“I won’t be repeating it”: The one album that almost killed Joe Walsh
No one goes into the music industry thinking they’re going to be risking their lives on the job. It’s certainly not the healthiest profession in the world given the vigorous touring schedule, but once an artist gets to a certain point, they start to realise how much trouble they can get into when throwing money around. But even by rock star standards, Joe Walsh lived every minute on the edge, and there was no telling whether something was going to make for a fun story or lead him towards an early grave.
You have to remember that this was one of Keith Moon’s best friends, and compared to the lunatic drummer, Walsh was certainly no slouch in the partying department. Even before he got the gig in Eagles, the guitarist was known as one of the kings of excess, usually smashing up whatever hotel room he found himself in and making sure that he didn’t rest until he was satisfied with the mess he made.
In fact, it’s a wonder why the country rockers even hired him after they let go of Bernie Leadon. Walsh may have certainly had his fair share of great licks in his arsenal, but it seemed like the band wanted him to give them a shred of street cred with the other rock bands on the scene at the time, especially since they were getting a reputation as the soft rockers that average pop fans could listen to.
That didn’t mean Walsh was going to put his entire career on hold for one group. He counted himself extremely lucky to be in the Eagles, but But Seriously Folks was a way for him to get out all of his other licks. Since he only had one riff in ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ and the ballad ‘Pretty Maids All in a Row’ on Hotel California, a song like ‘Life’s Been Good’ was a better depiction of what he wanted to say.
Then again, it might have been a bit too on the nose. He was already becoming known as one of the biggest party animals, so it’s hard to tell whether it’s a bit of cheeky commentary on his lifestyle listening to him talk about accountants paying for all of the massive rooms that he trashed. When it came to making the cover, though, Walsh said he came dangerously close to ending up in the drink.
While the shot of him underwater fits in with his sense of humour, Walsh remembered that he nearly drowned on the job when shooting everything, saying, “I had to do that a couple of times, but I did go down to the bottom of the pool, and almost drowned… but it was fun. Not at the time, but it was fun to do. It was hard to do, but when I look at it, I can’t believe it either, I can’t believe I was stupid enough to do that, but I was proud of it. I won’t be repeating it, I can assure you!”
But this kind of stunt felt like one of the last things that Walsh had to worry about. Some of his biggest dangers in the 1970s were to himself, and it took the band getting back together in the 1990s for him to finally clean up, eventually getting nervous about going up onstage because of how desensitised he was not performing buzzed.
Fans might be lucky to have Walsh still rocking around the world to this day, but the cover of But Seriously Folks is the kind of thing that happens only once every career. Because anyone would need to have a healthy dose of liquid courage in their system to agree to be chained to the bottom of a pool for hours.
