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What The Eagles said about “The Big Lebowski” disliking them
The Eagles was formed in Los Angeles in 1971 and became over the decades one of the best-selling bands of all time. The group has sold an estimated amount of more than 200 million records and were a huge influence to countless artists who appeared later.
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Although they had millions of fans, many people disliked their sound, including “The Dude”, the famous character played by Jeff Bridges in the classic movie “The Big Lebowski”. Written and directed by the Coen brothers, the movie was released in 1998 and became a cult classic. There are many memorable lines in the film and one of them happens when “The Dude” is in a cab and The Eagles track “Peaceful Easy Feeling” starts to be played on the radio.
He quickly says to the driver “Jesus, man. Can you change the channel? Man, come on, I had a rough night and I hate the f*cking Eagles, man!” Then the taxi driver pulls over and gets the passenger out of the car after he says that about the band.
So what The Eagles said about that famous scene where The Big Lebowski says he hates them?
What The Eagles said about “The Big Lebowski” disliking them
Not all the members of The Eagles really liked that line in the movie, especially the late singer and guitarist Glenn Frey. According to the actor Jeff Bridges, he was actually confronted by Frey during a party one time. He recalled that in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2012. “I love Creedence and, you know. As far as the Eagles, I don’t hate the Eagles like the Dude hates them. (But) I remember I ran into Glenn Frey, he gave me some shit. I can’t remember what he said exactly, but you know, my anus tightened a bit,” Jeff Bridges said.
The actor said the same thing to radio.com in 2014. He remembered that he knows the drummer and singer Don Henley, but that Frey always gave him a hard time. “I wouldn’t say a good friend of Don’s, but we know each other. Glenn Frey, I run into him at parties, he’ll always bust my chops and make me squirm a little bit. That was my character that hated the Eagles, not me!”
Joe Walsh actually loved “The Big Lebowski”
The guitarist Joe Walsh joined The Eagles in 1975 and since then became a really important member of the band. Unlike Frey, the guitar player loved the movie as he revealed in an interview with Pop Matters in 2012. When asked if he had seen the movie, Walsh replied: (Laughs) Wasn’t that a great movie?”.
He continued explaining why he belives there are many people who criticize the band. “If there’s any criticism of the Eagles, it’s that they are perfectionists. (That) when you go to see them live it sounds like the record. And I guess all of that’s true.”
“The Eagles are four very alpha personalities. We’ve all done solo work and we’ve all played with very good musicians. But when the four of us get together, it becomes something that’s much bigger than any one of us. I think if you look at it as a body of work, it holds up in court.”
“And Hotel California, we never dreamed it would affect as many people on the planet as it did. So, between that and being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there’s a real sense of accomplishment on our part,” Joe Walsh said.
“Hotel California” was part of the movie soundtrack, but it was the spanish version by Gypsy Kings
Curiously, besides that snippet of “Peaceful Easy Feeling” that was played on the famous scene where the Dude says he hates the band, there was another song of them in the soundtrack. It was the spanish version of “Hotel California” made by the band Gypsy Kings in the early 90s.
The track is played when John Turturro’s character Jesus Quintana is getting ready to play.
How the “I hate The Eagles” line made the Coen brothers get a Stones cover for the soundtrack
As reported by T Bone Burnett, who was the “musical archivist” of the movie told Rolling Stone magazine in 2008, the Coen brothers ended up getting a Rolling Stones cover for free. He only got that song without paying because of the line “I hate The Eagles”. They were trying to get the rights for Townes Van Zandt’s cover of The Rolling Stones track “Dead Flowers”, which is played during the closing credits of the film.
But it was the ex-Stones manager Allen Klein who owned the rights back then . So he was asking them for 150.000 dollars to allow the music to be used. So Burnett convinced Klein to watch an early cut of the movie. It was after the scene where The Dude says he hates The Eagles appeared, that Klein decided to give them the song for free.
“It got to the part where the Dude says, ‘I hate the fuckin’ Eagles, man!’ Klein stands up and says, ‘That’s it. You can have the song!’ That was beautiful,” T Bone Burnett said.
