Discussion of Eagles Documentary "History of the Eagles"

[timfan]

Obviously the two main guys are henley and frey in that order but any purist eagles fan cant say that felder leaves a whole in the line up. Seeing some other guy doing his part in hotel california is simply not the same thing. Its like felder singing hotel california. Its not the same and neither is it the eagles without him.

Frey is lucky henly didnt demand more than him. But henley is not stupid he knew that 100 million is better than 0 million ( if frey would have walked since he was already the last holdout) and not much less than a few million more he could have gotten if he demanded more than frey.

Glenn Frey founded the band and takes on a leadership role ( as Don Henley himself has said many times). Both he and Don H have and continue to be crucial to the Eagles. However to claim that Glenn is "lucky" that Don H didn't demand more money than him is unrealistic IMO. Because as you yourself said Glenn would've walked away. Luck had nothing to do with it, it's business sense.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

Obviously the two main guys are henley and frey in that order but any purist eagles fan cant say that felder leaves a whole in the line up. Seeing some other guy doing his part in hotel california is simply not the same thing. Its like felder singing hotel california. Its not the same and neither is it the eagles without him.

Frey is lucky henly didnt demand more than him. But henley is not stupid he knew that 100 million is better than 0 million ( if frey would have walked since he was already the last holdout) and not much less than a few million more he could have gotten if he demanded more than frey.

I'm simply amazed that once again you're telling me what I should think instead of merely offering your opinion as what you think. I have no problems whatsoever with the current Eagles line-up, including background musicians. Of course it's not the 'same' (it's impossible to have any personnel change and have it be the 'same'), but for me, it's not different in a bad way. It's just different.

Felder is the only one that has ever gone public with the $$. He says that Joe and Timothy make less than Glenn and Don. He had no idea how much $$ Glenn and Don were making. We don't know that Don wasn't making more, and we don't know how things may have been restructured many times along the way. I will say that while Don had a more successful solo career by all accounts, Glenn brought his name to a whole different realm of people with the acting that he did, and especially the Miami Vice show, and having his music associated with the show got his name in the minds of people who might not listen to rock/pop.

[Brooke]

Glenn and Don played Eagles songs in their sets, although they didn't dominate. They knew the crowd expected to hear some Eagles and they gave them what they wanted. Plus, those are some darn good songs and they wrote 'em... why shouldn't they still play 'em?

However, I think Glenn is talking here more in terms of visibility, not in terms of how much Eagle-talk they were doing. Heck, Glenn was telling everyone and their dog that the Eagles would NEVER EVER EVER get back together. The point is that they were the only ones who found any success at all in the eighties, and thus were the ones who were still on the radar of the public, so to speak. I can tell you that speaking for myself as a child of the 80s, I only knew their names from their solo careers, and had never heard of any of the other Eagles.

Between 1980-1994, Joe actually did actively promote the Eagles in interviews by saying he hoped they got back together again. During that time, he also played Eagles songs during his set, released more solo albums than Glenn and Don did, and gigged just as much if not more. Therefore, if you're talking simply in terms of output, he actually surpassed Don and Glenn. The problem is that he found almost no success as a solo act post-Eagles and his gigs were generally as an opening act, part of "Ringo's All-Starr Band," playing at a mall or guitar store opening, that kind of thing. Thus, he didn't have the kind of visibility to keep the Eagles in people's minds like Glenn and Don did.

Poor Timothy's albums were so unsuccessful he didn't even tour at all.

Don Felder's lone solo album found no more success than Timothy's and thus Felder stayed off the road as well. Therefore, you can't really attribute him not playing Eagles songs to animosity or lack of leads... he didn't play anything! Now that he is doing solo shows, not only does he play Eagles songs, he also bills his show as "An Evening at the Hotel California." Obviously, whether or not things ended well with the Eagles has no bearing on his choice of setlist. I say, more power to him. He has every right to play songs he co-wrote with the Eagles regardless of whether or not he sang lead on them initially. Now, the ones he didn't co-write... well, that's another matter. At any rate, one cannot pretend that he doesn't trade on the Eagles name - and I personally have no problem with that. He deserves to get mileage out of his time with the Eagles. They all do.

All that said, I think the Eagles reunion would have been phenomenally successful even if neither Glenn nor Don had ever scored a hit. The Eagles were one of, if not THE, biggest bands of the seventies with excellent music that was being played constantly on classic radio.

However, it would NOT have been phenomenally successful if either Glenn or Don Henley were missing. In the end, that's why Glenn and Don Henley were able to negotiate for more money while Don Felder was not. They had the leverage as the big names, the lead singers, and the only remaining original members. As the only two men who were absolutely essential to a successful Eagles reunion, Frey and Henley could and did command more money, just like the bigger stars in the movies get paid more than the lesser known ones. By contrast, as the Eagles have shown, Felder is no longer essential to their success. Thus, he did not have the kind of leverage necessary to demand more money. If Frey or Henley walked out, it was over for everybody. If Felder walked out (or was pushed out), it was only over for him.

You may or may not agree, but the logic is sound if you look at it in business terms instead of emotional ones.

I too agree with everything here.

Also, Don H has said time and time again that it's Glenn's band. There are no Eagles without both of them, but Glenn has the final say. Don H said so. And I don't think Don H can or would command more money than Glenn.

[OutlawManNJ]

Felder is the only one that has ever gone public with the $$. He says that Joe and Timothy make less than Glenn and Don. He had no idea how much $$ Glenn and Don were making. We don't know that Don wasn't making more, and we don't know how things may have been restructured many times along the way. I will say that while Don had a more successful solo career by all accounts, Glenn brought his name to a whole different realm of people with the acting that he did, and especially the Miami Vice show, and having his music associated with the show got his name in the minds of people who might not listen to rock/pop.

That first line was possibly correct until the film was released but not anymore.

[Topkat]

The only way Felder could have worked this is if he had been able to get the other members to hold out as well. The Eagles could not tour as just Frey and Henley with no other members. If Felder had said to Walsh and Schmit, "Let's none of us agree to a less than equal share" they might have been able to pull it off, union-strike style.

However, those guys didn't stand with Felder, and Felder for all his talk never tried to insist that Walsh and Schmit got an equal share, only that HE got as much money as Frey and Henley.

As the lone holdout, he never stood a chance.

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Joe & Timothy were not in on the original contract, which was Glenn, Don, Bernie, Randy,& Felder, so they were probably never making the same money as the others were all along. For them, the contract was good, and maybe not much different than what they had when they first joined the Eagles.

For Don Felder, it was a different story. He was in on that original deal from the beginning, where supposedly they all made equal money, so for him I guess he saw it as unfair. Being that it was 14 years later, they wanted to redo the contracts, & he really didn't have any back up, so yes he didn't stand a chance....It was take it or bye, bye.

It's all pretty ironic because it was Glenn who invited Felder into the band after only playing one session with him. They really didn't know each other that well at all, so maybe that was a mistake to begin with, as they never really got along over the years!

[VAisForEagleLovers]

That first line was possibly correct until the film was released but not anymore.

My point is, Don and Glenn have never said what the split of the money was, even between themselves. Just that they got more than the others. Anything else is purely speculation on our parts. We assume they got the same amount as each other and significantly more than the others, but we don't know. Whatever the split was in 1994, it could be different now. We don't know. Even if they write their own autobiographies, we'll probably never know. For myself, I don't really care and I don't need to know. As long as they work it out between themselves and keep doing what they're doing, I'm a happy camper.

[Brooke]

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It's all pretty ironic because it was Glenn who invited Felder into the band after only playing one session with him. They really didn't know each other that well at all, so maybe that was a mistake to begin with, as they never really got along over the years!

I've often wondered about this too.

And I've always thought it a little strange that Bernie left immediately after Felder joined. You'd have thought since they were friends that Bernie would have stuck around a little longer to hang with his friend. Maybe he did and we don't really know how the timing of this all went down.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

I've often wondered about this too.

And I've always thought it a little strange that Bernie left immediately after Felder joined. You'd have thought since they were friends that Bernie would have stuck around a little longer to hang with his friend. Maybe he did and we don't really know how the timing of this all went down.

As far as I can tell, it wasn't 'immediate'. They finished On The Border and then did One of These Nights before Bernie left. I think Bernie wasn't happy with the reason Felder was brought in, to add a harder edge that Bernie didn't want. When it did take them in a direction he didn't agree with, he left.

[WalshFan88]

As far as I can tell, it wasn't 'immediate'. They finished On The Border and then did One of These Nights before Bernie left. I think Bernie wasn't happy with the reason Felder was brought in, to add a harder edge that Bernie didn't want. When it did take them in a direction he didn't agree with, he left.

That's what I thought too. Bernie was a great country/bluegrass guy and was ok with country-rock but not the rock n' roll (now termed classic rock) direction they were going with Felder's addition AND of course after Joe came in it went straight to more mainstream rock, which I of course prefer but I do love some of the songs on the earlier albums (Already Gone is my 2nd fav, right after Hotel Cali). And not just because they brought in Joe, I just prefer classic rock period, to country.

It'll be interesting how they do it with Bernie at some shows. Does Joe leave the stage? Stu? or are they gonna squeeze him in up there? LOL. The stage is already crowded IMO and I'd really hate for Joe to have to leave the stage, but since Joe plays Bernie's parts in certain songs it wouldn't surprise me if he did leave the stage. It's not like Bernie plays Felder's parts and would play Stu's parts. Not saying I'd want him to leave either.

And I hope Bernie does get to play his iconic parts such as the solos in TIE and PEF, etc. I'd hate for him to be brought on tour just to strum guitar parts or be muted out.

[Houston Debutante]

My point is, Don and Glenn have never said what the split of the money was, even between themselves. Just that they got more than the others. Anything else is purely speculation on our parts. We assume they got the same amount as each other and significantly more than the others, but we don't know. Whatever the split was in 1994, it could be different now. We don't know. Even if they write their own autobiographies, we'll probably never know. For myself, I don't really care and I don't need to know. As long as they work it out between themselves and keep doing what they're doing, I'm a happy camper.

Who was it that said that the money was split into sevenths for the 1994 contracts, with Don Henley and Glenn Frey each getting 2/7 apiece and the rest getting 1/7 apiece? I thought this had been established as fact and was not speculation.