Jazz Fest 2026 Saturday Weekend II
By Donald Rickert
Despite all of this year's Jazz Fest mishaps due to the weather and scheduling because of the aforementioned weather, Saturday ended up being one of the best Jazz Fest days in recent memories. The highlight act, despite the fact that Big Freedia, local blues artist a la Belgium Ghalia Volt, and others all killed it on stage, the Eagles played.
The Eagles were formed out of the band that supported Linda Ronstadt. The original motto between Don Henley and Glenn Frey was "no sidemen," in relation to their relationship with the star that they supported and their lack of input into the musical direction.
Those two soon added Randy Meisner on bass and guitarist and banjo player Bernie Leadon to complete, or so they thought, the band with Henley on drums and Frey on guitar. All four members sang, too.
There were issues that would arise, stylistically, because Frey wanted to rock out more, and the band, early on, had more of an easy listening, California country sound. With that in mind, the band brought in one of Leadon's friends to help on some lead guitar on a couple of tracks, "Good Day in Hell" and "Already Gone," including some slide guitar work.
Felder originally assumed it was just session work, but the band soon then invited him to join the band, including making him an equal member of their corporation, Eagles LTD, which would prove to be interesting some 20 plus years later.
As the band became one of the most popular bands in America, some original members started to drop off, including Meisner and Leadon, which led the Eagles to bring in Joe Walsh, formerly of the James Gang and his own successful solo career, and Timothy B. Schmidt on bass. At this point, the "no sidemen" motto was out of the door as Henley and Frey famously ran the band, as Walsh described it, as two "alphas."
Much later, after the Eagles took a huge hiatus and then reunited, that issue returned. Frey and Henley saw themselves as more valuable than the other members and insisted on more than everyone else. They asserted that they were the two most successful solo artists that kept the Eagles in the American zeitgeist. Whether or not this was true or no, it eventually became problematic.
At some point, altogether he originally agreed to a smaller salary, Felder, as was his right as an equal member of Eagles LTD, kept asking to see the numbers with the tour, merchandise, etc.
Soon thereafter, Henley and Frey saw this as problematic, so they fired him. Unfortunately for them, it is illegal in corporate law to cut loose a minority member of a corporation without just cause. They didn't have one, aside from their impatience with Felder.
With his firing, despite the fact that he wrote all of the music to "Hotel California," including the twin, dueling guitar solos, Felder filed a lawsuit, which was settled out of court.
Nobody really knows what the terms are, but there are rumors that Felder gets paid every single time that the Eagles perform. Granted, too, he said, numerous times, that he'd rather be playing alongside the other Eagles, but the circumstances make that impossible.
This Saturday, the Eagles, with their numerous hit songs, hit the Jazz Fest main stage with Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmidt, Deacon Frey—filling his father's shoes, and Vince Gill, who takes Felder's place.
They played all of the prerequisite hits: "Already Gone," "Them Shoes," "One of these Nights," and, of course, "Hotel California."
And although Jazz Fest has one more day to go, the Eagles are a definite capstone to the Jazz Fest festivities.
#JazzandHeritageFestival, #JazzFest2026 #louisianaHeritage2026, #nojf2026, #nola.
