Remembering Glenn Frey, And The Night Belushi And Walsh Trashed A Chicago Hotel Room

"I live in hotels, tear out the walls.
I have accountants pay for it all."
-- Joe Walsh
"Life's Been Good"

By John Dodge

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Reflecting back on the life of Glenn Frey, one is reminded of the wonderful documentary about his band, which includes a crazy tale of shenanigans in Chicago.

In "History Of The Eagles," Frey, the co-founding member of the band who died on Monday, recalls a raucous night of room-trashing involving John Belushi and Frey's band mate, Joe Walsh.

"By this time, we were eating in nice restaurants .. and staying in great hotel rooms," Frey begins. "We were in Chicago and staying at the Astor Towers."

Then Walsh takes over the story.

It all starts innocently enough, with a knock on the door and a dinner offer.

"In walks John Belushi," Walsh recalled. "John wanted to show me the finer restaurants of Chicago."

But there's a problem: Despite an alleged $300 bribe offer from Belushi, the maitre d' refuses to let them in because they were wearing jeans.

According to Walsh, "John said, 'I know what to do! I know what to do!'"

Walsh recalls the two found some black spray paint and covered their pants. (At that time, the sale of spray paint had not yet been banned by the city.)

They got in and ruined the fancy upholstered chairs.

(Walsh never names the restaurant.)

But the night is young.

"And so that night, with a bunch of glee, [Walsh and Belushi] set about to set the world record for room trash," Frey recalled.

Total damage: $28,000 to one of the rooms at the fashionable Gold Coast hotel, once called "the rich man's Marina City" by its creator, Bertrand Goldberg.

History Of The Eagles, a two part, three-hour candid documentary of the band's career, is available for streaming on Netflix.