Those of us who grew up in the ’70s knew Joe Walsh as a solo artist and guitar hero. Only later did I learn that he and his family were living in Olivenhain (back in the 1990s):
From wiki:
Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980 on top of his music career as a mock campaign. He promised to make “Life’s Been Good” the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of “Free Gas For Everyone.”
Though Walsh was not old enough to actually assume the office, he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan “We Want Our Money Back!”.
In 1994, Walsh noted that he woke up after blacking out when arriving in Paris, France on an airplane. He had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point and he has been sober ever since. Jimmy Page’s sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his “Number 1” was originally owned by Joe Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
You might find “History of the Eagles” documentary currently running on Showtime of some interest. Plenty of back story is shared regarding Walsh.
Joe Walsh speaks well for dinosaurs like me with his more recent “Analog Man”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEoWaP4skv8
Sober or not, Walsh was/is a genius, and at the very least, his music gave boomers one of the few, warm safe places to stay when disco was ruthlessly assaulting this nation.
Walsh has a great song about getting sober, ‘One Day at a Time’, for all us survivors out there.
“Well you know,
I was always the first to arrive at the party, ooh!
And the last to leave the scene of the crime
Well it started with a couple of beers,
And it went I don’t know how many years,
Like a runaway train headed for the end of the line.”
http://youtu.be/lTXYUEOZRzo