JD Souther, the singer, songwriter and actor who co-wrote among the many biggest hits of the Eagles, like “New Child in City” and “Better of My Love,” and had a protracted solo occupation that included the best 10 hit “You’re Solely Lonely,” died Tuesday at age 78. No cause for demise was given nevertheless he was described by reps at Solters PR as dying peacefully at home in New Mexico.

Souther was about to exit for joint stay efficiency dates this fall with Karla Bonoff, one different veteran of the Nineteen Seventies Southern California singer-songwriter scene, and had carried out as not too way back as 5 days up to now.

Apart from “New Child” and “Better of My Love,” totally different compositions co-written by Souther that appeared on Eagles albums included “Heartache Tonight,” “Sufferer of Love,” “James Dean,” “Doolin-Dalton,” “The Unhappy Cafe,” “You By no means Cry Like a Lover,” “Teenage Jail” and “Final Good Time in City.” He was the one writer of “How Lengthy,” a cover the Eagles launched in 2007 of a music Souther had first put out as a solo artist in 1972. His friendship with Don Henley extended to co-writing that artist’s primary “The Coronary heart of the Matter” and a number of other different totally different tracks on Henley’s solo albums.

Though Souther’s solo occupation didn’t attain one thing shut to the favored crests of the work he wrote for or had carried out by excessive artists of the day, Souther did attain the best 10 of the Billboard Scorching 100 in 1979 with the Roy Orbison-esque “You’re Solely Lonely,” a ballad that moreover held the No. 1 spot on the grownup trendy chart for five weeks. He merely missed making the best 10 as soon as extra when the 1981 single “Her City Too” — a duet with James Taylor — peaked at No. 11 on the Scorching 100 (it reached No. 5 at AC).

Past his work with the Eagles, he was moreover intently associated to the discography of Linda Ronstadt, whom he dated inside the Nineteen Seventies, with the tracks she recorded along with “Prisoner in Disguise” and “Faithless Love.” He moreover had songs recorded by the Dixie Chicks, George Strait and Bonnie Raitt.

“There was undoubtedly a time frame the place folks would often say to me, ‘Doesn’t it piss you off that the Eagles have these massive hits off your songs?’ I might often begin saying, ‘Would you wish to see the checks?’” Souther acknowledged in an interview with the Inventive Impartial. “Pissed off? How might I be pissed off? Even Glenn Frey as soon as stated — and he was form of joking as a result of he is aware of how the royalty factor works — however he stated, ‘One of many causes JD didn’t have a much bigger solo profession is as a result of he gave us or Linda Ronstadt most of his finest songs.’ And that’s kind of true. The closest I bought to being actually well-known was in the course of the ‘You’re Solely Lonely’ interval, and I actually didn’t prefer it that a lot, frankly. It’s a reduction in some methods, although it additionally doesn’t pay fairly as effectively.”

Souther liked an sudden occupation as an actor in television and film, starting with a job on the prime-time assortment “Thirtysomething” in 1989. He subsequently was most interesting recognized for exhibiting on the first season of “Nashville” in 2012, collectively along with his totally different parts along with small roles inside the films “Postcards From the Edge,” “All the time,” “Purgatory,” “Deadline” and “My Woman 2.”

“The performing stuff got here as a result of somebody requested me,” he acknowledged in an interview with Acoustic Storm. “I acted after I was a child… in highschool and school. I by no means considered it a lot in L.A., though anyone who likes films fantasizes about being in them. However nice folks requested me to be of their films. Steven Spielberg requested me to be in a film, Ed Zwick requested me to do that arc of episodes on ‘Thirtysomething’ and Mike Nichols requested me to be in ‘Postcards From the Edge.’ There’s completely no purpose to say no to folks of that high quality after they ask you to be of their movies. I had an agent, however I don’t know that I actually learn for any of these roles. I’ll have learn for the one in ‘Thirtysomething,’ though I feel Ed simply wished me to do it. I feel I learn a web page or two. I left after which my agent known as and he or she requested me how I did. I stated, ‘I sucked, it was horrible.’ She stated, ‘That’s humorous, as a result of simply you bought the half.’ A lot for self-evaluation.”

Souther was inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Fame in 2013.

His collaborations with the Eagles adopted a short-lived band that Souther was actually in with Glenn Frey, Longbranch Pennywhistle, which launched one self-titled album in 1969, which Souther didn’t preserve in extreme regard.

As a solo recording artist, he was not prolific, nevertheless he started out with a burst of albums as part of David Geffen’s Asylum Data regular — starting with 1972’s “John David Souther,” the debut LP that included the long term Eagles decrease “How Lengthy.” That was the ultimate time he passed by his full title, preferring thereafter to make use of initials, saying, “It began with me delivering songs as JD Souther in ’71. I had seen the J.S. Bach music, first in books after which on the British Museum, and as there was no greater music for me to aspire to. I adopted the abbreviation.”

One interruption in his early solo occupation received right here when he, Chris Hillman and Richie Furay had been corralled to kind a supergroup, the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, which fell apart after two mid-’70s albums went nearly instantly to the cutout bins.

In an interview inside the 2010s with this writer, Souther spoke about how he turned a sort of icon of country-rock — paradoxically, to him, since he had grown up listening to jazz, classical and one thing nevertheless nation. “We had been all very a lot within the sway of the interface between rock ‘n’ roll and nation music on the time. Within the late ‘60s, early ‘70s, everyone was listening to Buck Owens and Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings. The group of men that had been earlier than me — CSN, the Byrds, Dillard and Clark, Poco, the Burrito Brothers and all these guys — had fairly effectively built-in rock ‘&’n’ roll and nation music into this actually formidable sound. Linda and I had been collectively, and he or she performed me plenty of nation music that I had by no means heard earlier than. The truth is, I simply realized that there’s one little factor I do with my voice on the finish of traces, and it form of irritates me that I simply can’t appear to assist doing it. I used to be pondering it was one thing left over from what we had been doing within the ‘70s, however I noticed it’s one thing I heard on a Louvin Brothers file, and it simply caught, someplace in my muscle reminiscence. My voice simply does that—just a little tiny ghost of a yodel on the finish of some traces. I by no means imply to do it, but it surely gained’t go away!”

Of the scene on the time, he suggested this writer, “The fact that the music we made was considered to be its private fashion — Southern California rock or irrespective of — wasn’t intentional. To start with, on account of there have been no true southern Californians in that group in addition to Jackson Browne, and he was from Orange County. Glenn is from Detroit, Henley’s from Texas, I’m from Texas, Linda’s from Arizona, Waddy (Wachtel) was from New York, Kooch (Danny Kortchmar) was from New York, James (Taylor) was from open air Boston, and Warren Zevon was from Mars. It was a extraordinarily extraordinarily numerous bunch of people that moved there from far and wide else. The widespread denominator is that we had been all hungry on the same time. We had been all participating in these open-mic nights on the Troubadour, hoot nights, and we turned buddies and had an precise shared ethic about music being good, and about its being good being additional important than it being rapidly well-liked. We tried to put in writing songs that we felt would closing a really very long time. At the least that was my motivation.

“There was nothing flippant about what any of us had been writing,” he continued. “The group that was hanging out was Don and Glenn and Jackson and Zevon and me and Linda — who, although she didn’t write, performed an enormous half in that, as a result of she was such a great ear. She actually selected the most effective of all of our songs to file. She’s simply good as a whip and had an awesome ear for songs and for what she might sing. And Judee Sill, who doesn’t get talked about a lot, as a result of she by no means offered plenty of data and he or she died some time in the past, however she was very a lot in my group of pals, too. All these folks had been simply actually critical about music. There was some pleasant competitors about it, although we had been all undoubtedly on one another’s facet. All people wished to indicate up with one thing that made all the remainder of us go, ‘Wow! I want I had considered that.’”

Because the ill-fated Souther-Hillman-Furay Band wound down, he resumed solo work for Asylum with the 1976 album “Black Rose,” then moved to Columbia for 1979’s “You’re Solely Lonely” and 1984’s “Dwelling by Daybreak.”

Following that, he took a 24-year launch from record-making, preferring life inside the home he had constructed for himself inside the Hollywood Hills, and ski journeys to New England or retreats in Japan, to persevering with to work inside the music commerce. “It was paradise. Life was as peaceable as I had identified it since I used to be a toddler in Wellington, Texas, however I knew I must return to work someday.”

He lastly returned to creating knowledge in 2008 with “If the World Was You,” an album recorded with a jazz ensemble. He adopted it up in 2011 with “Pure Historical past,” a launch made up principally of his private new recordings of songs that had been hits for the Eagles and Ronstadt. “Tenderness,” a set of all-new supplies, adopted in 2015. It was his final album launch, though he continued to tour inside the following years, up until his demise.

In a 2018 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Souther acknowledged that he was nonetheless nice with most of his well-known particular person collaborators. “I’m very near (Ronstadt). I’m nonetheless very near Jackson (Browne); I speak to him on a regular basis,” he suggested the newspaper. “Don and I maintain sending one another the identical foolish emails we all the time have. In all probability the particular person I noticed the least of the previous couple of years, to my remorse, was Glenn. It hit us all very exhausting that he died. I used to be his first associate, he was my first songwriting associate and finest buddy. Once we had been simply infants we did plenty of actually loopy stuff for no cash, only for anybody who would allow us to play.”

He acknowledged that he’d virtually develop right into a member of the Eagles when the group was being long-established, nevertheless was the first to comprehend his inclusion wouldn’t work after one tryout with him inside the lineup. “I feel I used to be within the band for someday. David Geffen thought it that will be ‘4 songwriters, good; 5 songwriters higher.’ So we put collectively a set and performed it on the Troubadour within the afternoon for the administration workforce. I simply bear in mind them wanting down the entrance line and seeing 4 of us bashing away at stringed devices. And, to be frank, they didn’t want me. They had been a wonderfully well-rounded, self-contained band. I figured we had been going to maintain writing collectively anyway, so I feel all of us bought the most effective of that scenario, the very best consequence. Frankly, after I stated, ‘No, I don’t suppose I actually need to be within the band,’ I’ve by no means seen 4 guys extra relieved. I feel they had been extra delighted than I used to be.”

Souther acknowledged that there was no strict division of duties when he co-wrote with Frey and Henley. “Often all three of us are writing all lyrics and music,” he suggested Acoustic Storm in an interview. “’New Child in City’ might be a bit totally different as a result of I had the refrain accomplished for nearly a 12 months earlier than I confirmed it to Glenn and Don. …  It’s all the time a joint effort. I can’t converse for them, however as a lot music as I had in my background, it was principally jazz and orchestral music. I wasn’t uncovered to nation music till I used to be virtually grown.” Though he admitted he usually preferred to put in writing by himself, he was larger than ready to make an exception for these all-stars. “(Writing as a workforce) speeds issues up loads,” he acknowledged. “Whenever you’re writing with good writers like Jackson or Warren Zevon or Don and Glenn, you’re so important of one another that you just don’t let something go that doesn’t really feel prefer it’s A+.”

In a dialog with the Inventive Impartial, Souther — who had moved to Nashville — acknowledged, “Glenn Frey had been dwelling in New York for a number of years when he died. And Don Henley lives in Texas and Linda lives in San Francisco. We’re all kind of unfold out to the far corners anyway. However sure, that time frame was in all probability distinctive. Now, I maintain assembly younger musicians who will say to me, ‘God, I want I lived in California within the ’70s, it will need to have been so cool.’ To us, it was simply on a regular basis life. Additionally, we had been all fairly fiercely aggressive, notably Frey and Henley and myself.”

His closeness with Ronstadt lasted by way of the years. When he was releasing his final album in 2015, he suggested the Arizona Republic, “She’s all the time the primary to listen to a brand new album. She’s the best listener: an astute, well-read lady, in addition to musical… She’s a really considerate particular person, spontaneous and humorous… Each time I hear Linda Ronstadt’s voice with my phrases and melodies, I simply soften. It was a privilege to be her painter and likewise her musical associate.”

Souther dated not solely Ronstadt nevertheless Stevie Nicks and Judee Sill, who was acknowledged to have written “Jesus Is a Crossmaker” about him. However he was not up for revealing an extreme quantity of about how these relationships or others affected his lyrics, though he did concede his final 2015 album mirrored his divorce. “Faulkner stated all fiction is autobiographical. However I wouldn’t inform you what,” he acknowledged. “I don’t discuss my private life anyway. There’s a really skinny line between my life and fiction, however I’m not going to be one to say the place it’s.”

He was cosy collectively along with his stage of renown. Henley, he acknowledged, is “being paid very well to be on the highway in Europe with the Eagles, and I’m being paid much less effectively to sit down right here on my farm and watch my canine run round within the subject. However I don’t know the way I might cope with it the opposite approach round. I all the time attempt to be grateful. My father was very insistent on having good manners when folks approached me or complimented me or one thing. However I like the truth that I don’t get made up earlier than I am going out of the home or examine to make certain my hair appears nice. I’ve bought on these beat-up outdated boots proper now and a few Levi’s with a gap within the knee. I don’t actually need to be stopped after I’m within the grocery retailer and have someone pay a bunch of consideration to me. I’ll be good if that occurs, but it surely’s not what I need.”

Souther carried out for his biggest viewers in years this earlier January when he joined the Eagles at actually one in all their displays at L.A.’s Kia Discussion board. “What an absolute pleasure,” he posted on Fb, “performing these songs written with my finest friends and now standing subsequent to Don singing ‘Better of My Love’ with him 50 years after it was primary. It’s unimaginable to wipe the smile off my face. Large because of them and to all of you.”

Souther is survived by his two sisters and his former partner and her daughter. Donations in JD’s honor will likely be made to Finest Associates Animal Society, a company that was essential to him.