Eagles and Band Leadership

[Delilah]

Number one, Frey was always the leader of the band from the inception. That doesn't mean that everyone else was unimportant or had no voice, but it was his idea to build a band based on Geffin's advice to do so. Henley did not have the temperament or the inclination to be the leader by his own admission.

I have not seen evidence of that. Please provide a source. I have heard people say that Henley was a perfectionist, that Frey was tired of all the strife in the band, that both were tired and on cocaine, which made the problems 100 times worse. I have never read or heard that they fought over the leadership of the band.

This was originally posted in the Eagles 3.0 topic. I don't agree that it is so clear-cut that Glenn was the leader from the get-go. So I thought a discussion in a new thread might be warranted. Here are some reasons why I don't agree.

1. Glenn had the idea for a band and started it with Don Henley. However Randy has been quoted as saying that when they were backing up Linda Ronstadt together, he thought they should form a band together. Glenn probably had the idea first but I thought I would throw that in there since it's implied that having the idea for a band makes one the leader (Brian Jones anyone?).

2. During the early days of the Eagles, Don told Glenn, "You and I are going to have run this band."

3. In Heaven and Hell, Don F quotes Glenn as saying, "There are no sidemen in this band. We've all been there and we know what it's like." This statement was made when they were discussing a 5-way split of Eagles Ltd. and the profits right after Don F joined.

4. In the HOTE documentary, Joe described the guys as alpha males and that during all the fighting you'd hear, "I'm in charge, no you're not!" etc.

5. Also in the HOTE documentary, Don H says you cannot have 5 leaders in a band, which indicates that there was indeed a something of a power struggle among the members. Such a power struggle would not happen if there was a definite, accepted leader from the start.

I believe Bill Szymczyk also says something about leadership conflicts during The Long Run era but I can't remember off-hand what he said exactly.

During the HFO era and after, it's pretty clear Glenn was the leader but I still believe Don H wielded a lot of influence.