"I got this in Chattanooga," said Joe Walsh. There's a Hyatt House in Chattanooga, the rooms are in old train cars. And they're just Pullmans with a divider in the middle, on tracks in the old Chattanooga station. You just get on your Pullman, and that's your room. I just love trains."

We were asking Joe about his railroad cap, which he was still wearing in his hotel room after having it on all through the concert he had just finished doing. You're sure you're not wearing it because you're balding like David Layton-Thomas? we ventured.

"Oh no," he said, lifting it finally and showing a thick thatch of natural hair beneath it.

Do you ever ride trains to gigs since you like them so much? we asked.

“No. I wish I could. I wish that they would get trains together that much. Because that would be a great tour, if you could just put your gear in a semi on a flat car and ride around to gigs.”

David Bowie takes trains, we offered. hut that’s because he’s scared to fly.

“I’m scared to fly, too. As a matter of fact we just crashed a little while ago. We were in a Twin Cessna taking off, and something went wrong and the pilot thought it was best to put it down. This was right when the runway ran out, and so we just went off into the wilderness and landed on a football field. So we’re going to drive for a while.”

Most people who are afraid of flying would never take a small plane, we said.

“But a small plane is safe. I’d rather go down in that, or have trouble in that, than in a commercial. In a smaller plane, if both motors quit, it’s not straight down. In a jet, it is. There’s no glide ratio or angle. In a small plane, if the motors quit, you have a little while you can keep the nose up.

Joe took a deep breath and hesitated for a moment. “I don’t like planes so much. My dad was killed in the Air Force in an F80 Shooting Star. He. was stationed in Okinawa as an instructor. and he taught kids to fly. He was teaching a guy to fly, and some guy hit him. He had to practice where they would wind out. come down at a lower altitude to strafe, and when they came down together, the kid just hit him and wiped him out. So I’ve always had a superstition about flying.”

It seems more like a love-hate affair to us. You’re wearing goggles on the cover of your “So What” album, and the last album had an old plane on the cover. And your old group was called Barnstorm.

“Yeah. I was about a year and a half old when my dad died, and I never really knew him. But I feel like I knew him. I do like to fly, too. It’s just something in the blood.

Joe’s stepfather was also studying at Northwestern and went on to get a law degree and become a consultant on malpractice insurance for doctors, lawyers and other professionals. Quite an academic background for a rocker.

“Yeah. But I wasn’t that academic, that brilliant of a mind. But they just kind of kicked me in the ass, and they still do. My mom is really into Maurice Ravel, and we did that on the ‘.James Gang Rides Again’ album. Ravel’s 'Bolero.’ I just got that from having grown up with Ravel records.

“And on the 'So What’ album. there's a song called ‘Pavanne for a Dead Princess.’ And that’s Ravel as well. He’s one of my favorites.”

.Joe left it at that, but we learned later that the cut may have a much deeper and sadder significance. Because just before recording the album, Joe lost his daughter in a terrible car accident. A good- natured, easy-going musician, Joe Walsh goes rocking on despite the tragedy which seems to stalk him by land and air.