Before The Eagles: Randy Meisner was a member / bass player / writer and singer in
Rick Nelson's Stone Canyon Band.
After that he played in
The New Riders of The Purple Sage Band, which led to his meeting
Linda Ronstadt and signing on
as part of her back ups -
Glenn Frey / Bernie Leadon and Don Henely (essenically - first version of
The Eagles) once they got
Randy on board.
Off subject I know:
Kinda similar to how
The Band was created. All of the members of
The Band were actually
Bob Dylans back up players who one day said,
"hey, we are one hell of a band and we do not need a front man when we can do it all ourselves. So
The Band was created & since been one
of my all time favorite bunch of Canadian musicians. The double album + video movie called "The Last Waltz" is just awesome.
The
Last Waltz was advertised as The Band's "farewell concert appearance", and the concert had The Band joined by more than a dozen special guests, including their previous employers Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan, as well as Paul Butterfield, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, and Neil Young and many more.