“They didn’t want people to know”: The Joe Walsh album he thought his label ruined
Every musician likes to think their label has their best interests at heart in the beginning. After all, the whole point is for everyone to make a lot of money, and the best way to do that is by promoting the record and seeing how far it can go on the charts when it gets picked up on the radio. However, labels are more concerned with the amount of zeroes on the end of their checks than the actual music, and Joe Walsh felt that he had an uphill battle before he got some parts of his career off the ground.
Granted, was there anyone really discouraging him from being a member of Eagles? The opportunity to play with one of the leading bands in country rock was certainly a lucrative idea, and since he walked away with two writing credits on Hotel California, it’s safe to say he’s made a pretty penny off of everyone who ever tried to learn that opening lick from ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ or put together a facsimile of his solo in the title track.
Before anyone had heard of Glenn Frey and Don Henley, though, Walsh was already a superstar working in the James Gang. Frey himself already considered himself a major fan of the group when he was living in Detroit as a kid, and given how much people loved listening to tracks like ‘Funk #49’, it’s not like Walsh’s star wasn’t already on the rise before anyone had heard of what a ‘Desperado’ was.
But when someone is that big of a commodity, the idea of them switching things up was bound to trigger some alarm bells. And while there were a lot of things to love about the James Gang, Walsh knew that his ideas had too many parts to be limited to a power trio. He wanted something bigger, but the minute that he started thinking outside the box, that’s when the whip came down.
Because, really, any label executive hearing about their biggest moneymaker wanting to break up his band would have been like them, saying they wanted to start back at zero again. Since Walsh wasn’t getting his artistic fill in his old band, though, Barnstorm was the best way for him to let out his inhibitions. This was his first major statement, and if you were to ask the guitarist himself, his label was absolutely furious.
According to Walsh, Barnstorm was ruined by his higher-ups doing everything in their power to limit its release on store shelves, saying, “We weren’t doing very well because powers that be didn’t want me to leave the James Gang, but I felt I had to. The powers that be [were] old management, James Gang management and the record company wanted to discourage my solo attempt, Barnstorm, hoping I would go back with the James Gang. They didn’t want people to know that I wasn’t in the James Gang. That’s why the first Barnstorm album didn’t do very well.”
While the last thing most label heads want to do is be patient, Walsh’s solo career didn’t need too much time to begin unfolding. The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get is what helped solidify his status as a potential replacement in Eagles, and when he eventually got to work with Frey and Henley, he found time to have the best of both worlds when he had a hit with ‘Life’s Been Good’ at the exact same time.
God knows when he slept during all that time, but Barnstorm stands as more of a warning to labels these days. You can try to keep artists in a box, but it’s sometimes a lot easier to take an artist at their word and see where they can take their sound on their own.
