Randall Meisner was a founding member of the Eagles and an American musician who lived from March 8, 1946, to July 26, 2023. Meisner played bassist and backup high-harmony vocals as a group member and session musician throughout his entire professional musical career. He co-wrote and sang the Eagles’ popular song “Take It to the Limit.”

From 1961 through 1965, Meisner sang and played bass in a local band called The Dynamics (later The Drivin’ Dynamics).

Meisner founded the Eagles in September 1971 alongside Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Bernie Leadon.

The group joined with David Geffen’s new record company, Asylum Records, and their self-titled debut album was released in 1972.

The Eagles’ first million-selling single, “Take It to the Limit,” the third song to be released from One of These Nights, was written, co-written, and/or featured lead vocals by him on each of the band’s first five albums. He often played bass and performed backing vocals for the band. In addition to “Try and Love Again,” “Is it True?” “Take the Devil,” and “Tryin’,” he also composed those tunes. Together with Frey and Henley, he co-wrote “Certain Kind of Fool” and sang lead.

Meisner experienced weariness and ill health during the band’s lengthy, frequent tour in 1976–1977 in promotion of the record Hotel California. The tour lasted more than eleven months.

Meisner opted not to perform the song as an encore during their concert in Knoxville, Tennessee, since he had been up late and had the illness. As a result, Frey and Meisner got into a heated argument backstage.

Meisner was expelled from the band following the argument, and he later remarked: “That was the end. I genuinely felt like I belonged to the group and was not excluded from it.

After the last concert of the tour, Meisner made the decision to quit the group and go back to Nebraska to be with his family. On September 3, 1977, he gave his last performance in East Troy, Wisconsin. Timothy B. Schmit, the same player who had succeeded him in Poco, took over for Meisner in the band.

After his departure from the Eagles, Meisner went on to release solo albums in 1978 (Randy Meisner) and 1980 (One More Song).

Randy Meisner’s Wife And Children