Winging It with the Eagles
Author: John Sakamoto
Publication: Toronto Sun
Date: April 27, 1994
Abstract: Interview where Glenn Frey and Don Henley discuss why the Eagles finally reunited, the process of writing songs and playing together again, and the possibliity of a new studio album.
If the Eagles spent most of their nine-year career "threatening to break up," they also seem to have spent much of the intervening decade-and-a-half threatening to get back together.
When the Eagles finally did reunite, it happened very quickly, but it took years of cajoling by music execs, fans, and promoters.
Glenn Frey pinpoints the turning point as Dec. 7, 1993. On that day, he, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Don Felder, and Timothy B. Schmit got together in Hollywood to shoot a video for Travis Tritt's version of Take It Easy.
"I think the Travis Tritt video provided us with the reason to get back together and see each other in a situation where there wasn't a tremendous amount of pressure," Frey says backstage at the Warner Bros. studio Monday night, 20 minutes after the Eagles had finished their first concert in 14 years.
"It wasn't like getting together and having to write new songs," he adds, referring to the last shot at a reunion, the failed one in 1990, when he and Don Henley tried to work up a couple of new songs for a projected greatest-hits album.
"From there, I think Irving (Azoff, the band's manager) started stirring things up. Then we started talking about it in sort of vague terms.
"I got together with Don, and we all spoke on the phone a bit, and we just decided, this is the time. We're not getting any younger."
Frey is 45, everyone else is 46.
Other topics Frey and Henley touched upon in backstage interviews:
A new Eagles album: The two shows taped this week were recorded for airing on MTV (and possibly MuchMusic). The tentative date is Aug. 3. As for the accompanying album, "It's hard to say if it will be all live, or if we'll cut a couple of more tracks in the studio," says Frey. Two messy lawsuits also have to be resolved before it can be released, but Frey is optimistic.
New material: Both Henley and Frey say they're "on a roll." Among the new songs they've written or co-written: Learn To Be Still ("So many contradictions in these messages we send/How do I get out of here/Where do I fit in ..."); Lover's Moon, a pretty ballad reminiscent in tone of Neil Young's Harvest Moon; a hardcore country tune, The Girl From Yesterday, co-written by Jack (Peaceful Easy Feeling) Tempchin; and a standout rocker, Get Over It.
The first writing session: "I went over to Glenn's house three weeks ago on a Sunday and said, 'I've got this thing called Get Over It,' and I had one verse and the chorus and I sang it to him and he just jumped on it. It was just like the old days. I walked out of there on cloud nine. It's better than sex."
The first rehearsals: "There was a lot of ring rust," Frey admits. "During that first week, there were quite a lot of times when we said, 'Play the record again. What did we do there?' " And the first song they tackled?: I Can't Tell You Why.
The band lineup: Founding members Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner were not approached. "It's hard enough to do this (with five people)," Henley says, though "I think Irving received phone calls from people that represented" Bernie and Randy.
The future: The Eagles will tour North America 'til Oct. 8, when they play the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Then they take a break before heading to Asia in December. Could the band conceivably make a new studio album? "If we don't think about it," Henley says. "If there weren't a lot of time constraints and pressure on us, yeah, I think we could write a very good studio album."
Says Frey: "This project probably has a beginning, middle, and end, but we're so close to the beginning, I can't see the end yet. Anything is possible."
