"We always said our motto was 'we're building to last.'  We really spent a lot of time on the songs.  The other motto was, 'no filler.'  You don't make a single and then put a bunch of filler on an album.  You make an album and hope you have a single," JD Souther shared with me earlier this year.  The singer-songwriter's extraordinary body of work, one of the cornerstones of the Southern California rock sound, reflected that ethos: "You're Only Lonely."  "Faithless Love." "Her Town Too."  "Best of My Love."  "Heartache Tonight."  "New Kid in Town."  His songs were literate, warm, and deeply felt.  Both solo and with a tight circle of friends including Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bob Seger, and James Taylor, Souther crafted a sturdy songbook that was, indeed, built to last.  The Second Disc is shocked and saddened to learn of JD's passing at the age of 78 just as he was about to embark on a tour.

Born in Detroit, Michigan but raised in Amarillo, Texas, the young John David Souther was raised on classical music and jazz, eventually deciding on drums as his primary instrument.  Of course, it was the guitar on which he would become famous, but his deeply-ingrained knowledge of varied genres and instruments served him well as he honed his songwriting craft.

Under the aegis of the famed Norman Petty, JD debuted on records in 1966 with a lone single for the Warner Bros. label as John David and The Cinders.  A-side "Day Before Tomorrow" was an Eddie Reeves composition, but JD shared credit on the flipside, "No, Not My Heart."  By the end of the decade, the recent Los Angeles transplant had formed a duo, Longbranch Pennywhistle, with another recent arrival in the city: Detroit's own Glenn Frey.  Souther and Frey became best friends and writing partners, with Frey adding an R&B/soul edge to their joint efforts.  Longbranch Pennywhistle's lone album arrived on the Amos Records label in 1970.  While that unit would prove to be short-lived, the Souther/Frey partnership would be anything but.

Still, both men pursued individual aspirations.  Frey went on to form Eagles with Don Henley, whom Souther remembered as another valued friend and writing partner, for David Geffen and Elliot Roberts' Geffen label.  JD was one of the label's inaugural signings; after his 1971 debut John David Souther, he teamed with Richie Furay and Chris Hillman for two LPs as the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band.  His second solo release, 1976's sweeping Black Rose, was issued on Asylum in the wake of Geffen's move to Warner Bros. Pictures.  But in the meantime, JD had co-authored a number of songs for Don and Glenn's band including "Doolin-Dalton," "You Never Cry Like a Lover," "James Dean," and the gorgeously yearning chart-topping ballad "Best of My Love."  Bonnie Raitt, Nicolette Larson, and Linda Ronstadt all covered JD's songs, while he contributed vocals to albums for friends such as Christopher Cross and Dan Fogelberg.

JD's third solo album, You're Only Lonely on Columbia Records, earned him a solo Number One even as Eagles' "Heartache Tonight" (co-written with Frey, Henley, and Bob Seger) was ascending the charts.  The swooning title track "You're Only Lonely" climbed to the top of the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart where it resided for a five-week stay.  It reached a peak of No. 7 on the Hot 100.  Not long after, his duet with James Taylor on their co-written "Her Town, Too" earned him another hit on both charts.  After 1984's Warner Bros. LP Home by Dawn, he didn't release any studio albums for almost a quarter of a century, but he hardly rested on his laurels.

JD re-emerged as an actor on television (Thirtysomething, Nashville) and film (Postcards from the Edge, My Girl 2).  He co-wrote songs for Henley's 1989 album The End of the Innocence including the hit single "The Heart of the Matter" and reunited with Eagles when they recorded "How Long," from 1972's John David Souther, as the lead single off their 2007 studio album Long Road Out of Eden; it became a hit on both the Country and AC charts.  He also co-wrote that LP's "Last Good Time in Town" with Joe Walsh.  24 years after Home by Dawn, JD returned to the studio and to his roots for the acclaimed, jazz-infused If the World Was You in 2008.  Two more studio releases followed (2011's intimate songbook retrospective Natural History and 2015's elegant, orchestral Tenderness).  In 2013, he was inducted into The Songwriters' Hall of Fame.  In a full-circle moment, he joined Eagles onstage in January 2024 at L.A.'s Kia Forum to help his friends celebrate their Long Goodbye tour.

When I spoke earlier this year to JD, he was enthusiastic both about revisiting You're Only Lonely and about what the future held.  He spoke emotionally of his collaboration with the late Burt Bacharach, even surprising me when he generously sang a line or two of an as-yet-unreleased song the two men wrote together.  He was ready to get back on the road and maybe even back to the studio.  The call ended with his kind invitation to come see him in concert.  The show he'd mentioned to me was eventually cancelled, but I'd hoped and planned to see JD on this next road trip.  He was a generous, funny, smart, kind, and engaging presence, humorously chiding me when I misremembered the name of his album ("Home Before Dawn?  I never got home before dawn!") and thanking me for the interview which he'd let go on way past the prescribed time.  Truth to tell, I owed him all of the thanks - first for a lifetime of songs I will always cherish (and the vivid memory of a remarkable Lincoln Center show I shared with a dear friend in 2012), and secondly, for an afternoon I'll always hold close to me.  In every respect, JD Souther gave us the best of his love.  Thank you, Mr. Souther.