‘Common Thread’: the album that reunited the Eagles
During the 1980s, it would be a cold day in hell before the Eagles got back together. After their benefit show that left Don Felder and Glenn Frey fighting onstage, the band decided to call it a day, not wanting to continue with hatred towards their bandmates. Once the 1990s rolled around, it took one album to bring the group back from the dead.
Then again, the band had offers throughout the previous decade to reunite for a hefty performance fee. When Steve Wozniak was putting together the first US Festival in California, he went so far as to offer the band $1million to play one show, which Frey cooly turned down.
Since the wounds were still raw, Frey was having more fun working in his solo career. Splitting his time between acting and playing music, Frey was excited at the prospect of making music outside of the Eagles, notching up a few songs onto movie soundtracks like ‘The Heat is On’ for Beverly Hills Cop.
Of all the solo Eagles, no one shined brighter than Don Henley. Having pinned one of the band’s signature voices down to a science, Henley was known for making the biggest strides as a solo artist but had no interest in continuing for too long. The singer would go on to say that he preferred the mentality of being in a group, remarking in History of the Eagles, “When you’re in a band, you get to share the responsibility with the rest of your bandmates”.
Even though the band had gone away, they never left the radio. In the years leading up to the group’s breakup, the advent of classic rock stations began taking over the airwaves, leading to the group being played constantly as if they had never left. Although the members loved the idea of being a rock band, their biggest influence on popular music came from the world of country.
To raise money for Henley’s environmental cause, The Walden Woods Project, various country musicians in Nashville came together for the album Common Thread, featuring every artist covering Eagles songs. Although the album featured a starstudded cast from contemporary names in country music, Travis Tritt had the idea of getting the original band members back together to appear in the video for his version of ‘Take it Easy’.
Being the first time every member was in the same room together, Frey said that he started to grow nostalgic playing together again, saying, “I tried to remember the good stuff. I didn’t really think about any of the bad stuff. Just remembered how much we genuinely had liked each other.”
In the coming months, the members would start to put the pieces back together, starting with making sure Joe Walsh could get sober. Once everyone had their head screwed on, their return with the live album Hell Freezes Over became one of their biggest successes while featuring new songs that signalled the next phase of where the band would be going. Although Felder wouldn’t stay in the fold for too much longer, the rest of the Eagles can credit Nashville for calming all of their bad blood.
