Eagles Reportedly Teaming Up With Jimmy Buffett for 2018 Tour
Hotel California could be meeting up with Margaritaville for a series of joint dates between the Eagles and Jimmy Buffett in 2018.
Word of the dates comes courtesy of longtime Eagles manager Irving Azoff, who spoke with Best Classic Bands about upcoming plans for the group in the wake of co-founder Glenn Frey's 2016 death. Encouraged by the response to the band's limited dates last year, which featured a lineup augmented by Frey's son Deacon as well as country veteran Vince Gill, Azoff predicted a stadium run for the two acts.
Cautioning that they were "just talking about a handful" of shows between Buffett and the Eagles — one of which would serve as a "celebration" of both artists at Denver's Coors Field — Azoff said there aren't any plans to record new music with the current lineup, and added that he doesn't even see their current live activity as a tour.
"The Eagles are in an experimental phase," he explained. "I look at is as not really an Eagles tour; it’s really a celebration of their music. We just kind of do things that feel right. I don’t know how long it’ll go."
As fans of both artists are probably aware, Buffett and the Eagles go way back — he opened for the group on their 1976 tour, a slot he later credited with helping launch his career, and he inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. The pairing makes plenty of sense, in other words — and as Best Classic Band's report notes, Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh also recently predicted a healthy touring calendar for the Eagles in 2018.
"I was really nervous about it, but we played a couple shows and got great reviews and it just felt right onstage. It felt great," Walsh told the Las Vegas Sun. "So we took a deep breath and recommitted and yes, next year we’re going to play between 40 and 50 shows. It sure feels good to play our music for people again, and they know the words better than we do."