“I said no”: the million dollar show Glenn Frey turned down
Any band that says that they aren’t in the business for the money is usually lying to their audience or themselves. Although some virtuous musicians in the world want to do everything they can to serve the muse inside them, no one is spending an endless amount of money in the studio without thinking they can see at least some of the profits of their work. But even for a band that was as omnipresent in pop culture as the Eagles, Glenn Frey knew where his priorities were when it came to playing shows.
In fact, one of the disagreements over money was half the reason why the band broke up. The tensions had been boiling over for years ever since Don Felder started getting sidelined, so when Frey and the rest of the band signed on to play a benefit gig, the idea of getting no money never sat well with Felder, leading to them fighting onstage and eventually dissolving the band shortly thereafter.
But looking back on everything, going solo was probably the best thing that could have happened for them. The classic rock stations had already arrived to start playing the band’s music nonstop, and since he didn’t have the same pressures of the gigantic country-rock legends behind him, Frey could easily hang in the background and do whatever he wanted, whether that was throwing songs on film soundtracks or try his hand at acting every now and again.
Granted, there may have been a touch of envy whenever someone pointed out that Don Henley was absolutely killing it. Don Felder may have had time to make his own hits like on the soundtrack to Heavy Metal, but no one else in the band was ever going to make a solo smash as big as ‘The Boys of Summer’ on their best day. Then again, the touring cycle was always an open invitation.
“There’s more to life than being in the Eagles.”
Glenn Frey
And when the 1980s began rolling out massive venues in California, it felt like a no-brainer to have Eagles there to sanctify everything. The US Festival had felt like the spiritual successor to California Jam in the 1970s, but while the band had taken a long break and could have kept everything rolling, Frey was the one putting a stamp on it, complete with a picture of a firm middle finger to the festival organisers.
In various interviews during the documentary History of the Eagles, Frey talked about how he didn’t feel ready to give up his freedom as a solo artist yet, saying, “It started off with the first US Festival, and Steve Wozniak was going to pay us a million dollars. I said no. To tell you the truth, I was having a fine time on my own. There’s more to life than being in the Eagles.”
For a band that was known as country-rock legends, it would take the country side of their sound to truly bring them together. In an effort to fund the Walden Woods Project, Don Henley’s decision to have an Eagles tribute record led to the entire band appearing in a video for Travis Tritt’s ‘Take It Easy’, which managed to dust off the cobwebs and remind all of them why they genuinely liked each other in the first place.
While that would be short-lived the minute that Felder started questioning whether he should be getting paid more on the tour, Frey always knew that it was more about the music for him. Having those massive sponsorships on tour were awfully good, but sometimes wounds are too raw for any paycheck to cover up.
