Glenn Lewis Frey ( / f r aɪ / ; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American musician. He was a founding member of the rock band Eagles. He shared the roles of co-lead singer and main performer with fellow member Don Henley. Together, they wrote most of the band’s songs. Frey played guitar and keyboards and sang lead vocals on songs such as "Take It Easy," "Peaceful Easy Feeling," "Tequila Sunrise," "Already Gone," "James Dean," "Lyin' Eyes," "New Kid in Town," and "Heartache Tonight."
During the time Eagles took a break from 1980 to 1994, Frey started a successful solo career. He released his first album, No Fun Aloud, in 1982. He recorded Top 40 hits such as "The One You Love," "Smuggler's Blues," "Sexy Girl," "The Heat Is On," "You Belong to the City," "True Love," "Soul Searchin'," and "Livin' Right." As a member of Eagles, Frey won six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards. Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the same year they were first nominated. Combining his solo work and songs with the Eagles, Frey had 24 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100.
Early life
Born in Detroit, Michigan, on November 6, 1948, and raised in nearby Royal Oak, Frey began studying piano at age five. Later, he switched to playing the guitar and became part of the mid-1960s Detroit rock scene. One of his earliest bands was called the Subterraneans, named after a book by Jack Kerouac. The band included fellow Dondero High School classmates Doug Edwards (later replaced by Lenny Mintz) on drums, Doug Gunsch and Bill Barnes on guitar, and Jeff Hodge on bass.
After graduating from Dondero in 1966, Frey was invited to join The Four of Us, a local band led by Gary Burrows, who had seen him perform with the Subterraneans. While in the band, Frey also attended Oakland Community College and learned to sing harmonies while performing with The Four of Us. In 1967, he formed a band called the Mushrooms with Gary Burrows’ brother Jeff, Bill Barnes, Doug Gunsch, Ken Bash, and Lenny Mintz. That same year, Frey met Bob Seger, who helped Frey get a management and recording contract with a label created by Seger’s management team, Hideout Records. Seger also wrote and produced the band’s first single, “Such a Lovely Child,” and the band made television appearances to promote it. Frey had planned to join Seger’s band, but his mother stopped him from doing so because he smoked cannabis with Seger. In late 1967, Frey also formed another band called Heavy Metal Kids, which included Jeff Burrows (piano), Jeff Alborell (bass), Paul Kelcourse (lead guitar), and Lance Dickerson (drums).
In 1968, at age 19, Frey played the acoustic guitar and sang background vocals on Seger’s single, “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man.” Frey has said that Seger encouraged and influenced him to focus on writing original songs. They remained friends and occasionally worked together on songwriting in later years. Frey also sang on some of Seger’s songs, such as “Fire Lake” and “Against the Wind.”
In Detroit, Frey met and dated Joan Sliwin, a member of the local female group The Mama Cats. The group later changed its name to Honey Ltd. after moving to California in 1968. Frey traveled to Los Angeles to be with his girlfriend and was introduced to JD Souther by her sister, Alexandra Sliwin, who was with Souther at the time. After three weeks in Los Angeles, Frey returned to Detroit but went back to Los Angeles again to form a duo with Souther called Longbranch Pennywhistle. The duo signed with Amos Records and released an album with the same name as the band in 1969. The album included songs Frey wrote, such as “Run, Boy, Run” and “Rebecca,” as well as a song he co-wrote with Souther called “Bring Back Funky Women.” During this time, Frey also met Jackson Browne. The three musicians briefly lived in the same apartment building, and Frey later said he learned a lot about songwriting by listening to Browne work on songs in the apartment below.
Eagles
In 1970, Glenn Frey met drummer Don Henley. Both were signed to the same record company, Amos Records, and often performed at the Troubadour. When Linda Ronstadt needed a backup band for a tour, her manager, John Boylan, hired Frey because he could play rhythm guitar and sing. Frey invited Henley to join Ronstadt’s band. Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon were also hired. During the tour, the band members changed frequently, so the four musicians played together only once—at a concert at Disneyland. While on the tour, Frey and Henley decided to form a band together. They were joined by Meisner on bass and Leadon on guitar, banjo, steel guitar, mandolin, and dobro. This group became the Eagles, with Frey playing guitar and keyboards and Henley playing drums. The Eagles became one of the world’s most successful music groups. Frey wrote or co-wrote many of the band’s songs, often with Henley. He sang lead vocals on several Eagles hits, including "Take It Easy," "Peaceful Easy Feeling," "Already Gone," "Tequila Sunrise," "Lyin’ Eyes," "New Kid in Town," "Heartache Tonight," and "How Long."
The Eagles separated around 1980 and reunited in 1994, when they released a new album called Hell Freezes Over. The album included live recordings and four new songs. A tour followed called the Hell Freezes Over Tour. In 2012, during an interview on The Tavis Smiley Show, Frey said, “When the Eagles broke up, people used to ask us, ‘When are the Eagles getting back together?’ We used to answer, ‘When Hell freezes over.’ We thought it was a good joke. People thought we had many arguments, but that was not true. We had a lot of fun.” At their first concert in 1994, Frey told the audience, “For the record, we never broke up. We just took a 14-year vacation.”
The Eagles released an album called Long Road Out of Eden in 2007. Frey participated in the Long Road Out of Eden Tour from 2008 to 2011.
In May 2012, Frey received an honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music, along with Henley, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit.
In 2013, a two-part documentary titled History of the Eagles, directed by Alison Ellwood and co-produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, was shown on Showtime. The documentary won an Emmy Award in 2013 for Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming. A two-year History of the Eagles world tour ended on July 29, 2015, in Bossier City, Louisiana. This concert was Frey’s final public performance with the band.
Although the July 29, 2015, concert was Frey’s last public appearance, he and the Eagles performed a private concert two days later, on July 31, 2015, at Christian Brothers College High School in St. Louis, Missouri, for a major school donor’s 59th birthday. The concert was a secret, and the 300 invited guests were not told they would see an Eagles performance featuring nine songs.
Solo career
After the Eagles ended their group, Glenn Frey had success as a solo artist in the 1980s, including two songs that reached No. 2 on the charts. In 1984, he worked with Harold Faltermeyer to record "The Heat Is On," the main theme for the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop. Later, Frey performed "You Belong to the City," a song from the television series Miami Vice. The Miami Vice soundtrack stayed at the top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985. Another song Frey contributed to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues," reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 songs that appeared on the U.S. Top 100 charts. Eleven of these songs were written with Jack Tempchin, who also wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling."
Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown," the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. However, Frey did not like the lyrics and later developed laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song reached No. 1, Frey called Seger to congratulate him, saying, "At least we kept the money in Michigan!"
Frey contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the Thelma & Louise soundtrack. In 2005, he appeared on the B.B. King & Friends: 80 album, performing on the track "Drivin' Wheel."
In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company called Mission Records with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey did not release any of his own music on the label, and the company has since closed.
In 2009, Glenn Frey was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, which included covers of pop songs from the 1940s to the 1960s. This was his final album before his death.
Acting career
Frey appeared as a guest actor on the television show Miami Vice in the first-season episode titled "Smuggler's Blues," which was inspired by his popular song of the same name. He also had a leading role in the "Dead Dog Records Arc" of the series Wiseguy. Frey starred in the television show South of Sunset, but the show was canceled after only one episode. In the late 1990s, he guest-starred on Nash Bridges, playing a police officer whose teenage daughter was involved in a series of crimes with her dangerous boyfriend. In 2002, he appeared on HBO's Arliss, where he played a political candidate who betrayed the main character and faced serious consequences.
Frey's first movie role was in Let's Get Harry, a 1986 film about a group of plumbers who travel to Colombia to rescue a friend from a drug lord. His next film appearance was in Jerry Maguire (1996), directed by Cameron Crowe. In the movie, Frey played the careful and money-conscious general manager of the Arizona Cardinals football team. During the film's final scenes, he agreed to give a large contract to Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character, a wide receiver named Rod Tidwell.
Personal life
Frey was married two times. From 1983 to 1988, he was married to artist Janie Beggs. In 1990, he married dancer and choreographer Cindy Millican. They had three children: a daughter named Taylor, born in 1991, and two sons, Deacon in 1993 and Otis in 2002. They stayed married until Frey's death. After Frey's death, Deacon toured with the remaining members of the Eagles until he left in 2022 to pursue a solo career. He returned to the Eagles in 2023.
Illness and death
Frey was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2000, which caused pain and swelling in his joints. The medicine he took to manage the disease later caused colitis and pneumonia. In November 2015, the Eagles postponed their appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors because Frey needed surgery for intestinal issues and required a long recovery. However, due to complications from pneumonia, he could not have the surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Frey passed away there on January 18, 2016, at the age of 67, from complications related to rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia. Some medications used to treat rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis are immune suppressants, which can weaken the immune system’s ability to fight infections like pneumonia. In January 2018, Frey’s wife filed a legal case against Mount Sinai Hospital and gastroenterologist Steven Itzkowitz, claiming they were responsible for his death.
Frey was widely mourned by friends, fellow musicians, and bandmates, including Don Henley, Randy Meisner, JD Souther, Jack Tempchin, Irving Azoff, Linda Ronstadt, Don Felder, Joe Walsh, and Bob Seger. A life-sized statue of Frey was unveiled at the Standin’ on the Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona, on September 24, 2016, to recognize his songwriting contributions to "Take It Easy." The song was the Eagles’ first single in 1972, with Frey as the lead vocalist. At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, the remaining members of the Eagles and Jackson Browne performed "Take It Easy" in his honor. A road near the high school (now a middle school) that Frey attended in Royal Oak, Michigan, is named after him.
Equipment
Takamine Guitars makes a Glenn Frey signature acoustic-electric guitar called the EF360GF. This guitar is designed to copy the Takamine Frey model that Glenn Frey used during live performances and in the studio. In the 1970s, Frey used Martin acoustic guitars in both six-string and 12-string versions.
Frey played many different electric guitars throughout his career, including the Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, Gibson ES-330, Epiphone Casino, and Rickenbacker 230. However, the electric guitar most closely linked to him was his black Gibson Les Paul Junior, which he called "Old Black."