Under the lights at Dodger Stadium, a grieving twenty-four-year-old son stepped forward to sing his father’s songs while a trusted friend stood close beside him, and a stadium that had arrived unsure soon filled with gratitude as the familiar harmonies rose again.
That night on July 15, 2017, at the Classic West festival in Los Angeles, tens of thousands of fans watched Vince Gill and Deacon Frey walk out with The Eagles for the first time, and what had been planned as a two-festival experiment began a journey that would grow into nearly a decade of sold-out arenas, a multi-year farewell run, and a Las Vegas residency.
Less than two years earlier, the future of the band had seemed closed. When Glenn Frey passed away in January 2016, Don Henley stated publicly that he believed The Eagles had played their final note.
The turning point came more than a year later, when Henley realized that keeping the songbook alive onstage would require both a bloodline connection and a veteran musician capable of handling complex harmonies and guitar work. He reached out to Gill, a Country Music Hall of Fame singer and guitarist, and asked him to join them onstage.
Before the Dodger Stadium debut, the revised lineup spent months rehearsing in private. Henley had grown close to Gill while recording his 2015 solo album Cass County, and Gill already had history with the Frey family after sharing a manager with Glenn during the 1980s.
Rather than asking one singer to fill the space Glenn left behind, the band shared the role between two people. Deacon stepped up to sing his father’s rhythm-driven numbers, including “Take It Easy,” “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” and “Already Gone.”
Gill took lead vocals on “Lyin’ Eyes,” “New Kid in Town,” and “Tequila Sunrise,” while also reviving Randy Meisner’s soaring ballad “Take It to the Limit.” Because of Gill’s natural high tenor, the band could keep those demanding arrangements in their original keys without altering the sound longtime listeners knew by heart.
Walking out to sing songs so closely tied to Glenn’s voice carried heavy expectations from longtime Eagles fans. Even with a solo career that had earned more than twenty Grammy Awards, Gill approached the night as a bandmate and harmony singer.
I never viewed myself as Glenn Frey’s replacement, because no one could ever take that place.
Across the stadium stage, Gill stayed close to young Deacon, offering steady support as a grieving son sang his father’s catalog under the lights. The early hesitation in the crowd soon gave way to gratitude as the familiar harmonies filled Dodger Stadium.
Two weeks after the Los Angeles debut, the lineup traveled to New York’s Citi Field for Classic East. The response at both baseball stadiums convinced Henley, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit that audiences were ready to hear the catalog again.
By the fall of 2017, the band booked a string of arena dates that quickly expanded into the full-scale An Evening with the Eagles tour throughout 2018. In September 2018, the group recorded three nights at the Forum in Inglewood, California, releasing the concert film and album Live from the Forum MMXVIII as the first official release featuring both Gill and the younger Frey.
Even with more than twenty Grammy Awards of his own and a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame, Gill faced occasional pushback from purists online who struggled to see anyone else at Glenn’s microphone. Gill addressed the criticism plainly, noting that in his heart he wished he were not doing the job either, because it would mean his friend Glenn was still alive.
In my heart, I wish I were not doing this job either, because it would mean my friend Glenn was still alive.
On the road, Gill treated his role like that of a studio bandmate, standing near Deacon and trading guitar parts with Walsh and touring guitarist Steuart Smith. By late 2019, the group launched the Hotel California tour, performing the iconic album from start to finish alongside an orchestra and choir before playing a second set of hits.
After pandemic delays paused live music in 2020, the tour resumed across North America in 2021. In April 2022, after nearly five years of helping carry his father’s songs through stadiums and arenas, Deacon announced he was stepping back from full-time touring with the band to pursue his own path.
Deacon still rejoined the group as a special guest during their European stadium run that summer, including shows in Liverpool, Edinburgh, and London’s Hyde Park. Meanwhile, Gill took on an even larger share of the vocal duties so the tour could continue uninterrupted.
The separation did not last long. When The Eagles announced their final touring chapter, The Long Goodbye, in the summer of 2023, Deacon officially returned alongside Gill, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit for the farewell run.
Beginning in the fall of 2024 and extending through 2026, that farewell journey moved into an extended residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Nearly ten years after walking out onto the Dodger Stadium grass for what was only meant to be a pair of tribute weekends, Vince Gill and Deacon Frey are still standing side by side, keeping Glenn Frey’s music in the air.