By Tam Music 
About the song
A Quiet Dinner Between Old Friends in Los Angeles
On the evening of May 30, 2017, a quiet but meaningful moment unfolded in Los Angeles between two musicians whose friendship dated back to the early days of country-rock. At the historic Musso & Frank Grill, legendary Rusty Young met with his longtime friend Randy Meisner for dinner — a simple gathering that carried decades of shared musical history.
Musso & Frank Grill is not just another restaurant in Hollywood. Since opening in 1919, it has been a meeting place for actors, writers, and musicians whose stories helped shape American culture. On that particular night, the restaurant became the backdrop for a reunion between two pioneers of the country-rock movement.
Rusty Young was widely known as one of the founding members of Poco, a band that helped build the bridge between traditional country music and rock and roll during the late 1960s and 1970s. His distinctive pedal steel guitar style gave Poco a unique sound that influenced countless artists who followed.
Randy Meisner’s path crossed with Poco in the earliest chapter of his career. Before becoming famous worldwide as a founding member of the Eagles, Meisner had briefly been part of Poco during the late 1960s. Though his time with the band was short, those early days helped shape the musical friendships that would last for decades.
By 2017, both musicians had lived through extraordinary careers. They had seen the rise of the California music scene, watched the birth of country-rock, and performed for audiences around the world. Yet that evening at Musso & Frank Grill was less about fame and more about friendship.
During the dinner, Rusty Young brought something special with him — a POCO guitar that carried deep symbolic meaning for fans of the band. He asked Randy Meisner to sign it, adding another piece of history to an instrument that many supporters hoped would eventually find a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame someday.
For years, devoted fans had argued that Poco’s influence on American music deserved recognition at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. While the band may not have achieved the same commercial fame as some of their contemporaries, their impact on the development of country-rock was undeniable.
That signed guitar represented more than memorabilia — it represented the ongoing hope that the band’s legacy would one day receive the recognition many believed it deserved.
But perhaps the most touching moment of the evening came when Rusty Young shared something even more personal.
He began to sing.
Young performed one of the songs from his first solo album, a heartfelt track titled “My Friend.” The song carried deep emotional meaning, reflecting on friendship, loyalty, and the passage of time. Singing it directly to Randy Meisner made the moment feel almost like a private tribute between two musicians who had shared a lifetime in music.
The recording of “My Friend” itself featured a remarkable circle of collaborators. Both Timothy B. Schmit and Richie Furay contributed harmony vocals to the track.
Their involvement added another layer of history to the song.
Timothy B. Schmit had eventually taken the place Randy Meisner once held in the Eagles, becoming one of the band’s signature voices. Richie Furay, meanwhile, was one of Poco’s founding members and one of the central figures in the early country-rock movement.
In many ways, “My Friend” symbolized the musical family that had grown from those early Laurel Canyon days.
Listening to Rusty Young sing the song in that quiet restaurant must have felt very different from hearing it on a record. There were no stage lights, no crowds, no amplifiers — just one musician sharing a melody with an old friend.
Moments like that remind us that the history of music isn’t only written on stage or in recording studios.
Sometimes it’s written in quiet dinners between friends.
Sometimes it’s found in a song sung across a table.
And sometimes it lives in the signature placed on a guitar, carrying the hope that the stories behind those songs will never be forgotten.
For fans of Poco, the evening of May 30, 2017, represents exactly that kind of moment — a small, heartfelt chapter in a much larger story about friendship, music, and the enduring bonds between the artists who helped shape an entire era of American sound.