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“I said, ‘I’m not sure what to say.’ He said, ‘Look, I’m not fooling anyone - I have an odd voice. I’m not up for this job as a lead singer.

“Joe comes to a gig one day and says, ‘I’ve been thinking. Walsh’s gratitude in hindsight aside, he wasn’t entirely comfortable being the James Gang’s lead singer at first. And on a bad night, there’s nothing worse.” I’m grateful that happened, because being in a three-piece band, there’s nothing better on a good night.

It’s kind of ‘lead rhythm’ in the James Gang. That’s the reason for my style, which is kind of Pete Townshend-ish.

Jimmy fox james gang how to#

But I never would have learned how to play and sing if I didn’t have to - then I never would have been the singing guitar player unless I had to, but I had to and so I did. When we got home, we looked at each other and said, ‘Well, do we really need anybody?’ We just decided we’d do it as a three-piece, and that was really the beginning of the James Gang. “We got a standing ovation and an encore, and we got gas money to go home. But I sang a lot better than the other guys,” he says. “I couldn’t sing - well, I didn’t sing - I had never been a lead singer, I just played guitar. As Walsh says, he only took over vocals for the band because the group’s last singer quit the night of a gig. Peters’ addition was an obvious fit for the James Gang, but the same could not be said for vocalist Kenny Weiss, who was briefly brought in to try and relieve Walsh from the double duty of singing and playing guitar. It was just natural right from the beginning.” We’re completely different people and we never really hung around together, but we could always play together. If we got together tomorrow, it would just work. “I mean, we had the same record collections, we liked the exact same kind of music - we could just play. “We could just play instantly,” Peters adds.

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It was like, ‘Well, Tom’s got his wish.’ The next day, we sat Tom down and we said, ‘Tom, you know, we talked to Dale Peters, another bass player, and you’re free to go.’ He goes, ‘Wow, thanks man, that’s a load off my mind.’ Literally, the following night, Dale was in the slot and we never looked back.” It was instantaneously an upgrade, which we never expected. Why don’t you come down tonight after the gig and we’ll play for a while?’ And he did and it was magic. We have an unhappy bass player, who I think we’re going to have to replace. “I said, ‘Well, there’s a situation here. I was thinking of going back to school,'” recalls Fox. “I said, ‘What are you doing? I know the band is not doing well.’ He said, ‘Yeah, we’ve kind of split up. Although Peters had been drumming at the time, he’d since picked up the bass - and Fox happened to know he was at loose ends with his own group, the Case of E.T. ‘Tom, aren’t you somewhat equally responsible for the music we’re making? What do you want to do?’ ‘Well, I don’t know, but I can’t take this anymore.'”įortunately, Fox knew just who to call: Dale Peters, who had replaced him in a college band at Ohio State University a few years before. You know, it was like, he was, I thought, a very fine player. I don’t think I can play it anymore.’ Joe and I were blindsided. “He just spilled his guts,” recalls Fox of a band meeting called after he and Walsh realized Kriss “hadn’t said s- in six months.” “‘I hate this band. But if following up their first record was feasible from a sales standpoint, it proved a far more complicated prospect in terms of establishing just who was in the James Gang - starting with the abrupt departure of bassist Tom Kriss, who Fox says tendered his resignation before Yer’ Album had even arrived in stores. Label expectations were fairly minimal for James Gang Rides Again, which arrived a little more than a year after the group’s debut, Yer’ Album. To celebrate Rides Again‘s 45th anniversary, Ultimate Classic Rock’s Matt Wardlaw talked to James Gang drummer Jimmy Fox, bassist Dale Peters and guitarist Joe Walsh, as well as producer Bill Szymczyk, all of whom shared their memories of how the album came together - and how, not long after its success seemed to poise the group for greatness, they started coming apart. On record, the James Gang excelled at wresting rock ‘n’ roll glory from the jaws of seemingly certain chaos - and that’s exactly what they did behind the scenes during the months leading up to the release of their second album, 1970’s James Gang Rides Again. Joe Walsh: James Gang Look Back on ‘Rides Again’ at 45