Singer, songwriter and bass player Randy Meisner, best known as a founding member of The Eagles, passed away yesterday of COPD. He was 77.
A native of Nebraska, like many baby boomers, Meisner fell in love with rock 'n roll after watching Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show. He soon took up guitar lessons and eventually switched to bass taking up music full time by the time he was 15.
Like many aspiring musicians, Meisner headed for California for fame and fortune. It would take him awhile to get there though. Meisner was in bands such as The Poor and Poco before joining Rick Nelson's backup band, The Stone Canyons.
But Meisner would get his big break as part of Linda Ronstadt's backing band and playing on her eponymous solo album. This is where Meisner would meet Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon and form The Eagles in 1971.
Meisner appeared on The Eagles' first five albums. He is most notably remembered for co-writing and singing lead vocal on their 1975 hit "Take It To The Limit" on their fourth album One of These Nights. Meisner would depart the band after Hotel California and would be replaced by Timothy B. Schmitt, who also replaced him in Poco eight years earlier.
During the 1980's, Meisner released several solo albums and was also part of Black Tie with Jimmy Griffin of Bread and Billy Swan and later formed the Roberts-Meisner Band with Firefall's Rick Roberts. Meisner would be excluded from the lucrative Eagles reunion tours but would reunite with Poco. He would only reunite with The Eagles once when they were inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
Meisner had long had a problem with alcohol and by the early 2000s, it caught up with him as he had a series of mild heart attacks which would curtail his career by 2008. Meisner did make two appearances in 2020 in a livestream concert organized by his former Poco bandmate Richie Furay.
I leave you with a live performance of Meisner singing "Try and Love Again" which originally appeared on Hotel California. It would be the last Eagles song on which he would write and sing. R.I.P.
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