Mural of Guitarist Joe Walsh Unveiled in Downtown Kent

Singer-guitarist Joe Walsh isn’t the most attractive man in the world (he’d be the first to admit it too). But he sure is one helluva guitar player. Walsh, who enrolled at Kent State in the mid-’60s, played in bands such as the Measles and the James Gang before joining Rock Hall of Famers the Eagles.

Local artist Scot Phillips and his assistant Erin Meyer pay tribute to the man with a 9’ x 13’ mural composed of painted “dots.” Based on a photo from a performance that took place in the early 1970s, it features Walsh wearing a Kent State T-shirt. The mural appears on the side of the brick Water Street Tavern building in downtown Kent. “There have been plenty of notable comedians and musicians that have called Kent home at one point or another, but Walsh was really the early catalyst,” says Water Street Tavern owner Mike Beder in a press release. “He put us on the map. Considering Kent’s history as an entertainment district, it seemed like a good fit.”

The recently unveiled mural was funded mainly by Beder and in part by Main Street Kent.

This article appears in Jul 8-14, 2015.