Joe Walsh has come home before, but never quite like this.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer — born at Wesley Hospital (now Wesley Medical Center) on Nov. 20, 1947 — is bringing his annual VetsAid concert to Intrust Bank Arena on Saturday, Nov. 15. Money raised by the event will be distributed to local and national organizations supporting veterans. To date, VetsAid has raised and given away more than $4 million.
Although Walsh has spent most of his life living elsewhere, he’s never made a secret of his affection for Wichita.
“We are Wichita folks, we are Kansas folks and I remember hearing somewhere there’s no place like home,” Walsh said during a news conference announcing the show.
“Most of my family is buried here in Wichita Park (Cemetery),” he went on to say. “Four vets — my grandfather, my father and two uncles. And I strive to honor their legacies by serving them through these” concerts.
But for a tragedy, Walsh himself might have grown up here. The story is told in old newspaper stories from the Wichita Eagle and Wichita Beacon.
Walsh’s parents, Helen Bowen and Robert Fidler, were married at St. James Episcopal Church on July 7, 1945. The two met while attending the University of Wichita, as Wichita State University was then known. Bowen studied music and was accomplished pianist, performing at weddings. Fidler graduated from East High School and enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II, serving as a B-25 pilot and instructor. At the university, he was a member of the student council, Alpha Gamma Gamma fraternity and the varsity debate team, and played an active role in raising money to complete Veterans Field, which later became Cessna Stadium. After graduating in 1947 he worked as an assistant to U.S. Rep. Ed Rees, who represented the state’s Fourth Congressional District.
Joe Walsh visits with disc jockey Phil Thompson.
He rejoined the Air Force, at that time part of the Army, in 1948 and was sent to Okinawa, Japan, within weeks to pilot the first operational jet, the Lockheed F-80 jet fighter. Bowen and the couple’s infant son, Joseph, joined him there a few months later, living in a camp for military families.
On July 22, 1949, Fidler and another pilot were killed when their planes collided over Okinawa during maneuvers. On Aug. 5, a photo of Joseph, his mother and his two grandmothers being reunited at Wichita’s Municipal Airport appeared in the Eagle. Joseph appears to be sucking his thumb.
Bowen, seemingly showing some of that Greatest Generation grit, talked to an Eagle reporter not about her own loss, but about a deadly typhoon that had struck Okinawa the day after her husband’s death. She later married George Walsh of Evanston, Ill., who adopted Joe. The family lived in Ohio, Chicago, New York City and Montclair, N.J. before Walsh entered Kent State University in 1965.
At his news conference, Walsh spoke movingly of Fidler. “He left before I really have a memory of him. He probably would have told me to get a haircut. He probably would have told me to keep up with my oboe lessons but instead I took up the guitar in hope of meeting more girls.”
Walsh cuts up at The Cotillion.
Walsh, who played in bands in high school and college, became a star after joining a Cleveland band, the James Gang, which had several hits on FM radio, toured with the Who and recorded a live album at Carnegie Hall.
Walsh left the James Gang to form a Colorado-based band, Barnstorm, recording “Rocky Mountain Way” and several more hits in the early 1970s, before heading further west to join the California music scene. There he became a member of the Eagles just before that band recorded what most consider its greatest album, “Hotel California.” During that band’s long hiatus, Walsh recorded several successful solo albums, played with everybody from Paul McCartney and the Beach Boys to Lionel Richie and Bruce Springsteen.
Known for a somewhat wild lifestyle early on, Walsh has been married since 2008 to Marjorie Bach, sister-in-law of Ringo Starr.
Along the way, Walsh never lost touch with Wichita. In an email to The Active Age, Walsh talked about his family’s background:
“Our people — the Fidlers, Bowens, Floyds and Woodwards — go back generations in Wichita and into rural Kansas,” he said. “One grandfather worked at the bank. Another ran the movie projector at the old Civic and West Theaters in the 30s.
“I spent summers at my grandmother’s house in Wichita — a big glorious house at 1604 N. Fairmount. I’d come back to Wichita once every ten years or so and would check on it. When I returned in the 90s as an Eagle, I saw that it had fallen into disrepair so I bought, renovated it and sold it a few years later. I brought my wife Marjorie to Wichita when we were first married to share that chapter of my life and have been back recently to plan for this year’s VetsAid. I’m happy to see my grandmother’s house still looking good in 2025.”
- Articles from The Wichita Eagle and Wichita Beacon reported the marriage of Joe Walsh’s parents and his father’s death.
Former Wichita Mayor Bob Knight has gotten to know Walsh through the years and calls him “cool. He’s a great guy. He really has kind of an emotional attachment to Wichita.”
Phil Thompson, who’s been a disc jockey on Wichita radio for four decades, has hung out with Walsh several times, including once when the musician came into Thompson’s studio for a short interview to promote his latest album and ended up staying all day. Walsh amused himself by playing with the studio’s sound effects and gave an impromptu guitar lesson to one of Thompson’s friends.
“He was silly,” Thompson said. Whenever he talks, he’s just got that way of seeming like he’s always having a good time.”
In addition to performing several times in Wichita with the Eagles and the James Gang, Thompson noted that Walsh staged a concert at the Cotillion to raise money for victims of the deadly 1991 Andover tornado.
Eric Cale, director of the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, met Walsh several years ago when he was in town for the History of the Eagles tour. Cale showed him the Gage Brewer guitar — recognized as the first modern electric guitar — which is displayed at the museum. After learning of the museum’s collection of guitars, Walsh shipped it a custom-made guitar he had designed himself.
Walsh started VetsAid in 2017, staging its first concert in Fairfax, Virginia, with a lineup that included the Zac Brown Band and Keith Urban.
He’s held one every year since then except for last year, when it was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.
This year’s lineup includes Vince Gill, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks and Ryan Bingham and The Texas Gentlemen.
In his comments to The Active Age, Walsh said VetsAid “has always been about bringing epic and special one-night-only opportunities to communities with large military and veteran populations but also to cities that may not be accustomed to shows like this. As our little festival grew, I also wanted to start recognizing the communities that made me who I am.”
“For 2025, I wanted to recognize my heritage, honor my father as well as my mother – a classical music teacher who gave me the gift of music – and bring our traveling circus to Kansas.”
In addition to the military connection through his father, Walsh said he “also watched many of my good friends go off to Vietnam and either come home different or not come home at all. When I reached a point in my life where I started to think more about giving back to the communities of fans who have been so good to me, I decided to start VetsAid as a living legacy to not only my father but to the men and women who have made sacrifices to serve, given so much and asked for so little in return.”
Walsh added that although the concert is for a serious purpose, the show itself will be a “country and blues-rock hootenanny with performers who have ties to this part of America. Derek Trucks’ parents live here in Wichita. Vince is an Okie from just across the border. Nathaniel is an artist I’ve been wanting to play with for a while and he’s a Coloradoan. Ryan is a New Mexican by way of Dallas. These are all some of the best musicians I know who are all gonna come together for one historic night of Kansas hospitality to raise some money for our veterans and their families.”
Contact Joe Stumpe at joe@theactiveage.com.
