How Linda Ronstadt helped to form the Eagles
The Eagles earned recognition as pioneers of the country rock movement, appealing to fans of Don Henley, whose tastes oscillated between the soft rock and Americana genres. In their initial phase as the backing band for Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles embarked on a quest for self-discovery, shaping their identity as an unmatched force across the industry.
Although both artists have since become renowned in their own right, Eagles and Ronstadt both recognised the uncertainty of their formative years. “I really was terrible in the beginning,” Ronstadt joked to Uncut. “I had no idea what I was doing. It wasn’t until about 1980 that I really started to learn how to sing.”
Nonetheless, this collaboration laid the groundwork for Eagles’ eventual rise to fame. The band’s members honed their musical skills and developed a cohesive sound while on tour with Ronstadt. The experience was developmental, influencing Eagles’ harmonious style and helping them establish their own identity as a country-rock powerhouse.
It all sparked one night after Ronstadt released her third album. At the time, while forming the backing band for her tour, Ronstadt unintentionally played a pivotal role in bringing the Eagles together. “I had a hand in forming the Eagles, yes,” she said. “But it was their talent and their mutual interaction that really did it. I asked my friend John Boylan if he’d help me put a band together”.
Continuing, she added: “So we walked to The Troubadour one Monday night and heard this band called Shiloh onstage. They were playing my version of ‘Silver Threads And Golden Needles’ exactly off the record, including the guitar solo. So I thought, ‘Maybe I can just hire this band; they already know the arrangements!’ But I had some players already, so we went and asked Don Henley, the drummer in Shiloh if he’d like to play for my next tour. Then I needed a guitar player, so I asked Glenn Frey, who used to sing with my boyfriend, JD Souther”.
“When we were on the road, Glenn and Don roomed together, and they each discovered that the other was a good singer and writer, so they started working together,” Ronstadt recalled. “By the end of the tour, they decided to form a band. John suggested Randy Meisner to play bass and I suggested Bernie Leadon, so those four became my band with the idea that they’d go on their own as soon as they got a deal.”
Although they each went on to enjoy their own separate successes after the fact, Henley continued to praise Ronstadt’s musical contributions. In 2019, he discussed the singer’s impact, saying, “This lady is a dear, dear friend of mine. I had the pleasure of working with her very early on in my career even before the Eagles were formed. I was a member of her backup band and I traveled with her in the spring of 1971. We did gigs together. Glenn Frey and I were both in her band at the same time.”
