“He was the leader and everybody looked up to him”, Felder said Tuesday of Frey, who died Monday at age 67 after battling a variety of health problems.
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An announcement on the band’s website said the cause was complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia.
Perhaps no other artist’s reaction was more poignant than EAGLES co-founder and lifelong friend DON HENLEY, who shared his thoughts via FACEBOOK yesterday (1/18).
The Eagles became a hit over the next decade as they embodied, if not pioneered, melodic California sound and both the band’s greatest hits from the mid-1970’s and Hotel California are among the best-selling albums in History.
While many place The Eagles as the greatest of all time when speaking about rock-n-roll, a former broadcaster says the band did more for country music than anything. The two took parts in singing their songs. “But, I will be grateful, every day, that he was in my life”.
A whopping 14 years after their 1980 breakup, the Eagles were back, and they launched their “Hell Freezes Over” tour, named funnily after the band famously said it wouldn’t reunite “until hell freezes over”.
Frey passed away in New York City on Monday (Jan. 18), weeks after undergoing surgery that forced the group to postpone their Kennedy Center Honors. While Frey typically played the road-dog anthem on the acoustic guitar, he was no stranger to the keys; one of the band’s most well-known songs, “Desperado”, had Frey playing the piano while Don Henley sang the track in concert.
The band members were known for their often conflicting personalities, which led to changes in personnel – other members included the guitarists Don Felder and Joe Walsh and the bassist Timothy B. Schmit – and eventually to the break-up of the band.
When the Eagles split in 1980, Frey pursued a successful solo career, releasing theme songs for the hit movie Beverly Hills Cop (The Heat Is On) and hugely popular TV series Miami Vice (You Belong to the City). The Eagles were the recipients of six Grammy Awards, five American Music Awards, sold over 120 million albums and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
Frey and Henley also became estranged for years, their breach a key reason the band stayed apart in the 1980s.
Glenn was the one who invited me to join the Eagles in 1974, and it turned out to be a gift of a lifetime to have spent so many years working side by side with him.
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“I have many wonderful memories of those years and the many miles I travelled with Glenn, filled with laughter, song, parties, hugs and brotherly bonds”.
