Glenn Frey, the guitarist and sometime singer for the legendary 1970s group The Eagles, has died at age 67, the band’s website announced.
According to a post at Eagles.com, Mr. Frey, a founding member of the band, died after a battle lasting several weeks with pneumonia, intestinal disease and rheumatoid arthritis.
“The Frey family would like to thank everyone who joined Glenn to fight this fight and hoped and prayed for his recovery. Words can neither describe our sorrow, nor our love and respect for all that he has given to us, his family, the music community & millions of fans worldwide,” the site said in its death notice.
Mr. Frey sang many of the Eagles biggest hits, including “Tequila Sunrise,” “Already Gone” and “Take It Easy” (drummer Don Henley sang most of the others).
The death was first reported by TMZ on Monday afternoon, saying that Mr. Frey had surgery for intestinal problems in November and then “in the last few days his condition took a turn for the worse.”
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and won six Grammys, including several for singles with Mr. Frey on lead vocals — “Lying Eyes,” “Heartache Tonight,” and “New Kid in Town.”
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Mr. Frey also had a successful solo career in the 1980s, scoring such hits as “You Belong to the City” from the “Miami Vice” TV show, and “Smuggler’s Blues,” which had an innovative video that played like an episode of “Miami Vice.” Mr. Frey had a recurring acting role on that hit show.
After an acrimonious breakup during which Mr. Henley said the Eagles would play again “when hell freezes over,” the band reunited in 1994. The resulting album, titled “Hell Freezes Over,” was one of their biggest, selling 6 million albums and launching a two-year world tour that was one of the biggest-grossing in history.
The band was the subject of an Alex Gibney documentary in 2013, “The History of the Eagles,” which first aired on Showtime and put the group on another two-year tour, with the same title.
They were also supposed to play at the Kennedy Center this fall but Mr. Frey’s declining health sank those plans.
Mr. Henley, from whom Mr. Frey was estranged for years before hell froze over, said Monday that meeting the Detroit native had “changed my life forever.”
“The bond we forged 45 years ago was never broken, even during the 14 years that the Eagles were dissolved,” he said. “Glenn was the one who started it all. He was the spark plug, the man with the plan. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music and a work ethic that wouldn’t quit. He was funny, bullheaded, mercurial, generous, deeply talented and driven.”
Mr. Frey is survived by his wife Cindy and their three children.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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