{"id":252853,"date":"2026-01-26T18:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T18:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/252853\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T18:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T18:44:08","slug":"the-eagles-play-their-first-concert-without-joe-walsh-in-51-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/252853\/","title":{"rendered":"The Eagles Play Their First Concert Without Joe Walsh in 51 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Eagles<\/a> were forced to soldier on without Joe Walsh<\/a> at Sphere on Jan. 24 after the guitarist came down with the flu, marking their first show without him since he joined the band in 1975. \u201cWe had a choice to make,\u201d Don Henley told the crowd. \u201cWe could either cancel the whole thing, or we could man up and do the show. So we came down here this afternoon and had an emergency rehearsal for two hours. And fortunately, in this band, we have a deep bench.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWalsh\u2019s parts were largely handled by Deacon Frey and Vince Gill<\/a>. Frey, who became one of the Eagles in 2017 following his father\u2019s death the prior year, took on Walsh\u2019s iconic \u201cHotel California\u201d guitar solo alongside new guitarist Chris Holt at the top of the evening. And Gill sang lead on \u201cIn The City,\u201d \u201cLife\u2019s Been Good,\u201d and \u201cRocky Mountain Way.\u201d<\/a> The only song cut from the set was the James Gang classic \u201cFunk #49,\u201d which would have been very tricky to pull off without Walsh. They subbed in \u201cBest Of My Love\u201d to take its place.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe prior evening, Walsh managed to get through most of the show, but they cut \u201cRocky Mountain Way,\u201d and he was off-stage for a handful of songs and the closing bow. \u201cHe was sick last night,\u201d Henley said. \u201cBut he heroically made it through last of the show\u2026Joe\u2019s going to be okay. He just needs some time. Give him some love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe concert was their 46th show at the Sphere since kicking off the residency in September 2024. The setlist has been largely locked in because of the complex visuals they created for each song, but there are tunes like \u201cThe End of the Innocence,\u201d \u201cThose Shoes,\u201d and \u201cPlease Come Home for Christmas\u201d that they haven\u2019t done every night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s good to be in the room with you tonight,\u201d Henley said. \u201cWe can all be on the same page tonight because music is a universal language and music is medicine. After the week we\u2019ve had, we could all use some medicine. I\u2019m not going to do much talking. I\u2019m nothing to do much jumping around. I\u2019m not going to do any squatting. I\u2019m just going to play the shit out of this guitar. I\u2019ve been playing these songs for you for 53 years now. It\u2019s been a privilege and an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tIn other Eagles news, their first greatest hits collection has become the first album to be RIAA-certified quadruple platinum, meaning it sold more than 40 million copies. \u201cI\u2019m not sure we got paid for all that,\u201d Henley joked at Sphere. \u201cIt\u2019s just Spotify.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThey resume the Sphere residency on Jan. 30, which should give Walsh enough time to recover. If he\u2019s not ready by then, they\u2019ve proven that the show still somehow works without him, even if it\u2019s slightly surreal to watch Vince Gill sing his songs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Eagles were forced to soldier on without Joe Walsh at Sphere on Jan. 24 after the guitarist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3009,156,146569,157,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-252853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-eagles","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-joe-walsh","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}