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Singer and bassist with the Eagles who wrote one of their biggest hits, Take It to the Limit
One of the trademark sounds of the Eagles in their heyday was Randy Meisner’s high, yearning vocal performance on the band’s 1975 hit Take It to the Limit. It was one of several songs that Meisner, who has died aged 77, wrote or co-wrote for the group. Prior to his tenure with them, he had been bassist and vocalist with Poco, and then a member of Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band. After leaving the Eagles in 1977 he released five solo albums, as well as working with the groups Black Tie, Meisner, Swan & Rich and the Roberts-Meisner Band.
He retired from touring after a heart attack in 2004, and suffered intermittently from drug and alcohol addictions. In 2015 he was placed under court-ordered supervision after he allegedly threatened to commit murder and kill himself with an AK-47 rifle (he had by then been diagnosed with bipolar disorder). In 2016 his second wife, Lana Rae (nee Graham), whom he had married in 1996, died in an accident with a rifle at the couple’s home in Studio City, California.
He had three children, Dana, Heather and Eric, with his first wife.
Randy Herman Meisner, musician, singer and songwriter, born 8 March 1946; died 26 July 2023