

niceI liae in hotels, tear out the ualls .I hate accountants pag for it all,

-Joe Walsh,"Life's Been Gmd"

n the Road with Joe W*lsh"sounds like an assignment fraughtwith danger and ripe with stim-ulating possibilities. Walsh, oneofthe biggest stars ofthe '70s, isone ofrock's larger-thanlife chu-{cters. a mass of @ntradictions

who recorded Ravel's "Pavane of theSleeping Beauty" and curies a chainsawon the road with him in case he feels likedoing some late-night remodeling of hishotel room.

The cabbie driving me from the airportinto Chicago recounts a rirmor that Walshonce did S20,000 worth of dmage to aroom in one of the city's finest hotels."Just because a guy's talentd, thatdoesn't mean he's a great person," saysthe driver. "If you're giftid, there's no-thing you can do about it. Babe Ruth wasgreat, but he ate and drank too much andhe screwed women all the time."

"Are you going to see Joe Walsh to-night?" I uk.

"Hell, no," he replies. "I've only everbeen to one sncert. I hate the waypeople behave at concerts, I like therowdiest music, and that brings out therowdiest people." An omen?

Walking into the Poplu Creek MusicTheatre in the Chicago suburbs, one ofmy companions points and gtggles at a

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teenager who is having some difficultystaying on his feet. "Don't laugh," scoldsanother member ofour party, "He's wear-ing a leg brace,"

'"Leg brace, hell," replies the first."He's trying to smuggle a beer can in hispant leg."

I make hit records, my fans theg can'taait

Theg write w letters, tellw I'm great

So I got rc an office, gold recar^ onthe uall

lust leaae a rcssage, maybe I'll call.

-"Life's Been Good"

Even getting an interview with Walsh

-who came to famewith the James Cmg

and then subsequently put a successfulsolo career on hold to join the Eagles-isunusual. His manager, lruing Azoff, rep-resents the kind of musicims who "don'tneed" publicity, and the Eagles are *reclusive as a bmd can getr they're eithertoo busy recordingor too busyon the roador too busy taking time of to do in-teruiews. But Walsh, on the road to sup-port There Goes the Neighborhoodlhissemnd solo album since joining theEagles-hm agreed to talk with me.

The show begins with two older songs,"Meadows" and "Over and "Over."Walsh livens things up with "In ihe City,"from the Ea{es' The Inng Run, Thesound is loud, lean and energeticr Walsh'sis ihe onl1, gultar, supported by MikeMurphy on keyboards, George "Choco-late" Perry on bass, Russ Kunkel ondrums, and longtime Walsh rosociateJoe Vitale on a little ofeverything, fronrdrums to flute to keyboards.

Walsh's attention doesn't seem to driftout past the edge ofthe stage very much.It's not that he doesn't care about theaudience, but rather it seems that he'skeeping eye contact with his players andevaluating the perfonnance as it progres-ses. Cryptic glances and quick smiles passhetween Walsh and Vitale. The audienceresponds to each song enthusiasiically.

During "Funk #49," drummersKunkel and Vitale toss sticks back andforth during a dual solo, It's a trick theyinverrted spontaneously n couple ofshowsback, and it's a huge hit with the fans-and with Walsh, who grins apprecia-tively. After two more songs from thenew album, Walsh launches into hismsterpiece, "Life's Been Cood," thenleaves the stage to thunderous applause.The encores are "Rocky Mountain Way,"

ffirl"All Night Long"-which is reprised acouple oftimes as the audience continuesits clamor-and, ffnally, The Beatles'"Get Back."

I go to parties, sowtircs until fourIt's hard to leaxe when ym can't find

the doonIt's tough to handle, this fortune and

fo*Exerybody's so dffirent, I hawn't

changbd.*"Life's Been Cood"

Aniving bv plane in Detroit, I realizethat I've been with the NeighborhoodTour for a dav and two nights now (notnecessarily in ihat order), and haven'tbeen within 30 feet of my quury, I'm notsure he even knows lm ;rlong. I have,however, met the Real Jerw Aldini. Re-member that character Bill Murravplayed on Saturdny Night Liae, thLpromo man for "Polv Sutra Records"whose mmtra is "let's take a meeting"PHe is about as deep as the groove on a45, though he obviously fim enoughreal heart to be a great guy if f,eonly knew how. He arrives at the North-field Hilton wearing a turquoise bowlingshirt with someone else s first namestitched over the pockit, ud he has twoattractive women-in tow. The band hrostopped playing and the bar is nealyemptyr but our party is just beginning..The Real Jerry Aldini regales us wiihhilarious off-color jokes and says thingslike. "l'm talking serioas buman beinghere. ' I'm not the"only one who cm't keeia straight face while looking him in theeye, but the professionals among us ad-mire this guy's devotion and effectivenessat his job, which is essentially to partywith radio and record store people andmake them want to sell Elektrai Asylumproduct.

Walsh and the band view a video tapeof this evening's show, the lirst of'two^atthe Pine Knob Theatre outside Detroit.while we wait downstairs in the bar, ThenWalsh retires and the band members joinus. We adjourn to a room well-stockedwith Heinekens and wine, and talk untildawn, The most outrageous antic that

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-you should have seen us runlSo I took some heliopteriessons, andthen I thought, "Wait a minute--livhaiam I doingPl Why would I want to do t}is?

What else do gou do for fun?I'm hn apprentice blacksmith. Not

horseshoes-l just work with wroughtiron. It's really firn.

oto: Jim Shea

happens all night is foe Vitale launching acouple of bottle rcckets from the tenaceofhis rcom while we watch fiom ours. Themyth withers,

Luckg l'mthrough

sane after alJ I'oe been

-'LiG's Eeen Gmd"

Until everybody bought everything.I would have chmged the national an-

them to, probably, "Life's Been Gmd,"I'm tired of that other one, Or mavbe"louie, Louie" or "Twist and Shout." Canyou imaglne singing "Twist md Shout" eta ball game?

I also think everybody should have hisown nucler remtor, so you ould tum upyour amp ro loud as you want and every-body's fiont yud would lmk better be-cause they're wouldn't be any powerlines. Makes sense t(r me

Seriouslg, hou do gou feel about thenuclear reactor near gour hm in SantaBarbara? Are you planning to do ang-thing about it?

Yeah, move. It's a shme. They're go-ing to build nuclear reactors whether wewmt them or not" We get to vote onwhether the Republicans do it or theDemmrats do it.There's no such thing as a safe nuclerreactor. What if the terrcrists get into it?It's.all over. But.what are you gonna do?Thatls why I'm very zen about it- there'jnothing you can do,

One ofthe rexons my songs have satiri-cal mntent is that I'm really fieaked. Ican't.believe that we're fuchng up theplmet like we ue. We're going to screwup the life-support system, dnd wd're notdoing anything about it. I cm't under-stand why mankind would let that hap-pen. It's almost to the point where tech-nology is one ofour worst enemies.

Hell, I don'tknowwhatto do about it. Isuplmse I sbould get real active, but if I

did that I d prebably be in a lotofrouble,I'm not a fatalist, you know, and.I'm noteying the world's going to eome to onend. But you can't go up against Westing-house. Making gmd music-that's myjob.

It sags in your bio that gou flghelicopters. Is that true?

I'm not certlffed, but I tmk about fif"teen hours ofinstructlon. I thought may.be it would be fun, but my dad wu hlledin theAirForceinaplanecrmh, mdljustdon't really enjoy planes that much. AndJoe Vitale and I have been in two plmecrashes-one in a twin-engine Cessnaand the other on a mmmercial flight.

The ommercial one wro in Denver.Blew an engne on takeofl blew out thehydraulic systim md, the bmkup hy-draulic system. It wro the main takeofengine, so they muldn't get the landing

gear dom, had no steering of the frontwheBl, and no brakes. We were about1000 feet of the ground, md we had tocircle around and mme down with nowheels. We buely made the runway-itwas pretty biffie.

In the Cessna, it wu snowing and theplane was towed out to the runway. Thetow was hmked up wrong, md it shearedthe pin off the &ont wheel. Right whenwe were taking oS the pilot felt the wheelgo. He chose not to t*e ofi becausewe muldn't have landed, He shut itdom, except we ran out of runway [slightlaugh]. We ended up pointing straightdown, with the plane smoking and gudripping everyrvhere. Boy, we moved frot

fru 1fLngn, or- chop one off.

Well, I don't want to be a pussy justi ause I play the guitar.

When did gou slarl plaging the guiturPI wu about 17. I started not really play-

,.ing, but trying to tute up. It took me two, ye4rs to leain how to tune up. And justworking out chords and stuff

I was tremendously influenced by TheBeatles. Really, that ivas.what did it*I'srrw them on Ed Silllian.and I said,"Hey, those guys are cool."

Did you moe around a lot when youuere a kid?

Yeah. My dad was in the insurance bus-iness. I lived in Columbus. Ohio. for awhile. then Chicago, and cventuallyended up living in New YQik City forjunior high schml, and then New Jerseyfor high school. So I kind ofhave trarelingin my blood, just from living for threelyear periods in diferent prts of thecountry. I ended up being kind ofa loner.It's hard on any kid*yorr make friends,and then you leare them. I w{s cautiousabout maldng friends, because I kuewwe'd prcbably be moving,

J had a lot of time. and I was reallymusical. I played clarinet, and I errded upplaying first oboe in high.schml, mostlybecause I got io get out of homeroom" iplayed trombone for a while, t@, md I

'always ended up hating whatever instru-ment I was playing at the time because Ihad to stay in ahd practice every day.Guita wasjust something that I decided Iwanted to play, so I kind oftaugfrt myself.

At the end qf high,school, I went toKent State Universtty. I wanted to stayhome and be in a band I'd gotten togetherduring my senior yetr. bit my parentsreally fought me about il. In retrcspect,the best thing my ptrents ever did wmmake me go to ollege.

I majored in English, minored inmusic, and took a lot of electroniesmurses. I didn't go to clms very much,though, I got in a band at a bu dom-town, and I never really went home afterthat. My parents were kind ofupset that Iwmn'l doing well in school, but I wasplaying four sets a night, four nights.aweek, doing the Top 20.

In those days, ifyou knew Beatles andRolling Stones songs, you could play my-where. I played lead, md I tried to spywhat George Harison had played, prettymuch note-for-note. I lemed how to fixthings-when the amp blew up. I had toget tnside md fix it, beeause nobody elsewas going to.do it and we had to play. Inthe daytime, I prrcticed and worked onmy equipment. I really lemed how tohotwite guitm md soup up amps. I cm'tcomprehend guitar players who don't un-derstand how their stufrworks. lfyou playelectric guittr. my God. that's put of it-you should be able to mver your ss.Eventually, after leaming all thoseleads, I decided itwro all right to change ita little bit here md there-to improvise.I was studyingClapton, Page, Beck, udalot of diferent playe_rs, learning theirsongs note for note. Thatt really the wayto leam guitar-study everybody md

Fae to hce, joe Walsh ls anything butbloodthirsty..At fint, it's had to keep hisattention u his eyes repeatedly tum to atelevision set whose sound is tumed ofr.He clucks with mncem at graphicsflashed on the screen indicatilng'thattomado watches are up for the area,hoping it won't iain on his,fans, whosetickets read "rain or shine."

Forty-erght houm after picking up thdtour, I am sitting in tG Walsh's hotelroom with my tape recotder rclling. Nota stick of fumiture is out of olace,

iis"{k#,#ffi#What s*ape do gou wppose the cruntrywould be in if gou had won gour wckbidor the Presidzncg tn 1980?

Probably much better shape than it isn. There tre some things I woirld haveone immediately, such asfree money forverybody. Give all the poor people aunch of money. and they rcn't be pmrnymore. That'd take cre ofthat problem* everybody'd have lots of rnoney, and

we ould biry everything we want, right?

or a uhile , anvuav -

Jl,JtYt7,1981l8AM t9


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Photo: PauI NatkinlPhoto Reseree

music and rck md roll.This may sound weird, but I'm not

interested in writing hit songs. I do thatwith the Eagles*mmmercial poten-tial, you know? I just enjoy being ableto do whatever I want, and I like to havecontrsting things, work with strangerhylhms. I enjo) music and tcxturerand how they fit together and how theydon't. much more than trying lo write ahit single.

The retord company is excited ahorrtlhis alhum. and rhev suv. 'What do you

llrirrk lhe sinsle i.: an.l I sav Fic1.guys, I don't even care." I don't uonl rnumlrcr one single-look what hap-pened to Peter Frampton. Ile got hugesingles. then that got more imp')rt,6tand nohodv listened to his albums thalmut h. T wrnt to be knom lbr cn jrryrrlrleulbums. .njoyuble rnusi


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ay thb:guW,r:''t".u n hol,Irngt p1tiIur, r,r lrtitartoiLi!t,:\thile wu're at tlrc pianol

\1e11. "Tbirgs" lon Thera Coes the\cighborltoodl is r good example ofthat.I rr. 'te h:rlf.rl Thiirgr' ,rr keybrrarrl andlr ,lt,'r, fuitnr -l hrrt i r trrrr ong. I lr.rd thrrtall qrrrked orrt. brrt I had no idea ofwhatto urite aborrt. So I got a legal pad andI'iJl, rl rt up $ilh .il1 kind\ rrlthings thar Icorrld urite about, and it still didn't getme anwrherc I was really kind oflost,ancl tlien I lookt'cl at n'hirt I'd writtcndo*n ancl thought. "Holy snokes, dicl\1)rl r.\'er think horv many flings thereare: I qotta *,rite alnut all tire things!" SoI tried to put it in rhvme, and l. ded upuith .rlrrrrt 5{l rnnr,. lhinqr th,rir *trr.rllln,iilie il nn thc rrcorrl. lf I dn arrrrther solualbun. I'think I'll have "Things, part 2."

Do t1r,t1 44lq reu,rr! thc u.uV ThL. Eaglettlo"\r,t leirllr. rrr. l{r,nlev ir a rell per-Ierltdllist . it r_lrives him cruzr iI llrirrgsaren't just right, I think Irn willirg t0rarri{lre tr.thnicrl prtcisiorr- TIJ ercnrllrnv rr hl;ttarrt gool on certirirr.ong\ iIanoverirll take has the magic.

Hou long did it take to rmkeThere Coesthe Neiqhborhood?

It took rraybe ten weeks -threeonths-lrut it was over u period of ayt,tr- in hehveen Eagles commitments. Isir( in n0 hrrrry - I d get a rcuple oftunes ud we'd go into the studio for au eek or so and track them down, then I dgowork rrn orerdrrbs. tt's reallythebestoflrolh worlds. hecau.e I don t get burnedout on a solo project*I c{n wait until Ihur

e s,rmelhing kr sry, and I c.an he in ubrnd to,r.Being in the [agles haS aliowed me a lot

rlf time to rvrite snine new ild interestingstuff. A iot ofsolo people have contractua'iohligrtions with the retord company todeliver un alhum. und maybe they don thar e ,rnvthing new to say but it's time forthem to deliver an rlbum, so the result islike "here's an album ofsome more songsthr{ sound just like tbe other ones. thatcorrld have heen on the album before.'I-m rea) lucky. because I had time. Thewhole.album was kind oflike u side proj-ect, almost a hobby, in betwi:e" Iiagiecommitmenfs. And I got to wait until Ihad some new stuff

I like it because it shows progression. Iwanted to make it good music---I thinkthat's really importrnt. Therels a lot ofnoise out no$. I think you'd have to agree.I don't want to name anybody, but there'sa lot of new young bands; kids who areinterested in a lot of energ1r. Some ofthemusical content will get sacrificed lor theenerey. With a lot of prrnk bands, that spart ofthe concept. I'm not dom on it- Ijtrsl choose not to be a part ofthat.

Could tc tulk about Aour repurailon?Considering uhat I'xe heard, It's sur-prLsing,to find out hou calm things are.a round nerz

I used to do things..I still do, some-times. l'm at peuce with myself-not thatI wasn t back then -but you go and playior-l m not trying to impress you_b,10. or 15 thousand people, and the next

\\'h',r dirl U,ry ,!rn platJin* kpubourds?I hrd pia:ro le.sonq, and mv mompiaved, I enjov kevboards, because yousrite differentlr'. It's the dillerence be-n.eerr L.rl Zepp.lirr. rlhere ert,rything isc, rncoir ed {)n tlte (rit.rr. and Elton John.\rho urites on kcrlroard:, The songsreallr tunre out diffi'rent

Do gort exer try an.l cross tlrcse icleas inyour head. like thinking araeggio then

lhing r orr knutr votr'r* irr sorne rnotel andthcre c nothirrg olr tclevisirrl Irccause allthe stations lrave gone o$, and theri:'s noroom sen.ice. Yqr're Du;:ed, mentallyhl(h. -an,l r'thins to do with drrrqs oranythirrg--bccurrse !ou get feejLackfr,,rn.the orrerq ol getrinq thlt munypeople i;n their leet yellin'and scrermini.rnd it rvakes vorr up,

So I'll be sitting in i hotel room wicleawirke, buzzin'with thr energy ofthe con-

l,: . .:..r.tr. l';i:t':,r,.:r I: ',, ' : .': '.1,-,,-,.,r,.,,

cert, thinkin', "lle,v, where'd ivtrybd-v{lo- \o I w,,rrlrl hi"al< thirrgs and smrrrlrtLinq. 11,,y.., *r, ,t tinrl kirrd ol blowingoff:l{ irni v, I r',rl rr.l,rr ,rnrl gtr t,r slet,p.\rrd^l 11"t nr.,rl ur .omctirrr,,, I jrrrt ,.nj,rit. lf I'nr irr .r H,rlid.rv lnrr ,,r ;r llowrrdJohnson's. whv not bre.rk everything?'l'heyire all cheap, anyvu1,. A1d it'i fi,n *-]'(nr ought to tia it some time.

Keilh \hnr, .crrJk t:rrrght mr. lrrrrv to cl,,th,tl. lle rv,,r .r m.lslcr Jt it. fhc Jirrn.s(lang did n tour with'I'he Who and Keithuirv| rrre h'r!rnr.rllrrl hrer&inU tlriilg: Ihitren t 1l,1pp it in.r whrlr.

'utIrrr -

Yoti rctorking up to itPYr:rh.

Iou think gou'll tltt thut before the entl oflhB t,nr-

Oh. I'm sure I will. Just kind ofspon-tilleous.

Tlre hert 'rrl wuq irr Clrjcrgrr. lt w.rs thecnd o[ :r lurrr rnd I wa. mad J{ the r{.(ordcompany. A vicc-president hacl cone orrt.so I trashed his whole srrite. It had rvall-paper like this lgestures to the foil-{hed,tackv wail of his suite], nrrd I couldn'tstand it. so I turl< all the pictures down,tore all tlre wrllpaper ol1, then hung thepaintings brck up.

I said, "Hc"y, it isn't mv room-I didn'tdo nothing," He had to ;heck out with alawyer. He was crying and shit-it waswonder{ul.

Are qn still on that labelr\lm-hmm. l/s s rlrt. I gr)t mv point

ucrosr. veult.

Su Lile s B,'en Crxrd i.s a purodg uf gourlil"ilule.

I jLrst thouqht ',rmehod1 ihould cop toit. A lot offans think that we're fast carslnd money and drugs rnd *u."n onJstuff and our lilbstyle is retlly.stupidr It'snof as glorious as it seents.

I've been arorrnd the world a muple oftimes. and people say. "How'd you,likePuris?' Hell. I neversaw Prrris-l sawtheairport. and a rent-a-car, a hofel and thegig. I have a nice horrse in Califo-rnia. buthell, Im only there between huo andthree months out of the vear-mv oldlady lir es therer I just go and "isit.

"LifeiBeen Good" is kind of mild satire. It $ dhumbling song. and thats what peoplelike

I;m trying to keep mv perspective.Monevs nice, but lve seen u lot ofpeople- rnd good fiiends, tm-losetheir perspective and get into the materialthings,.the royalty checks. And that's theend of their music. ,Mozart wrote all thisincredible stuff, and it was all he could do .to support his kids, and he died poor.Then somebody lorrnd r tnrnk oi hisrymphonies 30 years luter, and theydidn't even know where he was buried.He never got a royalty check.

We re in kind of a unique positi(,n inthis day rnd age, where music is in fact anindustry, and you realize material ben-efits in your lifetime. Through history,most creative people didn't. All I want todo is go down as being a valid creutiveperson li)r the generation I represent.That's my job onlhe planet. f-i

life's been good to joe walsh

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