Vince Gill reveals why Don Henley picked him to join the Eagles after death of Glenn Frey

13 August 2024, 12:04

The Eagles wouldn't have been the same without him.

So when founding member and stalwart of the band Glenn Frey died in 2016, it left a massive void in the group and cast a huge shadow over their future.

Frey wasn't just an integral component of the Eagles' musicianship, he was also a key songwriter and wrote some of their greatest hits.

He was responsible for songs such as 'Lyin' Eyes', 'Take It to the Limit', and arguably their most enduring song in 'Hotel California'.

So you could understand why the likes of Don Henley, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit considered calling it a day there and then.

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"I don’t see how we could go out and play without the guy who started the band," Henley said just a few months after Frey died.

"It would just seem like greed or something. It would seem like a desperate thing."

The Eagles did continue as we now know, thanks to the addition of Vince Gill, who both understood the importance of Frey's presence and honoured his songs in the best way he could.

Shortly after being recruited to the Eagles, Gill said that he felt "just gratitude that I was the guy they decided would work."

"Just that - because Glenn was a great friend, and in my heart of hearts I wish I wasn't doing it."

"That would mean Glenn would still be around, but life is what it is and you just go do what you can do because of what happens. Those songs deserve to live on as long as they can."

The Eagles underwent a rebuild in the wake of Glenn Frey's passing, as they added his son Deacon to the band, with Gill being a final piece of the puzzle.

In a new interview with American Songwriter, Vince Gill discussed what Don Henley said about why Gill was the best fit for the Eagles in an era after Frey's passing.

"He smiled and said, 'Because he knows how to be in a band,'” Gill recalled. "That was just such a beautiful validation."

"I don’t have to have the attention. I don’t have to have the spotlight. I don’t have to do all the talking," he added.

"It’s proven to me that it doesn’t really matter what role you have, just as long as what you’re trying to do is make it better. That’s what I like."

Gill has proved himself to be a fan favourite with the Eagles' new iteration, likely because of the care and consideration of whose songs he's playing.

A respected singer-songwriter in his own right - who rose to initial fame singing on Pure Prairie League's 1980 top 10 hit 'Let Me Love You Tonight' - Gill even reportedly turned down Mark Knopfler when he offered him the chance to join Dire Straits during the eighties.

Even though he's enjoying his tenure as a current member of the Eagles however, he still misses performing his own songs.

Pure Prairie League - Let Me Love You Tonight

“I think that I sing those Eagle songs fine and all of that, but they weren’t written for me, weren’t written melodically for my voice," Gill said.

"Anybody could sing a great song. A great song doesn’t need a great singer or the original singer or any of those kinds of things. But these songs of mine were kind of tailor-made for the way I sing."

Gill's solo hits include songs like 'I Still Believe In You', 'When I Call Your Name', 'Never Knew Lonely', 'Liza Jane', 'Don’t Let Our Love Start Slipping Away', and 'One More Last Chance' which he says he always kicks off his own shows with.

'I tell people all the time that ‘One More Last Chance’ is my 'Whiskey River'," Gill said. "Willie [Nelson] started every show for 50 years with 'Whiskey River', and I’ve kind of done the same with 'One More Last Chance'."

"I love how that song feels and makes people feel a great groove, all that kind of stuff. I don’t think I’d ever change that."