(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Mon 24 November 2025 18:17, UK
From day one, Joe Walsh was never exactly shy about showing off his talents behind the fretboard.
To be a guitarist, you need to have a certain amount of ego; to be a virtuoso lead guitarist, you need a lot of it. Walsh got himself a name for being a guitar cowboy with a balance of bravado and sheer talent. A gunslinger in so many ways, Walsh would have to duel with many different guitarists over the years.
Coming from the blues-infused side of rock and roll, Walsh was known as one of the original wild men of rock and roll, studying under the best in the business, like Keith Moon, while also being able to write phenomenal songs in his solo career. Compared to every artist he had the pleasure of working with, though, one gig made him a nervous wreck once he got it.
Operating out of Detroit in the early days, Walsh had been looking to put a band together ever since he had gotten out of college. Forming the foundation for the James Gang, Walsh got the opportunity of a lifetime when opening for The Who on one of their American tours, having already spawned a massive hit with ‘Funk #49’.
Walsh’s praise wasn’t just reserved for the American market, either. While on tour, Pete Townshend would call Walsh one of the greatest guitarists he had ever heard, even being gifted a guitar by Walsh that he would use on The Who’s magnum opus, Who’s Next.
Joe Walsh and his guitar. (Credits: Far Out / TIDAL)
After the James Gang went under, Walsh wasn’t about to let the good times end, moving onto a solo career that was equally successful with songs like ‘Rocky Mountain Way’. As Walsh made a name as a solo act, his manager, Irving Azoff, started making inroads to see if Walsh would join another one of his clients, the Eagles.
Having hit a wall with guitarist Bernie Leadon, Glenn Frey started to warm up to the idea of having Walsh come into the band, saying in History of the Eagles, “We would come out and do an encore and Joe Walsh would come out and we’d do ‘Rocky Mountain Way’. Then I start thinking, ‘Joe Walsh for Bernie Leadon?’. Okay, maybe the vocals won’t be quite as good, but boy, are we going to kick some ass”.
While Walsh provided a sense of humour to balance the band’s seriousness, he admitted to being wildly insecure when he joined the band, saying, “There was a lot of nerves. I decided to hide behind all of my hangups with humour. I was completely in awe of Don [Henley] and Glenn. I was intimidated because they sang so good, and they were writing stuff that I could never dream of writing”.
Eagles had already become juggernauts in their own right, and to sit down and suddenly be their new six-string man would have left many people shaking in their boots. Walsh was just one of those who happened to step up to the challenge.
When paired with the guitar stylings of Don Felder, though, the band turned into one of the most extraordinary guitar-based acts of the 1970s, turning in one of the best solos of the decade with ‘Hotel California’. Even though Walsh may have had a more tongue-in-cheek approach to writing songs, he contributed a tender ballad for his first album with the group, using his lead guitar sparingly on the track ‘Pretty Maids All in a Row’.
Even when the band’s morale started to wane in the final days of the band, Walsh was not marching to anyone’s tune but his own, usually having a commanding presence whenever he took to the stage. While Walsh may have been known as one of the most high-profile members of the Eagles, even he admitted that there was no way of equalling what Henley and Frey could do.
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