Eagles frontman Don Henley has confirmed the band’s record-breaking shows at the Las Vegas Sphere will be their last, as the historic band’s story reaches its final chapter.
Speaking to CBS Sunday Morning over the weekend, Henley, 78, says he didn’t think the band would continue following the passing of founding guitarist Glenn Frey. A year later, a conversation with Bono sparked their unlikely revival after setting strict terms for their second coming.
The country-rock greats have claimed six wins from 18 Grammy nominations. Their 1976 album, Hotel California, is certified 28 times Platinum, and their greatest-hits compilation has become the first record in music history to be certified quadruple diamond by the RIAA. As such, the band will draw the curtain on a seismic career later this year.
They'll bow out too with one more record in their back pocket. Their now-extended residency at the Sphere means they’re set to outlast Dead & Company's 46-show stay, performing to over one million fans in the process.
And yet, less than a decade ago, the band’s future teetered on a knife-edge. Even Henley wondered if they could continue.
“I didn’t think it was feasible,” he says. “Then a year went by and our manager, [Irving] Azoff, came to me and said, ‘You know, I’ve been talking to a lot of people in the industry, and there are still a lot of fans out there who would like to see you come back and play music.’”
After much deliberation, Henley laid out his conditions for a possible return: “I said to them, I’ll only do it if we can get Glenn’s son in the band. I wanted the blood.”
He cites an age-old tradition that charts both sides of the Atlantic, often referred to as the guild.
“The son apprentices with the father, whether it’s carpentry, glass blowing or any kind of craft,” he details. “The son works with the father until the son develops an ability high enough to go out on his own and carry on the tradition.
“I have to give Bono credit,” he adds, “because he reminded me of that when I was at a convention in Europe. We were sitting next to each other at dinner, and I was telling him I was in a quandary about what to do about the band. And he said, ‘Well, you know, there’s this thing called the guild…”
Poignantly, Deacon Frey would go on to play his dad’s guitar parts on a cluster of his electric guitars. But he didn’t do it alone.
“We decided that Vince Gill would be the other person who would be capable,” he goes on. “It took two people to replace Glenn.”
Gill, best known for his work as a country artist, was a left-field choice, but Henley says “he was delighted to get the chance to play rock n’ roll” and even turned up to the first rehearsal with a mountain of amps. Henley’s response? “Half that!”
We've had an extraordinary run and left people with a lot of good memories.”
— Don Henley
The Eagles’ final Sphere show, as part of a residency Henley calls “a late-career blessing,” will take place on Saturday, March 28. That looks to be the night the Eagles bow out for good.
“I think this year will probably be it,” he accepts. “I’ve said things like that before, but I feel like we’re getting toward the end, and that will be fine, too. I’m okay with that.
“Three of us are 78 years old now. We all have various ailments. We’ve had a great run, an extraordinary run, and left people with a lot of good memories and some good music. I’ll be fine when that’s done. I would like to spend more time with my family, and I would like to spend more time growing vegetables.”
Meanwhile, Joe Walsh has recalled the song that turned him into an Eagles fan — and later a TikTok star — and Don Felder is left to ruminate on what could have been, as he believes his follow-up to "Hotel California" would have taken the pair’s guitar tandem to new heights. Instead, “it died in the Eagles’ vault.”
