By Larry Nager
The Cincinnati Enquirer

"This little kid wanted my autograph and I said, 'How in the world do you know about me?' And he said, 'Hey man, my grandfather turned me on to you.' Little (expletive) brat."

Joe Walsh, 55, laughs as he tells the story, but there's a bit of an edge to it. After all, the Ohio-bred guitarist and the rest of the Eagles are all old enough to be at least the great-uncles of today's pop stars.

IF YOU GO

Who: The Eagles. When: 8 p.m. today. Where: U.S. Bank Arena, downtown. Tickets: $43-$153, at Ticketmaster outlets and the box office.

BY THE NUMBERS

4 - Eagles: Don Henley, vocals, drums; Glen Frey, vocals, guitar; Joe Walsh, vocals, lead guitar; Timothy B. Schmit, bass, vocals. 3 - Former Eagles: Bernie Leadon, vocals, guitar, mandolin, banjo; Randy Meisner, vocals, bass; Don Felder, vocals, guitar. 28 million - Copies sold of Their Greatest Hits 1971-75, making it the No. 1 best-selling album of all time (edging out Michael Jackson's Thriller). 86 million - Albums sold in United States. 7 - Top 40 hits. 5 - No. 1 hits. 4 - Grammy Awards. 1998 - Year inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But 32 years after the band formed in Los Angeles, the Eagles are back with another reunion tour, "Farewell 1," 8 p.m. today at U.S. Bank Arena, downtown. They're working on a new album and a DVD and this time, there's no end in sight.

"We're calling it 'Farewell 1,' which opens the door for a sequel," jokes Walsh.

"We all have discovered the great thing about being a musician is you have a couple more seasons after your knees are shot. If we were athletes, we'd all be gone by now."

'70s good to the Eagles

The Eagles got their start in the Southern California country-rock scene, heirs to the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, but while country would always play a role in the band's sound, it soon evolved from the rural sounds of "Peaceful Easy Feeling" into the harder, more cynical edge of 1976's Hotel California.

Band members came and went, but the band's "Lennon-McCartney" remained the same, as songwriters/leaders Don Henley and Glenn Frey consistently kept the Eagles at the top of the decade's charts. Walsh joined in 1975, Timothy B. Schmit in 1978 (the same year the Eagles drew 51,855 people to Riverfront Stadium).

Bumpy road

But too much money and too many drugs have a way of bringing down even the most successful bands, and by 1982, the Eagles had crashed, seemingly for good. The acrimonious breakup led to Henley's famous quote that the band would reunite when "hell freezes over" (which, of course, became the title of their 1994 reunion album).

Some of the old acrimony resurfaced in 2001, when Henley and Frey fired guitarist Don Felder. He sued the pair. For this tour, Felder's instrumental vacancy has been filled by guitarist Steuart Smith, keyboard player Will Hollis and a horn section.

The Eagles really have mellowed, insists Walsh.

"We're all older now, and we're a little more emotionally predictable and we don't have substances in our brains and we have kids," he explains. "We don't particularly love each other," he's quick to add, "but the thought of playing with anybody else is worse. You know, I hate all drummers, but I hate Henley the least, and he's about the same with guitar players."

Of course, it helps that, as the Eagles, they can fill arenas with a top ticket price of more than $150. When Henley, the most successful solo Eagle, played Riverbend in 2000, he failed to fill the 6,000-seat pavilion for an $82 top ticket.

Raised in Ohio

Walsh was an Ohio rock star long before the Eagles. Born in Kansas, he was raised in Columbus, attending Crestview Elementary. The Walsh family moved to New York during his high school years, but Walsh returned to the Buckeye state to attend Kent State in 1966.

He was soon playing in bands and a few years later his virtuoso guitar playing earned him an invitation from drummer Jim Fox to join the Akron/Cleveland-based James Gang. Before it sputtered after three LPs, the band scored national hits with "Walk Away" and "Funk #49."

Going solo, Walsh enjoyed a huge 1972 solo hit with what would become his trademark, the vocal effects-laden "Rocky Mountain Way."

He failed to follow up that success, and was back on the club circuit when the offer came to join the stadium-filling Eagles. It was an easy choice.

But he always was prone to substance abuse, and after the Eagles broke up, Walsh's various addictions got the better of him. In the early '90s, when there was a talk of a reunion, one of the prerequisites was that he clean up his act. He says he's been clean and sober for nine years. In that sense, the Eagles saved his life. Some of his friends weren't so lucky.

"For some reason, I hit bottom before I died. And all my buddies who aren't around anymore just died before they hit bottom. I don't understand it. I didn't plan on living this long," Walsh says.

Rare guitar solos

As a rock 'n' roll survivor, Walsh had a hard time listening to the radio for the past few years, as rock, pop, country and R&B - the music the Eagles fused so seamlessly the first time around - have never been further apart. Besides inclusion, another victim of the current rock climate has been the guitar-hero solo spot.

"Things have sure mutated, haven't they?" Walsh says. "I listen to the radio and I just think I'm in a foreign country. And I don't know what to do.

"I'm split about down the middle. Half of me gets all concerned: 'Maybe I'm old and outdated, maybe I should really get some records and pay attention to what it is and adapt to the times.' But boy, when we go and play these shows, people really want to hear what we do."