Glenn Frey's Death Spurs Distasteful Eagles Backlash

(photo: Beth Herzhaft)

When David Bowie died on Jan. 10, the music world went into near-universal mourning, with tributes galore in newspapers and magazines and on social media, radio, and TV. It seemed as if almost no one had a bad thing to say about the Thin White Duke, and for good reason: Bowie left behind an incredible body of work, running up to his final release, Blackstar, which arrived just two days before his death.

Related: Glenn Frey, Already Gone: Remembering the Late Eagle With His Greatest Band and Solo Tracks

While the world was still mourning Bowie, Eagles co-founder/singer/guitarist Glenn Frey passed away on Monday from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia. And, while many music fans also mourned his death with similar tributes, a funny thing also occurred: Some musical journalists and social media trolls felt the need to point out their hate of the Eagles’ music – while the news of Frey’s death was still just settling in.

For whatever reason, the Eagles were never very popular with some critics, but they are still one of the most popular rock acts ever. They were far more commercially successful than Bowie, in fact, who just landed his first #1 album with Blackstar. The Eagles had six #1 albums, including Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, which spent five weeks on top of the chart in 1976 and went on to become the second best-selling album of all time, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, with sales of 29 million, following only Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which has been certified for sales of 30 million.

So why the hate? Perhaps, the haters just didn’t get that “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” The main offender may be Gersh Kuntzman of the New York Daily News. His piece published Tuesday morning, less than a day after news of Frey’s death broke, sports the headline, “Glenn Frey’s death is sad, but the Eagles were a horrific band.” Kuntzman went on to write, “No disrespect to Glenn Frey – whose death this week is a cause for genuine mourning – but the Eagles were, quite simply, the worst rock and roll band.

"And hating the Eagles defines whether a music fan is a fan of music or just a bandwagon-jumper,” Kuntzman added. He pointed out that the Eagles rose to fame in the ‘70s while artists such as Lou Reed, Bowie, the Stones, the Sex Pistols, and even Neil Young were releasing edgy and challenging work, “but the Eagles kept churning out pop pap.”

In the finale of his takedown, Kuntzman points to a scene in The Big Lebowski in which the Coen Brothers’ had the Dude (played by Jeff Bridges) hop into a cab, only to freak out when he hears Frey crooning “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” The Dude asks the driver change the station: “Man, I’ve had a rough night and I hate the f—ing Eagles!”

As counterpoints of sorts, the Washington Post ran a sympathetic article titled “How Glenn Frey and the Eagles outlasted everyone who loved to hate them,” and the Phoenix New Times posted “10 Ways Glenn Frey Was More Than Just the Eagle You Love to Hate.”

The funny thing is, many are having a reaction to the Eagles-hating in the wake of Frey’s death similar to the cab driver in the film, who cusses out the Dude, pulls over, and throws him out of his cab.

“As a journalist, this is appalling to me,” music journalist Melinda Newman wrote in a Facebook post reacting to Kuntzman’s piece. “If the Eagles weren’t your cup of tea, that’s fine. (I liked them a great deal, unlike much of the cooler music press, maybe because the Eagles were the soundtrack to my growing up from about the age of 8) But I can’t imagine what possesses someone to write this and for an outlet to print it other than for page clicks and to be trending (which, I guess I just helped).”

Veteran music publicist Regina Joskow had a similar take, responding to social media posts. “Writing mean-spirited posts about someone who died – regardless of your feelings about their music, art, films, books, whatever – doesn’t make you edgy or cool. It actually makes you seem kind of d—ish. Really,” she wrote in a post. When we contacted her, she added, “I’m really appalled by some people’s behavior in the wake of Frey’s death. Honestly. It’s just embarrassing. Somehow, it seems that a Coen Brothers film has trumped common decency.”

Musician and radio talk show host Johnny Angel Wendell also noted the comments on social media. “Facebook is on fire today with the defenders and detractors of the late Glenn Frey lining up against each other in sort of a cyber [battle of] Antietam,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “I think that the proper position is something like this: Hating the Eagles or Frey’s music doesn’t mean you hated Frey or wished him death. I know I didn’t.”

Reached for additional comments, Wendell compared the reaction to Bowie and Frey’s deaths. “Bowie was the voice of outcasts everywhere,” he said. “The Eagles were a soft-rock version of Donald Trump’s ethos of 'I’m a rich winner and the rest of you are losers.’ Bowie was also an artist and Frey and accountant with a Martin [guitar].”

Wendell, whose tastes lean toward punk rock, added, “I really, really hate the Eagles, [but] I didn’t hate Glenn Frey.”

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