Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey dead at 67

An announcement on the band’s website said the cause was complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia.

“The guitarist succumbed to the illnesses on Monday, January 18 in NY”. For numerous band’s songs, Frey would share the vocal work with Henley, and fans would say that Frey’s supple tones was the ideal counterpoint to Henley’s rasp.

The rock group was founded in the early 1970s and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Two of the band’s albums would go on to rank among the top-selling albums ever released: “Eagles, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)” and 1976’s “Hotel California” each sold more than 20 million copies. Those were paying customers out there and they deserved nothing but their favourites, played the way they knew them, and if he had to use his fists to get Meisner out there, he was prepared to do so.

The Eagles’ songs are taking over the airwaves in Savannah and across the country.

Frey co-wrote and sang “Take it Easy” in which the line “standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona” brought worldwide attention to the town. It was the ultimate collaboration between Henley and Frey, with Henley singing lead and sketching the story of the hotel where “you can check out anytime, but you can never leave” and Frey filling such conversational touches as “livin’ it up at the Hotel California”.

Frey has writing credits on seven of the album’s nine tracks, including Life In The Fast Lane.

The bandmates harmonized memorably on stage and on record but fought often otherwise. And even to me back then, they sounded country to me.

In 1980, Henley famously said that their band would come together again “when hell freezes over”.

Longtime friend and fan TRAVIS TRITT remarked via FACEBOOK, “GLENN FREY and the music he created alone and with the EAGLES have been such an inspiration to me”.

Frey’s legendary temper and stubbornness eventually led to a 14-year falling out with Henley and when they reunited in 1994, the intervening years may have made both men wiser but it didn’t boring their principles in the slightest.

While bandmate Don Henley was arrested with cocaine and Quaaludes after a naked 16-year-old prostitute suffered a drug overdose at his home and Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh routinely trashed hotel rooms, Frey focused on self-destruction. He was the spark plug, the man with the plan, ‘ Henley wrote in a statement, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In a 2003 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Frey said that vagueness was the “primary tool of songwriters”.

Glenn was amusing, strong, generous and kind.