Glenn Frey

Since 2000, he was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. The medication led to colitis and pneumonia. By the end of 2015, he needed a major intestinal surgery following which he was kept in a medically-induced coma.

On January 18, 2016, at the age of 67, he passed away in New York City while recovering from a gastrointestinal tract surgery.

Glenn Frey was born on November 6, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan, and spent his childhood in Royal Oak. Even as a child, he showed a keen interest in music and took up piano lessons as early as at the age of five. Later, he also learnt guitar.

In the mid-1960s, he entered the Detroit rock scene. One of his earliest bands he formed was the ‘Subterraneans’ and included fellow classmate from Dondero High School, Doug Edwards, Jeff Hodge, Doug Gunsch, and Bill Barnes.

In 1966, he formed the ‘Mushrooms’ with Jeff Burrows, Bill Barnes, Doug Gunch and Larry Mintz. The next year, Bob Seger helped the band secure a contract with Hideout Records and soon, they appeared on television to promote their first single, ‘Such a Lovely Child’ (written by Seger).

After the ‘Mushrooms’ broke up, he joined a local band called ‘The Four of Us’ for a short while. In late 1967, he formed a band called ‘Heavy Metal Kids’ with Steve Burrows, Jeff Alborell, Paul Kelcourse and Lance Dickerson.

In 1968, he sang and played the acoustic guitar on Seger's hit single, “Ramblin' Gamblin’ Man”.

In 1970, Frey befriended drummer, Don Henley, a fellow artist at Amos Records, and together they formed a backup band for Linda Ronstadt’s then upcoming tour. In time, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon were also roped in.

Frey and Henley chose to form a band together with Meisner and Leadon. Thus, the ‘Eagles’ was born with Frey playing the guitar and keyboards. The band went on to become one of the world's best-selling groups ever.

After a decade-long success, the Eagles disbanded around 1980 and Frey launched his solo singing career. He became quite successful, especially with two No. 2 hits.

In 1984, he recorded the international hit, ‘The Heat Is On’, in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer. The song featured as the main theme from Eddie Murphy’s action-comedy film ‘Beverly Hills Cop’.

In 1985, he performed ‘You Belong to the City’ and ‘Smuggler's Blues’ for the television series ‘Miami Vice’. The soundtrack of the series topped the U.S. album charts and ranked on the Billboard Hot 100. He also contributed the song ‘Flip City’ to ‘Ghostbusters II’, and ‘Part of Me, Part of You’ to ‘Thelma & Louise’.

As a television actor, he guest starred on ‘Miami Vice’ in the first season episode “Smuggler’s Blues”.

He played the lead role in the American TV detective series ‘South of Sunset’ in 1993, but the series was cancelled after one epiosode.

He guest starred on ‘Nash Bridges’ (1996-2001), and appeared on HBO's ‘Arliss’ (1996-2002) in 2002.

He also acted in a couple of films like ‘Let's Get Harry’ (1986) and ‘Jerry Maguire’ (1996).