“I was living in Colorado having just left the James Gang. I was actually mowing the lawn and I looked up at the front range Rocky Mountains, still covered in snow even though it was Summer. I already had the music to this song down but didn’t have any lyrics. I was knocked back by how beautiful it was and I thought, “I’m in Colorado, I’m committed, it’s too late to regret leaving the James Gang.” And I thought the Rocky Mountain way is better than the way I had because the music is better and I got the words – Bam! “He’s tellin’ us this, he’s tellin’ us that, changes it ev’ry day” that’s about the James Gang manager. “We don’t need the ladies crying cos the story’s sad” is about my giving up the regret of leaving the James Gang.”Joe Walsh (211)

“The lyrics, I didn’t want to use ’em. I was gonna replace them with something more rock and roll. But [drummer] Joe Vitale and Bill [Szymczyk] said, “No, these words are wonderful. They’re legitimate and you gotta use ’em. And I was thinking, “Well, they’re kind of dumb, and the song will either be looked at as a satirical, funny song or it’s gonna not be funny at all and it’ll go down the toilet as one of the worst things ever written.” That’s what I was afraid of. The stuff about hotels [“I live in hotels/Tear out the walls”], years earlier the James Gang got asked to open some shows in Europe with the Who when they premiered Tommy. And over that period of time one of the scariest things that happened to me – ever – happened. And that was that Keith Moon decided he liked me. And, you know, when he liked you, you just smiled and nodded yes. Especially if you were in the opening band. So he became my guru. Over the course of that tour, he taught me the art of hotel damage, of destroying things, of making things that blow up, of superglue madness and mayhem, of trashing rent-a-cars … just causing as much trouble as possible.”Joe Walsh (767)

“”Turn to Stone” was written about the Nixon administration and the Vietnam War and the protesting that was going on and all of that. It’s a song about frustration. Also, I attended Kent State. I was at the shootings. That fueled it, too. In those days it felt like the government’s priority was not the population. They had an agenda that was about something other than doing what was necessarily good for the country.”Joe Walsh (767)

“I was married at the time and living in Boulder. My wife was taking our four-year-old daughter to school and some lady ran a stop sign and creamed our car. And I lost my daughter. And it was gory and all that. To help with closure, I wrote this song for her. And over the process of the next year, my wife and I, we just weren’t strong enough to get through the grief and so we separated and eventually got divorced. But I met a girl in Los Angeles, and my song “Help Me Through the Night” was to her about being there for me. Because I was a wreck. But she was there so that I could grieve Emma.”Joe Walsh (767)

“I was married at the time and living in Boulder. My wife was taking our four-year-old daughter to school and some lady ran a stop sign and creamed our car. And I lost my daughter. And it was gory and all that. To help with closure, I wrote this song for her. And over the process of the next year, my wife and I, we just weren’t strong enough to get through the grief and so we separated and eventually got divorced. But I met a girl in Los Angeles, and my song “Help Me Through the Night” was to her about being there for me. Because I was a wreck. But she was there so that I could grieve Emma.”Joe Walsh (767)

“I decided I would make a song that explains how I write music. Because I got tired of people asking me. And if you read the lyrics, it tells you exactly how I do it: “I like to sit in a silent place when no one’s around and listen inside it/Inside the silence is the melody/Voices singing harmony.” That’s it.”Joe Walsh (767)

“I was with Joe Vitale at his home studio in Ohio one night. We were feeling really good and we decided to write this. It’s “I Love Big Tits,” but we named it just with the letters. Then we put it on one of my albums [1983’s You Bought It – You Name It] and the record company missed it. They never bothered to play the whole album and they just thought it was about some kind of a sandwich or something. Like a BLT. It came out and then they heard it and they called up and said, “You can’t do that.” And I said, “Well, you shipped it three weeks ago. It’s a little late to just be listening to it for the first time!””Joe Walsh (767)

“You know, that whole Los Angeles thing, that lifestyle, it isn’t real. I’m in Arkansas right now. That’s real. Ohio, where I came from, that’s real. I grew up just a kid on the block, doing all the stuff that kids do. I wanted to re-identify with that life, so I wrote a song about it. And here’s the thing: What we do as rock & roll stars, everybody thinks that’s a whole lifestyle that we live, and that it’s glorious and extravagant and wonderful. And they think that 24 hours a day we’re famous and wearing expensive clothes and riding around in limos. But that’s not really true. We’re really cool for about an hour and a half onstage. And the rest of the day we’re taking out garbage and picking up dog crap and washing cars and sucking eggs like everybody else on the planet. We’re ordinary average guys.”Joe Walsh (767)

“For a long time my alcoholism and use of drugs was manageable. By that I mean I would hang out with people and they would say, “Well, you’re not so bad!” But you know, it is a disease and the last two or three years of [my addiction] were terrifying. It gets bad beyond your wildest imagination and then you crash and burn and then it gets worse than that. An awful lot of my buddies died before they hit bottom. I hit bottom before I died. Getting sober was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Because alcohol had convinced me that I couldn’t do anything without it. And they say “one day at a time,” but really it’s one thing at a time. You start with not knowing how to do anything sober and you just build up your toolbox. For a long time I thought there was a possibility I might not be able to write music sober. And I said, “If that’s the case I’m just going to have to accept that.” So I stopped trying to write, and one day this song kind of wrote itself. I ended up telling my story about what it was like to be an addict, and my road to getting sober. It just came out of me. But the trick was I had to stop trying. And so many addicts and alcoholics have contacted me to say they know exactly what I’m talking about in this song. I’m saying there’s life after addiction and it is good.”Joe Walsh (767)

“I wrote this for a documentary that’s coming out called Citizen Soldier. It’s about a National Guard unit in Oklahoma that out of nowhere got called up to go to Afghanistan. They got put behind enemy lines, in some really deep shit. And they kicked ass. They took GoPros with them, and then someone made a documentary with the footage. So it’s their story, through their eyes. And not all of them came back. The really sad thing is, Afghanistan is still going on. It’s a forgotten war. And these guys – I wanna say kids, because that’s what they are – they’re coming back really confused. So I hope the documentary raises some awareness. I mean, God, what are we doing?”Joe Walsh (767)