The one rock star Joe Walsh was terrified of: “This guy was nuts”
By 1970s rock standards, no one was coming to Joe Walsh to experience clean-living fun. No matter how mellow the Eagles tried to be at the best of times, Walsh was an absolute maniac behind the scenes and would do whatever he could to cause as much mayhem once he got back to the hotel after a show. But not everyone starts out throwing TVs off of balconies. They must be trained, and Joe Walsh was horrified seeing Keith Moon in action.
Then again, Walsh’s behaviour wasn’t tame by comparison or anything. Looking through the video for ‘Life’s Been Good,’ where he takes a nine-iron to a hotel mirror and casually talks it over with the cleaning staff, it’s unclear whether this is a scripted bit or an actual documentary recreation of what a regular Tuesday was like for him.
If that one video was a snapshot into Walsh’s life, though, Moon could have had an entire series devoted to him if he had a camera crew around him. From lighting off cherry bombs in hotel toilets or driving a Rolls Royce into a swimming pool, nothing was off the table, and everyone was fair game for his pranks regardless of whether they were in the band or not.
But around the early 1970s, Walsh got into the group’s inner circle via Pete Townshend. The guitarist first learned about Walsh’s playing from the James Gang, and after being gifted one of his guitars to use on Who’s Next, the sound of ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ and ‘Baba O’Riley’ was born.
The friendship started with Townshend, but when Moon met up with Walsh, he didn’t just see another hotshot guitarist. This was a partner in crime, and by the time they went on tour together, Walsh would be getting a crash course in how to properly destroy a hotel room and what to do when everything is completely destroyed.
Looking back on that time, though, Walsh remembered the whole thing being a horror show now, recalling in History of the Eagles, “One of the most terrifying things to ever happen to me is that Keith Moon decided he liked me. All of those Keith Moon stories are true. This guy was full-blown nuts, and you never knew what was going to happen next.”
Despite Don Henley’s need to be in control of situations in the Eagles, having Walsh in the group did give them a modicum of street cred. Sure, not every hardened badass was going to be crying along to ‘Desperado’ or anything, but having Walsh as the good-time spirit in the group on Hotel California made people appreciate their music and maybe even sing along to ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ when it came on the radio.
Because for as scary as Moon could be, Walsh did learn a few valuable lessons from him during his short time with him. Rock and roll can be on the edge of chaos at all times, but if you lean into that chaos just a little bit, you can end up having a lot more fun than you bargained for.
