Birds of a Feather: The Eagles Flock Together Again
Author: Mark Brown
Publication: Rocky Mountain News
Date: June 22, 2001
Abstract: In separate interviews, Don Henley and Glenn Frey discuss touring once again. Henley expresses a desire to do a new album.
A year ago, Don Henley gave The Eagles no better than a 50-50 future. He was unimpressed with what they'd done in an aborted album attempt in the studio in 1999, as he was with the four new songs they'd recorded for the Hell Freezes Over album in '94.
How is it, then, that months later he signed on for a full-fledged Eagles reunion - not just the current European tour but a shot at the band's first studio album since 1980's The Long Run?
"We go in cycles," Henley says via phone from England. "There has to be a certain incubation period, you might say. It feels pretty good this time. I'm not guaranteeing anybody that we'll finish an album and put it out, but we're going to start one."
And as songwriting partner / Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey noted in an earlier interview, "We haven't come this far for nothing."
Tickets for the band's final show before going into the studio - the opening of Invesco Field at Mile High on Aug. 11 - go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday.
The Eagles are also opening American Airlines Arena in Dallas in late July. But despite appearances, Henley says, they aren't in the business of opening arenas. ("It does give a whole new meaning to the term opening act," he says, chuckling.)
They're doing the openings to help defray the expenses of their European tour, he says: "The profit margin over here isn't very high. These two gigs in the states are really helping to make this tour worthwhile.
"Another reason we're doing this European tour is to get our chops up for going into the studio this fall."
Their European tour and an upcoming respite in Aspen are in part an effort to reconnect to what made them love music in the first place.
"We've sort of come full circle," Henley says. At the moment, I'm speaking to you from (early Eagles producer) Glyn Johns' home in the country in West Sussex. He came to hear us for the very first time at Tulagi in Boulder. On the snowy evening he came in, it seemed like the middle of nowhere. There were about eight people there that night. And we sucked."
It wasn't until Johns saw the band again at Los Angeles' legendary Troubadour that he agreed to work on the first album, which contained the hits Take It Easy and Witchy Woman. And the rest was more than history; it was the most successful American band of all time.
But for members of the band, it all came back to the mountains, the trees, the solitude that Colorado provides.
"We have very strong connections with Colorado. We cut our teeth up there, really, up in Aspen at a club that's no longer in existence (The Gallery). That's where we went to woodshed back in 1971," Henley says. "I have a home in Colorado. Glenn has a home in Colorado. Joe (Walsh) spends a lot of time in Colorado. We have a great deal of affection for the state. We have a history there."
As for the '99 studio sessions, were they just a test run?
"I think that was the unspoken intent," Henley says. "At that point, we may have on the face of it been acting like we were serious about going forward with some of those songs, but basically it was a trial run to see if we could get along in the studio. Of course, things have changed since then with the group."
This is the only direct reference he'll make to The Eagles' personnel in the wake of the February firing of guitarist Don Felder (and subsequent lawsuits filed by Felder). Guitarist Walsh and bassist Timothy B. Schmit remain in the group.
"The timing, probably more than anything else, wasn't exactly right for us when we made our first foray back into the studio," Frey said. "Things have a way of working themselves out when you don't try to force things."
So it's in the throes of change and a huge tour that The Eagles try to reignite their creative spark.
"Nothing The Eagles ever do is ever small or ever easy," Frey said with a sigh.
"No matter what we do, it's going to be measured up against our best work from the past - and the mythology surrounding that," Henley says. "I think we're going to have to put all of that sort of thing out of our minds and just write the best songs we can write and produce them well."
Surprisingly, America's biggest band is a free agent at the moment.
"We're fortunate in that we don't have a record deal, so we won't have a major label breathing down our necks," Henley says. "Not that we ever did, really, but it's nice to be completely free of that. And Glenn has his own studio and I have my own studio, so we don't have to worry about the meter running."
Bill Szymczyk, who produced The Eagles' classic albums, has been called in to produce the band again (though, as Henley says, producing isn't quite accurate: "I would use the term refereeing. He used to wear a referee's shirt to work some days, a striped shirt and a whistle around his neck").
Henley's solo album Inside Job went platinum last year and got good reviews, as did his tour. But he also knows that as a member of The Eagles, every song, every lyric, every note will get attention. Is there a temptation to make a statement that will be heard?
"Yeah," he says. "But I just want to see if we can do it, you know? It's a challenge, and I like that. If we make an album, fine. If we don't, that's OK, too. It won't be the end of the world. We don't necessarily have anything to prove."
He pauses.
"But it would be remarkable if we made a really good album. It would be something that very few groups have done after this length of time."
Fans at the Denver show won't hear any new songs, but they may hear songs The Eagles haven't performed in years.
"A couple of days ago we dusted off Witchy Woman, which we haven't done in about 20 years," Henley says. "We're doing Seven Bridges Road, which was only on the live album. We're still kinda changing things around. Sometimes we do Ol' 55, sometimes we don't. We've got a horn section, which really adds a nice texture to some of the Eagles songs like One of These Nights and The Long Run and some of the solo material like Sunset Grill."
Even with that strong catalog, "we really need to do an album of new material," he says. "We can't just keep recycling this stuff. I mean, there are limits to how far this could go. So we need to do an album of new material and get on with it."
Why take that risk? Why mess with the heritage?
"I've been asked that question a few times lately, and the simple answer is, this is what we do. We're musicians," Henley says. "We're recording artists. We write songs, we record them and we go on the road. That's what we've done for the past 30 years."
Though, as Frey notes in the group's new tour program, the band made " beaucoup cabbage" off the reunion tour. You should have no illusions: No one here needs padding in his bank account.
"If we do this again, it certainly won't be for the money," Henley says. " It's because we want to do it. We were inspired to do it. All of us still get an enormous kick out of writing songs and recording. I still love to do that. We just want to see if we can do it. Again, there are no guarantees, but we're going to give it a shot."
