title: Joe Walsh

text: They released their debut album, "Yer' Album", in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film "Zachariah", with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of "The James Gang Greatest Hits".


title: Joe Walsh

text: Shortly before the release of their second album "James Gang Rides Again", they opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left, impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about it, he said, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."


title: Joe Walsh

text: The James Gang's next two albums, "James Gang Rides Again" (1970) and "Thirds" (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album "James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall" was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.


title: Joe Walsh

text: The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, "Straight Shooter" and "Passin' Thru", both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so Troiano left the band in 1973 and later, in late 1974 joined the Guess Who.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous "Barnstorm", in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, "The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get", released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US "Billboard" chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album "Roller Coaster Weekend". Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 1975, Walsh was invited to join the Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for The Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Released on December 8, 1976, "Hotel California" was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.


title: Joe Walsh

text: The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.


title: Joe Walsh

text: The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.


title: Joe Walsh

text: "Hotel California" was the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco: Timothy B. Schmit.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album "Little Criminals," including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.


title: Joe Walsh

text: The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, "The Long Run." The album took two years to complete. "The Long Run" was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to "Hotel California," it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In The City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, "So What", which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song for Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, "You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind", which also featured the Eagles.


title: Joe Walsh

text: As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to "Hotel California", Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, "But Seriously, Folks..." in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to "The Warriors" soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, "The Long Run".


title: Joe Walsh

text: Following the breakup of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.


title: Joe Walsh

text: "There Goes the Neighborhood" was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the "Billboard" 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.


title: Joe Walsh

text: "A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the "There Goes the Neighborhood" sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In May 1983, Walsh released "You Bought It – You Name It"; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the "Billboard" 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, "The Confessor". Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua, and many other musicians with whom Walsh had never worked.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, "Got Any Gum?", which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 1991, "Ordinary Average Guy", his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), "Songs for a Dying Planet", his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. At the end of the track "Certain Situations" you can hear a Morse code message that says "Register and vote for me". His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album "Analog Man", which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.


title: Joe Walsh

text: An Eagles country tribute album titled "" was released in 1993, thirteen years after the split. Travis Tritt insisted on having the "Long Run"-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five "Long Run"-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.


title: Joe Walsh

text: "For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled "Hell Freezes Over" (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.


title: Joe Walsh

text: The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former bandmates.


title: Joe Walsh

text: The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc "" box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from "The Long Run" sessions. "Selected Works" received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.


title: Joe Walsh

text: The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone), and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, "The Very Best Of". The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from "Eagles" to "Hell Freezes Over". It debuted at No. 3 on the chart and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album included a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, "The Wind", with the assistance of Henley, Walsh, and Schmit.


title: Joe Walsh

text: On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled "Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne," featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company", and "Do Something".


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight", and "New Kid in Town".


title: Joe Walsh

text: On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released "Long Road Out of Eden", their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website and at Walmart and Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by RIAA. Henley told CNN, "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.


title: Joe Walsh

text: On January 28, 2008, the second single of "Long Road Out of Eden" was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the "Billboard" Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".


title: Joe Walsh

text: On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of "Long Road Out of Eden" at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium (now known as America First Field) in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to "Long Road Out of Eden", Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".


title: Joe Walsh

text: In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called "History of the Eagles" and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."


title: Joe Walsh

text: Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians, including the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, "You Need Professional Help". He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar), and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album "Got Any Gum?", which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded an "MTV Unplugged" with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called "Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away".


title: Joe Walsh

text: While producing their "Homegrown" album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".


title: Joe Walsh

text: In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States. Also in 1993, Walsh, Terry Reid, Nicky Hopkins, Rick Rosas, and Phil Jones put together an informal group called The Flew. They played one show at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. This was Nicky Hopkins' last public performance before his passing.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for President Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox); they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for "Monday Night Football" that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on "Monday Night Football".


title: Joe Walsh

text: In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 2008, Walsh appeared on the "Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD" as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it."


title: Joe Walsh

text: Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's "Souvenirs" album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 "Billboard" album chart.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters". Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane".


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album "Too Late the Hero", whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles bandmember Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of "I Can't Stand Still" and ""). Walsh has also contributed to albums by Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; and Steve Winwood; and to the Richard Marx hit single "Don't Mean Nothing".


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in "The Blues Brothers", "Promised Land", "The Drew Carey Show", "Duckman", "MADtv", "Live from Daryl's House", "Rock the Cradle", "Zachariah"., and "The Conners"


title: Joe Walsh

text: In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."


title: Joe Walsh

text: On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of "Live from Daryl's House" with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.


title: Joe Walsh

text: On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's "The Voice" in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Sall


title: Joe Walsh

text: On September 3, 2022, Walsh appeared in London, with recently reunited James Gang, at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium which was simulcasted live and worldwide on the web, television and streaming platforms; notably, on streaming service Paramount + which aired a live complete/full version of the 339 minute concert that was uncut without commercials. For their final song, Dave Grohl played with James Gang on 'Funk #49' as a 2nd/backup drummer. Walsh sang lead vocals and played lead guitar (a PRS), including slide guitar, for 3 songs.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh also appeared with the James Gang at the September 27, 2022 Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, near Los Angeles As in London, their three song set consisted of "Walk Away," "The Bomber: Closet Queen / Boléro / Cast Your Fate to the Wind" and "Funk #49" with Dave Grohl as the second drummer on the latter.


title: Joe Walsh

text: At the 2022 VetsAid benefit, Joe Walsh did double duty, performing a nine song set with the James Gang then returning for a four song finale backed by Nathan East, Joe Vitale and Tom Bukovac. Walsh was joined by Dave Grohl, who played guitar on "Life's Been Good." On "Rocky Mountain Way," Dave Grohl played drums, the Breeders sang backing vocals and Roy Orbison III, godson of Walsh and grandson of Roy Orbison, played guitar.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh cites influences from rock and pop bands and guitarists, many of whom he has encountered on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"


title: Joe Walsh

text: In an interview to promote his album "Analog Man" in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of Willie Nelson's Farm Aid.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. His sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, "Lost in the Lights", in 2007.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album "So What" released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played, North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name "So What" was a result of Emma's death, that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album "Rock A Little". Nicks told the UK's "The Daily Telegraph" in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life." "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to "Q". "He told my friend and singer Sharon "[Celani]", 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh has mentioned having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Asperger syndrome.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.


title: Joe Walsh

text: While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project", which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: on the album "Barnstorm", ("Register and Vote"); and on "Songs for a Dying Planet", ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.


title: Joe Walsh

text: Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.


title: Joe Walsh

text: In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as "Who's Next" and "Quadrophenia".


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard—who hike into the Black Hills near Burkittsville, Maryland, in 1994 to film a documentary about a local myth known as the Blair Witch. The three disappear, but their equipment and footage are discovered a year later. The purportedly "found footage" is the movie the viewer sees.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Myrick and Sánchez conceived of a fictional legend of the Blair Witch in 1993. They developed a 35-page screenplay with the dialogue to be improvised. A casting call advertisement in "Backstage" magazine was prepared by the directors; Donahue, Williams and Leonard were cast. The film entered production in October 1997, with the principal photography taking place in Maryland for eight days. About 20 hours of footage was shot, which was edited down to 82 minutes. Shot on an original budget of $35,000–60,000, the film had a final cost of $200,000–750,000 after post-production edits.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: When "The Blair Witch Project" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival at midnight on January 23, 1999, its promotional marketing campaign listed the actors as either "missing" or "deceased". Owing to its successful run at Sundance, Artisan Entertainment bought the film's distribution rights for $1.1 million. The film had a limited release on July 14 the same year, before expanding to a wider release starting on July 30. While critical reception was mostly positive, audience reception was split.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: "The Blair Witch Project" grossed nearly $250 million worldwide, making it one of the most successful independent films of all time, as well as the 41st most profitable horror film, while also being a sleeper hit. The film launched a media franchise, which includes two sequels ("" and "Blair Witch"), novels, comic books, and video games. The film is credited with reviving the found-footage technique which was later used by similarly successful horror films such as "Paranormal Activity" and "Cloverfield".


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: The film purports to be footage found in the discarded cameras of three young filmmakers who had gone missing.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: In October 1994, film students Heather, Mike, and Josh set out to produce a documentary about the mythical Blair Witch. They travel to Burkittsville, Maryland, and interview residents about the myth. Locals tell them of Rustin Parr, a hermit who lived in the forest and abducted seven kids in the 1940s; he supposedly murdered them all in his basement, killing them in twos while having one stand in a corner. The students explore the forest in north Burkittsville to research the myth. They meet two fishermen, one of whom warns them that the forest is cursed. He tells them of a young child named Robin Weaver, who went missing in 1888; when she returned three days later, she talked about "an old woman whose feet never touched the ground". The students hike to Coffin Rock, where five men were found ritualistically slaughtered in the 19th century; their corpses later disappeared.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: They camp for the night, and the next day, find an old graveyard with seven small cairns, one of which Josh accidentally knocks over. That night, they hear the sound of sticks snapping. The following day, they try to hike back to the car but cannot find it before dark and make camp. They again hear sticks snapping. In the morning, they find that three cairns have been built inside their tent. Heather learns her map is missing. Mike reveals he kicked the map into a creek out of frustration, which provokes a fight between the trio as they realize they are lost. They decide to head south, using Mike's compass and discover stick figures hanging from trees. They again hear mysterious sounds that night, including kids laughing. After an unknown force shakes the tent, they hide in the forest until dawn.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Upon returning to their tent, they find that their possessions have been rifled through, and Josh's equipment is covered with slime. They come across a river identical to one they crossed earlier and realize they have been walking in circles. Josh vanishes the next morning, and Heather and Mike try in vain to find him. That night, they hear Josh's agonized cries but are unable to find him. They theorize that his yells are a fabrication by the Blair Witch to draw them out of their camp.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: The next day, Heather discovers a bundle of twigs tied with fabric from Josh's shirt. Upon opening the bundle, she also finds a blood-soaked scrap of his shirt containing teeth, hair, a finger, and a large piece of a tongue. Although distraught, she does not tell Mike. That night, she records herself apologizing to her family and Mike's and Josh's families, taking responsibility for their predicament.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: They again hear Josh's agonized screams and follow them to an abandoned ruin of a house containing demonic symbols and children's bloody hand-prints on the walls. Trying to locate Josh, they go to the basement, where an unseen force assaults Mike, causing him to drop his camera. Heather enters the basement yelling, and her camera captures Mike standing in a corner facing the wall. Heather calls out to him, but he doesn't react. The unseen force assaults Heather, causing her to drop her camera, and the film ends.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Development of "The Blair Witch Project" began in 1993. While film students at the University of Central Florida, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez were inspired to make the film after realizing that they found documentaries on paranormal phenomena scarier than traditional horror films. The two decided to create a film that combined the styles of both. In order to produce the project, they, along with Gregg Hale, Robin Cowie and Michael Monello, started Haxan Films. The namesake for the production company is Benjamin Christensen's 1922 silent documentary horror film "Häxan" (English: "Witchcraft Through the Ages").


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Myrick and Sánchez developed a 35-page screenplay for their fictional film, intending dialogue to be improvised. The directors placed a casting call advertisement in "Backstage" in June 1996, asking for actors with strong improvisational abilities. The informal improvisational audition process narrowed the pool of 2,000 actors.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: According to Heather Donahue, auditions for the film were held at Musical Theater Works in New York City. The advertisement said a "completely improvised feature film" would be shot in a "wooded location". Donahue said that during the audition, Myrick and Sánchez posed her the question: "You've served seven years of a nine-year sentence. Why should we let you out on parole?" to which she had to respond. Joshua Leonard said he was cast due to his knowledge of how to run a camera, as no omniscient camera was used to film the scenes.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Pre-production began on October 5, 1997, and Michael Monello became a co-producer. In developing the mythology behind the film, the creators used many inspirations. For instance, several character names are near-anagrams: Elly Kedward (The Blair Witch) is Edward Kelley, a 16th-century mystic, and Rustin Parr, the fictional 1940s child-murderer, began as an anagram for Rasputin. The Blair Witch is said to be, according to legend, the ghost of Elly Kedward, a woman banished from the Blair Township (latter-day Burkittsville) for witchcraft in 1785.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: The directors incorporated that part of the legend, along with allusions to the Salem witch trials and Arthur Miller's 1953 play "The Crucible", to play on the themes of injustice done to those who were classified as witches.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: The directors also cited influences such as the television series "In Search of...", and horror documentary films "Chariots of the Gods" and "The Legend of Boggy Creek". Other influences included commercially successful horror films such as "The Shining", "Alien", "The Omen", and "Jaws"—the latter film being his major influence, as the film hides the witch from the viewer for its entirety, increasing the suspense of the unknown.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: In talks with investors, the directors presented an eight-minute documentary, along with newspapers and news footage. The documentary was aired on the television series "Split Screen" hosted by John Pierson on August 6, 1998.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Principal photography began on October 23, 1997, in Maryland and lasted eight days, overseen by cinematographer Neal Fredericks, who provided a CP-16 film camera. The "found footage" was shot with a Hi8 camcorder. Most of the film was shot in Seneca Creek State Park in Montgomery County, Maryland. A few scenes were filmed in the historic town of Burkittsville. Some of the townspeople interviewed in the film were not actors, and some were planted actors, unknown to the main cast. Donahue had never operated a camera before and spent two days in a "crash course". Donahue said she modeled her character after a director she had once worked with, noting her character's "self-assuredness" when everything went as planned, and confusion during crisis.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: The actors were given clues as to their next location through messages hidden inside 35 mm film cans left in milk crates they found with Global Positioning Satellite systems. They were given individual instructions to use to help improvise the action of the day. Teeth were obtained from a Maryland dentist for use as human remains in the film. Influenced by producer Gregg Hale's memories of his military training, in which "enemy soldiers" would hunt a trainee through wild terrain for three days, the directors moved the characters a long way during the day, harassing them by night, and depriving them of food.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Instead of using fictional names, all three actors used their real names in the film, something Donahue has regretted doing. She revealed in 2014 that she had trouble finding new roles because of it.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: According to the filmmakers' commentary, the unseen figure that Donahue is shouting about as she is running away from the tent is the film's art director Ricardo Moreno, who was wearing white long-johns, white stockings, and white pantyhose pulled over his head. It was initially intended for the figure to be revealed on camera as the Blair Witch herself, but the cameraman forgot to pan to the left of Donahue to capture footage of Moreno. The final scenes were filmed at the historic Griggs House, a 200-year-old building located in the Patapsco Valley State Park near Granite, Maryland. Filming concluded on October 31, Halloween.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", Sánchez revealed that when principal photography first wrapped, approximately $20,000 to $25,000 had been spent. Richard Corliss of "Time" magazine reported a $35,000 estimated budget. By September 2016, "The Blair Witch Project" has been officially budgeted at $60,000.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: After filming, the 20 hours of raw footage had to be cut down to 81 minutes; the editing process took more than eight months. The directors screened the first cut in small film festivals in order to get feedback and make changes that would ensure that it appealed to as large an audience as possible. Originally, it was hoped that the film would make it on to cable television, and the directors did not anticipate a wide release. The final version was submitted to Sundance Film Festival.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: After becoming a surprise hit at Sundance, during its midnight premiere on January 25, 1999, Artisan Entertainment bought the distribution rights for $1.1 million. Prior to that, Artisan had wanted to change the film's original ending, as the test audience were puzzled, although scared. Donahue screams in terror and finds Michael C. Williams facing a corner in the basement before she is knocked to the ground. The directors and Williams traveled back to Maryland and shot four alternate endings, one of which employed bloody elements. Ultimately, they decided to keep the original. Myrick said: "What makes us fearful is something that's out of the ordinary, unexplained. The first ending kept the audience off balance; it challenged our real world conventions and that's what really made it scary".


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Post-production fees increased the cost of the film to several hundred thousand dollars before its Sundance debut and, after marketing costs, the total cost of the film has been estimated as ranging between $500,000 and $750,000.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: "The Blair Witch Project" is thought to be the first widely released film marketed primarily by the Internet. Kevin Foxe became executive producer in May 1998 and brought in Clein & Walker, a public relations firm. The film's official website launched in June, featuring faux police reports as well as "newsreel-style" interviews, and fielding questions about the "missing" students. These augmented the film's found footage device to spark debates across the Internet over whether the film was a real-life documentary or a work of fiction. Some of the footage was screened during the Florida Film Festival in June. During screenings, the filmmakers made advertising efforts to promulgate the events in the film as factual, including the distribution of flyers at festivals such as Sundance, asking viewers to come forward with any information about the "missing" students. The campaign tactic was that viewers were being told, through missing persons posters, that the characters were missing while researching in the woods for the mythical Blair Witch. The IMDb page also listed the actors as "missing, presumed dead" in the first year of the film's availability. The film's website contains materials of actors posing as police and investigators giving testimony about their casework, and shared childhood photos of the actors to add a sense of realism. By August 1999, the website had received 160 million hits.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: After the Sundance screening, Artisan acquired the film and a distribution strategy was created and implemented by Steven Rothenberg. The film's trailer was leaked on the website Ain't It Cool News on April 2, 1999, and the film was screened at 40 colleges in the United States to build word-of-mouth. A third, 40-second, trailer was shown before "" in June.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: "USA Today" reported that "The Blair Witch Project" was the first film to go viral despite having been produced before many of the technologies that facilitate such phenomena existed.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: The backstory for the film is a legend fabricated by Sánchez and Myrick which is detailed in the "Curse of the Blair Witch", a mockumentary broadcast on the SciFi Channel on July 12, 1999. Sánchez and Myrick also maintain a website which adds further details to the legend.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: The legend describes the killings and disappearances of some of the residents of Blair, Maryland (a fictitious town on the site of Burkittsville, Maryland) from the 18th to 20th centuries. Residents blamed these occurrences on the ghost of Elly Kedward, a Blair resident accused of practicing witchcraft in 1785 and sentenced to death by exposure. The "Curse of the Blair Witch" presents the legend as real, complete with manufactured newspaper articles, newsreels, television news reports, and staged interviews.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: "The Blair Witch Project" premiered as a Midnight Screening on Saturday, January 23, 1999 at the Sundance Film Festival, and opened Wednesday, July 14, at the Angelika Film Center in New York City before expanding to 25 cities at the weekend. It expanded nationwide on July 30.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: For its basic cable premiere in October 2001 on FX, two deleted scenes were reinserted during the end credits of the film. Neither deleted scene has ever been officially released.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: "The Blair Witch Project" was released on VHS and DVD on October 22, 1999 by Artisan, presented in a 1.33:1 windowboxed aspect ratio and Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Special features include the documentary "Curse of the Blair Witch", a five-minute "Newly Discovered Footage", audio commentary, production notes, and cast and crew biographies. The audio commentary presents directors Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez, and producers Rob Cowie, Mike Monello and Gregg Hale, in which they discuss the film's production. The "Curse of the Blair Witch" feature provides an in-depth look inside the creation of the film. More than $15 million was spent to market the home video release of the film.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: The film's Blu-ray version was released on October 5, 2010, by Lionsgate. Best Buy and Lionsgate had an exclusive release of the Blu-ray made available on August 29 the same year.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: The film earned $1.5 million from 27 theaters in its opening weekend, with a per-screen average of $56,002. The film expanded nationwide in its third weekend and grossed $29.2 million from 1,101 locations, placing at number two in the United States box office, surpassing the science fiction horror film "Deep Blue Sea" but behind "Runaway Bride". The film expanded further to 2,142 theaters and again finished in second place with a gross of $24.3 million in its fourth weekend, behind another horror film "The Sixth Sense". The film dropped out of the top-ten list in its 10th weekend and by the end of its theatrical run, the film grossed $140.5 million in the US and Canada and grossed $108.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $248.6 million (over 4,000 times its original budget). "The Blair Witch Project" was the 10th highest-grossing film in the US in 1999, and has earned the reputation of becoming a sleeper hit. In Italy it set an opening weekend record for a US film.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Because the filming was done by the actors using hand-held cameras, much of the footage is shaky, especially the final sequence in which a character is running down a set of stairs with the camera. Some audience members experienced motion sickness and even vomited as a result.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: "The Blair Witch Project" drew positive reviews from critics. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 86% based on 165 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 7.70/10. The website's consensus reads: "Full of creepy campfire scares, mock-doc "The Blair Witch Project" keeps audiences in the dark about its titular villain, proving once more that imagination can be as scary as anything onscreen". On Metacritic, the film received "universal acclaim" and was awarded its "Must-See" badge, with a weighted average of 81 out of 100 based on 33 reviews. Audience reception to the film, though, remains divided; CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "C+" on a scale ranging from A+ to F based on audiences polled during the film's opening weekend.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: "The Blair Witch Project" found-footage technique received near-universal praise. Although this was not the first film to use it, the independent film was declared a milestone in film history due to its critical and box office success. Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film four stars, and called it "an extraordinarily effective horror film". Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" called it "a groundbreaker in fright that reinvents scary for the new millennium". Todd McCarthy of "Variety" said: "An intensely imaginative piece of conceptual filmmaking that also delivers the goods as a dread-drenched horror movie, "The Blair Witch Project" puts a clever modern twist on the universal fear of the dark and things that go bump in the night". Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" gave a grade of "B": "As a horror picture, the film may not be much more than a cheeky game, a novelty with the cool, blurry look of an avant-garde artifact. But as a manifestation of multimedia synergy, it's pretty spooky".


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Some critics were less enthusiastic. Andrew Sarris of "The New York Observer" deemed it "overrated", as well as a rendition of "the ultimate triumph of the Sundance scam: Make a heartless home movie, get enough critics to blurb in near unison 'scary' and watch the suckers flock to be fleeced". A critic from "The Christian Science Monitor" said that while the film's concept and scares were innovative, he felt it could have just been shot "as a 30-minute short ... since its shaky camera work and fuzzy images get monotonous after a while, and there's not much room for character development within the very limited plot". R. L. Schaffer of IGN scored it two out of ten, and described it as "boringreally boring", and "a Z-grade, low-rent horror outing with no real scares into a genuine big-budget spectacle".


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: At the 1st Golden Trailer Awards, it received a nomination for Most Original Trailer and won two categories: Best Horror/Thriller and Best Voice Over. At the 15th Independent Spirit Awards, "The Blair Witch Project" won the John Cassavetes Award (for best first feature made for under $500,000). The 20th Golden Raspberry Awards gave Heather Donahue its Worst Actress award, and nominated producers Robin Cowie and Gregg Hale for the Worst Picture award. At the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film won the Biggest Disappointment category and received three nominations: Worst Picture (Cowie and Hale), Worst Actress (Donahue), and Worst Screen Debut (Heather, Michael, Josh, the Stick People and the world's longest running batteries).


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: An array of other films have relied on the found-footage concept and shown influence by "The Blair Witch Project". These include "Paranormal Activity" (2007), "REC" (2007), "Cloverfield" (2008), "The Last Exorcism" (2010), "Trollhunter" (2010), "Chronicle" (2012), "Project X" (2012), "V/H/S" (2012), "End of Watch" (2012), and "The Den" (2013). Some critics have also noted that the film's basic plot premise and narrative style are strikingly similar to "Cannibal Holocaust" (1980) and "The Last Broadcast" (1998). Although "Cannibal Holocaust" director Ruggero Deodato has acknowledged the similarities of "The Blair Witch Project" to his film, he criticized the publicity that it received for being an original production; advertisements for "The Blair Witch Project" also promoted the idea that the footage is genuine. Despite initial reports that "The Last Broadcast" creators—Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler—had alleged that "The Blair Witch Project" was a complete rip-off of their work and would sue Haxan Films for copyright infringement, they repudiated these allegations. One of the creators told IndieWire in 1999: "If somebody enjoys "The Blair Witch Project" there is a chance they will enjoy our film, and we hope they will check it out".


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Film critic Michael Dodd has argued that the film is an embodiment of horror "modernizing its ability to be all-encompassing in expressing the fears of American society". He noted that "in an age where anyone can film whatever they like, horror needn't be a cinematic expression of what terrifies the cinema-goer, it can simply be the medium through which terrors captured by the average American can be showcased". In 2008, "The Blair Witch Project" was ranked by "Entertainment Weekly" as number ninety-nine on their list of 100 Best Films from 1983 to 2008. In 2006, the Chicago Film Critics Association ranked it as number 12 on their list of Top 100 Scariest Movies. It was ranked number 50 on Filmcritic.com's list of 50 Best Movie Endings of All Time. In 2016, it was ranked by IGN as number 21 on their list of Top 25 Horror Movies of All Time, number 16 on "Cosmopolitan"s 25 Scariest Movies of All Time, and number three on "The Hollywood Reporter"s 10 Scariest Movies of All Time. In 2013, the film also made the top-ten list of "The Hollywood Reporter"s highest-grossing independent films of all time, ranking number six.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Director Eli Roth has cited the film as a marketing influence to promote his 2002 horror film "Cabin Fever" with the internet. "The Blair Witch Project" was included in the book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die".


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: After the film was released, in late November 1999, the historic house where it was filmed was reportedly being overwhelmed by film fans who broke off chunks as souvenirs. The township ordered the house demolished the next month.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: In September 1999, D.A. Stern compiled "The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier". Building on the film's "true story" angle, the dossier consisted of fabricated police reports, pictures, interviews, and newspaper articles presenting the film's premise as fact, as well as further elaboration on the Elly Kedward and Rustin Parr legends. Another "dossier" was created for "". Stern wrote the 2000 novel "Blair Witch: The Secret Confessions of Rustin Parr". He revisited the franchise with the novel "Blair Witch: Graveyard Shift", which features original characters and plot.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: A series of eight young adult books, entitled "The Blair Witch Files", were released by Random subsidiary Bantam from 2000 to 2001. The books center on Cade Merill, a fictional cousin of Heather Donahue, who investigates phenomena related to the Blair Witch. She tries to learn what really happened to Heather, Mike, and Josh.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: In July 1999, Oni Press released a one-shot comic promoting the film, titled "The Blair Witch Project" #1. Written and illustrated by Cece Malvey, the comic was released in conjunction of the film. In October 2000, coinciding with the release of "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2", Image Comics released a one-shot called "Blair Witch: Dark Testaments", drawn by Charlie Adlard.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: In 2000, Gathering of Developers released a trilogy of computer games based on the film, which greatly expanded on the myths first suggested in the film. The graphics engine and characters were all derived from the producer's earlier game "Nocturne".


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: The first volume, "", received the most praise, ranging from moderate to positive, with critics commending its storyline, graphics and atmosphere; some reviewers even claimed that the game was scarier than the film. The following volumes, "" and "", were less well received, with "PC Gamer" saying that Volume 2's "only saving grace was its cheap price", and calling Volume 3 "amazingly mediocre".


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: Bloober Team developed "Blair Witch", a first-person survival horror game based on the "Blair Witch" franchise. The game was released on August 30, 2019.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: "The Woods Movie" (2015) is a feature-length documentary exploring the production of "The Blair Witch Project". For this documentary, director Russ Gomm interviewed the original film's producer, Gregg Hale, and directors Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: "The Blair Witch Project" inspired a number of parody films, including "Da Hip Hop Witch", "The Bogus Witch Project", "The Tony Blair Witch Project" (all in 2000), and "The Blair Thumb" (2001), as well as the pornographic films "The Erotic Witch Project" and "The Bare Wench Project". The film also inspired the Halloween television special "The Scooby-Doo Project", which aired during a "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" marathon on Cartoon Network on October 31, 1999. 2013's "6-5=2" was also inspired by this film.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: A sequel entitled "Book of Shadows" was released on October 27, 2000; it was poorly received by most critics. A third installment announced that same year did not materialize.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: At the San Diego Comic-Con held in July 2016, a surprise trailer for "Blair Witch" was revealed. The film was originally marketed as "The Woods" so as to be an exclusive surprise announcement for those in attendance at the convention. The film, distributed by Lionsgate, was slated for a September 16 release and stars James Allen McCune as the brother of the original film's Heather Donahue. Directed by Adam Wingard, "Blair Witch" is a direct sequel to "The Blair Witch Project", and does not acknowledge the events of "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2". However, Wingard has said that although his version does not reference any of the events that transpired in "Book of Shadows", the film does not necessarily discredit the existence of "Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2". Screenwriter Simon Barrett explained that in writing the new film, he only considered material that was produced with the involvement of the original film's creative team (directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, producer Gregg Hale, and production designer Ben Rock) to be "canon", and that he did not take any material produced without their direct involvementsuch as the first sequel "Book of Shadows" or "The Blair Witch Files", a series of young adult novelsinto consideration when writing the new sequel.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: A new installment of "The Blair Witch Project" is currently in development at Lionsgate as of April 2022.


title: The Blair Witch Project

text: In October 2017, co-director Eduardo Sánchez revealed that he and the rest of the film's creative team were developing a "Blair Witch" television series, though he clarified that any decisions would ultimately be up to Lionsgate now which owns the rights to it. The series was later announced to be released on the studio's new subsidiary, Studio L, which specializes in digital releases.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: The Russo-Japanese War (; ) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1905 over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major theatres of military operations were located in Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria, and the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Russia sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean both for its navy and for maritime trade. Vladivostok remained ice-free and operational only during the summer; Port Arthur, a naval base in Liaodong Province leased to Russia by the Qing dynasty of China from 1897, was operational year round.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Russia had pursued an expansionist policy east of the Urals, in Siberia and the Far East, since the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Japan had feared Russian encroachment would interfere with its plans to establish a sphere of influence in Korea and Manchuria.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Seeing Russia as a rival, Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of the Korean Empire as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused and demanded the establishment of a neutral buffer zone between Russia and Japan in Korea, north of the 39th parallel. The Imperial Japanese Government perceived this as obstructing their plans for expansion into mainland Asia and chose to go to war. After negotiations broke down in 1904, the Imperial Japanese Navy opened hostilities in a surprise attack on the Russian Eastern Fleet at Port Arthur, China on .


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Although Russia suffered a number of defeats, Emperor Nicholas II remained convinced that Russia could still win if it fought on; he chose to remain engaged in the war and await the outcomes of key naval battles. As hope of victory dissipated, he continued the war to preserve the dignity of Russia by averting a "humiliating peace." Russia ignored Japan's willingness early on to agree to an armistice and rejected the idea of bringing the dispute to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague. The war was eventually concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth (), mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt. The complete victory of the Japanese military surprised international observers and transformed the balance of power in both East Asia and Europe, resulting in Japan's emergence as a great power and a decline in the Russian Empire's prestige and influence in Europe. Russia's incurrence of substantial casualties and losses for a cause that resulted in humiliating defeat contributed to a growing domestic unrest which culminated in the 1905 Russian Revolution, and severely damaged the prestige of the Russian autocracy.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Meiji government endeavoured to assimilate Western ideas, technological advances and ways of warfare. By the late 19th century, Japan had transformed itself into a modernized industrial state. The Japanese wanted to be recognized as equal with the Western powers. The Meiji Restoration had been intended to make Japan a modernized state, not a Westernized one, and Japan was an imperialist power, looking towards overseas expansionism.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: In the years 1869–73, the "Seikanron" ("Conquer Korea Argument") had bitterly divided the Japanese elite: one faction wanted to conquer Korea immediately, another wanted to wait until Japan was further modernized before embarking on a war to conquer Korea; significantly, no one in the Japanese elite ever accepted the idea that the Koreans had the right to be independent, with only the question of timing dividing the two factions. In much the same way that Europeans used the "backwardness" of African and Asian nations as a reason for why they had to conquer them, for the Japanese elite the "backwardness" of China and Korea was proof of the inferiority of those nations, thus giving the Japanese the "right" to conquer them.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Count Inoue Kaoru, the Foreign Minister, gave a speech in 1887 saying "What we must do is to transform our empire and our people, make the empire like the countries of Europe and our people like the peoples of Europe," going on to say that the Chinese and Koreans had essentially forfeited their right to be independent by not modernizing. Much of the pressure for an aggressive foreign policy in Japan came from below, with the advocates of "people's rights" movement calling for an elected parliament also favouring an ultra-nationalist line that took it for granted the Japanese had the "right" to annex Korea, as the "people's rights" movement was led by those who favoured invading Korea in the years 1869–73.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: As part of the modernization process in Japan, Social Darwinist ideas about the "survival of the fittest" were common in Japan from the 1880s onward and many ordinary Japanese resented the heavy taxes imposed by the government to modernize Japan, demanding something tangible like an overseas colony as a reward for their sacrifices.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Furthermore, the educational system of Meiji Japan was meant to train the schoolboys to be soldiers when they grew up, and as such, Japanese schools indoctrinated their students into "Bushidō" ("way of the warrior"), the fierce code of the samurai. Having indoctrinated the younger generations into "Bushidō", the Meiji elite found themselves faced with a people who clamored for war, and regarded diplomacy as a weakness.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: The British Japanologist Richard Story wrote that the biggest misconception about Japan in the West was that the Japanese people were the "docile" instruments of the elite, when in fact much of the pressure for Japan's wars from 1894 to 1941 came from the ordinary people, who demanded a "tough" foreign policy, and tended to engage in riots and assassination when foreign policy was perceived to be pusillanimous.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Though the Meiji oligarchy refused to allow liberal democracy, they did seek to appropriate some of the demands of the "people's rights" movement by allowing an elected Imperial Diet in 1890 (with limited powers and an equally limited franchise) and by pursuing an aggressive foreign policy towards Korea.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: In 1884, Japan had encouraged a coup in the Kingdom of Korea by a pro-Japanese reformist faction, which led to the conservative government calling upon China for help, leading to a clash between Chinese and Japanese soldiers in Seoul. At the time, Tokyo did not feel ready to risk a war with China, and the crisis was ended by the Convention of Tientsin, which left Korea more strongly in the Chinese sphere of influence, though it did give the Japanese the right to intervene in Korea. All through the 1880s and early 1890s, the government in Tokyo was regularly criticized for not being aggressive enough in Korea, leading Japanese historian Masao Maruyama to write: Just as Japan was subject to pressure from the Great Powers, so she would apply pressure to still weaker countries—a clear case of the transfer psychology. In this regard it is significant that ever since the Meiji period demands for a tough foreign policy have come from the common people, that is, from those who are at the receiving end of oppression at home.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Tsarist Russia, as a major imperial power, had ambitions in the East. By the 1890s it had extended its realm across Central Asia to Afghanistan, absorbing local states in the process. The Russian Empire stretched from Poland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east. With its construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the port of Vladivostok, Russia hoped to further consolidate its influence and presence in the region. In the Tsushima incident of 1861 Russia had directly assaulted Japanese territory.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: The first major war the Empire of Japan fought following the Meiji Restoration was against China, from 1894-1895. The war revolved around the issue of control and influence over Korea under the rule of the Joseon dynasty. From the 1880s onward, there had been vigorous competition for influence in Korea between China and Japan. The Korean court was prone to factionalism, and at the time was badly divided between a reformist camp that was pro-Japanese and a more conservative faction that was pro-Chinese. In 1884, a pro-Japanese coup attempt was put down by Chinese troops, and a "residency" under General Yuan Shikai was established in Seoul. A peasant rebellion led by the Tonghak religious movement led to a request by the Korean government for the Qing dynasty to send in troops to stabilize the country. The Empire of Japan responded by sending their own force to Korea to crush the Tonghak and installed a puppet government in Seoul. China objected and war ensued. Hostilities proved brief, with Japanese ground troops routing Chinese forces on the Liaodong Peninsula and nearly destroying the Chinese Beiyang Fleet in the Battle of the Yalu River. Japan and China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ceded the Liaodong Peninsula and the island of Taiwan to Japan. After the peace treaty, Russia, Germany, and France forced Japan to withdraw from the Liaodong Peninsula. The leaders of Japan did not feel that they possessed the strength to resist the combined might of Russia, Germany and France, and so gave in to the ultimatum. At the same time, the Japanese did not abandon their attempts to force Korea into the Japanese sphere of influence. On 8 October 1895, Queen Min of Korea, the leader of the anti-Japanese and pro-Chinese faction at the Korean court was murdered by Japanese agents within the halls of the Gyeongbokgung palace, an act that backfired badly as it turned Korean public opinion against Japan. In early 1896, King Gojong of Korea fled to the Russian legation in Seoul, believing that his life was in danger from Japanese agents, and Russian influence in Korea started to predominate. In the aftermath of the flight of the king, a popular uprising overthrew the pro-Japanese government and several cabinet ministers were lynched on the streets.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: In 1897, Russia occupied the Liaodong Peninsula, built the Port Arthur fortress, and based the Russian Pacific Fleet in the port. Russia's acquisition of Port Arthur was primarily an anti-British move to counter the British occupation of Wei-hai-Wei, but in Japan, this was perceived as an anti-Japanese move. Germany occupied Jiaozhou Bay, built the Tsingtao fortress, and based the German East Asia Squadron in this port. Between 1897 and 1903, the Russians built the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) in Manchuria. The Chinese Eastern Railroad was owned jointly by the Russian and Chinese governments, but the company's management was entirely Russian, the line was built to the Russian gauge and Russian troops were stationed in Manchuria to protect rail traffic on the CER from bandit attacks. The headquarters of the CER company was located in the new Russian-built city of Harbin, the "Moscow of the Orient". From 1897 onwards, Manchuria—while still nominally part of the "Great Qing Empire"—started to resemble more and more a Russian province.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: In December 1897, a Russian fleet appeared off Port Arthur. After three months, in 1898, China and Russia negotiated a convention by which China leased (to Russia) Port Arthur, Talienwan and the surrounding waters. The two parties further agreed that the convention could be extended by mutual agreement. The Russians clearly expected such an extension, for they lost no time in occupying the territory and in fortifying Port Arthur, their sole warm-water port on the Pacific coast and of great strategic value. A year later, to consolidate their position, the Russians began to build a new railway from Harbin through Mukden to Port Arthur, the South Manchurian Railroad. The development of the railway became a contributory factor to the Boxer Rebellion, when Boxer forces burned the railway stations.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: The Russians also began to make inroads into Korea. A large point of Russia's growing influence in Korea was Gojong's internal exile to the Russian legation. A pro-Russian cabinet emerged in the Korean Empire. In 1901, Tsar Nicholas II told Prince Henry of Prussia, "I do not want to seize Korea but under no circumstances can I allow Japan to become firmly established there. That will be a "casus belli"." By 1898 they had acquired mining and forestry concessions near the Yalu and Tumen rivers, causing the Japanese much anxiety. Japan decided to attack before the Russians completed the Trans-Siberian Railway.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: The Russians and the Japanese both contributed troops to the Eight-Nation Alliance sent in 1900 to quell the Boxer Rebellion and to relieve the international legations besieged in the Chinese capital, Beijing. Russia had already sent 177,000 soldiers to Manchuria, nominally to protect its railways under construction. Though the Qing imperial army and the Boxer rebels united to fight against the invasion, they were quickly overrun and ejected from Manchuria. After the Boxer Rebellion, 100,000 Russian soldiers were stationed in Manchuria. The Russian troops settled in and despite assurances they would vacate the area after the crisis, by 1903 the Russians had not established a timetable for withdrawal and had actually strengthened their position in Manchuria.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: The Japanese statesman Itō Hirobumi started to negotiate with the Russians. He regarded Japan as too weak to evict the Russians militarily, so he proposed giving Russia control over Manchuria in exchange for Japanese control of northern Korea. Of the five "Genrō" (elder statesmen) who made up the Meiji oligarchy, Itō Hirobumi and Count Inoue Kaoru opposed the idea of war against Russia on financial grounds, while Katsura Tarō, Komura Jutarō and Field Marshal Yamagata Aritomo favored war. Meanwhile, Japan and Britain had signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902 – the British seeking to restrict naval competition by keeping the Russian Pacific seaports of Vladivostok and Port Arthur from their full use. Japan's alliance with the British meant, in part, that if any nation allied itself with Russia during any war against Japan, then Britain would enter the war on Japan's side. Russia could no longer count on receiving help from either Germany or France without the danger of British involvement in the war. With such an alliance, Japan felt free to commence hostilities if necessary.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: The 1890s and 1900s marked the height of the "Yellow Peril" propaganda by the German government, and the German Emperor Wilhelm II () often wrote letters to his cousin Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, praising him as the "saviour of the white race" and urging Russia forward in Asia. From November 1894 onward, Wilhelm had been writing letters praising Nicholas as Europe's defender from the "Yellow Peril", assuring the Tsar that God Himself had "chosen" Russia to defend Europe from the alleged Asian threat. On 1 November 1902 Wilhelm wrote to Nicholas that "certain symptoms in the East seem to show that Japan is becoming a rather restless customer" and "it is evident to every unbiased mind that Korea must and will be Russian". Wilhelm ended his letter with the warning that Japan and China would soon unite against Europe, writing: "Twenty to thirty million Chinese, supported by a half dozen Japanese divisions, led by competent, intrepid Japanese officers, full of hatred for Christianity—that is a vision of the future that cannot be contemplated without concern, and it is not impossible. On the contrary, it is the realisation of the yellow peril, which I described a few years ago and I was ridiculed by the majority of people for my graphic depiction of it ... Your devoted friend and cousin, Willy, Admiral of the Atlantic".


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Wilhelm aggressively encouraged Russia's ambitions in Asia because France, Russia's closest ally since 1894, was less than supportive of Russian expansionism in Asia, and it was believed in Berlin that German support of Russia might break up the Franco-Russian alliance and lead to a new German–Russian alliance.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: The French had made it clear that they disapproved of Nicholas's forward policy in Asia; the French Premier Maurice Rouvier (in office: May to December 1887) publicly declaring that the Franco-Russian alliance applied only in Europe, not to Asia,


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: and that France would remain neutral if Japan attacked Russia. The American president Theodore Roosevelt (in office 1901–1909), who was attempting to mediate the Russian–Japanese dispute, complained that Wilhelm's "Yellow Peril" propaganda, which strongly implied that Germany might go to war against Japan in support of Russia, encouraged Russian intransigence. On 24 July 1905, in a letter to the British diplomat Cecil Spring Rice, Roosevelt wrote that Wilhelm bore partial responsibility for the war as "he has done all he could to bring it about", charging that Wilhelm's constant warnings about the "Yellow Peril" had made the Russians uninterested in compromise as Nicholas believed that Germany would intervene if Japan attacked.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: The implicit promise of German support suggested by Wilhelm's "Yellow Peril" speeches and letters to Nicholas led many decision-makers in Saint Petersburg to believe that Russia's military weaknesses in the Far East (like the uncompleted Trans-Siberian railroad line) did not matter—they assumed that the "Reich" would come to Russia's assistance if war should come. In fact, neither Wilhelm nor his Chancellor Prince Bernhard von Bülow (in office: 1900–1909) had much interest in East Asia, and Wilhelm's letters to Nicholas praising him as Europe's saviour against the "Yellow Peril" were really meant to provoke change in the balance of power in Europe, as Wilhelm believed that any Russian entanglement with Japan would break up the Franco-Russian alliance and lead to Nicholas signing an alliance with Germany. This was especially the case as Germany had embarked upon the "Tirpitz Plan" and a policy of "Weltpolitik" (from 1897) meant to challenge Britain's position as the world's leading power. Since Britain was allied to Japan, then if Germany could manipulate Russia and Japan into going to war with each other, this in turn would allegedly lead to Russia turning towards Germany.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Furthermore, Wilhelm believed if a Russian–German alliance emerged, France would be compelled to join it. He also hoped that having Russia pursue an expansionist policy in Asia would distract and keep Russia out of the Balkans, thus removing the main source of tension between Russia and Germany's ally Austria-Hungary. During the war, Nicholas, who took at face value Wilhelm's "Yellow Peril" speeches, placed much hope in German intervention on his side. More than once Nicholas chose to continue the war out of the belief that the Kaiser would come to his aid.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Despite previous assurances that Russia would completely withdraw from Manchuria the forces it had sent to crush the Boxer Rebellion by 8 April 1903, that day passed with no reduction in Russian forces in that region. In Japan, university students demonstrated both against Russia and against their own government for not taking any action. On 28 July 1903 Kurino Shin'ichirō, the Japanese minister in Saint Petersburg, was instructed to present his country's view opposing Russia's consolidation plans in Manchuria. On 3 August 1903 the Japanese minister handed in the following document to serve as the basis for further negotiations:


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: On 3 October 1903 the Russian minister to Japan, Roman Rosen, presented to the Japanese government the Russian counter proposal as the basis of negotiations, as follows:


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: During the Russian–Japanese talks, the Japanese historian Hirono Yoshihiko noted, "once negotiations commenced between Japan and Russia, Russia scaled back its demands and claims regarding Korea bit by bit, making a series of concessions that Japan regarded as serious compromises on Russia's part". The war might not have broken out had not the issues of Korea and Manchuria become linked. The Korean and Manchurian issues had become linked as the Prime Minister of Japan, Katsura Tarō (in office 1901–1906), decided if war did come, that Japan was more likely to have the support of the United States and Great Britain if the war could be presented as a struggle for free trade against the highly protectionist Russian empire, in which case, Manchuria, which was the larger market than Korea, was more likely to engage Anglo-American sympathies. Throughout the war, Japanese propaganda presented the recurring theme of Japan as a "civilized" power (that supported free trade and would implicitly allow foreign businesses into the resource-rich region of Manchuria) vs. Russia the "uncivilized" power (that was protectionist and wanted to keep the riches of Manchuria all to itself).


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Emperor Gojong of Korea (King from 1864 to 1897, Emperor from 1897 to 1907) came to believe that the issue dividing Japan and Russia was Manchuria, and chose to pursue a policy of neutrality as the best way of preserving Korean independence as the crisis mounted. In a series of reports to Beijing, Hu Weide, the Chinese ambassador in Saint Petersburg from July 1902 to September 1907, looked closely at whether a Russian or a Japanese victory would be favourable to China, and argued that the latter was preferable, as he maintained a Japanese victory presented the better chance for China to regain sovereignty over Manchuria. In December 1903 China decided to remain neutral if war came, because though Japan was the only power capable of evicting Russia from Manchuria, the extent of Japanese ambitions in Manchuria was not clear to Beijing.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Russian–Japanese negotiations then followed, although by early January 1904 the Japanese government had realised that Russia was not interested in settling the Manchurian or Korean issues. Instead, Russia's goal was buying time—via diplomacy—to further build up militarily. In December 1903, Wilhelm wrote in a marginal note on a diplomatic dispatch about his role in inflaming Russo-Japanese relations:Since 97—Kiaochow—we have never left Russia in any doubt that we would cover her back in Europe, in case she decided to pursue a bigger policy in the Far East that might lead to military complications (with the aim of relieving our eastern border from the fearful pressure and threat of the massive Russian army!). Whereupon, Russia took Port Arthur and "trusting us", took her fleet "out of the Baltic", thereby making herself "vulnerable to us" by sea. In Danzig 01 and Reval 02, the same assurance was given again, with result that entire Russian divisions from Poland and European Russia were and are being sent to the Far East. This would not had happened if our governments had not been in agreement!


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: A recurring theme of Wilhelm's letters to Nicholas was that "Holy Russia" had been "chosen" by God to save the "entire white race" from the "Yellow Peril", and that Russia was "entitled" to annex all of Korea, Manchuria, and northern China up to Beijing. Wilhelm went on to assure Nicholas that once Russia had defeated Japan, this would be a deadly blow to British diplomacy, and that the two emperors, the self-proclaimed "Admiral of the Atlantic" and the "Admiral of the Pacific", would rule Eurasia together, making them able to challenge British sea power as the resources of Eurasia would make their empires immune to a British blockade, and thus allowing Germany and Russia to "divide up the best" of the British colonies in Asia between them.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Nicholas had been prepared to compromise with Japan, but after receiving a letter from Wilhelm attacking him as a coward for his willingness to compromise with the Japanese (who, Wilhelm never ceasing reminding Nicholas, represented the "Yellow Peril") for the sake of peace, became more obstinate. Wilhelm had written to Nicholas stating that the question of Russian interests in Manchuria and Korea was beside the point, saying instead it was a matter of Russiaundertaking the protection and defence of the White Race, and with it, Christian civilization, against the Yellow Race. And whatever the Japs are determined to ensure the domination of the Yellow Race in East Asia, to put themselves at its head and organise and lead it into battle against the White Race. That is the kernel of the situation, and therefore there can be very little doubt about where the sympathies of all half-way intelligent Europeans should lie. England betrayed Europe's interests to America in a cowardly and shameful way over the Panama Canal question, so as to be left in 'peace' by the Yankees. Will the 'Tsar' likewise betray the interests of the White Race to the Yellow as to be 'left in peace' and not embarrass the Hague tribunal too much?.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: When Nicholas replied that he still wanted peace, Wilhelm wrote back in a telegram "You innocent angel!", telling his advisors "This is the language of an innocent angel. But not that of a White Tsar!". Nevertheless, Tokyo believed that Russia was not serious about seeking a peaceful solution to the dispute. On 13 January 1904, Japan proposed a formula by which Manchuria would remain outside Japan's sphere of influence and, reciprocally, Korea outside Russia's. On 21 December 1903, the Tarō cabinet voted to go to war against Russia.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: By 4 February 1904, no formal reply had been received from Saint Petersburg. On 6 February the Japanese minister to Russia, Kurino Shin'ichirō, was recalled, and Japan severed diplomatic relations with Russia.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Potential diplomatic resolution of territorial concerns between Japan and Russia failed; historians have argued that this directly resulted from the actions of Emperor Nicholas II. Crucially, Nicholas mismanaged his government. Although certain scholars contend that the situation arose from the determination of Nicholas II to use the war against Japan to spark a revival in Russian patriotism, no historical evidence supports this claim. The Tsar's advisors did not support the war, foreseeing problems in transporting troops and supplies from European Russia to the East. The Tsar himself repeatedly delayed negotiations with the Japanese government as he believed that he was protected by God and the autocracy. The Japanese understanding of this can be seen in a telegram from Japanese minister of foreign affairs, Komura, to the minister to Russia, in which he stated:


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: ... the Japanese government have at all times during the progress of the negotiations made it a special point to give prompt answers to all propositions of the Russian government. The negotiations have now been pending for no less than four months, and they have not yet reached a stage where the final issue can with certainty be predicted. In these circumstances the Japanese government cannot but regard with grave concern the situation for which the delays in negotiations are largely responsible.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Some scholars have suggested that Nicholas II dragged Japan into war intentionally, in hopes of reviving Russian nationalism. This notion conflicts with a comment made by Nicholas to Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, saying there would be no war because he "did not wish it".


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: This does not reject the claim that Russia played an aggressive role in the East, which it did; rather, it means that Russia unwisely calculated and supposed that Japan would not go to war against Russia's far larger and seemingly superior navy and army. Nicholas held the Japanese in contempt as "yellow monkeys", and he took for granted that the Japanese would simply yield in the face of Russia's superior power, which thus explains his unwillingness to compromise. Evidence of Russia's false sense of security and superiority to Japan is seen by Russian reference to Japan's choosing war as a big mistake.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Japan issued a declaration of war on 8 February 1904. However, three hours before Japan's declaration of war was received by the Russian government, and without warning, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the Russian Far East Fleet at Port Arthur.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Tsar Nicholas II was stunned by news of the attack. He could not believe that Japan would commit an act of war without a formal declaration, and had been assured by his ministers that the Japanese would not fight. When the attack came, according to Cecil Spring Rice, first secretary at the British Embassy, it left the Tsar "almost incredulous".


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Russia declared war on Japan eight days later. Japan, in response, made reference to the Russian attack on Sweden in 1808 without declaration of war, although the requirement to mediate disputes between states before commencing hostilities was made international law in 1899, and again in 1907, with the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: The Qing Empire favoured the Japanese position and even offered military aid, but Japan declined it. However, Yuan Shikai sent envoys to Japanese generals several times to deliver foodstuffs and alcoholic drinks. Native Manchurians joined the war on both sides as hired troops.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: Port Arthur, on the Liaodong Peninsula in the south of Manchuria, had been fortified into a major naval base by the Russian Imperial Army. Since it needed to control the sea in order to fight a war on the Asian mainland, Japan's first military objective was to neutralize the Russian fleet at Port Arthur.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: On the night of 8 February 1904, the Japanese fleet under Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō opened the war with a surprise torpedo boat destroyer attack on the Russian ships at Port Arthur. The attack heavily damaged the and , the heaviest battleships in Russia's Far Eastern theatre, and the 6,600 ton cruiser . These attacks developed into the Battle of Port Arthur the next morning. A series of indecisive naval engagements followed, in which Admiral Tōgō was unable to attack the Russian fleet successfully as it was protected by the shore batteries of the harbour, and the Russians were reluctant to leave the harbour for the open seas, especially after the death of Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov from a naval mine on 13 April 1904. Although the actual Battle of Port Arthur was indecisive, the initial attacks had a devastating psychological effect on Russia, which had been confident about the prospect of war. The Japanese had seized the initiative while the Russians waited in port.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: These engagements provided cover for a Japanese landing near Incheon in Korea. From Incheon the Japanese occupied Hanseong and then the rest of Korea. After the Japanese occupation of Hanseong, Emperor Gojong sent a detachment of 17,000 soldiers to support Russia. By the end of April, the Japanese Imperial Army under Kuroki Tamemoto was ready to cross the Yalu River into Russian-occupied Manchuria.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: The Japanese attempted to deny the Russians use of Port Arthur. During the night of 13–14 February, the Japanese attempted to block the entrance to Port Arthur by sinking several concrete-filled steamers in the deep water channel to the port, but they sank too deep to be effective. A similar attempt to block the harbour entrance during the night of 3–4 May also failed. In March, the charismatic Vice Admiral Makarov had taken command of the First Russian Pacific Squadron with the intention of breaking out of the Port Arthur blockade.


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: On 12 April 1904, two Russian pre-dreadnought battleships, the flagship and the , slipped out of port but struck Japanese mines off Port Arthur. The "Petropavlovsk" sank almost immediately, while the "Pobeda" had to be towed back to port for extensive repairs. Admiral Makarov, the single most effective Russian naval strategist of the war, died on the battleship "Petropavlovsk".


title: Russo-Japanese War

text: On 15 April 1904, the Russian government made overtures threatening to seize the British war correspondents who were taking the ship into war zones to report for the London-based "Times" newspaper, citing concerns about the possibility of the British giving away Russian positions to the Japanese fleet.