Glenn Frey | |
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 Frey performing with theEagles in 2008 | |
| Born | Glenn Lewis Frey (1948-11-06)November 6, 1948 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | January 18, 2016(2016-01-18) (aged 67) New York City, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1966–2015 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3, includingDeacon |
| Musical career | |
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| Formerly of | |
Musical artist | |
Glenn Lewis Frey (/fraɪ/; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American musician. He was a founding member of the rock bandEagles, for whom he was the co-lead singer and frontman, roles he came to share with fellow memberDon Henley, with whom he wrote most of Eagles' material. Frey played guitar and keyboards as well as singing lead vocals on songs such as "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Tequila Sunrise", "Already Gone", "James Dean", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", and "Heartache Tonight".
While Eagles were on hiatus from 1980 to 1994, Frey embarked on a successful solo career. He released his debut album,No Fun Aloud, in 1982 and went on to record Top 40 hits "The One You Love", "Smuggler's Blues", "Sexy Girl", "The Heat Is On", "You Belong to the City", "True Love", "Soul Searchin'", and "Livin' Right". As a member of Eagles, Frey won sixGrammy Awards and fiveAmerican Music Awards. Eagles were inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the first year they were nominated. Consolidating his solo recordings and those with the Eagles, Frey had 24 Top 40 singles on theBillboard Hot 100.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, on November 6, 1948,[1] and raised in nearbyRoyal Oak, Frey studied piano at age five, later switched to guitar, and became part of the mid-1960s Detroit rock scene.[2] One of his earliest bands was called the Subterraneans, named afterJack Kerouac'snovel,[3] and included fellowDondero High School classmates Doug Edwards (later replaced by Lenny Mintz) on drums, Doug Gunsch and Bill Barnes on guitar, with Jeff Hodge on bass.
Immediately after graduating from Dondero in 1966, Frey was invited to join The Four of Us, a local band led by Gary Burrows, who had seen him performing with the Subterraneans.[3][4] Frey also attendedOakland Community College while in the band, and he learned to sing harmonies performing with The Four of Us.[4] In 1967, he formed the Mushrooms with Gary Burrows' brother Jeff, Bill Barnes, Doug Gunsch, Ken Bash, and Lenny Mintz. That year Frey also metBob Seger, who helped Frey get a management and recording contract with a label formed by Seger's management team, Hideout Records.[5] Seger also wrote and produced the band's first single, "Such a Lovely Child",[6][7] and the band made television appearances to promote it. Frey had intended to join Seger's band, but his mother blocked that course of action for smokingcannabis with Seger.[4] In the later part of 1967, Frey also pulled together another band called Heavy Metal Kids with Jeff Burrows (piano), Jeff Alborell (bass), Paul Kelcourse (lead guitar), and Lance Dickerson (drums).[3]
At age 19 in 1968, Frey played theacoustic guitar and performed background vocals on Seger's single, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man".[8] Frey has said that Seger strongly encouraged and influenced him to focus on writing original songs.[9] They remained good friends and occasional songwriting partners in later years, and Frey would also sing on Seger's songs such as "Fire Lake" and "Against the Wind".[3][4]
In Detroit, Frey also met and dated Joan Sliwin of the local female group The Mama Cats, which becameHoney Ltd. after the group moved to California in 1968.[4] Frey went to Los Angeles hoping to reconnect with his girlfriend, and he was introduced toJD Souther by her sister, Alexandra Sliwin, who was with Souther at the time.[10] Frey returned to Detroit after three weeks, but then went back again to Los Angeles to form a duo with Souther calledLongbranch Pennywhistle.[11] They were signed to Amos Records and released an eponymous album in 1969, which contains songs he wrote such as "Run, Boy, Run" and "Rebecca", and "Bring Back Funky Women" he co-wrote with Souther.[12] Frey also metJackson Browne during this period. The three musicians lived in the same apartment building for a short time, and Frey later said that he learned a lot about songwriting from hearing Browne work on songs in the apartment below.[13]
Frey met drummer Don Henley in 1970. They were signed to the same label,Amos Records, at that time and spent time at theTroubadour. WhenLinda Ronstadt needed a backup band for an upcoming tour, her managerJohn Boylan hired Frey because Boylan needed someone who could play rhythm guitar and sing. Frey approached Don Henley to join Ronstadt.[14]Randy Meisner andBernie Leadon were also hired. Because the backing band personnel changed during the tour, the four played together only once: at a gig atDisneyland.[15][16] While on the tour, Frey and Henley decided to form a band together and were joined by Meisner on bass and Leadon on guitar, banjo, steel guitar, mandolin, and dobro, forming theEagles, with Frey playing guitar and keyboards and Henley playing drums. The band went on to become one of theworld's bestselling groups of all time.[17] Frey wrote or co-wrote (often with Henley) many of the group's songs, and sang the lead vocals on a number of Eagles hits including "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Already Gone", "Tequila Sunrise", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", "Heartache Tonight" and "How Long".
The Eagles broke up around 1980 and reunited in 1994, when they released a new album,Hell Freezes Over. The album had live tracks and four new songs. The Hell Freezes Over Tour followed. In 2012 onThe Tavis Smiley Show, Frey told Smiley, "When the Eagles broke up, people used to ask me and Don, 'When are the Eagles getting back together?' We used to answer, 'When Hell freezes over.' We thought it was a pretty good joke. People have the misconception that we were fighting a lot. It is not true. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot more fun than I think people realize."[citation needed] At their first live concert of 1994, Frey told the crowd, "For the record, we never broke up. We just took a 14-year vacation."[18]
The Eagles released the albumLong Road Out of Eden in 2007, and Frey participated in the Eagles'Long Road Out of Eden Tour (2008–2011).[19]
In May 2012, Frey was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music fromBerklee College of Music along with Henley,Joe Walsh andTimothy B. Schmit.[20]
In 2013, the two-part documentaryHistory of the Eagles, directed byAlison Ellwood and co-produced byAcademy Award winnerAlex Gibney, was aired onShowtime. The documentary won anEmmy Award in 2013 for Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming. An accompanying two-yearHistory of the Eagles world tour ended on July 29, 2015, atBossier City, Louisiana, a concert which would be Frey's final public appearance with the band.
After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984 he recorded in collaboration withHarold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit "The Heat Is On", the main theme from theEddie Murphyaction comedy filmBeverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television seriesMiami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on theBillboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written withJack Tempchin, who wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling".[21]
Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the filmBeverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down withlaryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!"[22]
Frey contributed the song "Flip City" to theGhostbusters II soundtrack and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack forThelma & Louise. In 2005 he appeared onB.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel".[23]
In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company,Mission Records, with attorneyPeter Lopez.[24] Frey never released any of his own work on the label, and the company has since disbanded.[citation needed]
In 2009 Glenn Frey was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.[25]
On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years,After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. It was his final album before his death.
As a television actor, Frey guest starred onMiami Vice in the first-season episode "Smuggler's Blues", inspired by his hit song of the same name, and had a starring role in the "Dead Dog Records Arc" ofWiseguy.[26] He was also the star ofSouth of Sunset, which was canceled after one episode. In the late 1990s, he guest-starred onNash Bridges as a policeman whose teenage daughter had run amok and gone on a crime spree with her sociopathic boyfriend. In 2002, he appeared onHBO'sArliss, playing a political candidate who double-crosses Arliss and must pay a high price for it.
Frey's first foray into film was his starring role inLet's Get Harry, a 1986 film about a group of plumbers who travel toColombia to rescue a friend from a drug lord. Frey's next film appearance was a smaller role inCameron Crowe's third film,Jerry Maguire (1996). Frey played the frugal general manager of theArizona Cardinalsfootball team who, in the film's climax, finally agrees to awardCuba Gooding Jr.'s character,wide receiver Rod Tidwell, a large professional contract.[27]
Frey was married twice. From 1983 to 1988, he was married to artist Janie Beggs. He married dancer and choreographer Cindy Millican in 1990. They had three children: a daughter, Taylor, in 1991 and two sons, Deacon in 1993 and Otis in 2002, and remained together until his death.[28][29] Deacon, following his father's death, toured with the surviving Eagles[30] until he departed in 2022 in favor of a solo career. He rejoined the Eagles in 2023.[31]
Frey was diagnosed withrheumatoid arthritis in 2000, which affected his joints.[32] The medication that he was prescribed to control the disease eventually led tocolitis andpneumonia.[32] In November 2015, the Eagles announced they were postponing their appearance at theKennedy Center Honors because Frey required surgery for intestinal problems and needed a lengthy recovery period.[33] Because of complications from pneumonia, he never had the surgery and was placed in a medicallyinduced coma atColumbia University Irving Medical Center. Frey died there on January 18, 2016, at the age of 67, from complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acuteulcerative colitis, and pneumonia.[2][34][35][36] Some medications for rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis are immune suppressants and can compromise the immune system's ability to fight off pneumonia.[37] In January 2018, Frey's widow filed a suit againstMount Sinai Hospital andgastroenterologist Steven Itzkowitz for the wrongful death of Frey.[38]
Frey was publicly mourned by his friends, fellow musicians, and bandmates,[39] includingDon Henley,[40]Randy Meisner,[41]JD Souther,[42]Jack Tempchin,[43]Irving Azoff,[44]Linda Ronstadt,[45]Don Felder,[46]Joe Walsh,[47] andBob Seger.[48] A life-sized statue of Frey was unveiled at theStandin' on the Corner Park inWinslow, Arizona, on September 24, 2016, to honor his songwriting contributions to "Take It Easy". The song was the Eagles' first single in 1972, with Frey its lead vocalist.[49] At the58th Annual Grammy Awards, the remaining members of the Eagles andJackson Browne performed "Take It Easy" in his honor.[50] The road[51] running next to the high school (now amiddle school) that Frey attended in Royal Oak, Michigan also bears his name.[52]
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Certifications | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [53] | AUS [54][55] | CAN [56] | SWE [57] | SWI [58] | UK [59] | ||||
| No Fun Aloud |
| 32 | 44 | — | 39 | — | — | ||
| The Allnighter |
| 22 | — | 57 | 40 | — | 31 |
| |
| Soul Searchin' |
| 36 | 49 | 37 | 36 | — | — | ||
| Strange Weather |
| — | 120 | — | 34 | 23 | — | ||
| After Hours |
| 116 | — | — | — | — | 92 | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| Glenn Frey Live |
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| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [62] | US Cat. [53] | |||||
| Solo Collection |
| 82 | 23 | |||
| 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection |
| — | — | |||
| Above the Clouds: The Collection[63] |
| — | — | |||
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [64] | US Main. [65] | US AC [66][67] | AUS [68][55] | CAN [69] | CAN AC [70] | NZ [71] | UK [72] | ||||||||||||
| "I Found Somebody" | 1982 | 31 | 57 | 27 | 93 | — | — | — | — | No Fun Aloud | |||||||||
| "The One You Love" | 15 | — | 2 | 50 | 12 | 2 | 36 | — | |||||||||||
| "Don't Give Up" | — | 25 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Partytown" | — | 5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "All Those Lies" | 1983 | 41 | — | 28 | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Sexy Girl" | 1984 | 20 | — | 23 | 76 | 48 | 12 | — | 81 | The Allnighter | |||||||||
| "The Allnighter" | 54 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "The Heat Is On" | 2 | 4 | — | 2 | 8 | — | 22 | 12 | Beverly Hills Cop(soundtrack) | ||||||||||
| "Smuggler's Blues" | 1985 | 12 | 13 | — | — | 37 | — | — | 22 | The Allnighter /Miami Vice(soundtrack) | |||||||||
| "You Belong to the City" | 2 | 1 | 2 | 20 | 6 | 2 | 46 | 94 | Miami Vice(soundtrack) | ||||||||||
| "True Love" | 1988 | 13 | 15 | 2 | 49 | 2 | — | — | 84 | Soul Searchin' | |||||||||
| "Soul Searchin'" | — | — | 5 | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Livin' Right" | 1989 | 90 | — | 22 | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "Flip City" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Ghostbusters II (soundtrack) | ||||||||||
| "Part of Me, Part of You" | 1991 | 55 | 9 | 7 | 97 | 9 | 8 | — | — | Strange Weather | |||||||||
| "I've Got Mine" | 1992 | 91 | — | 12 | — | 18 | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "River of Dreams" | — | — | 27 | 137 | 57 | 34 | — | — | |||||||||||
| "Love in the 21st Century" | 1993 | —A | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||
| "This Way to Happiness" | 1995 | — | — | — | — | 54 | — | — | — | Solo Collection | |||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||||||||||||
| Video | Year |
|---|---|
| "I Found Somebody" | 1982 |
| "The One You Love" | |
| "The Heat Is On" | 1984 |
| "Sexy Girl" | 1985 |
| "Smuggler's Blues" | |
| "You Belong to the City" | |
| "True Love" | 1988 |
| "Soul Searchin'" | |
| "Livin' Right" | 1989 |
| "Part of Me, Part of You" | 1991 |
| "I've Got Mine" | 1992 |
| "River of Dreams" | |
| "Route 66" | 2012 |
| "The Shadow of Your Smile" |
Takamine Guitars manufactures a Glenn Frey signature acoustic-electric guitar, the EF360GF. It is designed to replicate the Takamine Frey used for his live and studio applications.[74] In the 1970s, Frey usedMartin acoustic guitars in both six- and 12-string versions.[citation needed]
Frey played assorted electric guitars over the years, namelyFender Telecaster,Gibson Les Paul,Gibson SG,Gibson ES-330,Epiphone Casino andRickenbacker 230,[75] but the electric guitar that is most associated with him was his blackGibson Les Paul Junior, nicknamed Old Black.[76]
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