Clay Patrick McBride; James GladerToday marks the one-year anniversary of Glenn Frey‘s death, and in honor of the Eagles singer, Bob Seger has debuted a new song tribute to his late friend that can be downloaded for free at Seger’s official Facebook page and also is streaming at RollingStone.com.
“Glenn Song” is a sparse, melancholy tune that finds Seger musing about Frey’s passing and reminiscing about his passion for music.
“You were young, you were bold/ And you loved your rock and soul,” sings Bob. “You were strong, you were sharp/But you had the deepest heart/ You showed the whole world what we knew/There was no one quite like you.”
Seger recorded the track about four months ago in Nashville with some session musicians while working on an upcoming studio album.
“It’s obviously not meant to be a hit,” he tells Rolling Stone. “There’s no chorus per se or title section or anything. The idea was just to honor his memory and talk, very specifically, about my impression of him in 1966 when we first met.”
Seger and Frey met while they both were playing in bands in the Detroit area. Bob enlisted Glenn to sing backing vocals on his 1968 hit “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man,” but it was Frey who would find superstardom first as a member of the Eagles.
Seger remained friends with Frey and would go on to co-write the Eagles’ 1979 chart-topping hit “Heartache Tonight” with Glenn, Don Henley and J.D. Souther. Bob ended up singing the song at Glenn’s memorial service, and also performed it during the Eagles’ 2016 Kennedy Center Honors tribute.
With regard to his new tune, Seger tells Rolling Stone, “I hope ‘Glenn Song’ doesn’t make his wife Cindy cry. But it probably will.”
Frey was 67 when he passed away on January 18, 2016.
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.