The date was Sunday, August 29, 2004. Don Henley was at the old New York State Fair Grandstand venue. I was 15 years old (much older than I remembered being) and about to have my life forever changed.
Some of the details are hazy, but this was, in part at least, planned by my parents. On Christmas of 2003, I received what is still one of my prized possessions: the two-CD Very Best Of (The Eagles) album.
I was already a fan of the Eagles* on Christmas 2003. And long before Henley’s show, I can vividly remember sitting in my parent’s sundeck and listening to the Hell Freezes Over album, where I’d get lost in dreamville while reading the lyrics from the CD booklet.
*The late Glenn Frey, co-founder with Henley, was insistent that the band’s name was just Eagles, not THE Eagles.
So I already had a solid love for the band when I received this new compilation disc. But this album contained several hits that I didn’t hear on Hell Freezes Over. Being the music-loving teenager I was, I dove all in. I do most things that way. Most of the time it’s a benefit. In the case of the Eagles, I’d say it’s worked out well.
But back to my parents. They get me this CD and then there are tickets for me, my dad, and my brother, Danny, to go to the Henley show. I’m not sure what I was expecting going in but I know Henley’s music, especially his voice, had a profound effect on me afterward. For years, I’ve thought about how easy Henley made it seem when he held the lyric “… better let somebody love youuuuuuuuu” for a breezy 30 seconds* while finishing out “Desperado” in the encore.
*It was probably more like 5 seconds.
From there, the transformation grew. But it was more subtle than my love affair with Bruce Springsteen. Most people who know me know Bruce is my ultimate guy. He still is. I’ve devoured countless hours listening to Springsteen & the E Street Band, plus I’ve seen him or the band 11 times in concert. I’m hopeful that #12 will happen in 2023. When Christine first met me, she joked that all I listened to was music from Springsteen. She wasn’t wrong. I went on a huuuuge Springsteen rampage in my early 20s. I connected with his music so much during that time in my life. So why listen to anything else?
Then came January 18, 2016. Glenn Frey was dead at the age of 67. The news rocked me. It rocked the music world, too, including Springsteen’s. Bruce performed a cover of the Eagles’ breakout hit “Take It Easy” during his show in Chicago the very next night.
I was in a fog about it. During my Springsteen heyday, I’d weened off from the Eagles. Springsteen rocked harder. That’s just the way it was. Christine and I used to have an old iPod dock and radio that we kept on the kitchen table of the first apartment we had together. After Frey died, from that kitchen table dock, I began to play that compilation album I loved so much. Then, I watched the History of the Eagles for the first time when Netflix picked it up in honor of Frey’s brilliant career.
Once again, my life would be revolutionized.
I don’t have many regrets in my life. I’m pretty satisfied and generally a happy guy. But when Frey died and my Eagles love rekindled, I got sad and felt at least a hint of regret. The Eagles had been in Buffalo, NY (we were still living in the Syracuse area at the time) on July 18, 2015, with Glenn Frey still living, and the concert didn’t even flash on my radar.
Of course, hindsight is 20/20. But in 2016 I had yet to see the band in person. I had only seen Henley’s concert in 2004. He did play a bunch of Eagles songs where he sang the lead but it wasn’t the same. Now I was resolute: if there was a next time, which really wasn’t known back then, I was going to see the Eagles.
Luckily for me, July 14, 2018, was another chance to see the latest rendition of the Eagles, with Vince Gill and Deacon Frey (Glenn’s son) joining the band and replacing the deceased Frey. This, of course, was not the first shakeup the band had gone through. You didn’t come here to get the history of the Eagles but it’s pretty well known that Henley is the only original band member left in the group.
Anyway, the day came just in time — Christine and I would move to Charlotte, NC roughly a week later. The show was great. I loved having Deacon there replacing his dad and Henley sounded as good as I remembered him singing in 2004.
If that were the only time I got to see the Eagles perform, I would have been satisfied and more than happy. But then I got lucky a second and third time. In 2022, the Eagles (without Deacon Frey who was “sick” and then later left the band to venture out on his own) came through to Charlotte and Raleigh.
The Charlotte show was first. That was the show I was 100% going to. Christine and I went and I was deeeelighted after this show. The band played the album Hotel California from start to finish, Henley sang “The Boys of Summer” in the encore — the first time I had heard that live since 2004 — but it was actually Joe Walsh who stole the show. Walsh is Christine’s favorite, and he’s an interesting dude, but man, did he put on a terrific performance that night. He rocked harder than I remember him playing in 2018. It was just terrific.
In a lot of ways, that show seemed like it was part of a farewell tour. (It still may very well be.) Henley’s comments throughout the show made it sound like he was bidding adieu. At the time, the Raleigh show roughly two weeks later was the only local-ish show left on the tour. So, I decided to buy a ticket and joined my mom and dad at the PNC Arena. Same show, no difference to me. Happy as a clam.
Again, I left that show in Raleigh thinking that might be the last time I’d see the Eagles perform.
And then it wasn’t.
January 4, 2023. The Eagles announce another extension of the tour and it includes an April date in Greensboro. I’m immediately stoked. But then another thought crosses my mind. Is this truly the final time? If it was, then I needed to go big.
So I showed Christine the news and talked to her about my plan. For a few years, I had saved money for one of three things:
Yankees World Series tickets
VIP to Springsteen
VIP to the Eagles
October had come and gone without a trip to the World Series for the Yanks. Springsteen was also coming to Greensboro in March 2023, but we had a wedding on the same night. That left the Eagles. It was really a dibs thing. I told Christine I wanted to go all-in and that it was going to be pricey to go VIP for the Eagles. We agreed that the money saved should be spent and that she’d stay home that night with our two girls. A few days later, I was the recipient of a front-row VIP ticket to see the Eagles on Tuesday, April 4, 2023.
Leading up to the concert, I didn’t really know what to expect. That’s because most of the VIP details weren’t sent until two days before the show. I knew there was swag but no meet-n-greet. And I knew I had a front-row ticket. That’s all I needed and I was so ready to go see the band play.
This past Sunday rolled around, and as promised, I received an email with the VIP details. It turns out that being VIP has a lot of exclusivity to it! Private bathrooms and concessions, a VIP parking lot, and doors opening a half-hour earlier than the general public for easy shopping and food access. Plus, did I mention a bunch of really cool swag?
I hopped into our Jeep a little after 4 on Tuesday and headed for Greensboro. It was 85 and sunny with a Carolina blue sky. Amazing travel weather. And of course, I had the Eagles playing on my radio.
I got to the parking lot around 5:30, called the girls to say goodnight, and headed into the Coliseum. After checking in, receiving my swag, and grabbing a burger, I decided to head on down to see exactly where I’d be sitting for the night. The usher looked at the ticket on my phone, walked me down the first level stairs onto the floor, took a left at the center of the floor seats, and we headed all the way to the front. When she stopped, she said “Here’s your seat” and pointed to Seat 14 — an aisle seat right in the middle between the left-side floor seats (my side) and the right-side ones. What a stroke of luck! I’d have only one person sitting by my side and I could freely get up and down whenever I wanted. Boo ya.
Then I met Bobby. Bobby was the security guard watching our area of the floor. He slapped a green wristband on me (signifying front-row VIP) and we spent the next 30 minutes having a great conversation about all of the shows he’s seen as part of his job. Bobby’s a Southerner who likes to hunt and fish. I doubt we have much in common outside of music but that was enough to make for a very enjoyable conversation.
There was roughly still an hour until the scheduled showtime. So I headed toward the VIP concession for a beer where I had a Steel Hand’s Tropical IPA. After returning to my seat, I met my seat neighbors, Mark and Lisa. Mark is a dentist originally from Pittsburgh and Lisa is a healthcare inspector from a small town in North Carolina. Mark is an Eagles super fan like me but this was going to be Lisa’s fourth show, too. Mark’s daughters, like me, work in talent acquisition in the Charlotte area, and Lisa’s oldest son had a baseball game that night and is headed to UNC in the Fall. Needless to say, between the Eagles, Pennsylvania, and baseball, we had plenty to talk about.
As I expected, the thing that really caught Mark and Lisa’s attention was my age. Not that I’m much younger than they were — I’m 34 and they were 49 and 47 respectively — but they were still floored that I spent all this money and traveled from Charlotte (which is only an hour and twenty minutes away) to see the Eagles. I just told them it’s in my blood now. I had to do it.
Besides, again, this might be the last time I get to see them.
The lights were off as an older man, dressed all in black in a hat and a cape, made his way onto the stage and walked in front of the drawn-down curtain, going from right to left (looking at the stage from the front). At the end of the stage stood a record player and a vinyl copy of the Hotel California album. Above the record player, a Hotel California sign shone in its signature neon blue. The man reached the record player, stood and studied the album, while thunder cracked in the arena. Mystic sounds and rain are heard overhead.* Then, after a pause, the man took out the album and held it up to the crowd who applauded with approval. For they know the show was about to begin. The man took the record, put it on the player, lifted the needle, dropped it on the player… and simultaneously, the curtain lifted, the band appeared, and you heard the familiar guitar stroke out dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dunnnnn-dun-dun.
*The Eagles have gotten more into theatricals — almost the complete opposite of their original live shows — since their reunion in 1994, but it seems to have turned up even more after the death of Frey.
The Hotel California album is a masterpiece. It features the title track plus several other Eagles hits, and has a heavy dose of Henley on lead vocals. It’s 9 songs you can listen to and know you are getting the peak of the band. It has my second-favorite Eagles tune “Wasted Time,” which includes my favorite Henley lyrics:
I remember what you told me
Before you went out on your own
Sometimes to keep it together
You got to leave it alone
Plus, there is the underappreciated “The Last Resort” along with my favorite Eagles song featuring Joe Walsh on lead vocals “Pretty Maids All in a Row.” That song includes another lyrical favorite when Walsh sings, Why do we give up our hearts to the past?/And why must we grow up so fast?
For this show, Vince Gill took lead vocals on Frey’s “New Kid in Town” and on Randy Mesiner’s “Try and Love Again.” “Waster Time,” “Wasted Time (Reprise),” and “The Last Resort” all featured a local symphonic orchestra, while the latter song also featured the choir from UNC! These were very cool additions that allowed the songs to sound much like they do on the studio version and gave local musicians a chance to play with the big boys.
At the conclusion of the Hotel California album, Henley walked centerstage, gave the local musicians their deserved due, and told the crowd to head to the restrooms, grab a beer, and do whatever they wanted during intermission. When they came back, the Eagles were going to play “everything we can remember.”
The first song post-intermission was a great rendition of “Seven Bridges Road.” The fact that the band can still harmonize for a song like that after all of these years speaks to the incredible talent and work ethic they have.
And then came the first surprise of the night.
Whenever Christine and I go to a restaurant, almost always, she’ll check the menu online before we go and I won’t. I want to be surprised. Plus, the specials aren’t often listed. Christine likes to know what she’s getting and be ready to order.
It’s the same way with concerts. I believe the Eagles have been playing a similar setlist almost every night of this tour. Most of the band members are in their 70s and most musicians aren’t Springsteen, who in previous tours would surprise the audience just about every night. Regardless, I did not do any setlist research prior to the show.
So the band finishes up “Seven Bridges Road” and Henley takes the mic again. In truly one of the goose-bumpiest moments of my life, Henley then announced that DEACON FREY was coming out to join the band. Now, had I done setlist research prior to the show, I might have seen that Frey has been traveling with the band as a special guest. But I didn’t do that and I WAS FLOORED. SO MANY GOOSEBUMPS. This is legacy we are talking about.
Deacon comes out and sings his dad’s breakout tune “Take It Easy” and I swear you wouldn’t have known the difference between son and father unless you looked at them. Even if you did, Deacon rocked the same 1970s look his dad did with the sunglasses in his long hair — a fact Lisa was pleased to learn about from me. Frey ended up playing “Peaceful Easy Feeling” too right after that before heading backstage again. The moment was over but WOW what an occasion it was.
The rest of the show was filled with other memorable greatest hits like “One of These Nights,” “Life’s Been Good*,” “Heartache Tonight**,” “Rocky Mountain Way,” and “Already Gone***.” Henley ended the show by dedicating “Best of My Love” — a song about a breakup — to America.
*Walsh cleverly changed the lyric “They write me letters, tell me I'm great” to “They write me e-mails, tell me I’m great.”
** “Heartache Tonight” is my oldest daughter Stella’s fave song.
*** "Deacon Frey returned to the stage to sing his dad’s lead vocal in “Already Gone” and stayed on stage for the final encore song as a backing vocal.
It was 10:58 pm ET and the show was, sadly, over. The band gathered in the middle of the stage, waved, took their bows, and headed backstage.
There was one final surprise in store before I left the floor to head home. My new friend Bobby grabbed one of Vince Gill’s guitar picks and gave it to me as a souvenir. What a guy.
I was in a much happier mood leaving Tuesday’s show than I was after leaving the Raleigh concert in 2022. I think the front-row VIP experience was worth every penny in that sense. I remained cheerful until I heard “No More Walks in the Wood” come on my radio during the drive back. For whatever reason, that song struck me. In essence, the song is about death — the death of nature. And I think it reminded me that death is much closer for the Eagles than anyone wants it to be, both in the sense of the band performing live, and in a literal way.
But hearing that song also gave me clarity. It made me realize that when you love something or someone, you love all of them, the good and the bad. The Eagles’ story is full of highlights but also a lottttt of crashing and burning. I’m not sure I could ever be friends with Don Henley*, as much as I love his singing voice. Joe Walsh probably would have gotten me killed on an OD. Timothy Schmidt is a nice guy but doesn’t really do it for me. Don Felder was fired from the band because, well, yeah. Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner don’t do it for me either. And Glenn Frey was a major prick back in the day. (Give me Steuart Smith — a man who understands he’s not an “Eagle” but dutifully crushes the guitar and has done so since Felder was fired in 2001.)
*Henley sure pissed off some fans on Tuesday by saying this about concert etiquette: “If you’re standing and several hundred people are sitting behind you then you need to sit your ass down.”
And so I finished off the drive, fully satisfied and happy that I got to experience the Eagles, maybe for the last time. For even if I couldn’t be friends with them, I’ll always have their music, which is so undeniably intertwined with my life. And now, I’ll forever have the experience of seeing them live, VIP style.
This was the Eagles’ 12th show of 2023, their 9th in Greensboro (their first was in 1975), and it’s their 51st year on tour. What more can they do? Only time will tell us the answer to that question.
If it is the end for the Eagles, I can’t think of any better way to have done it.
If you’re looking for a surefire way to listen to the best of the Eagles, please consider checking out the Spotify playlist I created. 12(!) people have already decided they like it!