(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Mon 20 October 2025 20:30, UK
For a band that has been going as long as the Eagles, not every song will have the same resonance over decades of concerts. If you were to ask any of the members about what their live show entails, it normally comes down to playing the hits and trying their best to put as much emotion into pieces that are old enough to qualify for senior discounts. Out of all the tracks that Don Henley has sung far too many times to count, he admitted that he still feels the same way about ‘Tequila Sunrise’ as he did when he first heard it.
Granted, when the Eagles first got together, perfection was expected rather than aspiration. After leaving Linda Ronstadt’s outfit, Glenn Frey and Henley wanted to put together the kind of band that could go toe-to-toe with anyone else on the Los Angeles rock scene, willing to give everyone from Gram Parsons to Crosby, Stills, and Nash a run for their money when they released their self-titled debut.
While the band’s signature magic was there on tracks like ‘Take It Easy’ and ‘Witchy Woman’, they had yet to come into their own as songwriters. Despite a handful of decent tunes on the record, a good chunk of the works were written with the help of their friends, from recording the Ronstadt live staple ‘Nightingale’ to borrowing a piece from Jack Tempchin for ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’.
If the band were going to nail down their signature sound, they would need something that came from within. After working on various songs independently, Henley and Frey got together to collaborate on ‘Tequila Sunrise’, which first appeared on their conceptual sophomore album, Desperado.
In the context of the album, this is the kind of calm before the storm moment, as the outlaw characters find refuge in a nameless saloon and try to flirt with any kind of woman that comes to the edge of the bar. While the band were still working out the bugs of their songwriting, Henley knew they were on the verge of something special when writing the piece.
The Eagles, enjoying their own sunrise. (Credits: Far Out / Showtime / The Eagles)
Even though it’s easy to pick up on the influences of artists like Roy Orbison, the band’s signature harmonies are already there, especially towards the end of every verse, where everyone joins in on the final line. Once that kind of magic comes alive onstage, though, Henley admits that there’s still that initial spark he remembered back in the day.
Recalling years after its release in The Very Best of the Eagles, Henley admitted that the track never got old for him, saying, “It turned out to be a really great song. The changes that Glenn came up with for the bridge are very smart. That’s one song I don’t get tired of. ‘Take another shot of courage’ refers to tequila – because we used to call it ‘instant courage’.”
Henley felt that the idea of a ‘Tequila Sunrise’ was the perfect metaphor for Californian drinkers. “I believe that was a Glenn title,” Henley confessed. “I think he was ambivalent about it because he thought that it was a bit too obvious or too much of a cliche because of the drink that was so popular then. I said ‘No – look at it from a different point of view. You’ve been drinking straight tequila all night, and the sun is coming up!’ It turned out to be a really great song.”
In the end, Frey came round the track. “I love the song,” he said. “I think the goal of any songwriter is to make a song appear seamless, to never show the struggle. Nothing should sound forced. ‘Tequila Sunrise’ was written fairly quickly, and I don’t think there’s a single chord out of place.”
There would be plenty more where that song came from, though, with Henley and Frey continuing to work on every subsequent Eagles project before hitting their creative apex on Hotel California. Some tracks might be more celebrated in the band’s catalogue, but when it comes to the kind of work that started the Henley/Frey partnership, it’s hard to forget your first musical child.
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