Credit: Far Out / Steve Alexander
It turns out there’s a lot more animosity that comes with making Eagles’ music sound so good.
They are still one of the most easygoing bands to ever turn up on radio dials, but when you look at the kind of tension that was happening behind the scenes, you would have sworn that every band member had a falling out with each other at some point. And while Glenn Frey and Don Henley were the ones steering the ship half the time, it’s not like they didn’t make more than a few enemies along the way when they started telling everyone what they “should” be playing in the studio.
They had already worked themselves hard enough when making The Long Run, but after spending all of that time not talking about their problems, everything came to a head when Frey and Don Felder got into a fight. The idea of a band having a fight with each other onstage would have been enough for them to start rethinking their priorities, and Frey had already had enough with being in the band long before.
That show was just the straw that broke the camel’s back after years of tension, but Hell Freezes Over at least gave them a reason to get back together. There was no reason for them to say no to those massive checks that they were bound to see from getting back together, but the fact that Felder wasn’t getting paid as much as the rest of the band didn’t exactly paint the rest of the group in the best light.
Frey did have a point when he pointed out that he and Henley were the ones keeping the band afloat in the years since, but it’s not like they were alone in coming up with those songs. Without Felder, ‘Hotel California’ would have never existed, and the idea of blocking him out of the room got more than a little bit ugly when Frey decided that it was time to give Felder a legal kick in the ass.
After not signing the deal to go out on tour, Frey figured that he would call Felder’s agent and force Felder to sign, saying, “I called up Felder’s representative. I said, ‘Hello Barry, this is Glenn Frey. I’m sorry you happen to represent the only asshole in the band, but let me tell you something. Either Felder signs this contract by the time the sun goes down today, or we’re replacing Don Felder. That’s the deal.’”
It might have been strictly business on Frey’s part, but Felder felt that any semblance of a relationship between them basically ended with that phone call. Because as much as they put up a united front whenever they were playing, Felder would say later that he could never manage to fit in right again, saying, “I didn’t sense a great deal of camaraderie. You hardly saw anyone if it wasn’t walking on the plane or onto the stage.”
Further reading: From The Vault
But the sad fact is that Frey and Henley were going to do things their way, and the fact that Felder was concerned over money wasn’t all that important to them at that stage. They wanted the chance to give their music to the people, and if Felder felt that he was owed royalties wasn’t going to force them to keep their band at bay while he mulled over the idea of signing his touring contract.
It’s easy to see both sides from a marketing standpoint, but it is a little bit frustrating to see that Felder and Frey were never able to reconcile. The band kept going for years at that point, but Felder never managed to patch things up with Frey, even up until he passed away in the 2010s, leaving most of that tension up in the air.
Even if the band never fully got to reconcile, they can still look back at the times they shared and know that they made something that was going to outlive them all. Frey could claim that he and Henley were the nucleus of the group, but the reason why people are going to remember Hotel California for years to come is because of the magic that all of them had playing together on that record.
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