Plenty of musicians are concerned about how AI could affect their livelihoods, but it seems that the Eagles’ Joe Walsh isn’t one of them. In an interview with Associated Press, he revealed that he’ll only start paying attention to the technology once it’s capable of indulging in a very specific piece of classic rock star bad behaviour.
“It’s computers. It has nothing to do with music,” Walsh explains. “It can’t destroy a hotel room. It can’t throw a TV off the fifth floor into the pool and get right in the middle. When AI knows how to destroy a hotel room, then I’ll pay attention to it.”
We’re assuming that, these days, 75-year-old Walsh tends to leave his hotel accommodation more or less as he finds it, but that wasn’t always the case. Speaking on the Conan O’Brien show on TBS a few years ago, he explained that, during one stay, he and his friend John Belushi once caused $23,000 of damage, and that his main objective after checking out was to “get across the state line before the maid saw the room”.
Earlier this week, UK Music urged governments to do more to protect the creative industries from the threat of AI tools, outlining a five-point plan that it’d like to see implemented.
If Walsh does fancy getting back to his hellraising ways, he’ll have the chance later this year when the Eagles head out on their farewell The Long Goodbye tour. AI, meanwhile, needs to start developing an appetite for destruction.
