Glenn Frey Drive Paved with Memories of Eagles Legend

ROYAL OAK, MI — You’ll definitely want to take it easy when you cross through the intersection of Washington Avenue and, as of Thursday afternoon, Glenn Frey Drive.

Nanci Kezlarian will.

Kezlarian, 67, had just graduated when her ninth-grade boyfriend, future Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, stopped by her family’s home on Hendrie Boulevard for a visit.

He and the other guys in his band, the Subterraneans, were working on a song, which Kezlarian told The Daily Tribune he played for her on a garage sale guitar.

The song was what eventually became “Take It Easy,” the Eagles future No. 1 hit, the superstar band’s first single and a classic rock perennial considered by many to be Frey’s greatest song.

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Kezlarian,now a therapist in Brentwood, CA, was among hundreds of fans and friends, city and school officials, family members and others who attended a ceremony unveiling the sign designating Glenn Frey Drive Thursday afternoon.

Last week, the Royal Oak school board approved renaming the stretch that runs near Royal Oak Middle School in honor of Frey, who attended school in the same building when it was Dondero High School. Frey graduated from Dondero in 1966.

Jim O’Brien, the WCSX-FM radio personality who spearheaded the Glenn Frey Drive campaign, emceed the event. Pulling down a tarp that hid the sign, School board president Gary Briggs noted that Frey “went from this building all the way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”

Also attending was Frey’s cousin, Darcy Wolfson, who said she had attended a memorial service to the rock star at the Forum in Los Angeles on Tuesday. It featured tributes by Eagles members, Bob Seger, Stevie Wonder, Jackson Browne, JD Souther and Frey’s son, Deacon.

On Monday, Frey was honored at the Grammy Awards when Browne teamed with Eagles members Bernie Leadon, Timothy B. Schmit, Joe Walsh and Don Henley in “Take It Easy.”

In Royal Oak this week, Subterraneans band member Bob Wilson told The Daily Tribune that Frey had an interest in music that helped drive the Eagles’ success.

“He had leadership skills and he was fun,” Wilson said. “More than anything, Glenn Frey was fun.”

He also had a “fondness for Michigan,” Wilson said. He often returned, especially during the early years of his career, and even played piano and sang songs when Kezlarian was a teacher at West Bloomfield High School in the 1970s.

» Photo by Steve Alexander via Flickr / Creative Commons

Below, here are some of the moments from the ceremony on social media.