Glenn Frey Job

[OntheBorder74]

Hi I always wondered from his time in college to I guess his songwriting contract with Amos Records and touring with Linda etc whether Glenn had a job, I guess not as there is no evidence of this but I wondered how he got by in the lean early days arriving in California or in Detroit after school. Just a thought

[sodascouts]

We know he did live gigs. also, he has alluded to a generous girlfriend or two. Plus there's always Mom. ;) He might have done some session playing... I don't remember him talking much about it.

[Glennsallnighter]

He mentioned also that when his Mom wrote to him from Detroit she used send him a $10 bill - probably went further in the early 70s than it would now.

[UndertheWire]

No mention of a job but this is how JD described those early days:


Glenn and I met in late '68 or early '69. He came out from Detroit to visit his girlfriend. Our girlfriends were sisters. We were flat broke and moved in with our girlfriends, who were actually doing better than us. We started writing songs day and night. We talked about what we wanted to do and we said, "Let's write songs and play music, just the two of us."
We were just called "John David and Glenn." Doug Weston, who ran the Troubadour, was our manager, and he said, "You should change the band name." I liked the Penny Whistle and Glenn liked Longbranch, since he liked cowboys. Weston said, "Great — Longbranch Pennywhistle." Within hours, we had a little tiny ad in the Free Press and our first paying gig. We opened for Poco for a week and the second gig we opened for the Flying Burrito Brothers. Gram Parsons [leader of the Burritos at the time] really wanted to be Mick Jagger. But they didn't have the discipline Glenn knew a band like that needed. He paid attention. He was a real student of how that worked and how it didn't work. He studied their mistakes and Poco's and CSNY's.
Glenn and I knew everyone at the Troubadour that year. We knew all the waitresses. They fed us. The bartender gave us tequila and we saw every actor who came through.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/glenn-frey-an-oral-history-20160128

It sounds like no rent, free food and a few paying gigs.

[buffyfan145]

I've wondered this too and even more so after the Screen Actors Guild union posted on their Twitter after he passed that he has been a member of the union since 1968. So I'm guessing he might've been an extra in a movie/show or did some commercials. Would've been an easy way to get insurance back then too in California.

[Delilah]

On the Randy at the Troubadour thread, I posted that an "unemployed Glenn Frey" (according to Richie Furay) was hanging around the Troubadour and watching Pogo/Poco rehearsals during Fall'68/Winter'69 (Glenn had arrived in L.A. the summer of '68 ). It was sometime during late winter/spring of 1969 that he and J.D. formed Longbranch Pennywhistle, so he then had something to occupy his time. According to the Poco concert chronology, LP opened for Poco the last week of December 1969. By then, Randy was no longer in Poco and Timothy performed with them for the 1st time at the Troubadour.

Hopefully this gives some clarification.:smile:

[Brooke]

I figure they pretty much lived the hobo life because they didn't work a regular job. Being in the right place at the right time could get them a free meal and bed.

In Keith Richards book he talks about in their early years of him and Mick and others with them at the time, they all lived together and actually shoplifted food from grocery stores! They did whatever they had to to manage.

[Glennsallnighter]

He started at the bottom, worked hard and reaped his success - like so many 70s and 80s bands. That is why they are still active today and why people still buy their records.
I have so little time for the 'manufactured' bands where a group of teenagers (often) are given a song to sing on a talent show, win it, release an album make a fortune and then implode because they have had too much too soon.