Celebration of "Hell Freezes Over"!

[Delilah]

Well, these album anniversaries are just coming one after the other, aren't they? I guess a lot of albums get released now in preparation for the Christmas season.

So... Hell Freezes Over is FIFTEEN this year! Old enough to get its driver's permit!

It's not so much the content of this album as what it symbolized - America's favorite band, finally coming back together again. We already talked about the TV special in another thread, but what about the album itself?

I've gotta go now, but I'll be back to write more later.

I did go ahead and search for that other thread but couldn’t find it. FWIW, had I found it, I would have moved my post. Sorry.

[New Kid In Town]

Delilah - From what I have read, Glenn, Don, Joe and Irving held a meeting in Aspen in Jan.1994. They told Joe they wanted to get back together but he could not be a part of it unless he entered rehab. He did and I think, but am not sure, the announcement came out in March or April 1994.

I saw the HFO Tour in March 1995 at the Spectrum in Philly with three friends. We paid $75.00 for our tickets. That was expensive but we all figured we would never see them tour again if we did not go then. Little did we know how long it would last.

[Delilah]

Thanks, NKIT. There must have been a press release or something. I wish I would have looked into going back then but a lot was going at that time. It would have been great to see them with Don F although I wouldn’t have known anything about him. And I wouldn’t have known enough to miss Randy either, being late to his fandom. So it would have been the most ideal time for me, as I was too young to see them in the 70s.

[Pippinwhite]

@Delilah -- Seems like there's a bit of an interview with Tim in HOTE where he mentions the Travis Tritt video and was standing around saying, "Hey guys, this is really working here!" or something to that effect. I know Travis himself said he wouldn't do the video if they couldn't get the Eagles in it. He had enough clout at that time that he could say something like that and people would make things happen.

So maybe that's when they started talking seriously about getting back together. I'd say it was certainly a catalyst.

[New Kid In Town]

Delilah - At least we have the video to watch. I think Don F.'s book said the tour was originally only supposed to last for six months. But, when they kept selling out the tour kept getting extended. Next thing you know it was a two year tour which they made a fortune from.

[Dawn]

Don H, Glenn and Irving announced to Joe, Timothy and Felder they'd struck a deal with MTV for a live performance in April 1994 to be aired 6 months later. This was also when they learned they had formed new business entities giving them a majority position in the new companies all but muscling Felder out. In effect Don and Glenn would be getting a much larger slice of the pie leaving the other three "to share the leftovers" (Don Felder, Heaven and Hell)

According to Felder the official start of the resumption tour began at the rehearsal stage for the MTV gig at Culver Studios. The actual MTV gig was to be filmed on a Warner Bros stage in front of a live invited audience.

[Dawn]

HFO Tour began May 27, 1994.

[My My]

I too remember what big news it was when "Hell Froze Over." I remember how expensive the tickets seemed at the time. I didn't watch the MTV special at the time either, don't think I knew it was on. I guess at that point, married with 3 kids, concerts weren't really a part of my life anymore! I thought they looked good, but not like the guys that I loved from the 70s. I too remember thinking "wow, these guys are in their mid 40s!" And I'm only 10-12 years younger than they are! Funny that I would see them in Louisville when they were 70...go figure!

[Dawn]

It was the Travis Tritt video that lit the match sparking Eaglemania. The lunch meeting in Aspen between Azoff, Henley, Joe and Glenn was to throw numbers around ... numbers too tempting for any of them to resist/refuse.

[Delilah]

Thanks for the info, everyone. Does anyone know when there was an official announcement to the public? Perhaps it was the announcement of the tour, since the MTV show didn’t air until months later.

Delilah - At least we have the video to watch.

True, except now I have knowledge and understanding of what was going in behind the scenes, the disputes over money, that Felder gets fired, that Randy wasn’t there and wanted to be. I understand why that was the case; I’m not trying to start some debate about that here. But it seems to be the beginning of an effort to write him out of the band’s history, until the documentary when there was no choice but to acknowledge him.

Anyway, it’s great there’s a video and the band continued to perform, gain new fans, renew interest in lapsed fans, etc. It’s just bittersweet for me in a way it would not have been back in 1994-95.