Editor's note: this article was originally published in January 2016, and has been updated.
[dropcap]G[/dropcap]lenn Frey, guitarist, co-vocalist and co-founding member of Eagles had immeasurable influence on country and rock music.
To some, Frey was another in a line of brilliant musical minds claimed by the heartless winter of 2016 that also claimed Scott Weiland, Lemmy Kilmister, David Bowie. Each a calculated reminder that, while their legacies may be eternal, our heroes are temporary.
But when I heard Frey passed away, I honestly couldn't believe it. Not because his death seemed more sudden than the others, who were either plagued by cancer, histories of substance abuse, or both. I couldn't believe it because, for the first time in my life, I personally felt loss from the passing of someone I'd never met. Like a small piece of me also passed on.
When I was 8, my brother and I were spending summers camping in an old Volkswagen van with our dad. To my memory, there were two cassettes that we rotated between: Pink Floyd's live album The Delicate Sound Of Thunder and Eagles' Hotel California. At some points in my young childhood, I felt Hotel California was the only thing I understood about those summers. Sometimes I think Glenn Frey and Don Henley invented some new language and it was the only one both my dad and I spoke.
We eventually lost the cassette, and a replacement may have been the first non-candy independent purchase of my nascent life (thanks, lemonade stand money). I needed to hear it for the millionth time.
When I returned home, I dove deep into Eagles' catalog — yes, it bugs my grammar-crazed brain too that I'm not calling them "The Eagles", but dammit, Glenn insisted the band name was "Eagles" and I'm going to honor that. At least for this article.
Anyways, I dove deep into their catalog and, though I was discovering it 20 years late, I had found a sound that truly inspired me. It was a revelation. Not simply country, not simply rock n' roll, but something that completely eschewed the notion of genre conventions altogether.
Theirs was a sound that would eventually inspire some of the world's biggest country stars. They are responsible for country legends in all arenas. As the 70s progressed and gave way to the first big phase of pop country, they made it cool for country music to be edgy and organic. They made it cool for country to rock. And they made it cool for rock to strip itself bear, be vulnerable, lay its heart on the line and accept the consequences.
