InTheStudio.Net, the web home for North American syndicated Rock radio show InTheStudio: The Stories Behind History’s Greatest Rock Bands celebrates Ohio rockers the James Gang on the 45th anniversary of their breakthrough album Rides Again. 

You’d be hard pressed to find a bigger rock star who made his reputation from one album than Joe Walsh on the James Gang’s sophomore effort Rides Again. Founded by drummer and namesake Jimmy Fox, the James Gang were in many ways the essence of working class American Rock’n’Roll in the early 1970s, a no-nonsense band whose sound was as powerful as a steelworker and as steady as an assembly line.  One drummer, one bass player, and one guitarist, but the sounds that guitarist created and the songs that he wrote were a unique blend of British & American styles and a distinctive combination of lead, rhythm, and slide guitar techniques.

Joe Walsh reveals to InTheStudio host Redbeard that Walsh has been told that the James Gang inadvertently influenced another evolution of rock.

“I think maybe the James Gang could possibly have been one of the first heavy metal groups. We were certainly ahead of our time. The heavy metal groups seem to play with no dynamics at all. Just everything up all the way. That’s the only difference I think that the James Gang had from being a heavy metal group. I don’t consider myself the big brother or father of heavy metal at all, but I’ve heard compliments from people in heavy metal bands who grew up listening to things like ‘Funk #49’ and ‘Walk Away’. And that’s rewarding. Makes me feel good.”  

Click here to listen.