Iconic songwriter for The Eagles, JD Souther, has passed away at the age of 78. The musician leaves behind a lasting legacy.
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As a songwriter, Souther was responsible for hits such as "New Kid in Town" and "Best of My Love." He also wrote "Heartache Tonight," "Victim of Love," "James Dean," "Doolin-Dalton," "The Sad Cafe," "You Never Cry Like a Lover," "Teenage Jail" and "Last Good Time in Town."
As a singer, Souther's career never quite took off. He reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979. That was for "You're Only Lonely." He would almost make the top 10 again in 1981 with "Her Town Too," a duet with James Taylor.
"There was definitely a period of time where people would occasionally say to me, 'Doesn't it piss you off that the Eagles have these big hits off your songs?' I would usually start saying, 'Would you like to see the checks?'" Souther said in an interview with the Creative Independent via Variety. "Pissed off? How could I be pissed off? Even Glenn Frey once said — and he was kind of joking because he knows how the royalty thing works — but he said, 'One of the reasons JD didn't have a bigger solo career is because he gave us or Linda Ronstadt most of his best songs.' And that's sort of true. The closest I got to being really famous was during the 'You're Only Lonely' period, and I really didn't like it that much, frankly. It's a relief in some ways, though it also doesn't pay quite as well."
JD Souther Dies
Outside of his work with music, Souther also worked as an actor. He appeared in Thirtysomething, Nashville, Deadline, and My Girl 2.
"The acting stuff came because someone asked me," he said in an interview with Acoustic Storm. "I acted when I was a kid... in high school and college. I never thought of it much in L.A., although anybody who likes movies fantasizes about being in them. But great people asked me to be in their movies. Steven Spielberg asked me to be in a movie, Ed Zwick asked me to do this arc of episodes on 'Thirtysomething' and Mike Nichols asked me to be in 'Postcards From the Edge.' There's absolutely no reason to say no to people of that quality when they ask you to be in their films. I had an agent. But I don't know that I really read for any of those roles. I may have read for the one in Thirtysomething. Although I think Ed just wanted me to do it. I think I read a page or two. I left. And then my agent called and she asked me how I did. I said, 'I sucked, it was terrible.' She said, 'That's funny, because just you got the part.' So much for self-evaluation."
