How did the Eagles meet?
Not every band had to have the same fairytale ascent that most people dream about. Some bands like The Beatles and U2 have that story of forming when they were in school and carrying on until they were the biggest act in the world, but the industry is still a business, and that normally means mixing and matching until a band finds the right people. Although the Eagles did eventually congeal into one of the finest country-rock acts of all time, it took them a while before they were all on the same page.
First of all, they all needed to find some way to get to California. Despite being the group known for singing about fun in the summertime, they all made the pilgrimage on their own terms. While Don Henley came from Texas and Bernie Leadon hailed from Florida before heading West, the biggest cultural shock was seeing Glenn Frey trade in a career in Detroit for sunny Los Angeles.
Because, really, Frey was already at one of the meccas for rock and roll at the time. Motown was booming at the time, which gave him some piano lessons, but he knew there was no point in trying to match the MC5 or Iggy Pop. He wanted to be a singer-songwriter, and when he matched with JD Souther in Longbanch Pennywhistle, he at least had an incubator for him to write his first tunes.
Since the band wasn’t getting a ton of gigs, though, Frey needed to find a way to make ends meet, eventually taking up a job as a rhythm guitarist to back up Linda Ronstadt. While he got his chops up as a guitarist and a harmony vocalist, it wasn’t until Henley joined the group that he started thinking about the possibility of making something on their own. After all, Henley had come to California with his own band, and he never wanted to be a backup singer for the rest of his life.
So, how did the Eagles break from Linda Ronstadt?
Although anyone in Ronstadt’s position would have grown bitter to see some of her old bandmates leave her high and dry, she couldn’t have been more gracious, with Henley saying, “They didn’t harbour any ill will towards us. They were great. They were supportive, as a matter of fact.” Ronstadt even suggested getting the band a serious guitar player, recommending Leadon after he had turned in time with The Flying Burrito Brothers.
Leadon did bring some authenticity to the band’s country tunes, but the real Swiss Army knife band for them was Poco. Outside of giving them Randy Meisner, Frey would eventually go back to the underrated classic rock act when Meisner stormed out of the group to draft in Timothy B Schmitt.
While they had all of the star power to put together a half-decent tune, it would take them a while before they really hit the ground running, spending hours writing until they had tunes like ‘Take It Easy’. They had already worked out ‘Witchy Woman’ as a jam in Ronstadt’s house, but once they had the proper studio recording down, they hit upon the signature that everyone would know them for later.
Even though the entire band owes a huge debt of gratitude to everyone from Souther to Ronstadt for getting them to the top of the musical world in their early days, it’s not like they weren’t willing to put in the work. There was already some magic in there, given the fact that they were all in the same area, but they weren’t ready to fly until everyone got into the picture.
