Joe Walsh Guitarist---The Life of a Guitarist and The Tragic Death of his Baby Girl Emma.

[Music] this video on joe walsh i'm doing is for a few reasons one and you will probably find me a bit biased but i consider him one of the best guitarists in rock and roll history and second i want everyone to appreciate this guy before he hangs his guitar up joe walsh is a walking legend right now just a lot of people don't realize it i'm going to touch on some of the accomplishments of joe also the person he is and was sure he masked himself for quite a few years behind drugs and alcohol some of the stories about him which i'm sure you all have heard are mostly true but there's a lot more to him than just a wild man of rock and roll so before we move on i want to take just a few seconds here to thank all of you subscribers for helping support the channel and if you haven't subscribed i hope you do and for all of you please even if you are subscribed go back and make sure you go and ring the notification bell so now let's kick back and take a look back at some of the highlights and high times of one of the greatest guitarists in rock and roll history joe walsh [Music] joseph fiddler walsh was born november 20th 1947. his father lieutenant robert newton fiddler was a flight instructor for the lockheed f-80 shooting star in the united states air force and died in a plane crash in okinawa on the 22nd of july 1949. joe says i always grew up wondering what he would have been like his mother's name was dora and she remarried later on and joe was adopted and took on his stepfather's last name keeping his biological father's name in the middle in a rolling stone interview here's what joe had to say about his father i guess all the foundations of it all is that i'm the gold star kid the symbol acknowledging that a member of one's family was killed in war as a member of the armed forces my dad died when i was two he was in the army air corps before there was an air force he continued to state that even though he had a good relationship with his stepfather who supported him all the time he still thought about his biological father whom he had never met he called him a hero and continued to express his sympathy toward the families who went through the same thing i have a stepfather who i love who's always having my back but until i got a stepfather i just always wondered if my dad approved of me i just miss my dad like everybody to throw a ball with pick him up as a role model he's always been my hero a lot of those who don't come back from the war it's an awful feeling i see the courage and sadness that gold star families have and i just couldn't help but feel a part of it so when you hear joe talking about our veterans and playing a benefit for the vet's aid you can be assured it's done from the heart joe got his first guitar a silver tone at age 10 ordering it for about 30 bucks his first song to master was walk don't run and he credits the beatles as one of his first influences joe attended kent state university where he spent time in various bands playing around the cleveland area including the group the measles walsh majored in english and minored in music he was present during the kent state massacre in 1970. joe commented in 2012 being at the shooting really affected me profoundly i decided that maybe i don't need a degree that bad so he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career around christmas 1967 james gang guitarist glenn schwartz had to quit a few days later joe who was a friend of schwartz knocked on jim fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as schwartz's replacement walsh was accepted and the james gang continued as a five piece for a short time one band member quit going back to school and then in may of 68 while opening for cream another band member just up and quit left them high and dry right before the show so they went on as a three-piece group joe said we did it because we needed the money after the gig they decided they liked what they heard and decided to keep on as a three-piece act they released their debut album your album in 1969 and right after that the bass player tom chris quit they got dale peters to come on board and the group took on what i consider a much tighter sound the james gang's next two albums james gang rides again in 1970 and thirds in 1971 produced such classics as funk 49 and walk away the album james gang live at carnegie hall was walsh's last album with them joe left and here's what he had to say was the reason for moving on it was a three-piece band i just got saturated with playing really loud and being like a kick-ass guitar guy playing through marshalls and stuff i wanted to change directions i was hearing all these songs with piano and the other guys kind of didn't like that i was worried if i did a different style our audience wouldn't like it he was probably right so joe left to go in a different direction the early 70s marked a joyous time for joe he married then boston university student stephanie rhodes welcomed daughter emma christian in 1971 and moved west to boulder colorado a few short months later wass was working on new music in what would later become the album barnstorm from walsh's new band of the same name in the meantime mother and child would walk to the playground nearly every day spending sunny afternoons on the swings together she was warm and funny her mother stephanie said but sadly joe's life was to take a drastic turn as his wife was driving emma to a playdate in april of 1974 another car ran a stop sign broadsiding them on the passenger side the car spun out of control and hit a fence across the street with emma sustaining massive trauma to the head the toddler was taken off life support later that day just weeks before her third birthday i'm sure most of us cannot even comprehend what joe and his wife went through it eventually led to him and his wife separating and finally divorcing joe went on to try and heal by doing what he knew best playing music and writing songs the so what album is what came out take the time and listen to this album and you can feel the pain and mental state of joe and some of the songs he is speaking from his heart at emma's favorite park in colorado joe had a plaque and a fountain put up in memory of his little girl after the release of so what in late 1974 joe continued to play and promote his solo album but it just seemed his heart wasn't in it he was drinking pretty heavy by then i guess now is as good a time as any to talk a little about joe and his partying ways by his own admission joe was an alcoholic and a drug addict he could roar for days on in he once said of meeting the who's drummer keith moon he decided he liked me so we stayed up a couple of months partying that night when asked about joe the eagles don felder said we called him rubber nose because he had this big rubbery nose which alarming quantities of cocaine would just disappear into there's something i want to say here speaking of don felder and joe walsh not counting dwayne allman and dickie betts i don't think there was a better duo of guitarists who were better at playing together than joe and don they both had that great feel they both were very melodic and they both knew how to step back and compliment the other while the solo was going on i really enjoyed hearing and watching them work together on stage especially in the early years in 1975 bernie leaden quit the eagles the eagles and joe were both managed by irving azoff who spoke to the eagles about getting joe as a replacement for bernie after much consideration by both parties joe joined the eagles just in time for hotel california joe by his own admission said that he didn't care for being a solo or a front man in a band he said it took on way too many responsibilities and hassles i really think joe was happy just being a side man for the eagles joe played on two studio albums hotel california in the long run and one live album was released while joe was with the eagles and then in 1980 they broke up joe went back to recording solo albums and touring a little but his album saw a steady decline in the charts joe's drinking drugging and partying increased it was hard to find a show or an interview without him being totally out of it his personal life was out of control let's fast forward to 1994 and after a few failed attempts the eagles finally decided hell had froze over and they would reunite but behind the scenes joe was not in good shape he was living on his favorite pick-me-ups cocaine vodka and camel lights if he wanted back in it was time for him to make a change joe took that big step and checked himself into rehab and to his credit he never looked back after almost 30 years he's never faltered and has been clean ever since i think joe's drinking and drugging was a form of self-medicating at the start as a child he would have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder obsessive-compulsive disorder and asperger's syndrome as a teen joe said he would become terrified of getting on stage to play music just break down in sweats shaking and crying but he found a couple of beers would take care of the anxiety as the crowds grew so did the fears and so did the amount of alcohol he says his first time back playing sober again was a terrifying experience if playing sober scared him for his teenage band gig with a few people imagine how he felt with 50 000 plus out there watching him something that made me really take notice is joe's guitar playing sounded just as good as ever after he sobered up it never seemed to change anything in his playing what i noticed most was his smile it wasn't that robin williams smile he used to have now it's a smile of true happiness when asked about his favorite songs he wrote joe said working with the eagles on life in the fast lane and his own would be rocky mountain way what makes that song great is that groove you can't do it with pro tools he said a couple of my favorite joe walsh sayings is i'm having fun that i remember now and one thing i found in the music business is if you pretend you know what you are doing everyone thinks you know what you're doing my favorite songs by joe would have to be the whole so what album if i have to break it down even more rocky mountain way of course then help me through the night and song for emma like i said earlier this album is joe speaking as hard joe has been married to marjory box since 2008. she is a sister to ringo starr's wife barbara he's a member of the rock and roll hall of fame the vocal group hall of fame and he's won five grammy awards joe still does shows with what's left of the eagles and gets out on his own once in a while too you can keep up with him at joewalsh.com well as always time runs short way too much left not said here about a guy who is a hero of mine of course his guitar work is great but i think why i have so much respect for him now as the person that he was and has become also how hard he works at helping others i could go on a lot more about him but it will have to be in another video another day good to see joe living life one day at a time and i'm sure he feels now life's been good thanks for watching as always if you see fit give me a like and a share also subscribe to the channel i'd appreciate it take care y'all

Channel: River Docs

Views: 556,025

Keywords: Joe Walsh, The Eagles, The James Gang, Funk 49, Rocky Mountain Way, 70's rock, Classic rock, Life's Been Good, Slide Guitar, Documentary, Guitarist

Id: unSbpTEH2OY

Length: 14min 24sec (864 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2022