How did one of the best-selling, most influential rock bands of the 1970s come to be? The Eagles’ origin story is a unique one, a tale that involves the help of a famous friend, a leg up from industry professionals, and the encouragement of some of music’s greatest songwriters. And why? Because they all believed in a rag-tag outfit that would soon be known as the Eagles.
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A Little Help from Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt and her producer John Boylan recruited Don Henley and Glenn Frey to be in her backing band while on tour supporting her sophomore solo album, Silk Purse.
“In those days we didn’t have enough money to put people in separate rooms,” Rondstadt told Billboard about the small, but significant part she played in the formation of the band, “so Glenn and Don were rooming together and they each discovered the other could sing and was a great songwriter. Glenn used to call Don his secret weapon. He said, ‘I’m gonna do a band with Don. We’re gonna do a band together.’ I said, ‘That’s a great idea.'”
Boylan offered to help the two form a full outfit while they continued to play for Ronstadt. Henley and Frey could work while trying to get a band off the ground and Ronstadt wouldn’t be short a pair of players.
“It was one of those kinds of situations where it was in everybody’s advantage,” Ronstadt said.
Boylan suggested they get bassist Randy Meisner on board, and Rondstadt had her own suggestion for the lineup, guitarist Bernie Leadon. “And that’s how the Eagles were formed,” Ronstadt told the outlet. All four of them – Henley, Frey, Meisner, and Leadon – would appear on her third studio album.
“They used to rehearse in my house, where I was living with J.D. [Souther],” she explained. “’cause we had a bigger living room than they did. And I remember coming home one day and they had rehearsed ‘Witchy Woman’ and they had all the harmonies worked out, four-part harmonies. It was fantastic. I knew it was gonna be a hit. You could just tell. They had really strong voices, really strong playing, really strong songwriting ideas and they had an extended pool of songwriters like Jack Tempchin and J.D. Souther and Jackson Browne. It was just an amazing time. There was no way they could miss with all that going for them.”
The Rise of the Eagles
They were signed to music David Geffen’s newly formed label, Asylum Records, in 1971, and when the group took off almost instantly, they soared.
The Eagles released their eponymous debut album in 1972, which contained two of their most enduring hits still today, “Take It Easy” and “Witchy Woman.” They followed up the release shortly after with the 1973 album, Desperado. The title track along with “Tequila Sunrise” were heaped into the band’s early successes.
By 1974, the band had added guitarist Don Felder into the mix, and On the Border and One of These Nights joined the group’s discography. Guitarist/vocalist Joe Walsh replaced Leadon in 1975 and the hits just kept on coming.
The Eagles Today
By the end of 1980, the Eagles had called it quits after six studio albums and a decade together. They all went on to pursue their own relatively successful solo careers. The band has since existed in between long stints of reunions and subsequent hiatuses with various iterations of the original lineup donning the stage.
In 2007, the band released the studio album, Long Road Out of Eden, which contained their first all-new material in nearly three decades. Today, the band – consisting of Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, and Vince Gill – still tours. They most recently closed out their 2023 Hotel California Tour, which saw the group perform the acclaimed 1976 album in its entirety.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
