Joe Walsh issued his first album in 20 years on June 5th, with Analog Man. The 10-track album was produced by Walsh with ELO/Traveling Wilburys co-founder Jeff Lynne. Walsh explained to his belated return to recording, admitting that he's at a loss for digital technology, saying, "I am what I am -- I'm an 'Analog Man.' I just really feel like it's all come together and finally I feel like a complete person and a complete musician. I think there is some confidence in there that I never had. That's what I was hiding."

One of the album's standout tracks, "Lucky That Way," serves as a mature sequel to Walsh's 1978 hit, "Life's Been Good." Walsh's old friend and brother-in-law, Ringo Starr, is among the guest musicians on the album.
Ringo, who tapped Walsh to play on his recent release Ringo 2012 and enlisted him to produce his 1983 album, Old Wave, told us that the muse is still hot between the two old friends and most importantly -- he's still a fan: "I would play for the rest of my days with Joe Walsh. He is such an incredible guitarist. He's such a great human being, but he's an incredible guitarist. He comes from the old school like I do -- y'know, we were in bands. He usually plays with two hands what most guitarists need four to do. Y'know what I'm trying to say? He's playing rhythm and lead at the same time and he's very inventive. So, I could play with Joe forever."

Joe Walsh explained that it was at Jeff Lynne's urging that the material on Analog Man came to be fully realized: "And then he said, 'Well, why don't you bring your tracks over to my house and we'll check 'em out -- and he decided to help. He just had suggestions. And I mean, he would hear a middle part, or it would be the middle of the song -- time to do somethin' and I just had the basic track, and he would hear stuff. He wanted to 'ELO it' (laughs)."