(Credits: Far Out / Album Cover / Showtime / The Eagles)
Wed 15 October 2025 0:00, UK
By 1983, the idea of an Eagles reunion was never going to happen.
The band had a penchant for making great music every time they went into the studio, but all those raw wounds were far too real for anyone to care about the number on the end of that paycheck. But after the right stars aligned and Hell went through a fairly nippy night, Hell Freezes Over was the first time that those California icons actually felt reinvigorated.
Then again, those kinds of wounds don’t heal overnight. The band had the chance to make reunions multiple times before, but Glenn Frey was usually the first one to shut them down. He had a fine time working on his solo career, and since he was the one who brought everything to an end with Don Felder after their fight onstage, the idea of them playing venues like the US Festival wasn’t really interesting to him. But it’s not like Don Henley didn’t warm up to the idea.
Despite being the clear solo superstar of the group, Henley never liked the idea of being a solo artist. He would have much rather been brought up with that same band mentality, and even if he was using his celebrity status for good causes like the Walden Woods Project, he did get one step closer to the band healing when they came together for the idea for Travis Tritt’s version of ‘Take it Easy’.
The album Common Thread may have been an opportunity for a bunch of country stars to remake old Eagles songs, but when Frey strapped on his guitar again and started playing again, he started to get a little bit nostalgic about the good times they all had, saying, “I tried to remember the good stuff. Just how we genuinely liked each other.” They could play it up for the cameras, but after a few conversations, the band eventually got the wheels turning for a potential reunion.
Everyone was up for it, but there were a few orders of business to attend. First of all, Joe Walsh needed to get sober. The guitar genius hadn’t been taking care of himself, but since Felder and Frey managed to bury the hatchet, it felt like anything was possible. And while a few of the rehearsals were rusty they were determined to give the fans the proper comeback they deserved.
Boasting new songs like ‘Get Over It’ and ‘Learn To Be Still’, the band clearly hadn’t lost their step, but everything was riding on those few minutes onstage. And even if they had a few hiccups along the way when Henley forgot the words to one of the tunes, everyone in the crowd seemed genuinely excited to see the band members together again.
You have to remember that these guys hadn’t been playing for years, so the thought of them bringing that magic out of nothing all over again was going to be daunting. But not only did they find it again, but they managed to transform their older material as well, like listening to Henley turn ‘New York Minute’ into the Eagles song it was always meant to be or the exotic acoustic guitar piece that they used at the beginning of ‘Hotel California’ before the haunting progression starts.
And as soon as the band came on, the fact that Frey was fully onboard this time meant everything. His crack about the band being on a “14-year vacation” was on-brand for the group to be saying at that point, but the fact that those harmonies could still sound that majestic over years of wear and tear was the real miracle.
Hell may have had to freeze to get them back together, but their true brotherhood melted away all of the ice that was around their hearts as well. Not all of the relationships were meant to last past the 1990s, but considering how well they worked together again, it would have been a shame to see them refuse to revisit those old classics.
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