![\"Joe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Joe-Walsh-Guitarist-Singer-Eagles-2025-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Still)<\/p>\n
Mon 9 February 2026 19:22, UK <\/p>\n
In the grand history of rock and roll, you\u2019re not going to find a more easygoing legend than Joe Walsh<\/a>. <\/p>\n He might have been able to throw down every single time he played guitar, but his behaviour onstage reads more like someone who\u2019s more than happy to be having a good time onstage than the typical god-like genius that every other rock star turns into. Walsh was much happier to have fun playing with every other member of the Eagles, but that was probably because he had finally found a home after being on his own for so long.<\/p>\n Then again, it\u2019s not like Walsh was hurting by any stretch when he first got that call from Don Henley and Glenn Frey to join the band. He was already one of the greatest guitarists that rock and roll had ever seen, and when you\u2019ve become friends with Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend and Jimi Hendrix, there\u2019s a good chance that he didn\u2019t need to work a day in his life if he didn\u2019t want to. But it\u2019s not like Walsh didn\u2019t have his fair share of ups and downs before joining the California legends.<\/p>\n So, what\u00a0might have been one of the greatest albums that he made from around that time, but he would have probably traded every song that he ever wrote to have his daughter Emma back after she passed away in a car accident. He was already going through the darkest chapters of his life, so giving him a band to work off of was going to be much better than what he had been doing since the James Gang.<\/p>\n After all, the power trio had already gone as far as they could, and Walsh wanted the opportunity to stretch a little bit more. He had spent years honing his craft as a solo artist, but \u2018Hotel California<\/a>\u2019 was his chance to make his guitar masterpiece alongside Don Felder. And when you look at the mellower side of Eagles, chances are Walsh wanted to take it down a notch after spending nearly a decade playing the most cutthroat hard rock that anyone had ever tried.<\/p>\n Sure, a song like \u2018Funk 49\u2019 might not sound like the heaviest thing in the world, but in a world before Black Sabbath had made their mark, Walsh could have earned himself a spot next to Townshend and Page as one of the first hard rock guitar heroes. But when bands like Sabbath and Judas Priest started to come out of the woodwork, Walsh wanted an excuse to strip every piece of metal from his DNA when the James Gang broke up.<\/p>\n