The Eagles and Charles M. Young: Behind the Cover Story

The last time the Eagles appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, back in 1979, Charles M. Young had spent a year with the band, gaining unprecedented access to one of rock's biggest and most private bands ("The Eagles: Hell Is for Heroes," RS 305). The Eagles had hit new peaks for partying and for creativity, and Young was happy to join them. The article, though, opened some wounds (and another Young piece on the band — a short Random Note — led to a historic softball game with the band taking on some RS staffers). Young spoke with RS about that infamous softball showdown and his relationship with the band.

When you first wrote about the Eagles, despite their popularity a lot of people were dismissive of their talent.
It's never been hip to like the Eagles in New York. When they were popular in the Seventies, there was this thing going on here called punk rock. You know, this little subculture that came out of CBGBs. And the values of punk were very different from the values of the Eagles. A punk vocalist is basically cathartic, and it was very much a rebellion against the cult of the Guitar Hero, as though they were saying, "We could do it ourselves. These musicians that we hear on FM radio aren't God and you don't have to be a virtuoso to play really powerful, effecting rock & roll guitar." Johnny Ramone was the guy in the first punk band who proved that, and it was a simple way to play the guitar but very, very compelling. And then there's the Eagles, who were kind of at the pinnacle of FM radio popularity. They were doing something that really nobody else could do with their harmonies. There weren't any punk bands that would do harmonies at all. So the Eagles were viewed as unhip. At the time when I wrote that original article, people thought I was crazy for writing about the Eagles because I came up writing about the Ramones and the Dead Boys.

It's just two totally different ends of the spectrum.
Popular music is a kind of popular religion. Rock & roll fans often interpret a band that doesn't sound like the band that they love as a threat. I just don't think it's necessary. And in the case of the Eagles, they weren't punk but they were certainly pugnacious. Especially when I was with the Eagles, Don Henley made some crack about me going off to listen to punk rock in my hotel room or something. And I said, "What do you think? I listen to Johnny Rotten 24 hours a day?"