The one person that taught Glenn Frey how to play country: “Drop out of rock and roll”
As the Summer of Love ended, there was still something calling musicians to Los Angeles. The idea of someone making music in the land of sunshine and surfing was still a dream for any aspiring songwriter, and anyone who even thought about being a frontman usually had a certain fantasy of living up to what someone like Jim Morrison was doing. But someone like Glenn Frey had a long way to go before he was ready to start performing his own sun-soaked tracks with the Eagles.
Because, really, Detroit felt like the polar opposite of what life in the ‘Sunshine State’ was like. Sure, Frey grew up listening to the biggest names in rock and roll, but there was no way that he was going to relate to the hard-edged stuff coming out of his hometown. He was already in love with what he was hearing coming out of Motown, but there was no chance in hell that he would ever be the wild man that Iggy Pop or Alice Cooper were (in)famous for being.
Then, when he finally met up with ramblin’ gamblin’ Bob Seger, Frey at least found an outlet to channel his musical talent. He had always been drawn to songwriting before anything else, and Seger was practically his mentor when it came to songcrafting, always telling him to keep chipping away at every tune he had until he landed on a good one. Finally, once he had had some growing up done and the tunes to back him up, California was the only place he too thought of for seeking success.
This was the land that gave birth to Jefferson Airplane and Buffalo Springfield, so when he first arrived in Los Angeles and saw people like David Crosby sitting at a crosswalk, he knew he had found a home. The only thing he needed was a gig, and when he met up with John David Souther, he found a partner in crime to show him the ropes in town.
After all, Frey wanted to be a cowboy with a guitar in his hands, but no one from Detroit was going to transform themselves on a whim. So when forming Longbranch/Pennywhistle, Souther was Frey’s gateway into country rock, showing him the twangy side of what The Byrds could do with a sprinkling of modern acts like Linda Ronstadt.
“I came out here chasing my girlfriend and John David Souther was going with my girlfriend’s sister, and I met him my first day in California. We decided to drop out of rock and roll bands for a while.”
Glenn Frey
Frey already had a solid foundation thanks to listening to bands like The Beatles, but he credited Souther for teaching him everything he knew about country music, saying, “I came out here chasing my girlfriend and John David Souther was going with my girlfriend’s sister, and I met him my first day in California. We decided to drop out of rock and roll bands for a while. [He] taught me how to sing and play country.”
That didn’t mean there weren’t a few bumps along the way, though. Sure, Longbranch/Pennywhistle’s debut album is a fascinating look into what Frey would have sounded like as a folk artist, but outside of a handful of tunes, it was clear that he still needed to get his chops down. And when he finally got the gig playing with Ronstadt alongside Don Henley, he found his groove whenever tearing through tracks like ‘Lovesick Blues’ and ‘Nightingale’.
While Souther would hang in the background of Eagles’ story and contribute the odd line to one of their songs, his and Frey’s humble, folksy duo was a great breeding ground for both. Because if Frey cut his teeth playing with Ronstadt, then making the rounds with the former was his version of going to songwriting school.
