Randy Meisner: A Retrospective

Bernie Leadon

“Gathering Of The Clan”
Benefit for Fred Walecki
August 8, 2000

Randy participated in the first of a two-day benefit called “Gathering Of The Clan” for Fred Walecki, owner of Westwood Music in Los Angeles, who had been diagnosed with throat cancer. Walecki’s store was well-known in the music industry as the go-to place to buy instruments and other gear. According to Randy, all of the Eagles bought their instruments from him. “He became like one of the group almost.” The benefit was organized by Glyn Johns and Bernie Leadon. At the August 8th show, Randy sang “Take It Easy,” “Already Gone” and “Take It To The Limit” (listen below). Accompanying Randy on both tracks were his bandmates in the World Classic Rockers, plus fellow former Eagle, Bernie Leadon.

Randy backstage at the Fred Walecki benefit

“Take It Easy”

“Already Gone” and “Take It To The Limit”

Star-studded group photo at the Gathering Of The Clan. Randy is in the middle with his World Classic Rockers bandmates.
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BLACK TIE
Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach, CA
November 14th, 1985

This was Black Tie’s first club performance.
The band included, Randy, Jimmy Griffin from Bread, Billy Swan, David Kemper from the Jerry Garcia Band, and Randy’s former Eagle bandmate, Bernie Leadon, who toured with the band through January 1986, when he was replaced with Blondie Chaplin.

All but Leadon appeared on the band’s album, When Night Falls, which featured Randy singing lead on one song: Buddy Holly’s “Learning The Game.” However, when the album was rereleased on CD in 1990, Randy’s lead vocal on the song was replaced with Griffin’s. Listen to Randy’s version here:

“Learning The Game” (original album version) – Black Tie

Find out more about Black Tie below:

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Photo Archive: Eagles by Ken Regan, July 29th, 1975

This series of photos were taken by Ken Regan in Edwardsville, Illinois on the afternoon of July 29th, 1975. The Eagles were in town to perform the Mississippi River Festival that evening. Regan took photos at the nearby Holiday Inn, as well as backstage at the festival. The images show Randy wearing a red shirt with a white tornado on the front. The shirt matched the band’s stage passes at the time, which also were also red with a white tornado logo. Don Henley has one of these stage passes attached to his untucked denim shirt in some of the photos below. Randy’s ex-wife, Jennifer Meisner, and their son Dana recalled that the tornado may have meant “whirlwind” or something similar.

One of Randy’s “whirlwind” stage passes from 1975.

Photos

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Eagles by Henry Diltz
Topanga Canyon, September 1973

This series of photos were taken at Bernie Leadon’s home in Topanga Canyon, CA. Another set of photos were taken at Bernie’s home by Ethan Russell circa 1971.

Photos from this session were used in a rare two-sided poster insert, found only in original first issues of On The Border in 1974.

Front and back of poster insert:

Present at the photo session were Randy’s wife, Jennifer, and their three-year-old daughter, Heather. Jennifer took these rare snapshots of the session as it was happening, including a photo of Heather with the band in the background. Photos courtesy of Jennifer Meisner. Shared with permission.

There were a couple of wardrobe changes during the session. Don Henley changed into the tan shirt Randy was wearing and Randy changed into a yellow chamois shirt. Glenn Frey switches from a denim shirt into a denim jacket. Bernie Leadon switched to a white shirt (see photo here). Randy wore the yellow shammy shirt in two other photo sessions: London, March 1973 and another Diltz session in early 1974.

Photos

Author

Jessica Buxton

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Photo Archive: Eagles by Peter Mazel, Holland, November 13th, 1973

These photos were taken prior to the Eagles’ concert at the De Doelen in Rotterdam either backstage or at Mazel’s studio in The Hague.

Randy’s shirt is a nod to his hometown of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The Frank Implement Company was owned by the father of one of his friends. Randy worked there for several months in 1970 between stints touring with Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band.

Randy and Glenn Frey are wearing gold medallions that were a gift from producer Glyn Johns.

“As a gesture of friendship, Glyn had these solid-gold medallions made for each of us, after which they threw away the mold. It had an Eagle on the front, and our names on the back. Proof that I was an original Eagle.” (Randy Meisner, To The Limit: The Untold Story Of The Eagles by Marc Eliot, 1997)

Closeup of Glenn Frey’s medallion. The word “EAGLES” can be seen along the bottom.

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