The Eagles have always straddled the border between country and rock, but when guitarist Bernie Leadon felt the scales had tipped too far toward the latter, he didn't hesitate to step away from the group.
One of These Nights, the band's fourth album, released in 1975, was their breakthrough record, yielding three top 10 singles in the U.S.: "One of These Nights," "Lyin' Eyes" and "Take It to the Limit". It was also the breaking point for Leadon, whose disillusionment with the band's rockier sound forced his exit later that year.
History dictates that his departure did little to deter the trajectory of a band on the up, with the group turning to James Gang and Barnstorm guitarist Joe Walsh, whom the band already knew well, as his successor. As the band pivoted into rockier territory (musically speaking, that is), there was no doubt that what the firebrand riffer took them to new levels.
“Joe, being a bona fide rock ‘n’ roll guitar slinger, was the perfect foil for Don Felder,” Don Henley says in the latest issue of Guitar World. “They propelled one another in a friendly-but-competitive sort of way. We had upped our horsepower.”
Henley means no disrespect to his former bandmate when he talks of Walsh’s gas-guzzling V8 engine playing style. He was — and still is — “a highly skilled musician,” he says. But fate had intervened, and Walsh gave the band a fresh edge.
Yet as successful as the marriage was, musically, Henley had his reservations about Walsh’s rockstar antics, which were fueled in part by the company he kept. The main culprit was Who drummer Keith Moon, who was famous for destroying hotel rooms.
“Keith Moon and Joe were good buddies,” Henley says, “and that, of course, led to some mischief.”
And much of the remaining decade saw Walsh engage in attention-getting pranks, from redesigning hotel floor plans with a chainsaw to running for president of the U.S. with the promise of free gas for all and a commitment to change the national anthem to his solo hit "Life's Been Good." .
“It was amusing for a little while,” Henley accepts, though not with a great deal of patience. “It eventually became a very expensive hobby, and we were beginning to get barred from some of the hotels we liked to stay in.
“So after a while the chainsaws got locked away in storage, and other kinds of dramas replaced the ‘remodeling’ of rooms and hallways,” Henley goes on. “But, at least Joe got a hit song out of it!”
Earlier this year, Henley recalled that he was only willing to regroup the band if the late Glenn Frey, who played with it for well over three decades, was replaced by his son, Deacon, citing a chance meeting with another rock icon as his source of inspiration.
In the same interview, he also revealed that the band's upcoming Las Vegas Sphere shows would be their last, bringing their storied career to a glitzy and oddly futuristic finish.
Elsewhere, Eagles guitarist Vince Gill has named his surprising early guitar heroes, and Walsh has proved his antics weren't Eagles exclusive, as the destruction of a neighbor's rose bush helped him land the gig in the first place.
