‘It was inappropriately titled’: Did ‘History of the Eagles’ focus too much on Glenn Frey and Don Henley?

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Don Felder sat for a lengthy interview as part of the documentary History of the Eagles, expecting his comments to get edited down some. What he didn’t appreciate, in the end, was the way the film ignored over some contributors to the band’s legacy.

“I thought it was inappropriately titled,” Felder tells Rock Cellar. “It should have been titled The History of Don Henley and Glenn Frey.”

Felder, who played a key role in hits like “One of These Nights,” “Those Shoes” and “Hotel California” between 1974-2001, notes the successes that fellow former members like Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner away from the Eagles. Leadon was in the Flying Burrito Brothers, while Meisner was part of Poco and Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band — resume items, Felder says, that weren’t properly explored in the documentary.

“The time that was spent primarily focused on Don Henley and Glenn Frey versus anyone else in the band,” says Felder, who’s currently on tour with Styx and Foreigner. “To me, that’s OK; it was their project, they controlled it and they paid for it so it can be any way they wanted it to be. … But I think it was just a little lopsided.”

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