Then again, Joe Walsh has always been a survivor. From his influential early days with The James Gang via his solo careers to the Eagles, he has suffered addiction problems, ill health, death threats from a neighbor and much more. While Walsh admits he may have occasionally lost his mind, he has never lost his ability as a superb guitarist and songwriter, nor his left-of-center humor.

As Gibson releases the Joe Walsh 1960 Les Paul, sit back and enjoy the wit and wisdom of Joseph Fidler Walsh... On starting playing the guitar... "I played trombone and clarinet for a while, then I played oboe in high school," Walsh told Atlantic City Weekly. "Then I discovered I wasn't going to get any girls playing oboe, so I decided that maybe I should play guitar. And I didn't really get any girls playing guitar either... but I had a lot more fun."

On the inspiration Walsh took from The James Gang's breakthrough supporting The Who in 1969... "Pete Townshend was my guru," Walsh told The Aquarian Weekly. "He taught me how to play lead-rhythm guitar, and Keith Moon taught me the finer points of hotel demolition."

On why he left The James Gang... "I saw myself being stereotyped almost into a heavy metal guitarist about 10 years before heavy metal come out," he told Guitar World. "I didn't like that. I got extremely frustrated being the only melodic instrument." Here's some early solo-career Walsh, which was no less-heavy...