On Wednesday, July 26, 2023, Randy Meisner, the singer/songwriter/bassist and one of the original members of the Eagles, passed away at the age of 77 in Los Angeles. The cause of death was stated by the Eagles to be due to complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Meisner was renowned for his prominent vocal range on songs such as “Take It to the Limit”, which contributed to the group’s international success.
“The Eagles are sad to report that founding member, bassist, and vocalist, Randy Meisner, passed away last night (July 26) in Los Angeles at age 77, due to complications from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease (COPD),” read the band’s official statement. The post also included the following remembrance from the Eagles: “Randy was an integral part of the Eagles and instrumental in the early success of the band. His vocal range was astonishing, as is evident on his signature ballad, ‘Take It to the Limit’.”
In 1971, Randy Meisner, the original bassist of the Eagles, collaborated with Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Bernie Leadon to form the band. He was part of the Eagles for the albums “Eagles,” “Desperado,” “On The Border,” “One of These Nights” and “Hotel California.” Before this, he was a bassist in Poco, with Richie Furay and Jim Messina (former Buffalo Springfield members), and he sang in Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band. In addition, he produced “In Concert at the Troubadour” by the Canyon Band, and appeared in both it and “Rudy The Fifth.” Meisner, born on March 8, 1946 in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, was the second child and only son of farmers Herman and Emilie Haun Meisner. His maternal grandfather was a violin teacher, and his mother often sang around the house. His older sister, Carol, passed away in 2005.
When Randy Meisner was young, he and his family grew crops like corn, beans, alfalfa, and sugar beets on their farm. At 10 years old, he developed an interest in the guitar after seeing Elvis Presley perform on the “Ed Sullivan Show”. After taking lessons and playing with local bands, one of his high school teachers suggested he should learn to play the bass. He said, “R&B inspired me and the bass players on Motown stuff were great, although I can’t read music. I picked up bass playing naturally.” From 1961 to 1965, Meisner played bass and sang with The Dynamics (later called The Drivin’ Dynamics) and their first paying job was in a dance hall at Little Moon Lake in Torrington, Wyoming in December 1961. In late 1962, they released a 4-song EP with Meisner singing lead on Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me”. The Dynamics soon signed a record deal with Sully Records from Amarillo, Texas and recorded three songs with Meisner singing lead on two of them–“One Of These Days” and “So Fine”. The single of “So Fine” sold well regionally and in the southeastern US. In 1966, Meisner moved to California with a band named The Soul Survivors, later renamed The Poor. He had a hard life there, “I never had a car, I had to walk. I sold the Los Angeles Free Press on Sunset and Highland. I made about five bucks a day.” The Poor was managed by Charlie Greene and Brian Stone.
In the summer of 1967, The Poor were booked to perform at the Salvation Club in New York City for two weeks, opening for The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Their releases of several singles on Loma, York and Decca Records throughout 1966 and 1967 only had a limited success. Tom Shipley, who later became famous as part of Brewer & Shipley, wrote the single “She’s Got the Time, She’s Got the Changes” while he served as staff writer for A&M; Records. Barry Friedman, also known as “Frazier Mohawk”, produced three of the singles and recorded them at Gold Star Studios. The band was featured in the 1967 Jack Nicholson film Hell’s Angels on Wheels in the song “Study in Motion #1”. They had to threaten management to get money for plane tickets back to L.A. after their show was not as successful as they had hoped. In 2003 Rev-Ola released a CD of The Poor’s music, which included one song written by Meisner called “Come Back Baby”. In May 1968, Meisner joined Poco, which was originally named Pogo, along with former Buffalo Springfield members Richie Furay and Jim Messina. Meisner appears on their first album Pickin’ Up the Pieces, but he left the band before it was released due to his exclusion from the mix playback sessions for the album. His image was replaced with a dog on the album cover and his lead vocals were replaced with new ones by George Grantham.
In April ’69, Meisner joined Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band, and he convinced Nelson and John Boylan to employ Allen Kemp (guitar) and Pat Shanahan (drums) from The Poor, as well as Tom Brumley from Buck Owens’ band. Meisner appeared on both In Concert at the Troubadour, 1969[20] and Rudy The Fifth, and he co-produced “In Concert at the Troubadour” with Nelson. He also co-authored one of the tracks, “I Wanna Be With You”, on Nelson’s Garden Party, although he did not perform on it. During this time, Meisner kept busy as a session musician, playing bass on two tracks of James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James album (“Country Road” and “Blossom”), and on several tracks for Waylon Jennings’ 1970 album “Singer of Sad Songs” in December. After a rough tour of Europe with the Stone Canyon Band, he returned to Nebraska and began working at Frank Implement Company. At night, he played in a band called Goldrush, which was encouraged by Rick Nelson to return to Los Angeles. In mid-1971, John Boylan asked him to become a part of Linda Ronstadt’s band, which included Don Henle and Glenn Frey who later joined Meisner and Bernie Leadon as the founding members of the Eagles.
“They used to rehearse in my house, where I was living with J.D., ’cause we had a bigger living room than they did,” Ronstadt said. “And I remember coming home one day and they had rehearsed ‘Witchy Woman’ and they had all the harmonies worked out, four-part harmonies. It was fantastic. I knew it was gonna be a hit. You could just tell. They had really strong voices, really strong playing, really strong songwriting ideas and they had an extended pool of songwriters like Jack Tempchin and J.D. Souther and Jackson Browne. It was just an amazing time. There was no way they could miss with all that going for them.”
In 1972, the Eagles signed with David Geffen’s new label, Asylum Records, and released their eponymous debut album. Randy Meisner generally played bass and provided backing vocals for the band, but he also wrote and/or sang lead on many of their first five albums, such as “Take It to the Limit” – which became their first million-selling single – and “Try and Love Again”, “Is it True?”, “Take the Devil” and “Tryin'”. Don Felder, another band member, noted that Meisner was struggling with wanting to be with his family, alongside ongoing issues between the band members, that were not yet public knowledge. During the 1976/77 tour for the album Hotel California, Randy was dealing with poor health and exhaustion, due to the extensive travelling and performing. He was also shy and did not like to be the focus of attention while singing “Take It to the Limit”. After a heated argument with band member Glenn Frey about his vocals in the song, and a physical altercation backstage, Meisner was frozen out from the band. He decided to leave the Eagles after their final tour date and returned to Nebraska to be with his family. Timothy B. Schmit, who had previously replaced Meisner in Poco, was chosen to fill his place.
Meisner formally quit the band in September 1977, citing “exhaustion”. On the subject of his abrupt resignation from the band, Meisner later said, “All that stuff and all the arguing amongst the Eagles is over now. Well at least for me.”
In 1978, Meisner released his self-titled album, which he co-produced with Alan Brackett. It only featured one song co-written by him, a new arrangement of “Take It to the Limit”, and he only played bass on one song, a cover of The Drifters’ “Save the Last Dance for Me”. He explains that he had to record this album for Elektra before he was able to pursue his own projects. Then, in 1980, he released One More Song, produced by Val Garay. Don Henley and Glenn Frey provided backing vocals on the Jack Tempchin-composed title track, and Meisner co-wrote six of the album’s nine songs, including the Top 20 single “Hearts on Fire”, collaborating with songwriters Wendy Waldman and Eric Kaz. In the early 1980s, he toured with his band, Randy Meisner & the Silverados, which included Greg Palmer on bass, Todd Smith on guitar, Sterling Smith on keyboards, Don Francisco on percussion and background vocals, and Therese Heston on background vocals. In 1982, Meisner released another album on CBS (Randy Meisner), produced by Mike Flicker and featuring several members of Heart, including the Wilson sisters, playing and/or singing. This album included the Top 20 hit “Never Been in Love”, composed by Craig Bickhardt.
In 1985, Timothy Meisner became part of a supergroup known as Black Tie, which featured Jimmy Griffin (of Bread) and Billy Swan. The band’s cover of Buddy Holly’s “Learning the Game” was a hit on U.S. country radio. Blondie Chaplin and Bernie Leadon, both respected session musicians, joined the band for their U.S. tour in early 1986. After Griffin’s departure, Charlie Rich, Jr. replaced him and the group was renamed Meisner, Rich & Swan. This trio toured widely in the 90s and released an album in 2001, though it failed to make much of an impact.
From 1987 to 1989, Meisner was part of a band with former Firefall singer-songwriter Rick Roberts called the Roberts-Meisner Band. Ron Grinel, who had played with Dan Fogelberg, Carole King and the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, was the drummer. Bray Ghiglia provided guitar, flute, saxophone, and keyboard accompaniment, and Cary Park was the lead guitarist. Despite recording several songs, the band didn’t gain much interest from record companies.
Meisner reunited with Poco in 1989 and 1990 for the Legacy album and tour. He sang lead on the Richard Marx-composed “Nothin’ to Hide”, which was a Top 20 single in the US.
At the 1998 induction event for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York City, all seven of the current and former Eagles members took part, performing “Take It Easy” and “Hotel California”. Timothy B. Schmit gave a tribute to Meisner in his acceptance speech. Two years later, Meisner reunited with the Drivin’ Dynamics for an induction into the Nebraska Music Hall of Fame. During the 2000s, he toured with the World Classic Rockers. Meisner was forced to reduce his touring schedule after having severe chest pains and being hospitalized in 2004. His last known performance was in 2008 in Naples, Florida. In 2013, the Eagles asked Meisner to take part in their History of the Eagles world tour, but he declined due to health issues. The Forum in Inglewood, California hosted a three-night stand in September 2018, which was released as Live from the Forum MMXVIII, and the Eagles acknowledged Meisner for attending.
Meisner had been married twice. His first marriage was to his high-school sweetheart, Jennifer Lee Barton with whom they had a son, Dana Scott Meisner in 1963. The couple had two more children, twins Heather Leigh and Eric Shane Meisner, who were born in 1970. This union ended in 1981. His second marriage was to Lana Rae in 1996, which ended due to her death in 2016. At that time, police had responded to a 911 call from their home in Studio City, California, regarding a possibly intoxicated male suspect, which was later determined to be unrelated to the incident. Meisner was a special guest for two Richie Furay livestream concerts, in August 2020 and October 2020, respectively. Additionally, he was a guest on Joe Walsh’s “Old Fashioned Rock n’ Roll Radio Show” on Independent 88.5FM in November 2020.
