(Credits: Far Out / TIDAL)
Fri 31 October 2025 19:30, UK
In a lot of instances, rock stars might seem like they’re a little bit aloof and hard to get along with, but it might be hard to imagine someone like Glenn Frey ever getting his back up about interacting with the public or being a spiteful piece of work.
The music of the Eagles was far from being aggressive or seeming like its creators were arrogant and stuffy individuals. If anything, there’s something calm and soothing about them and their music when compared to their contemporaries, and there’s not much about it that comes across as intimidating or brimming with unnecessary machismo or bravado like a lot of other rock music at the time seemed to possess.
However, the supposed easiness of the band doesn’t mean that everyone was a big fan of their work, and despite having accrued a gigantic fanbase throughout the 1970s, they also had their fair share of detractors, often becoming a punchline for those who weren’t on board with their soft country rock and chilled-out demeanour. Sure, their music couldn’t be for everyone, but because there was little about them that was seemingly threatening, it made them an easy target for derision.
One such person who didn’t appreciate their music, albeit a fictional character, was Jeffrey ‘The Dude’ Lebowski, the protagonist of the Coen Brothers’ 1998 cult classic film, The Big Lebowski. Portrayed by Jeff Bridges, he’s noted for his hatred of the band, and one of his most famous lines from the film is a direct slant on the Eagles, pulling no punches when he says to a taxi driver: “Jesus, man. Can you change the channel? Man, come on, I had a rough night and I hate the fucking Eagles, man!”, promptly getting him ejected for his foul-mouthed critique of their song, ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’.
That doesn’t mean that Bridges automatically believes the same thing as the character he portrayed, and despite uttering those lines, he’s actually not too bothered by their music in reality. However, having said that, he would find himself on edge when it came to meeting members of the band several years down the line, particularly Frey, who, as it turns out, didn’t take the criticism well.
In a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, the actor revealed that he doesn’t hate the band and that he had a fearful encounter with Frey many years later. “I remember I ran into Glenn Frey, he gave me some shit. I can’t remember what he said exactly, but you know, my anus tightened a bit,” he revealed. A couple years later, he echoed these sentiments, stating that while he’s become friendly with Don Henley since, every time he encounters Frey, “he’ll always bust my chops and make me squirm a little bit.”
It’s not clear why Frey hated this comedic hatred so much, considering other members of the band, including Henley and Joe Walsh, were totally okay with being used as the butt of the joke, but it’s evident that he wanted to make Bridges feel a sense of guilt for his character’s opinion. At the end of the day, nobody can control how Frey feels about it because, you know, that’s just like, his opinion, man.
Related Topics