Eagles’ Joe Walsh Talks Going Solo, Improvising, And Being Sober

Say what you will about Joe Walsh: He’s heard it before. Across four decades, as a member of the James Gang, Barnstorm and the Eagles, and through his own successful solo career, Walsh has earned living-legend status through classic-rock anthems — “Funk 49,” “Life’s Been Good,” “Rocky Mountain Way” — and more than his fair share of rock-star notoriety.

Since 1995, however, Walsh has been sober; he now spends part of his creative life encouraging others to do the same. Earlier this month, he performed at the UNITE to Face Addiction Rally in Washington, D.C., along with Steven Tyler, Sheryl Crow and others.

On his current solo tour, Walsh has been burning down stages in intimate venues with a great band, which includes former Barnstorm multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale. Walsh performs at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville on Friday, Oct. 16.

Q: [Recently] you performed at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester [N.Y.]. How does it feel to play some of these smaller venues?

A: Well, for me it’s wonderful. I have the best of both worlds. The audience is on a much grander scale when you play big places. … That’s great and I love it, but when I go out solo [in smaller places] it … gives me a chance to open up and play freer, to improvise in numerous songs, so that it’s different every night. The interface with the audience is a much higher quality and everybody has a good seat and it just plain sounds better. And it reminds me of the old days. … So I have the best of both worlds: I can do the Eagles, and on Eagles downtime I can do my solo career.

Q: Speaking of improvisation, you’re a hero to a lot of people in the jam-band world, even though you were never really a part of that scene. The band Phish has been playing “Walk Away” for nearly 30 years. What did you think of the improvising rock bands in the 1970s, and what do you think of them now?

A: Some improv bands I like. I love the Allman Brothers and I was listening to a lot of blues and of course that’s all improv. I never really quite got the Grateful Dead. … I have a lot of respect for Jerry Garcia, but I could never tell what the hell they were doing, and I’m not sure they knew either. But I was open to their input. …

To be able to improvise yourself, you’ve got to study other people. And you’ve gotta not be afraid of it and you’ve gotta have enough licks to show that you can just play. You get your mind out of the way and just let it go. So all kinds of influences. I was studying Cat Stevens a lot, and, of course, the Beatles. I studied all the Beatles songs, because I was trying to figure out the craft also.

Q: One thing I’ve loved about your music is that you’ve managed to sneak some pretty advanced music into pop/rock songs like “A Life of Illusion” and “Life’s Been Good.” Those songs never sounded like anything else on the radio.

A: My mother was what’s called a musicologist, and what she did was study classical music. And she knew the basic themes of all kinds of symphonies and piano work. But she was constantly playing when I was little. … And so I grew up hearing all kinds of stuff. … And sometimes I would edit it in my head, and so I knew kind of the main themes of a lot of classical stuff, and of course later on when I started to write, when you start to write you pull everything that you heard, you pull the pieces from it and combine that in a new way, and that’s how you come up with original stuff.

All of your influences are like a Rolodex, and so all of that stuff kind of sneaks through in bits and pieces. “Life’s Been Good” was about three different songs that my producer convinced me weren’t three separate songs. It was all one song. I just had to put it together. So that’s why that goes everywhere. But there was classical stuff, and just orchestrated stuff.

Q: You performed at the UNITE to Face Addiction Rally in Washington, D.C., along with Steven Tyler, Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell and others. Did you know immediately when they asked you that it was something you wanted to be a part of?

A: Yes, I wanted to do it. … There’s this thing when you have something like that event: a bunch of talent is contacted. Behind the scenes, everyone kind of delays committing to see who else is on the bill. And if it looks like it’s gonna be cool, then people start jumping on, and then more people jump on, so by the time the event occurs, you have too many people. But I decided this time around, I just said “OK, I will do it.” That’s the first time I really said “I’m all in.” Steven Tyler was considering doing it, but he wasn’t gonna do it unless I did it. And then everybody else just came on board, and it worked out great.

Q: What were some of the interactions with people in recovery that day? Have people been inspired by what you’ve been through and survived?

A: The musicians, some of them said, “I heard you when you were a mess, and then I heard you sober, and the difference was profound. Because of that, I decided to stop drinking,” or whatever. And there’s some people who have been with me through my journey. It’s kind of a little light of a hope that I’m trying to put out there, that there’s life after addiction, and it’s really good. … There’s a lot of recovered musicians, and people in general. But addiction is, I think, the number one disease that’s killing people. It is a disease, and I really hope that the country takes a look at it.

Q: You’ve also been doing the occasional meet-and-greet on this tour. What do you fans say when they meet you for the first time?

A: They usually tell me about something in the past, where they saw me, or when they saw the Eagles. Or a song that’s their favorite song. I try to do a regional fan club meet-and-greet at one or two shows per tour, and people are great. I remember before I was famous, when I was just learning, when I would meet a hero and some of them took the time to listen and thank me, and they were nice and approachable, and that made a huge impact on me. … When people come up to me, if I possibly can I just try and slow down and take a minute, and send them away happy.

Q: For you, it can be difficult because you have to be nice to a lot of fans, each of whom only really gets one chance to meet you. And if you’re not nice, they will remember that forever.

A: Yes. It can crush them. And that’s not good.

JOE WALSH performs at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville on Friday, Oct. 16, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $39.50. Information: mohegansun.com.