Who is the worst musician in The Eagles?

The Eagles is/was one of the greatest groups in history, with album sales consistently in the top five for decades. They won numerous Grammy Awards and wrote iconic classic songs, with amazing musicianship on full display, especially in their songwriting and vocal harmonies. Trying to pick a “bad” Eagle is almost sacrilege, especially from the original lineup. But there is one…

(Image credit: Rolling Stone Magazine)

In my personal opinion, the “worst musician” in the Eagles was the late Glenn Frey. Glenn Frey was an incredible front man, and I saw him in concert, both with the Eagles and solo. He was charismatic, outgoing, well-spoken and a handsome young guy. He was a great lead face for the band. On top of that, he also sang well, performed flawless harmonies, and was an incredible songwriter, who together with Don Henley, helped pen most of the Eagles’ biggest number one hits.

However as a musician, he didn’t stand out as really spectacular in any specific area. He took piano lessons as a child, and although he revisited the keyboards from time-to-time, he was only barely adequate in that area. His guitar playing was also fairly simple and straightforward. When he did play guitar, he played rhythm and rarely if ever dared to play any leads, with the exception of some tasty but basic slide blues. Quite simply, he was average. Anything even remotely technical was left up to Bernie Leadon and Don Felder. Later on, Joe Walsh entered the band and dominated on guitar. The guitar for Glenn was almost a stage prop. However that was OK, as his main instruments were his voice and his pen, and both of those were amazing.

So while I expect to receive some grief over this difficult answer, I will stick by it.