The Eagles request Vince Gill rejected to save himself: “With all due respect, I’d rather not”
When the Eagles set out on The Long Goodbye, it was clear that this would be their final outing. After the death of Glenn Frey in 2016, and after decades of highs, lows and tensions, it was time to put the band to bed – and Vince Gill’s top priority was doing that respectfully.
“The Eagles have had a miraculous 52-year odyssey, performing for people all over the globe; keeping the music alive in the face of tragic losses, upheavals and setbacks of many kinds,” the band themselves wrote in a statement in July 2023 when they announced their finale tour.
“We want to give all our fans a chance to see us on this final round,” they continued, calling this tour their “swan song” and thanking fans for backing them for so long. It’s always a tough decision to make when really, Eagles could carry on forever as the hunger from fans never seems to fade. However, as the old saying goes, it’s better to burn out than fade away, and the band wanted to say their goodbyes to their crowds while they could still properly rock the stage.
For their final outing, the band came back together strong. Don Henley endures as the only original member, while Joe Walsh joined relatively soon after in 1975. Timothy Schmit came on board in 1977, meaning that for the most past, the touring band for this final run of concerts was made up of members the fans had loved for a long time. As another addition to the band, Frey’s son Deacon was also brought on The Long Goodbye tour as a way to truly honour his father.
However, after the death of Glenn Frey, a vital piece was missing. Frey’s vocals were vital and so the songs can’t be played without another voice backing Henley up.
That’s when Vince Gill was brought into the band in 2017 as Frey himself had been a fan of Gill’s, and Gill was obviously a fan in return. “In my heart of hearts I wish I wasn’t doing it. That would mean Glenn would still be around, but life is what it is and you just go do what you can do because of what happens,” Gill told the press during his first string of shows with the band, but added, “Those songs deserve to live on as long as they can.”
Clearly, Gill has endless respect for Frey and his musical legacy. That’s exactly why, when it came down to a question of setlist, the artist fought the rest of the band in order to not sing a song.
“Don heard me singing ‘Whenever You Come Around’ at sound check, just me and the guitar doing a sound check, [and he] came up and goes ‘What is that?’” Gill recalled on The Stephen Hogan Podcast. He was simply messing around, warming up his vocal cords by playing one of his own solo tracks when the Eagles’ founder had a request.
“He goes, ‘We need to work that up and do it!” Gill continued, but he knew it was a bad idea, “I said with all due respect, I’d rather not.”
Gill knew this was not the place for solo material. For fans who had battled for tickets for the final Eagles shows, he knew what they were there to hear. “I don’t want anybody sitting out there saying, ‘I didn’t come here to hear Vince’s songs, I came here to hear The Eagles.’ That’s how I respect that,” he said, adding candidly, “I don’t want to give these people one more reason to not like me.”
Already taking on the looming task of stepping into Glenn Frey’s shoes, he didn’t need to be making his role in the band any harder by upsetting fans who were there to hear the group’s hits, not his own.
