Co-founder Bernie Leadon will reportedly join the Eagles for a portion of their still-expanding 2013 tour. He last recorded with the band on 1975’s One of These Nights, and was the first member to depart.
Noise11 confirms the reunion, in an unsourced report announcing a dozen additional concert dates. The 2013 “History of the Eagles” kicks off in July, and runs through late October.
Leadon, the final piece of the founding incarnation of the Eagles, helped shape the group’s initial country-rock style — and served as co-writer on “Witchy Woman,” a No. 9 Billboard hit in 1972. Marc Eliot, in his 2005 book To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles, claimed that Leadon poured a beer over Glenn Frey’s head the day he quit.
Joe Walsh joined the Eagles after Leadon’s emotional departure, making a huge impact on their subsequent 1976 release Hotel California, while Leadon later had a short stint in the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Frey, Don Henley, Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit — who replaced fellow co-founder Randy Meisner before 1979’s The Long Run — continue as the Eagles.
Walsh had earlier confirmed that the band was in talks with Leadon about a return, telling Billboard: “Bernie’s brilliant. I never really got a chance to play with him, but we’ve been in contact.”
All seven members and former members, including Don Felder, last performed together at the Eagles’ 1998 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
