While selling poppies for the RSA, volunteer Arrowtown firey Todd Weeks — who calls himself "like, the biggest fan of the Eagles" — thought he heard Walsh’s voice just behind him on the town’s main street.
"And I turned around and, lo and behold, there he was, 10 metres away."
Weeks says they had a good five-minute chat about subjects like Poppy Day — Walsh runs annual charity concerts for American war veterans — and the Jimmy Buffett tribute concert he’d played at, at Hollywood Bowl, just a week earlier.
"It was just one of those pinch-me moments that’ll never probably happen again."
Weeks says Walsh’s wife photographed them both on his camera.
"And then I just posted it onto my Facebook page, and then, lo and behold, he grabbed it and posted it on his own page" — the 76-year-old saying he’d "made a new friend (hey, Todd) in the Fire Service".
Walsh also dropped in on Queenstown Bay busker Kim Turton and his famous singing dog Happy, whom he’d heard about.
"He put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘I’m Joe Walsh from the Eagles’ and I just scoffed and looked up at him and said, ‘shit, it’s Joe Walsh from the Eagles’."
Walsh’s entourage also dropped him $20.
"As he was leaving I said, ‘I’ll have to learn to play Hotel California again’."
