Throwback Thursday | The Eagles Implode In Long Beach

The Eagles are mostly known for their mellow brand of country-rock, so it’s almost hard to believe the band imploded on-stage 34 years ago tonight in Long Beach, CA; at what would turn out to be their last gig until 1994.

The Eagles were playing a benefit for the re-election campaign of California Senator Alan Cranston, which was put together by Frey. Felder wasn’t happy about performing for a politician and made his feelings known. Don and Glenn traded threats throughout the gig. Felder recounts the situation in his auto-biography Heaven & Hell: My Life In The Eagles, “We walked onstage and (Frey) came over while we were playing `The Best of My Love’ and said: `F—you. I’m gonna kick your ass when we get off the stage.’ As the night progressed, we both grew angrier and began hissing at each other. The sound technicians feared the audience might hear our outbursts, so they lowered Glenn’s microphone until he had to sing. He approached me after every song to rant, rave, curse -and let me know how many songs remained before our fight.”

Last year a fantastic documentary, History of the Eagles, was released and tells the tale of that fateful night when Don Felder and Glenn Frey nearly came to blows using the band’s audio from the gig. Watch and listen to how it went down: