Glenn Frey

While remaining best known for his tenure in the Eagles, Glenn Frey also enjoyed considerable success as a solo performer, with a career dating back to the glory days of the Detroit rock scene of the mid-1960s. Born in the Motor City on November 6, 1948, Frey formed his first band the Mushrooms in 1966, soon appearing live on the local TV program Robin Seymour’s Swinging Time and becoming a staple at the area teen club the Hideout; for the club’s Hideout Records label, the group cut their debut single “Such a Lovely Child,” a session produced by another aspiring Detroit rocker, Bob Seger.The Mushrooms split soon after, and Frey joined the folk-rock group the Four of Us; he subsequently formed two more Detroit teen bands, the Subterraneans and the Heavy Metal Kids, before relocating to California in the early 1970s.

After co-founding the Eagles a year later, Frey enjoyed a remarkable run as a member of one of the decade’s most successful bands, assuming lead vocals on smashes including “Take It Easy,” “Tequila Sunrise,” “New Kid in Town,” “Lyin’ Eyes” and “Heartache Tonight.” When the Eagles disbanded in the wake of 1979’s The Long Run, he began a solo career in 1982 with No Fun Aloud, notching a pair of Top 40 hits with “I Found Somebody” and “The One You Love.” 1984’s The Allnighter spawned the hit “Smuggler’s Blues,” which subsequently inspired an episode of the hit TV series Miami Vice on which Frey guest-starred; his acting work later continued in an extended guest role on the acclaimed Wiseguy as well as a starring turn in 1993’s South of Sunset, which as a result of its premiere episode’s 6.1 Nielsen rating – believed to be the lowest fall debut in major network history – was cancelled after only one episode.

More successful was Frey’s continued musical career which reached its peak in 1985 with the Top Ten smash “The Heat Is On,” a single released from the soundtrack to the Eddie Murphy comedy Beverly Hills Cop. Frey’s contribution to the Miami Vice soundtrack, “You Belong to the City,” was also a blockbuster, narrowly missing the top of the charts. However, his next solo LP, Soul Searchin,’ did not follow until 1988, notching only one Top 40 entry, “True Love; ” Strange Weather, issued four years later, missed the charts altogether. After issuing Glenn Frey Live in 1993, he joined the reunited Eagles on their phenomenally successful “Hell Freezes Over” tour, with a live album of the same name reaching Number One a year later. In the late 1990s, Frey also co-founded his own label, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez.