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Eagles · S1 E4
Bernie & Randy
Bernie Leadon from the Flying Burrito Brothers, Randy Meisner from Poco. Two veterans of country rock, both looking for something new
Los Angeles, 1971. In a rehearsal space off Sunset Boulevard, a banjo player from Florida packs up his gear for the last time. The Flying Burrito Brothers are finished.
Eagles, Busy Being Fabulous (2007). The lead single from Long Road Out of Eden, their first studio album in 28 years. A song about restless ambition and always chasing the next thing, capturing exactly what drove Bernie and Randy through band after band.
The Burrito Brother
Bernie Leadon has been through more bands than most musicians see in a lifetime. Hearts & Flowers, Dillard & Clark, and then the Flying Burrito Brothers alongside Gram Parsons, the man who invented the idea of mixing country with rock and called it "Cosmic American Music."
“Playing with Gram was an education. He had this vision of tearing down the wall between country music and rock and roll. That idea, that mission, stayed with me long after the Burritos were done.”
— Bernie Leadon, History of the Eagles documentary, 2013
The Farm Kid from Nebraska
Randy Meisner grows up on a farm outside Scottsbluff, Nebraska, about as far from the Sunset Strip as you can get. He drifts to LA, plays bass for Rick Nelson's Stone Canyon Band, and then co-founds Poco with Richie Furay and Jim Messina. But Meisner is gentle by nature, and the egos around him grind him down.
TAP TO REVEAL: Which musician replaced Randy Meisner not once, but twice, in two different bands?
Try and Love Again
From Hotel California (1976). Written and sung by Randy Meisner, this is the most overlooked track on one of the best-selling albums of all time. Meisner's gentle tenor floats over a soft country-rock arrangement that sounds nothing like the dark, heavy songs surrounding it. A window into who Randy really was: sweet, earnest, and quietly brilliant.
Which pioneering country-rock band did Bernie Leadon play in before Eagles?
Bernie & Randy: The Numbers
Four musicians. Four egos. Four voices that blend like nothing the Troubadour has ever heard. But they need one person to bring them together. Next: Linda Ronstadt hires all four as her backing band, and by the end of the tour, they know they are a group.
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