(Credits: Far Out / Greenwich Entertainment)
Tue 25 November 2025 20:51, UK
There are countless bands from the 1970s, whose greatness was, in fact, propped up by an underlying dislike for one another. Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles were all bands who famously squabbled despite making some of the finest music of the decade. It was all part of the full-throttled experience that was sex, drugs and rock and roll.
Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac were more complex in their disagreements. Personal trauma was at the very heart of their disagreements, and they largely took to the studio to try and resolve whatever differences lay between them. The Eagles, however, were an entirely different entity.
They were more like a band of teenage brothers who kept their music light and breezy, but then decided to settle their differences off stage and often with a little harmless scrap. Led by their fearless leaders Don Henley and Glenn Frey, the band were ruthless in their line-up decisions and relentless in their creative ones, resulting in a string of names leaving the band before finally dissolving at the end of the ‘70s.
Bernie Leadon helped form the band, alongside Frey and Henley, but was swiftly shown the exit sign in 1975 when he opposed the band’s transition from country rock to a heavier commercial sound. Leadon also felt sidelined by the band’s new addition, Don Felder, and so rather than come to a creative solution to fit all needs, Frey and Henley facilitated his exit and showed just how expendable the members were, even if they did help start the band.
Frey and Henley’s leadership was bolstered with every exit of a band member, and they were starting to position themselves as somewhat of a Lennon and McCartney of American rock. Granted, they thrust the band into a state of overwhelming success with their 1976 effort Hotel California, but even that couldn’t prevent Randy Meisner from packing up his instruments and leaving. Citing burnout and a general lack of respect in the band as a reason, Meisner officially left when the Hotel California tour concluded.
Ultimately, this marked the beginning of the end for the band. The feuds were beginning to meddle with the music, and by 1979, Frey could sense that his and Henley’s rule was no longer working. He explained, “I knew the Eagles were over halfway through The Long Run. I could give you 30 reasons why but let me be concise about it. I started the band, I got tired of it, and I quit.”
That is a concise way of describing it, for the more detailed version is that he and Felder engaged in a brutal exchange of punches in a now famed 1980 show at Long Beach California. But ultimately, that fight was a by-product of a growing sense of resentment that was aimed towards Frey and Henley, who did indeed start the band, but also ran it into the ground with their uncompromising approach to leadership. While it did achieve greatness for a brief period of time, it was ultimately an unsustainable approach to music making.
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