Joe Walsh – Rocky Mountain Way

Walsh plays and loves this Roland Cube, according to this interview for Boss:

"You have a small Roland CUBE amp between your monitor wedges. How is that being used?"

"That’s driving the talk box [used on “Rocky Mountain Way”]. The speaker isn’t hooked up; it’s driving the talk box. It’s an old 60-watt CUBE — an orange one that’s been painted black.

Those CUBE amps are so great. I used to play with four of those in the early Eagles when Hotel California came out. In fact I used a CUBE to play slide on “The Long Run.” I liked to stack ’em too. That’s what I did in the old days. I even made a stand so I had two and two stacked. The top ones drove the bottom ones. I’d like to try out the new CUBE-60."

Rocky Mountain Way - 2:52

Walsh used the very first Heil Talk Box (now part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's collection) live for "Rocky Mountain Way", as described by this Getty Images item and this 2006 Musician's Friend interview with Bob Heil.

Getty Images

Part of the Bob Heil's collection for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame include this serial #1 Heil Talk Box created by Heil for Joe Walsh and used on Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way." He also gave one to Peter Frampton to record "Show Me The Way." (Photo by Derik Holtmann/Belleville News-Democrat/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Musician's Friend, 2006

Joe Walsh had recorded "Rocky Mountain Way" using an 8" speaker and a funnel, a device used in Nashville by the steel guitar players. Well, it wasn't very loud so you couldn't use it live. So here we are, two ham radio operators on a Sunday afternoon out in my plant. We grabbed a 250-watt JBL, built a low-pass filter, got all the plumbing together, and voila—the Talk Box. That's how it started. After that tour, everybody's going nuts! "What's this thing he's got?" So I put together a commercial unit called the Heil Talk Box. Then Peter Frampton's girlfriend Penny called me wanting a Christmas present for Peter. So I sent a Talk Box. The rest of the story writes itself from there.

The first 50 were done in fiberglass, and Peter still carries his fiberglass one today. When you see him, somewhere in his gig box is that original Heil Talk Box. I have serial number 1 that will go in the Rock Hall with Peter and Joe's signatures.

Walsh was gifted the original by inventor Bill West, later making his own and using it on "Rocky Mountain Way", as related to M: Music & Musicians in 2012. The account was transcribed in this September 2013 Vintage Guitar article and this January 7, 2013 Gibson article, while it is mentioned to be the inspiration for the Heil Talk Box in this 2006 Musician's Friend interview with Bob Heil.

Vintage Guitar

Meanwhile, Bill West’s original talk box found its way into rock and roller Joe Walsh’s rig. As Walsh explained to M: Music & Musicians in 2012, “The James Gang used to play in Nashville, and I became good friends with Dottie West, the famous classic country singer. We would go to her house and people would come over, and we would sit around with an acoustic guitar and pass it around. That could be anybody – Chet Atkins, Glen Campbell, Roger Miller – whoever was in town. Dottie’s husband, Bill, was a pedal-steel player. He actually invented the talk box that was used on Pete Drake’s album. One day, while I was at Dottie’s house, Bill went out to the garage and got it and gave it to me. He said, ‘Here, you plug this end into your mouth. You’ll figure it out.’

“After I got the hang of it, I then figured out how it was built. I went to a hardware store and got some parts and made one for myself. ‘Rocky Mountain Way’ [from 1972] was the first time I used it on record.”

Musician's Friend, 2006

Joe Walsh had recorded "Rocky Mountain Way" using an 8" speaker and a funnel, a device used in Nashville by the steel guitar players. Well, it wasn't very loud so you couldn't use it live. So here we are, two ham radio operators on a Sunday afternoon out in my plant. We grabbed a 250-watt JBL, built a low-pass filter, got all the plumbing together, and voila—the Talk Box. That's how it started. After that tour, everybody's going nuts! "What's this thing he's got?" So I put together a commercial unit called the Heil Talk Box. Then Peter Frampton's girlfriend Penny called me wanting a Christmas present for Peter. So I sent a Talk Box. The rest of the story writes itself from there.

The first 50 were done in fiberglass, and Peter still carries his fiberglass one today. When you see him, somewhere in his gig box is that original Heil Talk Box. I have serial number 1 that will go in the Rock Hall with Peter and Joe's signatures.

Joe Walsh began using a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe as his main guitar around 1971, which is evident from numerous recorded performances from that year. He modified the guitar by installing Les Paul Custom pickups and a pickguard, replacing the original mini factory ones. According to Sweetwater, which currently owns the guitar after receiving it as a gift from Joe Walsh, he used this specific instrument to compose "Rocky Mountain Way." The inspiration reportedly came while he was mowing his lawn and admiring the view of the mountains from his home in Colorado.

Joe used an ebony Les Paul Custom for his live performance of Rocky Mountain Way.