Randy Meisner, founding member of Eagles, dies

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NEW YORK (AP) — Randy Meisner, a founding member of the band Eagles, who added harmonies to popular songs like “Take It Easy” and “The Best of My Love” as well as performed and co-wrote “Take It to the Limit,” has died. at 77 years old.

Meisner died Wednesday night in Los Angeles of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the band said in a statement Thursday.

The bassist had endured numerous heartbreaks in recent years and a personal tragedy in 2016 when his wife, Lana Rae Meisner, accidentally shot herself to death. Randy Meisner had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had a serious problem with alcohol, according to court records and comments made during a 2015 hearing in which a judge ordered him to receive ongoing medical care.

Called “the sweetest man in the music business” by his former bandmate Don Felder, Meisner joined Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon in the early 1970s to form a representative Los Angeles band and one of the most popular bands in history.

“Randy was an integral part of Eagles and instrumental in the band’s early success,” the Eagles statement said. “His vocal range was astounding, as evident in his signature ballad ‘Take It to the Limit.'”

The band said funeral plans are pending.

Evolving from country rock to hard rock, the Eagles produced a series of hit singles and albums, beginning with “Take It Easy” and continuing with “Desperado,” “Hotel California” and “Life In the Fast Lane,” among others. Although criticized as shallow, the Eagles released two of the most popular albums of all time, “Hotel California” and “Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975),” which with sales of 38 million copies placed alongside “Thriller.” by Michael Jackson as the best-selling album, according to figures from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)

Led by singer-songwriters Henley and Frey, the Eagles were initially called “smooth” and “easy listening.” But by their third album, 1974’s “On the Border,” they had added a rock guitarist, Felder, and were moving away from country and bluegrass.

Leadon, an old-fashioned bluegrass player, was not happy with the new sound and left after the 1975 album One of These Nights. (He was replaced by another rock guitarist, Joe Walsh.) Meisner stayed until the 1976 release of “Hotel California,” the band’s most acclaimed record, but left soon after. His departure, ironically, was sparked by the song he co-wrote and for which he was best known, “Take It to the Limit.”

Shy and originally from Nebraska, Meisner was torn between fame and family life. He was sick and homesick during the “Hotel California” tour (his first marriage was ending) and reluctant to be in the limelight on “Take It to the Limit,” a showcase for his nasal tenor. His objections during a concert in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the summer of 1977 so enraged Frey that the two argued backstage, and Meisner left soon after. His replacement, Timothy B. Schmit, remained with the group for the next several decades, along with Henley, Walsh and Frey, who died in 2016.

As a solo artist, Meisner was far from the success of the Eagles, but he had popular songs with “Hearts On Fire” and “Deep Inside My Heart” and played on records by Walsh, James Taylor and Dan Fogelberg, among others. Meanwhile, the Eagles ended a 14-year hiatus in 1994 and toured with Schmit despite the fact that Meisner had played on all but one of his previous studio albums. Meisner was with past and present members of the group in 1998 when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and performed “Take It Easy” and “Hotel California.” For a decade, he was part of the World Classic Rockers, a touring band that at various times included Donovan, Spencer Davis and Denny Laine.

Meisner was married twice, the first time while still a teenager, and had three children.

The son of sharecroppers and the grandson of a classical fiddler, Meisner played in local bands as a teenager and, in the late 1960s, moved to California and joined a country rock group, Poco, along with Richie Furay and Jimmy Messina. But he would remember being upset that Furay wouldn’t let him hear the studio mix of his first album and left the group before it came out: his successor was Timothy B. Schmit.

Meisner was a musician for Ricky Nelson, played on Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James” album, and became friends with Henley and Frey when they were all playing in Linda Ronstadt’s band. With Ronstadt’s blessing, they formed the Eagles, were signed by David Geffen to his Asylum Records label, and released their self-titled debut album in 1972.

Frey and Henley sang most of the time, but Meisner was the key behind “Take It to the Limit.” It appeared on the 1975 album “One of These Nights” and became a top 5 single, a tired, plaintive song later covered by Etta James and a duet by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.

Meisner’s falsetto voice was so distinctive that it became a defining part of not only the Eagles but the entire California sound.

Meisner’s “harmonies are instantly recognizable and appreciated by Eagles fans around the world,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said in a statement.

In the parody series “Documentary Now!” From 2015 there are a couple of chapters about a band of fake Eagles and Bill Hader’s mustachioed character is clearly inspired by Meisner.

“For me, the whole point of the Eagles thing was that combination and the chemistry that made all the harmonies sound perfect,” Meisner told the music website www.lobstergottalent.com in 2015. “The funny thing is after that we made those albums I never listened to them and it’s only when someone comes or I’m at someone’s house and it’s playing in the background that I say to myself: ‘Damn, these records are good’”.

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AP writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report from Los Angeles.