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sodascouts
09-22-2007, 06:52 PM
I found an interesting interview with David Spero, who managed Joe, done by the auction site where he's selling his wares.

David Spero Interview by Backstage Auction Site (http://www.backstageauctions.com/catphotos/editorfiles/Classic%20Rock%20Revisited%20Spero%20Interview.htm l)

Here is an excerpt which I found especially interesting:

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Jeb: Joe and you are very close.

David: We don't kiss or anything; I just want you to know that. Well, we did once but it was the seventies.

Jeb: I wonder was it hard it was to manage Joe Walsh when he was in active addition?

David: For years when the phone rang after nine o'clock at night I always worried that is was going to be the call. I always worried that something had happened. I would never have been surprised to get that call as I thought it was inevitable. I have seen Joe go through the worst times of his life and I have been around him during the best times of his life.

Jeb: Did you reach out to him at any point?

David: Anyone who makes it through those situations knows that a person has to do it for themselves. As much as I was there for any support that he needed or wanted, it always came down to Joe.

Jeb: Joe still seems to be a very colorful person.

David: On the Ringo tour we had a rain out and ended up with too many days off. Joe went to Radio Shack and bought an electric glue gun and glued everything in his hotel to the ceiling. I have a lot of hotel bills like that in my files.

Jeb: Rumor has it that you had a bigger role than you admit to in reuniting the Eagles.

David: It was pretty much all my fault. I put Joe and Glenn Frey together again. Glenn came into town and stopped by and he didn't know that I was managing Joe. I had not seen him in ten years. He wanted to eat at this restaurant where the Eagles used to eat. We met there and he asked me what I had been up to and I told him that I was managing Joe. He said, "Joe Cocker?" I told him Joe Walsh and he said, "To hell with that guy. I tried to get in touch with him and it came back that he didn't want anything to do with me." I said, "That is interesting Glenn because I can tell you the exact same story." Joe had a song that he wanted Glenn to co-write with him. We were told no one wanted to talk to him. Glenn and Joe were doing small clubs and I told them, "One plus one can equal three. You and Joe could be doing big venues and not just clubs."

The next day Glenn was doing Michael Stanley's radio show and while he was on the air I went to my car and called Joe and said, "Joe, you have to call Michael Stanley on the air and hype our show. Call him right now." Joe called the hotline and Michael answered and said, "You will never guess who is sitting here. Glenn Frey." He put them on the air together and they had their first conversation since the Eagles had broken up. That night Frey closed his show by playing "Rocky Mountain Way" and I knew I had him. About two weeks later Glenn called me and told me he was playing an amphitheater and said it was time to try it so we did. After that we did the Walsh/Frey tour.

Around Valentines Day in 1994, I got a call from Don Henley's manager and he said he wanted to come see the show. Everybody got together and we went over to his apartment and we started writing the rules down for the reunion.

Jeb: Once they got past the first conversation did everything fall into place?

David: I'm not sure they ever got over the initial conversation! Actually, they are doing great and the Hell Freezes Over tour was a great thing and went on for two and half years.

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Interesting about Glenn being told that Joe wanted nothing to do with him! Perhaps that's why he said some harsh things about him in 1992. It's also amazing to me that they never talked after the band broke up until that radio show in 1992. Wow!

Apparently Spero just doesn't want the stuff anymore and so he is selling it. I would never be able to part with such things!

The Bomber
09-22-2007, 08:17 PM
Yeah, that's interesting... if Spero's memory is accurate. Who told Frey that Walsh wasn't interested if it wasn't his manager? And why were both told that the other wasn't interested? Who are these evil plotters that are supposedly trying to keep Walsh and Frey apart and why would they do that anyway, when all the money's in getting them together?

Doesn't really add up, if you ask me.

glenneaglesfan
09-23-2007, 12:30 PM
Very cool interview, Soda.

I wonder how Glenn felt talking to Joe on a live radio slot - it must have been quite a shock, especially if there had been a bit of bad feeling between them. All credit to him for coping, and that was a nice touch to play Rocky Mountain Way at his show that evening. I wonder if that was the San Diego concert?

Bomber, good point! I'm sure the managers had an interest in getting them together, but I guess Glenn and Joe may have tried to contact each other directly.

Freypower
09-23-2007, 07:31 PM
It seems to me the guy is over-inflating his own role in all of this.

I have always heard that Irving and Peter Lopez (Glenn's then manager) were the managment people involved in putting the reunion together.

JoeFan
09-24-2007, 04:03 AM
Crikey, I looked at that auction, so many things I'd love to own, but I've not the money.

This interview is quite interesting, thank you, perhaps Spero is exaggerrating somewhat but I don't think he's outright lying, not that I really know anything about the matter anyway, but which of us does?

What I find more interesting than that part is the part about Joe's 'colourful' personality. Amusing!