Eagles: It's Been a 'Long Run'

The Eagles are one of rock’s biggest names – ever. The Los Angeles-based band has sold over 200 million records in the 55 years since their formation, making them one of the best-selling music acts of all time.

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In that time, the band has released seven studio albums, three live albums, 12 compilations albums and numerous singles, which has cemented them as a defining contributor and pillar of the rock genre through their exploration of country, blues, folk and various rock sub genre themes.

From Country Backing Band …

The original Eagles lineup was recruited by country music star Linda Ronstadt in 1971 to serve as her backing band on her self-titled third studio album. After the album recording and subsequent tour, the band ventured out on their own as the Eagles.

With Don Henley on drums, Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon on guitar and Randy Meisner on bass, the band released their self-titled debut album in 1972, featuring hits like “Take It Easy” and “Witchy Woman.” 1973 saw the band release their follow-up record, Desperado, featuring the hit song of the same name.

Guitarist Don Felder was brought into the band to add slide guitar to their song, “Already Gone,” and ended up being invited to join the Eagles full time.

After touring for the band’s fourth studio album, One of These Nights, Leadon left the band due to his frustration with the band’s sound moving from country toward more of a mainstream rock sound. He would be replaced by former James Gang singer and guitarist Joe Walsh.

… to Rock & Roll Legends

After One of These Nights, Asylum Records wanted to capitalize on the Eagles’ success by releasing a greatest hits record.

Felder and Henley have both stated, at the time, the group was unhappy with the release of Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), saying it was essentially a way for Asylum Records to sell records without the cost of production.

Felder stated none of the band members had a say in its release, and Henley was unhappy about the of songs from Desperado, as he thought it stripped “Desperado” and “Tequila Sunrise” of their context. The silver lining for the band was it gave them more time to write and record Hotel California.

The Eagles would record and release Hotel California in 1976, the massively-successful record that spawned hits such as “Life in the Fast Lane,” “Victim of Love” and of course, “Hotel California.” The album is a RIAA-certified 28x Platinum record.

By the end of the 1970s, the band began to fall apart, due to infighting and burnout from writing, recording and touring. Meisner led the band abruptly in 1977 after a fight with Frey, and returned to Nebraska to be with his family. The Eagles replaced him with Timothy B. Schmit.

The band didn’t release another studio album until 1979’s The Long Run, which took a year and a half to complete. While some critics considered the record a “disappointment,” when compared to Hotel California, it produced hit songs like its title track, “I Can’t Tell You Why,” “In the City” and “Heartache Tonight.”

End of the Eagles

On July 31, 1980, during a show in Long Beach, California, Felder and Frey were verbally feuding with each other onstage during the band’s set, due to a dismissive comment Felder made toward California Senator Alan Cranston’s wife backstage before the show. The duo were making threats toward each other during songs.

Frey separated himself from the band as they mixed their live album, Eagles Live, which produced the single “Seven Bridges Road,” already a staple at their live shows. It was their last top-40 single until 1994. The Eagles broke up soon after.

Walsh reestablished his successful solo career, but not to the same levels of success as what he experienced in the 1970s.

Henley and Frey’s solo careers each saw commercial success into the 1980s, most notably with hit singles like Henley’s “Boys of Summer” and Frey’s “The Heat is On.”

Felder went on to release a solo record, and contributed a pair of songs to the soundtrack for the movie Heavy Metal.

Schmit had the hit song “So Much in Love, featured in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, while also contributing on several projects for artists like Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jimmy Buffett and Toto.

Walsh and Schmit toured together as part of Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band in 1992.

Hell Freezes Over

In 1993, several country artists collaborated to create the tribute album, Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles. Travis Tritt made a music video for “Take It Easy,” the song he was contributing to the record. He sought out the Long Run-era Eagles to appear in his music video, which they agreed to. Schmit was the only Eagle to feature on the album, singing backup on Vince Gill‘s cover of “I Can’t Tell You Why.”

Felder, Frey, Henley, Schmit and Walsh formally reunited in 1994, for which they performed two shows to record a live album and MTV television special, both titled Hell Freezes Over, which comes from earlier Henley statements when asked if the Eagles would ever get back together.

At their first live show, Frey quipped “for the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation.” The “Hell Freezes Over” tour continued into 1996.

Rock & Roll Immortality

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, which included Meisner and Leadon performing with the five other Eagles for two songs at the show.

The RIAA honored the Eagles with the “Best Selling Album of the Century” for Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), in December 1999. The record was the first album to receive a Platinum certification by the RIAA.

It has sold 40 million copies, and remained the highest-Platinum-certified album until Thriller passed it following Michael Jackson’s death in 2009. Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) reclaimed its title in August of 2018.

The Eagles played a series of shows to close out the millennium in December of 1999, with a performance at Staples Center in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve. This was the final show to feature Felder.

The final three shows of 1999 had live recordings included in the band’s four-disc Selected Works: 1972-1999 box set, which was released in 2000.

Felder Sues Former Bandmates

Felder was fired from the Eagles on Feb. 6, 2001. He subsequently filed two lawsuits against the Eagles, Henley, Frey and other undisclosed persons, alleging wrongful termination, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty, seeking $50 million in damages.

The band had decided to replace Felder with guitarist Steuart Smith.

Felder claimed Frey and Henley took larger percentages of the band’s profits from the “Hell Freezes Over” tour and onward, when previous to the reformation, profits were split evenly five ways. He also claimed he was coerced into signing an agreement that Frey and Henley would receive three times the profits for Selected Works: 1972-1999, compared to the other members.

Frey and Henley’s attorney claimed they had the right to remove Felder due to creative, chemistry and performance-based reasoning. The pair countersued him over breach of contract, alleging Felder’s autobiography, Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001), was a tell-all book.

In January 2002, a Los Angeles court consolidated the lawsuits into a single suit, and set a trial date for September 2006. The case was dismissed on May 8, 2007, after being settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

Long Road Out of Eden

With the Long Run-era lineup now reduced to Frey, Henley, Schmit and Walsh, the band began recording new music. This included the release of the single “How Long,” with the accompanying music video debuting on Country Music Television in August 2007.

The song was written by JD Souther, and had been performed live by the band as far back as the early 1970s, but remained unrecorded because Souther wanted to reserve it for his debut studio album. Souther was a frequent collaborator with the Eagles, cowriting several songs during their initial run.

“How Long” served as the first single for their album, Long Road Out of Eden, the band’s first studio album since The Long Run. The album debuted at No. 1 in the U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Norway, eventually reaching 7x Platinum status, their third studio album to do so.

The band performed “How Long” at the Country Music Association Awards in 2007. They won the Grammy for “Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal” for “How Long” in 2008.

The Eagles would later be nominated in 2008 and 2009 for the “Vocal Group of the Year” Award at the CMA Awards. They had previously been nominated by the association for the category in 1976 and 1977.

At the 2009 Grammy Awards, they won the “Best Pop Instrumental Performance” award for “I Dreamed There Was No War.”

The Eagles embarked on their world tour, the “Long Road Out of Eden Tour” in March 2008, which concluded in November 2011.

Death of Glenn Frey

In support of their 2013 documentary, History of the Eagles, the band embarked on a two-year tour, which featured former guitarist Leadon.

Walsh was really excited about Leadon’s inclusion, since the two had never played together, as the former was hired to replace the latter.

“[Leadon’s] brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we’ve been in contact,” Walsh said to the Press Telegram. “We see him from time to time, and I’m really glad he’s coming because it’s going to take the show up a notch, and I’m really looking forward to playing with him, finally.”

Meisner was invited to be a part of the tour, but declined due to health issues. Felder was not invited. The tour concluded in July 2015.

Toward the end of 2015, Frey’s health began to take a turn. He was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2000, and the medication he was prescribed to manage the disease eventually lead to colitis and pneumonia.

Due to health concerns for Frey, the Eagles postponed their appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors to 2016 so Frey had time to recover, as he was set to undergo intestinal surgery.

Following surgery, Frey was placed in a coma, and ultimately passed away on Jan. 18, 2016, due to complications from the surgery, pneumonia, rheumatoid arthritis and acute ulcerative colitis.

At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, the Eagles were joined by Leadon, Smith and Jackson Browne to perform “Take It Easy” in honor of Frey. Following the performance, Henley wasn’t sure the Eagles would ever perform again.

Return to the Road

The Eagles returned to the road in the summer of 2017, bringing Gill and Deacon Frey, Glenn Frey’s son, into the fold. Gill and the younger Frey were brought in to perform in place of late cofounder.

In March of 2018, the band embarked on another North American tour, with Henley’s son Will joining the touring band as a guitarist.

In the fall of 2019, the Eagles played a series of shows in Las Vegas, which featured playing Hotel California in its entirety.

They followed that up with the “Hotel California 2020 Tour,” which began in February 2020. After 10 shows, the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tour resumed in 2021, and continued into 2022 with dates in Europe.

On April 6, 2022, the band announced Deacon would be leaving the band to start his solo career. He would make guest appearances with the band at select shows from that summer on.

‘The Long Goodbye’

In July 2023, the Eagles announced their farewell tour, “The Long Goodbye Tour,” which began on Sept. 7, 2023 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Deacon rejoined the band for the tour.

Unfortunately before the tour began, Meisner died on July 26, 2023, just over two weeks after the tour was announced. This left Henley and Leadon as the only serving original members of the Eagles.

In September 2024, the Eagles began their residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Due to the success of the first few shows, the residency was extended into March 2026. The first eight shows grossed $42.2 million, with around 131,000 tickets sold.

In 2025 Smith, who had been with the band since 2001 as a touring guitarist, retired from the band due to Parkinson’s disease. He was replaced by Chris Holt.

On Feb. 8, 2026, Henley spoke with CBS Sunday Morning about the Eagles’ long career, Glenn Frey, Deacon Frey and the future of the band. He stated that despite vocalizing the end of the Eagles multiple times in the past, he feels 2026 will be the last year the band performs.

“You know, I think this year will probably be it,” Henley said to CBS Sunday Morning. “I’ve said things like that before, but I feel like we’re getting toward the end. And that will be fine, too.”

It remains to be seen when and where this “long run” ends.

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