It's sad, but in a way it's nice to see a lot of these guys dying of something approaching old age instead of the stereotypical "hope I die before I get old" rock star death. As for going in their late 60's instead of 80's, guys like Frey did indulge pretty heavily for a loooong time. He attributed many of his health problems, which he'd had for many years, to hard living.
I grew up in the Southwest and Linda Ronstadt (who grew up in my home town and went to my high school - one of my best friends is her cousin), the Eagles, and Jackson Browne were around ALL THE TIME in my high school years (early '70s), just before they got really huge nationally and globally. They toured together as a triple bill a lot - the Eagles started as Ronstadt's backing band and all 3 had the same management. We didn't have a clue how lucky we were...
-Ray