GF: You know, right now there’s only one (laughter).

Hillary Rosen: All artists who were in the band at the time of an album’s release are eligible for a plaque.

GF: I think that as soon as Michael sees this on television he’s going to go out and buy a million and a half records. (laughter) …to make sure that he’s number one….it’s a free country.

DH: Yeah, it’s the proximity and we don’t want to be traveling a whole lot on the new year for obvious reasons and it’s a ….Vegas is a big deal at the millennium…at the new year. There’s a lot of people coming here and ah….what’s that?….Our manager would like to answer this question. Why are we playing Vegas, man?

GF: They probably offered us more money.

IA: They’re basically three cities …New York, Las Vegas and LA that were considered the millennium event places.

DH: You’re not getting me on a plane to New York that week.

GF: Probably not. Golf is a dangerous game played my way. (laughter) So, no , I want to get through these gigs unscathed. I’ll play like heck when we’re done playing the millennium.

GF: Well, Don …we mentioned this before. We work in a funny business where we merge art and commerce and sometimes you know…we celebrate success more than we celebrate art so I think you have to put it in perspective. However, it definitely means a lot to us that the people went out to the record stores and bought this record and that is a testimony to the longevity of the band and that is very flattering. I don’t think it is something you can plan for. It’s something that’s happened. It’s all icing on the cake for us these days.

GF: No, as Joe Smith said, we were just stalling until we could finish Hotel California. (laughter) and we sort of snuck this one out there and people that hadn’t heard of the band or had only heard some of our early hits really gravitated toward it and everybody started buying it right away and they continued buying it. Amazing.

GF: Well…(pause….laughter) Irving?

DH: Our manager’s been working on that over here. We do plan to embrace it…..carefully.

Someone in back: We bought a name for it. (laughter)

IA: Um, we didn’t want to get lost in today’s event another thing that’s going to go on, but we’re going to announce a marketing alliance with MP3.com here in the next couple of days and I might also add that the Eagles are, to my knowledge, the only bonafide unsigned superstar in the business and if and when a new piece of Eagles product should become available…well I guarantee it will embrace new technology in ways that will wreak havoc on the record business.

GF: Well, I remember this (DH lets out huge chuckle)

DH: Yeah, that’s the difference. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that.

GF: This means more somehow. At the point we got a platinum album for this record, I think we were so busy going places that I don’t think we really appreciated it at the time that we got it. To tell you the truth, I was so busy that I didn’t know it was the first certified platinum record ever…I was astounded. It tells you how lost I was in the 70s. I’ve sort of tried to be consistent through the decades. (laughter)

DH: Musical Viagra, that’s what we call it.

(long pause)

DH: I think so. I hope so. By the way we’re going to play some things New Year’s Eve we’ve never played in concert before. And I’m supposed to tell you….oh, we already did?…oh good, I don’t have to hawk the seats. Thank you very much…but we’re going to play some songs we’ve never done in concert before. We dusted off some old chestnuts including Please Come Home for Christmas and the flip side…Funky New Year…one of our biggest hits.

DH: The audience makes in new every time. And we all …. We all have a really high tolerance for repetition. Sorta like Yul Brenner in The King and I, you know, you just kinda keep doing it.

GF: I think we’re developing as a band a much better sense of ourselves and about how timing is involved and…obviously we’ve attempted more than once or twice to put this thing back together and get it up and flying so to speak…and there have been times when it hasn’t been right and we’ve learned to just sort of flow with that and to never say never …things always happen for a reason and it could be even better down the line. I think what we’ve been waiting for is the possibility of whether or not we’ll do a studio album. If we could come up with one then we’d have a real legitimate reason to go on tour again because we’d be presenting new, original Eagles material which, I think, would be of interest to our fans.

DH: Well, you’d like to think so. You know, as Glenn said before we really appreciate the fact that people went out and bought these albums and this is really nice but this is not a contest. I hated popularity contests when I was in high school and I hate them now. But at some point you like to think the music had something to do with it and that people really, really liked it and went out and bought it.

GF: I want to say just one more thing. This is a recurring theme that we’ve heard over the last 25 years. You know the music you play is the soundtrack for your life. It’s your life movie. It’s what you put on when you play music at home. It’s what you listen to in your car. And I think that during the 70s in particular people did things to the Eagles. They broke up with their girlfriend. They broke up with their boyfriend. They got in a car and drove across America. They went on a fandango. We seem to be the soundtrack for a lot of that sort of activity. Basically, what it says is that people like having our music in the background of their movie. I’ll just leave it at that.

JW: Yeah, so are we. (laughter)

(Jim Moret, in the background, points out that they’ve just only gotten the rest of the Eagles hooked up with a microphone. He wants to know what Joe’s reaction to all of this is.)

JW: It’s an honor and a privilege to be in a band with these guys. It always has been, speaking for me. I haven’t really understood it all the time. A lot of things I haven’t understood but at this point it’s a great community. We’ve been through every trip that a band can go through and we still have fun when we get together. We’re very low-key these days but we are alive and well and don’t drink drunk (laughter).

IA: Timothy and Felder need to talk.

DF: Obviously, this is beyond my wildest imaginations that this kind of award would take place in my life. I think a large part of it stems from the writing ability of these two guys right over here…of Don and Glenn, the songs they’ve written that have just kind of carried on from year to year to year. Just wonderful songwriting is really the key to this thing.

GF: Awww….c’mon…. (laughter)

TBS: I’m a little conflicted, myself about this award because as a 1977 or 78 addition, I was the new guy. I’m an old new guy.

GF: You’re still the new guy.

TBS: I’m still the new guy. I was not involved in this particular recording but I’ve been told that I’ve helped with sales so I (laughter) Thank you.

DH: I think the real award is that we’re all, as Joe said, alive and well when so many of our colleagues aren’t. And that we all have families. The New Year’s Eve concert will be the first time that my children have ever seen me play. But I think those are the things that are important to all of us now. Our friends and family and health. So we hope to be around for a while.

DH: I got a record coming out. I might plug that. (laughter)

GF: Don’s got a record coming out. It’s kind of a recording year for me. I moved my studio from Aspen to Los Angeles; I’m doing some work in there. We can’t say too much about what we’re doing in the studio right now. Top Secret. You know we’re not signed. We’re unsigned. If we could just make a record. Oh boy! Those three guys over there would be happy. And I don’t mean Joe, Timothy and Don. I mean Joe, Larry and Irving. (laughter). So, I don’t have too many plans. I’m just going to be working in the studio. Hanging around the house.

TBS: Joe, what are you going to do this year?

JW: I don’t have a clue.

DF: That’s a good album title, by the way.

GF: Yeah. This series of rehearsals and we’re in the beginning of our second week. It’s funny. It’s sort of easy for us because we’re the Eagles. So when we sit down to play Eagles songs, we’re really pretty good at it. After doing the Hell Freezes Over tour which took 2 ½ years and then coming back to rehearse last week, the songs start to sound good about the 2^nd or 3^rd run through. It’s really more now about playing yourself into vocal shape. We’ve pretty much got the music down now and it’s about the athletics of those long background vocals. Things like that. It’s been pretty easy. Wouldn’t you agree guys?

DH: Oh yeah (other mumbles of assent).

GF: You know, it’s just the perfect package for southern California. If we could add Little Feet and Bonnie Raitt, it would be the ultimate package, I guess. I think it’s going to be terrific and actually, we haven’t gotten to see each other much since the 70s. It will be really nice to see them.

IA: Okay, thank you

(applause)

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