It was never going to easy to live up the Eagles‘ multi-platinum ’70s standards as solo artists. Heck, in some notable cases, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner struggled to match the best moments of their own solo careers.
The following look back at the 10 worst Eagles solo albums, however, makes it clear that their challenges went beyond expectations.
As with many legacy rockers, there were time-specific musical stumbles in the ’80s. These glossed-up pop-rock solo albums could not have sounded less like the Eagles’ patented country-inflected rock triumphs. Their old fans stayed away in droves.
READ MORE: Ranking All 22 Don Henley Eagles Songs From the ‘70s
Addiction played a role with Walsh. His solo career floundered until he finally sobered up for the Eagles’ early-’90s reunion. Even absent that, forging a separate identity proved to be a steep uphill climb – and that included Frey and Henley, despite being the group’s main songwriters and hitmakers.
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Inspiration could be difficult to come by. Felder seemed to acknowledge that years later by returning to some leftover ideas from his time in the Eagles. Still, there were so many times when a creative nudge from one of their old bandmates might have pushed a song – and then an entire album – into a much better place.
Thankfully, all of them ultimately found some measure of success away from the group. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we were still subjected to the 10 worst Eagles solo albums.
10 Worst Eagles Solo Albums
Living up to their main band’s multi-platinum standards wasn’t easy.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
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