Episode 2 History of the Eagles

This programme contains some strong language

# One of these nights One of these crazy old nights

# We're going to find out, pretty mama... #

A funny thing happened right when we broke up.

1980 is when the format "classic rock" hit American radio.

So, even though the band broke up,

they kept playing our songs all the time.

It was like we never went away.

We were still on the radio.

# Well, I'm a-running down the road Trying to loosen my load

# I got seven women on my mind... #

Somebody once told me people didn't just listen to the Eagles.

They did things to the Eagles.

They went on fandangos

and drove across the country with three of their high-school buddies.

# Take it easy... #

People broke up with their girlfriends.

# Every time I try to walk away

# Something makes me turn around and stay...

# Cos I'm al-l-l-lready gone

# And I'm fee-e-e-eling strong... #

People quit their jobs or changed their lives.

They did things to the Eagles.

# Hey there, how are you?

# It's been a long time... #

Songs from that album have even been played in outer space.

And they used to pipe the music up to the space shuttle to wake

the astronauts up in the morning.

'Shortly after having a breakfast of steak and eggs and toast,

'he then put on his space suit...'

# And heroes, they come and they go... #

# He was a hard-headed man, he was brutally handsome

# She was terminally pretty...

# On a dark desert highway

# Cool wind in my hair... #

That song has really gotten around.

# ..Rising up through the air

# Up ahead in the distance

# Saw a shimmering light

# Head grew heavy and my sight grew dim

# I had to stop for the night... #

There's been a lot of conjecture about how

and why we got back together.

We began to realise that we'd been away for 14 years.

Maybe we could have that rarest of things in American life,

which is a second act.

You know, a second chance.

CHEERING

Thank you.

When we stopped, I was really sad.

Like, "What are we going to do?"

# I sleep all day out all night

# I know where you're going

# I don't rock you act that way

# You don't think it's showing... #

I was pretty devastated.

I had only been part of it for barely three years,

and I'd loved it.

# When we're hungry Love will keep us alive... #

We created this monster, and it took its toll on all of our lives.

# Maybe some day we will find

# That it wasn't really wasted time... #

Somebody was quoted as saying the Eagles would get back together

when hell freezes over.

So, hell froze over.

# Mmm-m-m-mmm mm-mm-mmm. #

WOMAN: We're all ready. The gentleman in blue over there.

After the acrimony and the bitterness that marked

the demise of the band, it must have been a long road to reunion.

Can you just take us through the steps that you went through

on the road to reunification?

No.

LAUGHTER

SCATTERED APPLAUSE

Anybody want that one?

No, really, it's a fair question.

From the time that we disbanded in 1980,

there were always offers on the table for us to get back together.

It started with the first US Festival,

and Steve Wozniak wanted to pay us a million dollars.

I said no.

I needed to do something else.

# The heat is on

# It's on the street

# The heat is... on! #

I called my first solo album No Fun Aloud because I was having

so much fun.

It was so liberating to know that whatever I did

was going to be more fun than what I just did for the last three years on

The Long Run album.

I knew I wanted to have a songwriting partner, so I

asked my friend Jack Tempchin if he wanted to write some songs together.

And Jack's a very bright guy lyrically,

and so I started working with him.

He had become a disciplined co-writer with Don Henley,

and when the Eagles broke up, he just wanted to let go

and have some fun with music, you know?

So we were fiddling around with some grooves, and one of us said,

"You belong to the city."

And then we're going, "Oh, yeah, yeah. That's it."

# Cos you belong to the city

# You belong to the night... #

You just show up and good things happen.

# I make my living off the evening news... #

Henley's solo career was really, really successful.

Going solo was the scariest part of my life.

# All she wants to do is dance, dance... #

The whole MTV thing was a difficult transition for me to make.

You know, the Eagles, at one point,

had been accused by some critic of loitering onstage.

So it was difficult for us loiterers to make

the transition to the world of choreography and costume and acting.

# She wants to party She wants to get down... #

Did I benefit from MTV? Yes, I did.

You know, I made a couple of videos that won some MTV awards.

Nevertheless, I would just as soon have skipped the whole thing,

because I considered myself, first and foremost, a songwriter

and a recording artist.

I didn't really want to be an actor, too.

Nice, huh?

The guy who sold it to me said it was a lemon.

But I'm telling you, it may look like a cow,

but she runs like a stallion.

I always like to take a good-bye look at America.

Just in case it's my last.

I acted in television, in movies.

I wasn't thinking about getting back together with the Eagles.

The guy's got an attitude problem.

Yeah, well, he listens to me. I can help you with that.

'Cameron would call me up and say,

'"Glenn, I gotta find somebody that's not going to take'

"any shit off Tom Cruise, and I think you're the guy."

We have history, Dennis.

Oh, yeah. We got history all right, Jerry.

No, no, no. No, no, no. Dennis! Dennis! Dennis! Don't! Don't!

# Nobody on the road

# Nobody on the beach

# I feel it in the air

# The summer's out of reach... #

I signed Don Henley to Geffen Records.

Now, you might say, since the Eagles sued me

at Asylum Records, why he did come with me at Geffen Records?

Well, David uses the same pick up lines

every time he comes a-courtin'.

"You know how much I care about you as an artist.

"You know what a big fan I am of yours."

And so I bought it a second time and I signed with him.

And then things started to fall apart.

I produced several hits, but I could feel the support somehow waning.

Don got into arguments with them over things like budgets,

videos, artwork, things like that.

I recall Don starting to write letters to them

referring to them as "Nickel and Dime Records".

When you feel like your label is not supporting you,

it's completely deflating.

I used to call him "Golden Throat".

I thought he was an incredible singer.

But, by nature, he's a malcontent. He's always been a malcontent.

And, you know, that's just life.

So I just said one day, "I'm not going to record for you anymore.

"I'm leaving." And so he sued me for 30 million.

# Happily ever after fails

# We've been poisoned by these fairy tails

# The lawyers dwell on small details... #

My wife has MS, and they deposed her,

dragged her all the way from Texas

to Los Angeles to sit her down in front of his attorneys and ask

her a bunch of pointless questions, because she didn't know anything.

I thought that was really low.

I said to Irving over the Henley contract,

"I'd sooner die than let you fuck me.

"You'd better win this case."

It was settled, you know, and that was the end of that relationship.

# Offer up your best defence

# This is the end...

# This is the end

# Of the innocence. #

I've realised now that we have adult rock stars.

You don't have to give this up when you turn 30 or 35 or 40.

I'll always make records and write songs. I've got to do them.

Otherwise, I'd go nuts.

This is a tune that was written with my new friend Mike Campbell

and my old friend John David Souther.

'When the band broke up,

'Glenn started writing songs with Jack Tempchin.

'I guess the rift between Henley

'and Frey probably spread to between Frey and me.'

Glenn and I had had some outrageously fun times together.

And then Don and I did for a decade or so.

# Been trying to get down to the heart of the matter

# But my will gets weak and my thoughts seem to scatter

# But I think it's about forgiveness

# Forgiveness, even if, even if, you don't love me anymore. #

How have you changed as musicians over the years,

both as a group and individually?

Well, your whole mandate is just to improve.

You know, life is about improvement,

whether it's as a musician or as a singer or as a songwriter or

just, you know, all the other different hats we all wear.

So, hopefully, we're just getting better.

We've been doing this quite a long time now on and off,

and we feel like we've got it down pretty good.

And, in fact, we've had five days off, and we're ready to go now.

When the Eagles first broke up,

I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with myself.

So I just hustled.

I went just as a singer with Toto,

I played bass for Jimmy Buffett, I went out with Warren Zevon

and Dan Fogelberg, and stuff I wouldn't have necessarily done.

I sang on Poison records and Twisted Sister,

although you'll never see my name.

They never gave me credit.

That was more like yelling.

It's not all going to be the greatest thing in the world.

But if you can work and support yourself and your family, it's good.

WOMAN: OK, next question. Gentleman in the front here, Richard.

What position do you think rock'n'roll takes now about drugs?

Oooh.

SCATTERED TITTERS

We came from a generation that experimented with all kinds

of substances, of course.

I think our message is that... you can be a damn good rock band

without all that stuff.

I'd like to propose a toast to dedicate this song to you, to us.

The drinking man's musician, Joe Walsh!

CHEERING

I ended up an alcoholic.

And very fond of cocaine.

If I was awake, I was...

I was doing that stuff.

Good morning, rock fans.

'In the very early years, it had briefly worked.'

And then you chase it when it doesn't work anymore.

And I chased it for years and years.

# If you look at your reflection

# In the bottom of the well

# What you see is only on the surface... #

"Could Hemingway have written like that if he was sober,

"or could Hendrix have played like that

"if he didn't experiment with hallucinogenics?

"Well, probably not."

I used that one for years and years, and it never occurred to me

that all those people are dead.

They got further and further away from reality.

-Should I look at you or the camera?

-Look at me.

I ended up...in bad shape.

# I wanna live with a cinnamon girl

# I could be happy the rest of my life

# With a cinnamon girl

# A dreamer of pictures I run in the night... #

'I had hit bottom.'

And I knew that I was done and that...

..I would probably die if I kept going.

# Mom, send me money right now I'm gonna make it somehow

# I need another chance... #

Joe was a mess.

He was around a bunch of people that were really just enablers.

Nobody wanted to intervene.

Nobody wanted to tell him he had a drug problem or a drinking problem.

Everybody was just going along with Joe.

I remember what we all did when it was an art form, you know?

And I'd like to fight to get it back to that.

And I was very, very happy in the Eagles.

I was just going to say I'm sorry we broke up, but we didn't break up.

We just stopped, I think.

We just said, you know, "The heck with the '80s."

Song three, take six.

In 1990, we tried to get together to refuel it.

Everybody was in on that, but Glenn wasn't involved yet.

Irving got us together - Timothy, Joe, myself, and Don Henley.

Glenn was supposed to join us in the studio,

and he was going to bring some songs in,

and we were going to start making another record.

So, we started rehearsing, the four of us, then we got a call,

I think about the third or fourth day in the studio, saying that

Glenn had refused to come be part of it, to join the party.

So we just stopped.

He was still, "I'm not doing this."

Well, you know, to tell you the truth,

I was having a fine time doing what I was doing.

I mean, there's more to life than being in the Eagles.

The moment was always going to be kind of

when Glenn was ready to do it again.

I think Henley would have been more willing than Glenn.

For me, personally, I think that I had proved pretty much

everything that I needed to prove in my solo career.

I had won a couple of Grammys and had a few hits

and some successful tours.

And I had founded the Walden Woods Project.

When you're a solo artist, you have to take responsibility

for everything - every mistake, every bad record, every sour note.

But when you're in a band,

you get to share the praise and the blame with your bandmates.

So, I was OK with the notion of maybe going back

and being in a band again.

The thing that sort of turned my head

was the release of the Common Thread album.

Irving and Don went to Nashville

and they talked a bunch of people into recording some Eagles songs,

with the royalties going to the Walden Woods Project.

# Well, I'm a-running down the road trying to loosen my load... #

I don't know who asked me, but they said,

"Travis Tritt's going to do a video of Take It Easy

"and he wants to know if you guys will be in the video."

I said, "Well, OK."

# Take it easy

# Take it easy... #

Never really talked to Travis about whose idea it was.

I think Irving probably had a hand in that whole thing.

Was I trying to put the band back together by doing Common Thread?

No.

Was I waiting for the moment? Yeah.

# ..Understand, just find a place to make your stand

# Take it easy... #

In the Travis Tritt video, there was a little bandstand scene

and we all picked up our instruments and started playing.

I was thinking, "Guys, come on!" You know?

'You know, it's interesting - after years pass, you know,

'you really sort of remember that you were friends first.

'You have a lot of common history together

'and a lot of shared experiences.'

I remembered mostly the good stuff.

I didn't really think about the bad stuff.

I just remembered how much we genuinely had liked each other

and how much fun we'd had.

We realised, after the success of the Common Thread album

that there were still a lot of people out there -

a whole lot of people - who wanted to see us play again.

You know, sometimes there's a little bit of serendipity

involved in this, and I think what happened is everybody's life

started to line up in a way that now it made sense for all of us.

And we discussed it.

Joe and Don came up and sat in at a benefit that I did in Aspen.

'We had a meeting in Aspen.'

I was one of the first guys that they wanted to try it out on.

You know, Joe was buzzed. It was 1.00 in the afternoon.

You know, and he would say, "Hey, I'm there, man. I'm fine.

"Don't worry about me."

But Don and I could both tell that he wasn't fine, and we were worried.

They said what they wanted to do.

They wanted to try it, get back together again.

They didn't know what I would say, but I said,

"I understand, and, yeah, I can get sober."

# Somewhere along the way I found the meaning

# Woke up dreaming

# Along the way

# Never quite seems the same when you awaken

# And making up for the time is such a price to pay

# Then they take the dream away and it just ain't fair... #

We had to get Joe into some sort of rehab,

and we couldn't be sure it was going to work.

So we better have Felder.

The Eagles reunion had better have at least one of the two of them,

and hopefully both.

Irving called me up and said that Don and Glenn

and Joe had gotten together, and they were talking about doing

something, and would I be interested in doing it?

I said, "Absolutely."

One thing led to another, and finally Irving

and Don Felder picked him up and drove him to rehab.

I made a commitment to them that I would clean up...

..and that I would be in the band

..if that's what they wanted to do.

# So help me through the night

# Help me to ease the pain... #

I'm really, really grateful to those three guys...

# Tell me it's all right... #

Because I had... a really good reason to get sober.

And as soon as I got sober, we started rehearsals.

# He was a hard-headed man He was brutally handsome

# She was terminally pretty

# She held him up, and he held her for ransom

# In the heart of the cold, cold city

# He had a nasty reputation as a cruel dude

# They said he was ruthless, they said he was crude... #

From that first phone call from Irving

to showing up on a rehearsal stage to start putting together

a show for MTV was only a matter of weeks, if not a month.

# Life in the fast lane Surely make you lose your mind... #

'It was a little scary rehearsing for the MTV thing.

'Normally, I think people would have their act down a few weeks,

'at least, before entering into something like that,

'but we just dove in headfirst.'

'Well, even though we had rehearsed really well,

'for the first time to walk out on stage and actually

'play as a band in public and kind of put the key back into the ignition

'and turn it over for the first time, it was really a lot of nerves.'

-Are we going the right way?

-Glenn.

'Not having played as a group in 14 years, the first night,

'there was a lot of terror.'

Gentlemen, good to be with ya. Hope I'm with ya all night!

LAUGHTER

-Have a good one, OK? OK.

-Showtime! Showtime! Showtime!

CHEERING

'The audience was very kind, and they were with us.

'And that was good, but it was rough.'

# Just another day in paradise

# You stumble to your bed

# You'd give anything to silence

# Those voices ringing in your head

# You thought you could find happiness

# Just over that green hill

# You thought you would be satisfied

# But you never will. #

'Even when we went onstage, we were definitely a little tight.

'Until, I think, Henley forgot the words

'to one of the new songs...'

You want to start again?

I'll tell you what.

This is television, so we get to do this till we're happy.

I thought... Now, I thought you didn't remember the third verse.

-That was only the second verse!

-I know.

I know the third verse.

'That was sort of the icebreaker, though.

'That was a good thing, ultimately.'

I feel like Tommy Smothers.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

We didn't think getting back together was quite as legitimate

unless we had some new material,

so we're going to put forth several new songs for you this evening.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

This first one Timothy B Schmit is going to sing for you.

This is called Love Will Keep Us Alive.

# I was standing

# All alone against the world outside

# You were searching

# For a place to hide

# Lost and lonely

# Now you've given me the will to survive

# When we're hungry, love will keep us alive... #

After selling 100 million records worldwide, was it real pressure

on you to write the new material for the Hell Freezes Over album?

We didn't really look at it as a body of new work.

It was more of a retrospective piece of material.

And we look forward to writing some new material, perhaps in the future.

We can't keep recycling this material,

although it seems to be working just fine.

LAUGHTER

Don and I were trying to figure out how to write another song,

and, I mean, really, if we could.

We hadn't written anything together since, like, '78.

So it was a little awkward at first, just getting back into the groove.

Yeah. So, we go, one...

OK, here we are starting out at one, two...

During The Long Run album,

there were a lot of sessions with Don and I where nothing got done.

We were both a little bit reticent to introduce

our ideas for fear that they weren't good enough.

So when we sat down to do it again in '94, my first worry was,

"Is it going to be as hard as it was in 1978?"

We were sitting around, "What are we going to write about?" and stuff.

And he said, "Well, I've got this one title, Get Over It."

And he sort of proceeded to tell me what it was that was

pissing him off - all these people going on television

and everything that's wrong with them is somebody else's fault.

"I'm just sick of all this whining,

"and so I'm going to write a song called Get Over It."

The intro, straight Chuck Berry. Never play a seventh, right?

So, then I said, "I think

"maybe a Chuck Berry riff would be a good way to tell that story."

Time out. Do you want to play the...?

You want to do it on slide?

And then Felder and I will just play power chords low and high.

And those guys will play Chuck Berry low and high.

And we can do # Get over it. #

A couple little of them slide answer licks is cool.

My favourite thing is when Don and Glenn co-write stuff.

I like to play guitar to that.

-You want me to sing it, or do you want to wait?

-It's ten to six.

You can sing it at ten to six or five to six.

-Do it again?

-Yeah, we'll do it twice.

Yeah, you could write it in to the mic.

LAUGHTER

Captioned for hard of hearing.

'It was really liberating.'

We both walked out of the session and went, "God, we can still do it.

"I can't believe it. We just wrote a song together.

"Maybe we can write some more."

# Turn on the tube and what do I see?

# A whole lotta people crying, "Don't blame me"... #

That was a really good feeling.

It was a great sort of artistic reconciliation for us

to have been able to sit down and write that song together.

# Get over it!

# Get over it!

# All this bitching and moaning and pitching a fit

# Get over it! Get over it! #

Get over it!

APPLAUSE

We did Hell Freezes Over, and then we went out on the road.

That was the question on everyone's mind -

what if we got back together, and no one showed up?

# What kind of love have you got?

# You should be home but you're not

# A room full of noise and dangerous boys

# Still make you thirsty and hot... #

'We set it up to be a three-month reunion.

'I went back to my wife, and I had two young kids at the time.'

I said, "I don't know if you're going to recognise me.

"I don't know what this is going to do to me.

"But I hope I don't change too much. Hang in there with me."

# Tell all your girlfriends

# Your "been around the world" friends

# Talk is for losers and fools

# Victim of love, I see a broken heart

# I could be wrong but I'm not

# Victim of love, we're not so far apart

# What kind of love have you got? #

I was on the side of the stage once at one of their shows

when they first got back together, and Jack Nicholson was

euphoric listening to this band play again, you know?

And he said... "Repertoire."

What do you want to hear?

# One of these nights

ALL: # One of these crazy old nights! #

# One of these nights... #

We didn't know how many people were going to show up for us

to reunite, but people came out in droves.

# Somebody's gonna hurt someone

# Before the night is through... #

We were sold out everywhere.

Audiences were having a fabulous time.

We were having a good time, too.

# There's gonna be a heartache tonight

# A heartache tonight, I know

# Gonna be a heartache tonight

# A heartache tonight, I know

# Oh, I know. #

Heartache, baby!

I listened to the guys, and Joe Walsh, for example,

is playing better and singing better than I've ever heard him

play in his life since I've known him.

# Hi there, how are ya?

# It's been a long time

I didn't have time to really sit around

and miss alcohol or cold turkey from more cocaine or anything.

And I had to go in front of people

and play and sing sober,

which I hated, at first.

Ooh, that was scary.

# Why do we give up our hearts to the past?

# Yeah

# And why must we grow up so fast?

# Oooh-oooh ooh-h

# And all you wishing well fools with your fortunes

# Someone should send you a rose

# With love from a friend

# Nice to hear from you again

# And the storybook comes to a close

# Gone are the ribbons and bows

# Things to remember, places to go

# Pretty maids all in a row

# All in a row. #

When Joe first got out of rehab and we started rehearsing,

he was still pretty dark.

But over the course of that first year getting sober, I think

he found happiness again.

He found a way to be happy.

You look very pretty.

It's OK. Once more. Oh, now, are you ready?

Father, daughter, take one.

We got that family thing to ground us all now.

It's really sort of our common thread. We've all got kids.

It changes your life and your perspective on your work, as well.

So, the tour was so enormously successful that we sort of

didn't want to give that up, you know?

It's like, "OK, this is good. I could do this for a while."

# Harry got up

# Dressed all in black

# Went down to the station

# And he never came back

# They found his clothing

# Scattered somewhere down the track

# And he won't be down on Wall Street in the morning

# In a New York minute

# Ooh-h-h-h

-# Everything can change

-In a New York minute

# Ooh-h-h-h

# Things can get pretty strange... #

Doing a concert is a strange combination of conscious

and subconscious acts.

You're not really thinking about what you're doing

because you know it so well, you're just doing it.

On the other hand, you have to put some emotion into it.

When you've got a crowd that's cheering you on,

doesn't matter how many times you've sung the song. You just do it.

# Lying in the darkness

# Hear the sirens wail

# Somebody's going to emergency

# Somebody's going to jail

# If you find somebody to love in this world

# You better hang on tooth and nail

# The wolf is always at the door

# In a New York minute

# Ooh-ohh-ohh

-# Everything can change

-In a New York minute

# Ooh-ohh-ohh

-# Things can get a little strange

-In a New York minute

# Ooh-ohh-ohh... #

We've played all over the world, and, probably,

if we could write the script, it was probably a genius move.

Cos when we come back, it's bigger than ever.

How much money do you expect to gross with this European tour?

Irving?

-I actually haven't added it up, but I will tell you that...

-Good answer.

LAUGHTER

One thing, the costs of being a touring rock'n'roll band

in Europe are beyond our wildest imaginations, but this

band is here in Europe because there was demand for us to be here.

And it's not nearly as lucrative as anything we've done before.

It isn't?

LAUGHTER

Offers started coming in for us to do more shows,

and I just sort of said, "Well, book some more.

"It doesn't have to end now. Book some more.

"Where else can we play?" "Well, you haven't been in Europe."

"Well, let's go there."

# Well, I heard some people talking just the other day

# And they said you were gonna put me on a shelf

# Let me tell you I got some news for you

# And you'll soon find out it's true

# Then you'll have to eat your lunch all by yourself

# Cos I'm al-l-l-lready gone

# And I'm fee-e-eling strong

# I will si-i-i-ng this victory song... #

How's it go?

# Hoo-hoo-hoo! My, my, hoo-hoo-hoo

GUITAR SOLO

# Well I know it wasn't you who held me down... #

'We had drawn a line in the sand and said,'

"No drugs or alcohol during any band activities."

And, as a result, we're playing and singing pretty damn good.

# So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains... #

'I think the thing that brings them together is the harmony.'

When they start hearing that and how seamless and how perfect, they

get as thrilled as the audiences do, that, "We can still do this."

THEY HARMONISE

# Ooh-ooh-ooh

# Ooh-ooh-ooh... #

We can't really understand it. It's just the chemistry that works.

And we gave up trying to understand it. It just works.

We're just going to do one verse the New Kid.

One verse the New Kid. OK. Joe's singing Smuggler's Blues.

-OK.

-I'll just do the beginning of Funk 49.

-And then I'm going to go pee.

-Yeah.

-Then I'll go pee.

One, two, three.

CHEERING

# Well, I'm a-running the road trying to loosen my load

# I got seven women on my mind

# Four that want to own me, two that want to stone me

# One says she's a friend of mine

# Take it easy

# Take it easy

# Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy

# Lighten up while you still can

# Don't even try to understand

# Just find a place to make your stand

# And take it easy

# Well I'm a-standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

# Such a fine sight to see

# It's a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford

# Slowin' down to take a look at me

# Well, come on, baby

# Don't say maybe

# I've gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me

# We may lose and we may win

# Though we will never be here again

# So open up, I'm climbing in

# So take it easy... #

All right, boys!

'We ended up going all around the world in about two years

'and nine months.'

# Well, you know we got it ea-a-a-asy

# We oughta take it ea-a-a-a-asy. #

Thank you, Dublin!

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

We've learned not to make career decisions at the end of long tours.

If we break up again, though, you won't hear about it.

-We'll just go quietly.

-And we'll say we're still together.

-Yeah!

LAUGHTER

They've laughed, cried, fought, but, most of all,

they have beaten the odds and are as popular today

as they were in that incredible summer back in 1972.

It is an honour and a pleasure to introduce the Eagles.

APPLAUSE

A lot has been talked about and speculated about over

the last 27 years about whether or not we got along.

We got along fine. We just disagreed a lot.

I was not in the trenches with this particular band,

so I'd like to thank my predecessor, Randy Meisner, for being there.

'I'm glad that Randy and Bernie got recognised.'

I think that's appropriate.

Hey, how you doin'?

It's a good feeling. Looks good on my resume.

HE CHUCKLES

I'd really like to thank Don and Glenn for writing those songs.

Thank you, guys. It makes my job real easy. Thank you!

APPLAUSE

Charming outfit, Joe.

I'd like to, again,

thank Don Henley and Glenn Frey for writing an incredible body of work

that's propelled this band through 20-some-odd years' worth of life.

Thank you, guys.

When a kid first picks up a guitar or a drumstick,

it's not really to be famous.

It's because that kid wants to fit in somewhere,

he wants to be accepted, and he wants to be understood, even.

And so, I like to think of this award as something that is

acknowledging us not for being famous, but for doing the work.

And I appreciate all the work that all these guys behind me have done.

I want to thank Irving Azoff,

without whom we wouldn't be here today.

APPLAUSE

As I've said before, he may be Satan, but he's our Satan.

We're in a dog-eat-dog business.

Show me anybody that's going to be responsible for guiding or

managing an artist's career that's made too many friends,

and I'm going to show you somebody

that's sold out their artist and done a crappy job.

So, I was quite proud of Henley's reference of what he said.

It was more or less, for me, a validation of a job well done.

A lot of my job was trying to keep the band from breaking up.

In the '70s, we formed a corporation called Eagles, Limited.

And that was all-for-one and one-for-all.

Well, it wasn't the three musketeers.

As our friend JD Souther used to say, "Time passes, things change."

In talking with Irving about putting the Eagles back

together in 1994, I said, "Irving, I'm not going to do it

"unless Don and I make more money than the other guys."

"We're the only guys who have done anything

"career-wise in the last 14 years.

"We're the guys that have kept the Eagles' name alive on radio,

"television and in concert halls."

So we came up with a deal that I was happy with,

and Don was happy with, Timothy was happy with,

Joe was happy with, and Don Felder was not happy with.

And I called Felder's representative.

And I said, "Hello, Barry. "This is Glenn Frey.

"I'm sorry you happen to represent the only asshole in the band,

"but let me tell you something.

"You either sign this agreement before the sun goes down today,

"or we're replacing Don Felder.

"That's the final deal.

"He signs by sunset, or he's out of the fucking band."

Hung up.

So, he signed the deal, and we started out on the tour.

I didn't sense a great deal of camaraderie.

You hardly saw anybody

if it wasn't walking on the plane or walking onto the stage.

Everyone thought, "Well, if we don't get together,

"we won't have problems."

And I think instead of being able to sit down and have a beer and talk

about stuff and renew a relationship with everyone, that independent

isolation really didn't add the comfort necessary to make it work.

Don Felder was never, ever satisfied, never, ever happy.

A rock band is not a perfect democracy.

It's more like a sports team.

No one can do anything without the other guys,

but everybody doesn't get to touch the ball all the time.

Time went on, and time went on, and Felder became more and more unhappy.

Couldn't appreciate the amount of money he was making,

more concerned about how much money I was making.

If Don Felder really thought about it,

it really was he wanted it to be a "band" band in the purest

sense of the words, you know, we're all going to get equal songwriting,

singing, expression stuff, and this was not a hippie commune.

You know, and everything for them

really goes back to those two words - song power.

We finally made the decision that we won't be working with him anymore.

It just broke my heart. It's not just playing with Joe.

I miss these guys.

But I really missed the friendship and the music.

OK.

Glenn and I, when it comes time to make band decisions,

usually stick together.

It's difficult for four or five people to have an equal say.

Here we are 40 years later, and we're doing OK.

We're one of the few bands that can say that.

The novelty of the Eagles being back together and those few new songs

that we had on the Hell Freezes Over album is one thing.

But we needed to make a record.

Considering that we haven't made a record in so long,

we spent a good two-and-a-half years making Long Road Out of Eden.

We finally figured out that we just needed to do what we do.

This really goes back to the essence of what we do best,

which is singing and songwriting.

A lot of harmony singing on this album.

ALL: # There's a hole in the world tonight

# Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow... #

Big tragedies like that make you think, as a parent,

what kind of world is coming up?

What's going to happen next?

What's the world going to be like when my kids are grown?

After September 11th, our immediate visceral reaction,

our gut reaction, resulted in Hole In The World.

# Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow... #

The Eagles have written and sung plenty of love songs

over the years, but we've also written and sung songs

that have to do with what's going on in the wider world.

We've never shied away from social commentary.

We think it's part of a rich tradition that dates all

the way back to medieval times.

And so we still engage in it.

# No more walks in the wood

# The trees have all been cut down

# And where once they stood

# Not even a wagon rut appears along the path... #

The writings and the ideas of Henry David Thoreau

and Ralph Waldo Emerson had a huge impact on me.

They got me through some very difficult times in my life,

one being when my father was stricken with heart disease,

and provided a lot of spiritual support for me.

When I found out in 1980 that part of Walden was going to be

destroyed by commercial development,

I decided that was something I needed to help fight.

So I ended up founding the Walden Woods Project.

And we are in our 27th year now, and we've accomplished a great deal.

It's been one of the most rewarding things that I've ever done.

# We and the trees and the way

# Back from the fields of play... #

The lyrics to that song were originally a poem

written by a great American poet named John Hollander.

# No more walks in the wood. #

Don had this title, Long Road Out of Eden.

Timothy goes over, and he picks up an acoustic guitar.

And I go over to the keyboards and Joe grabs a guitar

and Don goes on the drums.

And we start making up this sort of musical story called

Long Road Out of Eden, a story of, really, the war in Iraq.

# Moon shining down through the palms

# Shadows moving on the sand... #

And it was, like, the last resort.

It was another opus, another David Lean movie.

# And it's a long road out of Eden. #

We finally got through,

and we finally made Long Road Out of Eden.

And we didn't give it to a record company.

We made a deal with Walmart.

This was the first major artist to do a direct-to-retail release

and bypass the major record companies.

It was phenomenally successful.

The album entered at number one.

It gave, I think, the whole industry hope that it could find a new

and different way to reach its fans.

They're becoming a much greener company,

and that was important to me.

And the other good thing was that our fans got 20 songs for 12 bucks.

It was basically a double album, and they weren't charged double for it.

Don said, "I got a title for a song - Busy Being Fabulous."

And I thought, "What a great title."

# I came home to an empty house

# And I found your little note... #

And then Don wrote, "Don't wait up for me tonight,

"that was all she wrote."

# Don't wait up for me tonight

# And that was all she wrote... #

And then we were off on the story.

# You were just too busy being fabulous

# Too busy to think about us... #

Busy Being Fabulous, Don and Glenn had gotten it

to a certain state, and I came up with some stuff for the bridge

and tweaked what already existed.

I was very involved in the Long Road record.

I've always been a lot happier getting into the entire project,

arranging stuff, producing the stuff, co-writing the stuff.

Like, Waiting In The Weeds and Business As Usual

were co-writes with Don.

Getting Steuart Smith in the band was a real shot in the arm.

He's such a terrific musician.

It's a great solo.

It's like stepping into a space suit.

It is strange to be playing that song.

The reaction is terrific, and you bask in that excitement.

But I didn't write it.

I'm one part hired gun, but also one part collaborator.

I'm one of the guitar players. But I'm not an Eagle.

I don't know what it's like to be one of those guys.

Three, four!

My kids were looking on the Internet,

and they found this show that the Eagles had done in 1974.

I was in my office watching TV, and my kids come in and say,

"Hey, Dad, come here.

"You got to take a look at your hair."

And one of the songs was How Long.

# But if I never see the good old days

# Shining in the sun

# I'll be doing fine and then some

# Tell me how long... #

How Long was from my first solo album.

They found that cos Cindy saw it on YouTube and said,

"Glenn, what's this?"

And he said, "Oh, it's a song of JD's."

She said, "Well, you didn't cut it, did you?"

# How long, how long Rock yourself to sleep

GUITAR SOLO

JD wanted it on his solo album, so we never recorded it.

My wife said, "Hey, that sounds like a hit Eagles song."

# Everybody feels all right you know I heard some poor fool say

# Somebody

# Everyone is out there on the loose

# Well, I wish I lived in the land of fools, and no one knew my name

# But what you get is not quite what you choose

# Tell me, how long, how long

# Woman will you weep? #

They are the American band.

Yeah, they pretty much encompassed the '70s, didn't they?

And took it all in.

That's a long time to still have a musical impact,

and it's due to this incredibly crisp, tight,

extraordinarily good record-making band and the presence of good songs.

But it's also now taken on this other thing, too,

where it's everybody through the band wants to remember a

'70s that they may or may not have had.

# Good night, baby rock yourself to sleep

# Sleep tight, baby rock yourself to sleep

# B-B-B-Bye-bye, baby rock yourself to slee-e-e-ep. #

This band could go play stadiums all over the country,

and people know these songs so intimately.

They last. The songs last.

I have one small plaque on my wall.

It says, "Presented to the Eagles to commemorate the best-selling

"album of the 20th century,

"with sales in excess of 26 million units."

That century's gone, so nobody's going to top that.

What's it like to be an Eagle now?

It's just part of my life. I do normal things.

I go to the market, and once in a while, somebody comes up to me.

I don't walk around being an Eagle.

I'm an Eagle when it's time for me to be.

I made sure the dishes were done before you guys came today.

You know?

# He was a hard-headed man

# And he was brutally handsome

# She was terminally pretty

# She held him up and he held her for ransom

# In the heart of the cold, cold city

# He had a nasty reputation as a cruel dude

# They said he was ruthless, they said he was crude

# They had one thing in common they were good in bed

# She'd say, "Faster, faster, the lights are turnin' red"

# Life in the fast lane

# Surely make you lose your mind

# Life in the fast lane... #

I love everybody in the band like a brother.

To be part of a real band -

a REAL band -

is something that not all musicians get to do in their life.

And I'm real lucky to have that chapter in my book.

Rock'n'roll saved my life. It changed my life tremendously.

And as Mick Jagger so famously and eloquently said,

"It's only rock'n'roll, but I like it."

I think that one of the reasons that Glenn and I

wanted to write songs is because rock'n'roll music got us

through junior high and through high school and those difficult

times when you're searching for your identity

and wondering who the heck you are,

trying to get girls to notice you, and wondering why

the football players are doing so much better than you are.

At the end of the day, it was and still is about the music.

# You know, I've always been a dreamer... #

I regret that I didn't handle some of the adversity

that the Eagles faced in the late '70s better.

Fortunately, for me,

I've had another chance to be the leader of the Eagles, another

chance to be Don's partner and do this work again and play this music.

And in this second run, I think I've done a pretty good job

of keeping the peace and keep the band together, keep everybody happy.

So here we are.

Still doing it.

# You gotta take it to the limit

# One more time. #

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Thank you.

That's it! That's it!

Bye-bye.

'We wanted longevity.

'It wasn't a hobby for us. It wasn't a game.

'It wasn't a pleasant diversion. It was a life.

'It was a calling. It was a career.'

It was worth it.

We went to China last year.

We're still breaking new ground 40 years later.

Back in the late '70s,

Neil Young sang a song about the emerging punk ethic.

And the pivotal line in that song was,

"It's better to burn out than it is to rust."

And I'm not sure that even Neil himself

subscribed to that sentiment, but I don't see rust as a bad thing.

I have an old 1962 John Deere tractor that's covered with rust,

but it runs like a top.

You know, the inner workings are just fine.

# You better let somebody love you

# Let somebody love you

# You better let somebody love... #

'To me, that rust symbolises all the miles driven

'and all the good work done and all the experiences gained.'

# Before it's too-o-o-o

# Late. #

CHEERING

'From where I sit, the rust looks pretty good.'

When somebody is around 40 years, it means they've got something,

something that people want. And the Eagles have that.

To me, the Eagles really expressed a mood.

California was the place of dreams.

It was a time of limitless possibilities.

I think they were a defining moment in the rock'n'roll world

that I love.

You couldn't really love the Eagles music and be an Eagles fan

and actually know them and not aspire to greatness yourself.

I'm not really into legacies. People talk to me, "What's your legacy?"

I'm here now.

I'm doing what I want to do, and I'm trying to make stuff happen.

I see the Eagles in the same way.

They're not in the '70s.

They're in 2012 and 2013.

And whatever they're doing now artistically,

that's what's important.

-# In the long run

-In the long run

# We can handle some resistance If our love is a strong one

# Is a strong one

# People talkin' about us they got nothin' else to do

# When it all comes down we will still come through

-# In the long run

-Ooh, I want to tell you

# It's a long run

# You know I don't understand why you don't treat yourself better

# Do the crazy things that you do

# Cos all the debutantes... #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd