First of all they started the band....they were Linda Rondstat's back up band
second, they wrote the majority of the songs for the band and many for other people
don't get me wrong, I like the others: have seen Don Felder in concert, huge fan of James Gang/Joe Walsh, Meisner and one of my favorite songs is sung by Timiothy B Schmidt, but most rock bands have 1 or 2 members that drive the band by writing the songs or being that dynamic lead
I read a lot of rock biographies and read much worse
RIP Bucky - 7/25/1943 - 1/19/2013