Vince Gill Talks Eagles’ Impact on Country, Joe Walsh Project
The tribute to Glenn Frey by the remaining members of the Eagles and Jackson Browne at last night’s Grammy Awards was one of the telecast’s most stirring moments. And the group’s song choice — the Frey trademark “Take It Easy” — further illustrated the Eagles’ connection to country music.
Vince Gill, a close friend of Frey’s, says the band’s influence on contemporary country is actually more evident than that of the genre’s greats.
“Those guys and those songs affected this music more than all of our heroes. If you look at today’s incarnation of what country music is, the Eagles had more to do with it than Hank, George Jones and Merle,” Gill tells Rolling Stone Country. “There’s nothing that you hear out of our music today that hearkens to that.”
Gill released his latest album Down to My Last Bad Habit last week, and was recently inducted (by placing his hands into cement) into the Guitar Center RockWalk in Los Angeles. The Eagles’ Joe Walsh joined him at the ceremony, and Gill says the two guitarists are hoping to collaborate.
“We’re talking about finding a way to have some fun and do something together,” he says. “We don’t know what it is yet, but it’ll be a lot of fun.”
Gill is currently on the road and will reunite with Keith Urban for the All for the Hall benefit concert in Nashville on April 12th.