Glenn Frey Quotes - on the early days

True Love Right from the Start
On the early days in Detroit and in California, pre-Eagles

Getting started in Detroit
"My aunt got tickets to see The Beatles and it was just an amazing experience. You barely heard the beginnings of each song and then it was just these waves of people screaming. This girl in the chair in front of me fell into my arms. She was screaming 'Paul! Paul!" I thought, 'Wow! Man! This is really cool!'" (The Long Run 1995)

"Seger was cool. I was never in his band but he liked me and let me come to some sessions when he was recording. He let me play maracas and, on one song, he let me play acoustic guitar. I also got to sing backup vocals on Seger's song 'Ramblin' Gamblin' Man' which was like his first big hit." (The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock, and Soul 1989)


Heading off to California
"I was going to buy drugs in Mexico and see a girlfriend who had moved out there with her sister. My parents told me that if I was going to go to California, they weren't going to give me a g-dd-mned dime." (The Long Run)

"The whole vibe of LA hit me right off. The first day I got to LA I saw David Crosby sitting on the steps of the Country Store in Laurel Canyon, wearing the same hat and green leather bat cape he had worn on 'Turn, Turn, Turn'. To me that was an omen. Being in Los Angeles, I was a little bit intimidated, a little bit awed. But I got over that and decided that I would just try to make something out of my life in California." (Rolling Stone 1975)


The Days of Longbranch and Pennywhistle
"Almost as soon as I got to Los Angeles, I met JD Souther who was going with my girlfriend's sister. John David taught me how to play and sing country. We shared musical interests and we really hit it off." (Rolling Stone 1975)

"So the three of us [JD, Jackson Browne, and Glenn] were all living there [in the apartment at Echo Park], listening to records or to Jackson. I'd just lay in bed and hear him practice downstairs. The piano was right below my bed. Those were great times." (Rolling Stone 1975)

"It was so frustrating [being on Amos Records after the failure of the Longbranch Pennywhistle album]. I don't even like to talk about it. Every day we'd go to the Amos Records office, ask if we could get released from our contracts and they would say no." (Rolling Stone 1972)


The Troubadour
"The Troubadour, man, was... full of tragic fucking characters. Has-beens and hopefuls... I was always worried about going down there because I thought people would think I had nothing better to do. Which was true." (Rolling Stone 1975)

"You can't be short on confidence and expect to do well in the entertainment business. Having a lot of friends around helped. When one of us was down, the others would get us up. 'Hey man, let's go down to the Troubadour. They love us down there.' We met some great girls down there." (BAM 1982)


One of Linda's Boys
"The two hundred a week with Linda [to tour with her as a backing musician] was more than I'd seen in about three years in California. I was so excited because I'd never been on the road before - except riding a truck from Detroit to L.A." (The Complete Rock Family Trees 1993)

 

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