Joe Walsh: Sphere Problem Was Nearly a ‘Deal-Breaker’ for Eagles
· Ultimate Classic RockJoe Walsh has detailed the challenges that come with playing at the Las Vegas Sphere, including one issue that was nearly a “deal-breaker” for the Eagles.
The beloved band began their residency at the state-of-the-art venue in September. The dazzling performances – which are part of the Eagles ongoing farewell tour – have added another chapter to the group’s incredible legacy. Still, the Eagles were forced to adjust in order to make the Sphere shows work.
“It’s very different onstage,” Walsh admitted during a recent conversation with Rolling Stone. “There are some non-musical things that we have to put up with to make it all work, and we’re OK with that. We’ve had to learn how to do it. At first it was maybe a deal-breaker, but we’ve learned how to do it.”
READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Eagles Album
Probed as to what the biggest technical issue was, Walsh was forthright.
“On the Sphere there’s 160,000 speakers behind the screen," he explained. "No matter where you sit, you have speakers pointing at you, so they don’t have to be really loud. To do that, computers have to delay it a little bit from what we’re doing. Because it goes to everywhere in the Sphere and comes out of these speakers all at the same time, there’s a delay there to process that.”
“If we’re aware of that, we can’t play,” Walsh continued. “It’s like singing the national anthem at a baseball stadium. [The sound from] right field comes right back at you, and then left field comes back at you, and then center field. There’s three of you and you don’t know which one you are.”
How Did the Eagles Fix Their Sphere Sound Issue?
To combat the issue, the Eagles enlisted special in-ear monitors, ensuring that the band hears itself and nothing else.
READ MORE: 5 Stunning Moments From Eagles' Sphere Opening Night
“It’s all there, and everybody hears everything at the same time,” Walsh noted. “And adjusting to what we do is different than 30 years of touring that we know about.”
Eagles will continue performing weekends at the Sphere through 2025. The final concert of the residency was originally scheduled for late January, but the band has extended their stay due to popular demand. Their closing gig is now set for March 15.
July 15, 1971 - The Eagles Make Their Inauspicious Debut
You’ve got to start somewhere, right? The Eagles certainly didn’t project rock stardom when they took the stage at Disneyland in Anaheim, California on July 15, 1971. The group – made up of Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon – didn’t even have a name yet. Instead, they’d been recruited from the local Los Angeles music scene by singer Linda Ronstadt, who used them as her backing band. Despite this humble start, the future Eagles sensed some chemistry and decided to continue together. Shortly after the Disneyland gig, Henley and Frey informed Ronstadt that they’d be branching out as their own band.
April 6, 1974 - Cal Jam Festival
Just a few weeks after the release of their third studio album, On the Border, the Eagles took the stage at California Jam at the Ontario Motor Speedway. The impressive lineup also featured Deep Purple, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Black Sabbath. The Eagles' midday set presented some challenges – including hot weather and the lack of a soundcheck. The group also was missing Don Felder from its lineup, as the rocker’s wife was giving birth to their first child that day. Nevertheless, the Eagles delivered a captivating performance in front of 200,000 fans, further enhancing their growing reputation as a dynamic live act. Jackson Browne – a friend and frequent collaborator of the band – filled in for Felder during the gig.
Jan. 18, 1976 - Joe Walsh’s First Official Show
As the Eagles continued to evolve their sound, artistic differences sprung up between founding member Bernie Leadon and the rest of the band. He quit the group in 1975, infamously pouring a beer over Glenn Frey’s head. By this point, the band already had a well-established relationship with Joe Walsh, who had toured alongside the Eagles in ‘75 and routinely joined them during their sets. Walsh offered a heavier rock sound, and though there was some trepidation about how his personality would fit within the group, he was brought into the Eagles as Leadon’s replacement. His first official concert with the band took place on Jan. 18, 1976 in Auckland, New Zealand, the first stop of the Eagles tour of the Pacific. Management purposefully started Walsh out overseas so that he’d be well acclimated in the band by the time they returned to America.
Aug. 1, 1978 - 65,000 Eagles Fans Rock Through the Rain
The Hotel California tour found the Eagles at the height of their musical prowess. The group’s 1976 LP was a massive success, and overwhelming demand kept the band on the road for three years. While many of the Hotel California dates were triumphs, the performance on Aug. 1, 1978 stands out as especially unique. The Eagles performed at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota, with opening acts Pablo Cruise and the Steve Miller Band. The sold-out show drew more than 65,000 people, a record for the stadium at the time. Tickets were so in-demand that fans climbed the chain link fence and invaded the venue in an effort to see the band. Then, the weather decided to get involved, as the heavens opened up for an unseasonable torrential downpour. Still, that didn’t stop the Eagles from performing, or dampen their fans’ spirits, as the thousands in attendance rocked out in the rain.
July 31, 1980 - 'Only Three More Songs ‘till I Kick Your Ass, Pal'
Some concerts are remembered for once-in-a-lifetime performances, others go down in history for their dramatics. The latter was definitely the case in the summer of 1980 when the Eagles, weary from a non-stop schedule of touring and recording, finally imploded. Before playing a benefit show in support of California Sen. Alan Cranston (pictured here), Don Felder muttered something that offended Glenn Frey. "I felt Don Felder insulted Senator Cranston under his breath, and I confronted him with it. So now we're onstage, and Felder looks back at me and says, 'Only three more songs till I kick your ass, pal.' And I'm saying, 'Great. I can't wait,'" Frey later recalled. "We're out there singing 'Best of My Love,' but inside both of us are thinking, 'As soon as this is over, I'm gonna kill him.' That was when I knew I had to get out." Sure enough, emotions boiled over immediately after the concert ended. The Eagles broke up, and for more than a decade it seemed they would stay that way. "Your nerve coatings are only so thick," Felder told UCR in 2013, looking back on the incident. "When they get worn really thin and frayed, that’s when people say things, do things, misbehave. Especially when you add fuel to the fire with drugs and alcohol. It just becomes a very volatile situation."
May 27, 1994 - ‘Hell Freezes Over’ as Eagles Reunite
An unlikely person got the Eagles’ members back in the same room: Travis Tritt. The country star covered the band’s classic tune “Take It Easy,” and insisted the Eagles join him in the music video. Amazingly, they agreed. Even more shockingly, they got along. Suddenly, a reunion was in motion. Four months later, over two days in April 1994, the Eagles recorded an MTV special on a backlot studio in Burbank, California. The 11 live tracks were subsequently used on their Hell Freezes Over LP, while a tour of the same name – which began on May 27, 1994 in Southern California – shattered record books. In total, the Hell Freezes Over trek spanned three years and 160 shows, taking in more than $250 million.
Dec. 31, 1999 - Don Felder's Last Show
The thousands in attendance on New Year’s Eve 1999 had no idea they were witnessing the final Eagles performance of one of the band's longest tenured members. After officially joining the band in 1975, Don Felder proved imperative to the Eagles’ world-beating success. Alongside Joe Walsh, Felder gave the group a powerful two-pronged guitar attack that propelled their sound from country folk to heavy-handed rock. Felder weathered many of the group’s ups and downs, but fallout with Glenn Frey and Don Henley – whom Felder painted as greedy and power hungry – led to the rocker’s dismissal in 2001. The split was ugly, with lawsuits and accusations thrown from both sides. Felder’s last show was eventually released as The Millennium Concert, originally part of the Selected Works 1972 - 1999 boxed set before receiving its own vinyl release in 2021.
Jan. 15, 2014 - Forum Re-Opening
The Eagles history will forever be intertwined with Los Angeles, the city where they formed and first started forging their legacy. So when the Forum – formerly home of the Showtime Lakers and one of LA’s most iconic venues – received a massive multi-million dollar overhaul in 2013, the Eagles were a natural choice to reopen the space. The band played a series of concerts at the Forum, beginning Jan. 15, 2014. “The building is a grand dame of all these [arenas], the first of its kind,” Glenn Frey told Billboard prior to the first show. “When we first played there, it looked cavernous. All the places (we played in the mid-’70s) appeared big. But I remember how good the Forum sounded and you can hear yourself.” The performances were officially part of the band’s History of the Eagles tour, which ran from 2013 to 2015.
July 29, 2015 - Glenn Frey’s Final Public Eagles Concert
The two-year History of the Eagles tour proved to be the swan song for co-founder Glenn Frey. The rocker had secretly battled rheumatoid arthritis and ulcerative colitis, debilitating issues which made it difficult for him to perform. Still, that didn’t stop him from embracing the Eagles’ lengthy history during a trek that featured over 140 performances. The final show of the tour – and Frey’s last public performance with the band – took place on July 29, 2015, in Bossier City, Louisiana. Two days later, he joined his bandmates one last time, playing a private show for 300 fans at a St. Louis-area high school. Frey died on Jan. 18, 2016, his conditions having become further compounded by pneumonia. The band honored their departed comrade with a performance of “Take It Easy” at the Grammys, and for a while it seemed like the Eagles were done.
July 15, 2017 - Eagles Return With a New Lineup
Immediately following their Grammy tribute to Glenn Frey, Don Henley announced that the Eagles were through. "That was the final farewell," the rocker told 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." Still, time has a way of healing things, and a year and a half later Henley had a change of heart. The singer opted to revive the Eagles with Frey’s son Deacon in the lineup, while also adding country star Vince Gill. The new lineup played its first show together at the Classic West festival on July 15, 2017 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. “This is unbelievable,” the younger Frey declared at the gig. “The last few years have been rough. The only remedy for that is love and I’m feeling it from you tonight. This is my medicine.”