Twenty-one years later: the return of Bernie Leadon

Bernie Leadon he did it again. In 2005 he released his second solo album, “Mirror”twenty-six years after the previous one “Natural progressions”. Now he has let another twenty-one years pass to come out with the third album: “Too late to be cool”. At the time of “Mirror” Asked why he had only now returned to the studio, he replied candidly: “Only now did I feel like doing it.” Nowadays the answer probably wouldn’t be much different. The album cover image is a stock photo taken by Henry Diltz in 1979, while the title of the album ironically describes the career of Leadon, who has never been cool. Maybe good. Very good, but not cool.

Bernie, now 78, was one of the founding members of the Eaglesa band that defined the boundaries of country rock in the early seventies, together with Glenn Frey, Don Henley And Randy Meisner. There he played the guitar, but also banjo and mandolin. He remained in the band until 1975 and played on the first four albums: “Eagles” (1972), “Desperado” (1973), “On the border” (1974) e “One of these nights” (1975). When he left the group he was replaced by Joe Walsh.

His exit from the American band went down in history and, unfortunately, was mentioned so many times that it overshadowed the artistic contribution given to the group, as recalled in an interview a few years ago by Leadon himself: “I poured beer on Glenn’s head during a band meeting in 1975 and I agreed to leave. I said ‘Let’s have some good concerts to show how good we are and then I’ll leave’. I didn’t realize that pouring beer on his head would have been a monumental event. One time, after Wikipedia was born, I looked at my entry and it basically said, ‘Bernie Leadon left the band because he poured a beer on Glenn Frey’s head.’ I thought ‘Well, this is kind of a bizarre legacy on Wikipedia.’ They don’t talk about my guitar playing. They’re just talking about me spilling a beer on my head Glenn.”

In fact Bernie had some problems with alcohol, once he recognized this difficulty he decided to stop drinking and start a recovery process. “When you go through recovery, one of the things you do is figure out who you hurt and apologize. So, I knew I had to apologize to Glenn.” And things fell into place.

So much for the past, a past fifty years old. The present, as previously mentioned, is called “Too Late to Be Cool”a record that was anticipated by the singles “Too Many Memories” And “Just a Little” and was produced by Glyn Johnsalready producer of the first two and co-produced the third album of Eagles. Together with Leadon on the album they played bassist Glenn Worfthe drummer Greg Morrow and the keyboard player Tony Harrell.

Bernie Leadon
he is rightly proud, like all fathers, of the new baby, and said: “I love this album. We took the time to make sure the songs were suited to my voice. The three-piece band and I were all sitting in the same room or somewhere we could see each other well. Many were first or very first recordings. On three songs I even sang live.”