Don Henley Confirms That the Eagles Are Done
Don Henley says an emotional performance with Jackson Browne at this year's Grammy Awards will be the Eagles' last. The surviving members gathered on that night in tribute to co-founder Glenn Frey, who co-wrote "Take It Easy" with Browne in the early '70s. He died suddenly in January.
"That was the final farewell," Henley tells the BBC. "I don't think you'll see us performing again. I think that was probably it. I think it was an appropriate farewell."
Frey's death, after years of stomach ailments, halted plans for an anniversary presentation of Hotel California, the multi-platinum album issued 40 years ago in 1976. Henley says the Eagles had been in discussion about presenting the project in its entirety as part of a new tour. "Obviously," he adds, "that's not going to happen now."
Henley, meanwhile, has turned his attentions to an on-going solo career, which includes a date in the U.K. this summer at Hyde Park in support of the 2015 release Cass County. That country-focused project, named after his birthplace in Texas, seemed like a natural outgrowth of the rootsy music associated with the Eagles in their earliest days. Henley, however, says he is considering a stylistic left turn.
"I'm already thinking about the next record," Henley says. "It's going to be very different from the Cass County album. I'm going to go back to – in the '60s and the early '70s, I listened to a lot of rhythm and blues and Southern soul music. I'm a big fan of soul music – Sam and Dave and Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and things like that. So, I may go in that direction. I'm not sure."
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