LOS ANGELES (AP) — John David “JD” Souther, a prolific songwriter and musician whose collaborations with the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt helped shape the country-rock sound that took hold in Southern California in the 1970s, has died at age 78.
Souther, who contributed to some of the Eagles’ biggest hits including “Best of My Love,” “James Dean,” “New Kid in Town” and “Heartache Tonight,” died Tuesday at his home in New Mexico, according to a statement on his website.
He has also worked with James Taylor, Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt and many others and has also enjoyed success as a solo artist. On September 24, he was scheduled to start a tour with Karla Bonoff in Phoenix, which has now been canceled.
When Souther was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013, he was described as “one of the primary architects of the Southern California sound and a major influence on a generation of songwriters.”
Souther was born in Detroit and grew up in Amarillo, Texas. In the late 1960s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he met Glenn Frey, a founding member and guitarist of the Eagles. The two began a long-term partnership that began with a band called Longbranch Pennywhistle.
“Our first year together will always seem like yesterday,” Souther said in a statement after Frey’s death in 2016. “His amazing ability to make the great joke and that brilliant groove that lived inside him stay with me even now, in this loss and grief. … The music and the love are indestructible.”
Souther described his early days with Frey at The Troubadour, the popular West Hollywood music club, as “the best songwriting education I could imagine.”
“So many great songwriters found happiness here – Laura Nyro, Kris Kristofferson, Randy Newman, Elton John, James Taylor, Tim Hardin, Carole King, Rick Nelson, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Waylon Jennings, Tim Buckley, Gordon Lightfoot, Taj Mahal and more,” he said in a statement on his website. “Today it seems impossible to imagine so much music in a year and a half or so, but that was my life and the Troubadour was our university.”
“It was there that I met Linda Ronstadt, and Don Henley and Glenn Frey formed this little country-rock band called the Eagles, which would later make music history,” Souther wrote.
On his own, Souther recorded his self-titled debut in 1972 before forming the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band with former Byrds member Chris Hillman and Poco’s Richie Furay. A second solo album in 1976, Black Rose, included a duet with Ronstadt, his former girlfriend, “If You Have Crying Eyes.” Other duets he recorded with her included “Prisoner in Disguise,” “Sometimes You Can’t Win,” and “Hearts Against the Wind,” the latter of which was featured in the 1980 film Urban Cowboy.
His biggest hit as a solo artist was “You’re Only Lonely” from the 1979 album of the same name.
Other songs he wrote include “Run Like a Thief” for Bonnie Raitt and “Faithless Love” and “White Rhythm and Blues” for Ronstadt. He collaborated with James Taylor on “Her Town Too.”
Artists he worked with as a singer included Don Henley, Christopher Cross, Dan Fogelberg and Roy Orbison.
As an actor, he has appeared on television in “Thirtysomething,” “Nashville,” and “Purgatory,” as well as in the films “Postcards from the Edge,” “My Girl 2,” and “Deadline.”
