"happy people" that disdain the unhappy

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Haha I missed that, hopefully if I grew up in that era I'd know that

Life's Been Good" is a humorous look at the spoils of fame and fortune associated with being a rock star. Walsh pokes fun at the lifestyle of wealth and fame, and the spoiled mentality - how it's not him who has changed, but everyone else.

In a 1981 interview with the BBC, Walsh explained: "I wanted to make a statement involving satire and humor, kind of poking fun at the incredibly silly lifestyle that someone in my position is faced with – in other words, I do have a really nice house, but I'm on the road so much that when I come home from a tour, it's really hard to feel that I even live here. It's not necessarily me, I think it paraphrases anyone in my position, and I think that's why a lot of people related to it, but basically, that's the story of any rock star – I say that humbly – anyone in my position. I thought that was a valid statement, because it is a strange lifestyle – I've been around the world in concerts, and people say 'What was Japan like?', but I don't know. It's got a nice airport, you know... so it was kind of an overall statement."

Walsh lived up to this song, indulging in the hedonism he sang about long after it was released. "I started believing I was who everybody thought I was, which was a crazy rock star," he told Rolling Stone in 2017. "It took me away from my craft. Me and a lot of the guys I ran with, we were party monsters. It was a real challenge just to stay alive."

Growing up, the musician says he likely had attention deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Asperger’s, but was never diagnosed, as that’s not how the world worked in the 1950s.

You were just different than the other kids. There was me, and there was the rest of the class in all the schools I went to,” he says. “I was all over the map. I’d start all these projects and never finish any of them. I acted out. So I decided to be funny, because I wanted people to like me so much. And that changed the way I look at things.”

In addition to humor Walsh leaned on music, which he says was “my crutch—I listened to the radio constantly… I was wired for music.”

Though overwhelmed by the trappings of fame, Walsh never lost his sense of humor; on his 1978 hit “Life’s Been Good,” he sarcastically celebrates the perks of being rich and famous (Sure, he can afford the speedy Maserati, but he can’t actually drive it after losing his license). The star says he was initially “so scared” to release the song, which eventually became his signature solo hit, and wasn’t going to, until his collaborators convinced him otherwise.

I’m just saying that life isn’t as glorious as it appears,” he says of the song. “When you achieve an amount of success and recognition from your music, a lot of things come along with that, small print, that you don’t know are included in it, like a huge ego, lots of money. Everybody likes you, and it’s so easy to lose your perspective.”

As his star rose, so, too did Walsh’s dependence on alcohol and drugs. Though he sang lines like “I go to parties sometimes until 4/It’s hard to leave when you can’t find the door,” with a wink and a nudge, substance-fueled setbacks weren’t so far from the truth.

When the Eagles broke up in 1980, Walsh struggled to make sense of the split, and it sent him spiraling further. Though he continued to make solo records, his condition worsened, thanks in part to severe stage fright that he soon found was eased by alcohol.

I couldn’t process that [breakup], so I pretended they didn’t, and I just kept partying,” he says. “Everybody in the ‘70s experimented with drugs. But I discovered that cocaine works good for me. It was an attempt to self-medicate—I could stay up late, I could complete songs. I could go in front of an audience, and I could have an attitude, rock and roll.”