I woke up this morning and was on my second cup of espresso reading the headlines when I saw the news of yesterday. https://www.jdsouther.net/ From his website: LOS ANGELES, Sept. 17, 2024 — John David “JD” Souther, a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee known for his hit collaborations with the Eagles, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, passed away peacefully in his New Mexico home at the age of 78. As I read the news on my phone sipping my coffee my heart sunk. Literally. I just stopped for a moment and thought “no.” What a great writer, great story-teller, but most of all what a cool person to talk to and listen to his very neat stories. I have quite a few actually.
I am fortunate to know Tess Mangum who at the time was booking fabulous artists into the Carrboro Arts Center. Tess booked so many great shows at that location and I met so many great artists from rock music it would take a while to remember all of them. Let’s just say I have the photos and many are framed around my house. Tess and I are still distant friends today and she is still promoting music. https://sonicpieproductions.com/ Thanks to Tess I was able to see JD perform twice. Once in 2009 and once in 2011. As a note I almost had him hired to play in Key West about 10 years ago but the festival budget prevented that gig. I still regret that. At the two gigs I attended I probably got to talk with JD for well over an hour as we just hit it off the moment we started talking. We talked about wine, we talked about people he knew, we talked a little about music but mostly we talked about our mutual life-long passion of Formula One racing! I will share one or two of those stories here.
I will tell you one of the stories JD told me that I will never forget. Back in 1990 I was at the F1 race in Phoenix, Arizona where I saw Tom Cruise and Paul Newman drive in a Trans Am series race. The car had PT Newman printed on the top of the windshield and somewhere I have a photo of that car but that is for another day as I have hundreds of thousands of photos, no exaggeration. Why do I add this detail you ask? Well JD told me a story that his friend Paul Newman told him as they were sitting outside at his house one night. It seems not many people knew Paul was an incredible car driver and he liked to race under the name PT Newman to allow him to race without drawing attention. He stopped by Laguna Seca Raceway one day in his Volvo “R” wagon and it just so happened that the local Porsche club was having a track day. Paul had some connections so he eased his car on to the track to do some laps to practice and just have some fun. https://www.countyofmonterey.gov/government/government-links/weathertech-raceway The story I heard from JD was a doctor who was driving his extremely expensive Porsche 911 came into the pits and threw his helmet on the ground in disgust. One of his friends walks over and goes “Dude! Why did you do that?” The doctor says “I was flat out on the backstretch and all of the sudden some old lady in a Volvo wagon passed me!” “Insert laughter here.” I will never forget how much we laughed that night. It is very cool in life when you meet people and just have all of these mutual interests.
One more story. I have a few. JD told me at the previous show in 2009 that he had lived in an apartment complex with Don Henley and Jackson Browne. He said Don was gone a lot back to Texas at the time but back and forth. Jackson lived right over his apartment. JD said he could hear Jackson practicing constantly playing guitar and singing. JD remembered when Jackson was working on “Doctor My Eyes” and he played it over and over. JD said it was a great song but he was tired of it before it was released! We had a good laugh on that one. I remember when that song was released and I still really like the song even today. In fact that album is one of several framed and hanging on my wall in my listening room.
Who is JD Souther. Well for many reading this you know. Some won’t recognize the name but if you were a child of the 1970’s and listened to radio you will know the music he wrote the lyrics for. He wrote some of The Eagles’ biggest hits, including “Best of My Love,” “James Dean,” “New Kid in Town” and “Doolin-Dalton.” He also co-wrote “Heartache Tonight,” with Bob Seger, Frey and Don Henley. How about the mega-hit for Roy Orbison “You’re Only Lonely.” JD also wrote “Run Like a Thief,” for Bonnie Raitt, and several songs for Linda Ronstadt, including “Faithless Love” and “White Rhythm and Blues.” There is a very long list of hits this man wrote and if you want to learn more I would tell you to go read his website as he is one incredible writer and person of what I would call Rock and Roll Royalty although he never really got the spotlight like those he wrote for. I still like to call him the “Fifth Eagle.” I always will. https://www.jdsouther.net/
JD Souther. Gone but never forgotten. Life is a short fast ride. I have lived though a great time for the evolution of music from blues to rock and roll and then some. Many of my favorite artists are getting older and I almost dread reading the morning news for that reason. I guess we all just have to celebrate people and toast those who lived life very well. JD had a good life. Thanks for the music. Cheers my friend we will miss you.
See ya down the road.