{"id":39443,"date":"2018-01-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/eagles-joe-walsh-reflects-on-worst-part-of-success\/"},"modified":"2018-01-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T00:00:00","slug":"eagles-joe-walsh-reflects-on-worst-part-of-success","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/eagles-joe-walsh-reflects-on-worst-part-of-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Eagle&#8217;s Joe Walsh Reflects on the Worst Part of Success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In an interview with <em class=\"citation\">Rolling Stone<\/em> magazine, Joe Walsh, the lead guitarist for the band Eagle&#39;s, was asked to describe the worst part of success:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The worst part of success is that a lot of things come along with it that you didn&#39;t really know you were gonna get in the package. There are distractions: Money, drugs, women, partying. You get a royalty check, and you go get a new car, and then you party, and then you get high&mdash;and then you forget what got you there in the first place. It&#39;s all ego stuff. When you&#39;re young it&#39;s really easy to lose your perspective, which I did, really losing sight of who I was. I started believing I was who everybody thought I was&mdash;which was a crazy rock star. You know &quot;Life&#39;s Been Good,&quot; that story. It took me away from working at my craft. Me and a lot of the guys I ran with, we were just party monsters, and it was a real challenge to stay alive and end up on the other end of it.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>The interviewer then asked, &quot;So many of your friends from that era&mdash;like Keith Moon and John Belushi&mdash;didn&#39;t make it. What do you think caused you to survive it?&quot; &quot;Don&#39;t know,&quot; replied Walsh. &quot;I wonder every day. People often ask me if I believe in God and I kinda have to, because I&#39;m still here. I had not planned on living this long, and here I am.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3401,3552,3740,3830,3959,4177,4374,4493,4508,4633,4852,4915,4925,4970,4982,5102],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-39443","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-aging","tax_ctp_tags-celebrities","tax_ctp_tags-debauchery","tax_ctp_tags-drugs","tax_ctp_tags-fame","tax_ctp_tags-human-depravity","tax_ctp_tags-lifestyle","tax_ctp_tags-mortality","tax_ctp_tags-musicians","tax_ctp_tags-perspective","tax_ctp_tags-rock-n-roll","tax_ctp_tags-self-destruction","tax_ctp_tags-self-indulgence","tax_ctp_tags-short-life","tax_ctp_tags-sinful-pleasure","tax_ctp_tags-success"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Eagle&#039;s Joe Walsh Reflects on the Worst Part of Success - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/eagles-joe-walsh-reflects-on-worst-part-of-success\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eagle&#039;s Joe Walsh Reflects on the Worst Part of Success - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Joe Walsh, the lead guitarist for the band Eagle&#039;s, was asked to describe the worst part of success: The worst part of success is that a lot of things come along with it that you didn&#039;t really know you were gonna get in the package. 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