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Eagles co-founder Randy Meisner’s death has left yet another black hole in the rock universe. The band’s website announced the heartbreaking news the day after his passing: “The Eagles are sad to report that founding member, bassist, and vocalist, Randy Meisner, passed away last night (July 26) in Los Angeles at age 77, due to complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).”
Meisner formed the legendary band in 1971 with Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and Bernie Leadon. Though Frey and Henley became the better-known singers of the group, it’s Meisner’s soaring high notes you hear on “Take It To the Limit,” one of the hits he co-wrote. “Randy was an integral part of the Eagles and instrumental in the early success of the band,” the website eulogizes. Although Meisner only spent six years with the band, he was considered vital enough to be included when the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, along with Frey, Henley, Leadon, Joe Walsh, Don Felder, and Timothy B. Schmit, who succeeded him as bassist. Felder remembers him as someone “with a great heart and a loving soul,” per the Hall of Fame’s in memoriam.
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