It's easy to imagine a young baseball player actually dreaming of someday being in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but there was no Rock Hall of Fame when you guys started. So, what was your equivalent dream?

There are all sorts of dreams that you have and as soon as you reach one, you have another. Like the first dream when I got here was getting to play the Troubadour on Hoot Night and hoping that someone would see you because you wanted a record deal. Then, there was the dream of getting played on the radio and touring. They were all dreams. I remember how excited we were when we heard we were going to open some shows for Jethro Tull in the summer of '72, when Take It Easy was first going up the charts.

The Eagles and Jethro Tull. That sounds like an odd pairing. At the time, country-rock was a relatively new sound in mainstream pop-rock. Did you feel all alone out there or were there some bands you felt some kinship with?

Well, no, country-rock band had gone big time. Poco had done OK. They could play maybe 3,000-seaters in L.A. and a couple other cities. Loggins & Messina had had a couple of hits, but they weren't really a concert draw like bands like Yes, Jethro Tull or Edgar Winter, which were some of the bands we opened for. We ultimately realized we needed to toughen up our sound and add a guitar player to be able to perform in those bigger venues.

What would you nominate as the best of the Eagles' albums? And then your favorite, if that's a different one?

I think that the best album would be Hotel California. " That's where the songwriting, the musicianship and the record production all came together. But my personal favorite is probably One of These Nights. I think part of it was the experience of making the record. There were a lot of wonderful new musical moments that we had . . . doing all the fuzz guitars on the intro of One of These Nights. There were some good songs on that album, including Lyin' Eyes.

What about the best and your favorite Eagles' song?

On a personal level, I'll never forget Tequila Sunrise and Desperado because they were the first two songs that Don and I wrote together. But, again, I would have to say Hotel California It won a Grammy for best record and it sort of put us far ahead of the field at the time. But my favorite may be One of These Nights.

How surprised were you by the enormous fan response to the reunion tour?

We underestimated everything. We planned very conservatively and then we were incredibly surprised at the response.

How soon did you start realizing how big it was going to be?

The second that tickets went on sale at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater and we sold out a lot of shows real fast. We all went, "Whoa!" But then we said, "Well, that's just L.A. Let's see what happens up in San Francisco And then that sold out and it just kept growing.

How do you feel about being inducted into the Hall of Fame?

You try to be a bit blase about it, but when it actually hits you, it's pretty nice. . . . I'm especially happy all seven Eagles have been recognized because everybody contributed.

What about your relationship with Don? There were rumors of tensions during the tour. Over the years, when were you the closest?

In its first inception, the band was together for about nine years and I would say we were very close the first seven years, which would lead us about halfway through the making of The Long Run. We had houses together and/or houses near each other that whole time.

How would you describe your relationship now?

I believe that you can't recapture . . . you can't have things the way they were in the '70s. So, I think my relationship with Don on the tour was very professional. For the most part, it was a good working relationship. It wasn't as close as when we were living together, but we still have so much shared experience that it's hard to say we're not still close.

What about the future of the Eagles?

It wouldn't be a bad time to tip our hats and ride off into the sunset. There's a certain amount of closure . . . in being inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. If the Eagles were to continue doing anything, I think there would have to be an album to revalidate ourselves. To do that, I think there needs to be new material and I don't know if we can do that. The last time we did a studio album together it took 3 ½ years and I'd hate to be mixing the album on my 52nd birthday. So, I don't know what is going to happen. We really haven't talked about it.