Joe Walsh wrote a song for his young daughter Emma after she passed away.

Emma Walsh was like any other young child who loved going to the playground just up the street from her home in Boulder, Colorado. Her mother, Stefany Rhodes took her there almost every day. Her father Joe Walsh accompanied them when he was not on tour. Emma, was in her mother's car on her way to a morning play date when the car was hit by a driver who went through a stop sign. She succumbed to her injuries. She was just four weeks shy of her third birthday.

Later that year Joe Walsh released his first solo album (he was to join the Eagles a year later) called So What on which he had written and recorded a Song for Emma in his daughter's memory.

Ten years later Stevie Nicks was touring with Joe Walsh and he took her on a side trip through the snow covered mountains of Colorado. The trip took two hours and Stevie admitted in the Timespace album liner notes that she did a lot of complaining about inconsequential things during the drive. It was then that Joe told her the story of losing his daughter. He told her how she loved going to a particular park and that the only thing she complained about was that she was too little to reach the water fountain. They reached the park and there was a small fountain with a plaque that was engraved with these words.

"This fountain is given in loving memory of Emma Walsh
April 29, 1971-April 1, 1974"

Two young girls reading the dedication plaque of the fountain in the park in Boulder, Colorado

For Stevie, those emotional moments led her to write a song for Joe called "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You". She called it "...the most committed song I ever wrote..." and that "Nothing in my life ever seems as dark anymore since we took that drive."

Song for Emma

There's a feeling I get
When I look to the sky
As if someone is watching
Someone hears every word

We are filled with regrets
It was such a short time
But we told Him we loved you
Hoping somehow He heard
We hoped He heard

You were with us for a while
And He took you
And He made your mama cry
I can see it in her eyes
There's a question as to why?

And after all this time
Still I find that I'm without an answer
Goodbye
Bye love

You can purchase Song for Emma on iTunes

You can listen to Stevie Nicks' Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You on YouTube

You can purchase Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You on iTunes

Photo of Emma's fountain by Mike Abercrombie. You can view more photos of the park and memorial here.

Photo of Joe Walsh by Steve Alexander - wikipedia.org