Rhino Factoids: The Eagles Reunite, Hell Freezes Over

22 years ago, the Eagles reunited, resulting in a live album – plus four new studio tracks – which clearly had a title the moment it came into existence.

Hell Freezes Over was a long time coming, and the likelihood of it ever having come to pass was perpetually sitting somewhere between slim and none, thanks to Don Henley’s famous quote about when the band would play together again after their 1980 breakup. Things started warming up slightly between the boys in the band as a result of the 1993 Eagles tribute album, Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles, when Travis Tritt asked them to appear in the video for his cover of “Take It Easy.” It was the first time they’d been spotted next to each other in 13 years, and it led to a luncheon between Glenn Frey and Henley which in turn led to the band reuniting.

The reunion concert took place at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, where it was recorded for an MTV special, with Frey kidding to the crowd, “For the record, we never broke up; we just took a 14-year vacation.” It proved to be a fortuitous reunion: the Eagles subsequently went out on the road, thrilling their fans and bringing their music to a whole new generation.