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Glenn
Frey Goes from Desperado to Detroit
Free Press It was one of those moments of instant, disbelieving double take. As I was flipping through the pages of the newspaper last Wednesday, the newest Vic Tanny celebrity representative caught me with some eye-whammy advertising visuals. No, not Heather Locklear again. I’m speaking of Glenn Frey, son of Royal Oak and co-founder of the Eagles rock group. The once raucous star is now a dedicated follower of hard body, healthy fashion? “Hard Rock,” it said in bold letters under a 1976 photo of a long-haired, semi-debauched-looking Frey during his life-in-the-fast-lane heyday with the Eagles. “Rock Hard,” it said under an iron-pumping 1989 photo of the new lean, short-haired, celebrity machine. Yes, the bi-ceptualization of a 40-year-old rock ‘n’ roll singer. You’ll even see Frey doing some aerobics and pumping a little fitness machine iron in the new Vic Tanny TV commercials. Sweating along to “Livin’ Right,” a new Frey song, which he describes as his “anthem to fitness.” “Glenn has turned his life around totally,” said Larry Fitzgerald, Frey’s manger, during a phone conversation from his Los Angeles office “He’s getting up at 4:45 every morning (doing 400 bent-knee sit-ups!) and working out with a personal trainer five to seven times a week. “It’s no secret that at one point in his life, Glenn was sort of a party animal with the Eagles.” Glenn his own healthy elf is currently up in Vancouver, C.C., while filming a four-episode guest appearance on the hit CBS crime series “Wiseguy.” So Larry Fitzgerald spoke for his client. Frey is the national spokeserciser for Heath and Tennis Corporation of America, a company that operates more than 300 fitness clubs across the country, including Vic Tanny. Health & Fitness head honcho Don Wildman figured Frey was definitely his new promotional man after hearing “Livin’ Right” and then seeing an upbeat profile of the physically revamped rocker in USA Today. Frey agreed to the deal, Fitzgerald said, as long as the ads used “good taste, a little humor and did not get preachy.” Watching rock stars go corporate isn’t my idea of kicks, but this is a free country. Besides, Fitzgerald stressed, Frey is “proud of his Eagles accomplishments. He’s not ashamed of what he did then.” But these days, Glenn Frey has definitely checked out of the Hotel California. He realized he would have to change his hedonist ways if he was going to be productive and live longer, Fitzgerald said. So Frey hired a cook to prepare his special diet: No animal fat, no dairy products, lots of chicken and vegetables. They may even be serving Perrier in Partytown. “Glenn will have a glass of wine with dinner,” Fitzgerald said. “But he’s not out boozing it up. He’s not going to become a monk or anything…but he doesn’t need to trash himself anymore.” This is no doubt good news for Glenn Frey. He’s even got a sense of humor about it all. For the liner notes to “Livin’ Right,” he and co-writer Jack Tempchin proclaimed: “Having tried nearly every other way to feel good, we’ve wound up back in gym class. Who’d of thunk it?” Indeed. But could this be a trend for rockers with Michigan roots? What next, an Iggy Pop exercise video? A Bob Seger “Eat to Rock” diet book? Or perhaps, dare we say, Ted Nugent goes vegetarian?! Heaven forbid.
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