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Mon 22 September 2025 19:00, UK
It’s painfully well documented that the original 1970s run of the Eagles did not end under the rosiest of circumstances.
Their contentious collapse, in fact, is what inspired Don Henley to claim that he wouldn’t play with the band again unless “hell froze over”, a geological phenomenon that apparently takes about 14 years, considering the Eagles did eventually reform for the obligatory tour and cash grab in 1994.
Seven years into the “second age” of the Eagles, however, another storm was brewing, and this time, it led not to a break-up of the band, but the firing of one of its longstanding members, guitarist Don Felder.
“Originally when I joined the band, it was a five-piece,” Felder told reporter Dan Rather in a 2019 interview for AXS TV. “Everybody was part of this corporation called Eagles Limited. We all owned Eagles Limited. We shared equally on the gross and the tours and everything like that, the record sales. But when we got back together [in 1994], Don [Henley] and Glenn [Frey] felt that they should get a much larger share.”
Felder wasn’t completely stunned by this development. He’d been paying attention during the 1980s and early ‘90s, as Henley and Frey had enjoyed some measure of extended success in their solo careers, while his own profile had faded considerably in the public consciousness. Still, if “Eagles Ltd” was still a concept, Felder held out hope that a more diplomatic discussion on finances might unfold after a while; that the star power of the band’s two biggest names might not matter much as the renewed brotherhood amongst the old gang.
“But when renegotiations came around,” Felder told Rather, “there were no renegotiations. It just stood as it was. And so it kind of constantly rubbed on me through the course of that ‘Hell Freezes Over’ tour.”
Felder claimed that he was calm and patient, returning to the topic over the next few years and being greeted with a dismissive “no” every time.
“So finally, I don’t know who sent who a legal notice or whatnot, but it just came down that there was another ‘no’ and ‘you’re fired.’ So that’s the way that happened.”
Henley and Frey had their own perspectives, of course, and the word on the grapevine was that Felder simply wasn’t worth the trouble. He was always a skilled musician, but he wasn’t perceived to be part of the central Eagles braintrust creatively, and thus was not considered a rightful claimant to an equal portion of the band’s substantial earnings.
In the aftermath of his firing, Felder understandably fell out with Henley and Frey personally, particularly after filing a lawsuit against them and writing a tell-all memoir a few years later. After Frey’s death in 2016, however, Felder was quick to make a public statement praising his former bandmate and acknowledging the regrets he had about how things ended up.
“Glenn was the James Dean of the band,” Felder said. “He was the leader that we all looked to for direction and by far the coolest guy in the band. It saddens me a great deal that we were never able to address the issues that came between us and talk them through. Sadly now we will never get the chance. The planet has lost a great man and a wonderful musician.”
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