Joe Walsh

  Noah's Farm

Touring musicians have a saying: If you're on the road long enough, someone is going to get pranked. In 1991, Joe Walsh and the Doobie Brothers proved just how far that idea could go.

The two acts were touring together, and what began as harmless practical jokes gradually escalated into an all-out prank war. Crew members became accomplices, musicians watched their backs before every show, and nobody knew what surprise might be waiting when they walked onstage.

Joe Vitale was right in the middle of it. A longtime member of Walsh's band and one of his closest musical partners, Vitale had seen plenty of unpredictable behavior over the years. But this tour was becoming something else entirely.

One night, during Walsh's performance of "Funk #49," members of the Doobie Brothers struck. They rushed the stage armed with cans of Silly String and completely covered Vitale and the other drummer before disappearing as quickly as they had arrived.

The audience loved it. Walsh, however, wasn't about to let the score remain uneven.

For the next stop in Cincinnati, he quietly began planning a response. While the Doobie Brothers were performing, the crowd suddenly saw something no one expected at a rock concert.

A procession of live animals began making its way across the stage. Goats. Sheep. Other barnyard companions. And leading the unlikely parade was Joe Walsh himself, dressed as Noah.

The audience erupted with laughter as the bewildered Doobie Brothers tried to continue their performance while what looked like the world's strangest petting zoo wandered past them.

Somehow, the song went on. For everyone involved, it became one of those legendary backstage stories that only touring musicians could fully appreciate. There were no smashed hotel rooms or angry confrontations. Just a group of veteran rock musicians trying to outdo one another with increasingly ridiculous practical jokes.

Joe Vitale had spent much of his career playing alongside some of rock's biggest names. He helped create classics, played on legendary albums, and performed before millions of fans.

Yet somewhere among those remarkable achievements sits a memory unlike any other. Watching Joe Walsh, dressed as Noah, lead a parade of zoo animals across a concert stage.

Apparently, Silly String required a biblical response. 

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