Bernie Leadon of the Eagles Previews His First Album in 22 Years

For fans who revere the Eagles‘ early days most of all, Bernie Leadon is inextricably tied in with that seminal legacy, as a founding member who helped define their chart-busting country-rock sound for the group’s first four albums before taking his leave in 1975. He definitely did not leave with starry visions of a blockbuster solo career in mind, as the slender discography of releases under his own name since then would indicate. But he’s about to go running down the road again with “Too Late to Be Cool,” his first new release since 2003.

The public knew something was in the offing when he released a ruminative track called “Too Many Memories” in July, but only now is he confirming the imminent arrival of a full album, which will be in stores in a little less than two months, on Oct. 10. The whole project is produced by Glyn Johns, who produced or co-produced the Eagles’ first three albums. Along with the album news comes a second new song, “Just a Little,” out today (see below). Leadon is discussing the new LP for the first time with Variety, along with his plans to do live dates with a band beginning this fall and further into 2026.

The country-rock cognoscenti need little reminder of his place in cross-genre hybrid history prior to the Eagles, with stints with the Flying Burrito Brothers and Dillard & Clark preceding his time as a co-author of “Witchy Woman” and contributor to some of pop’s most indelible harmonies. Maintaining a high level of fame has never been a key goal, but Leadon makes it sound as if it was nothing to pick up where he left off … well, nothing except for fact that he might not have resumed public activity at all if he hadn’t gotten the call from the once-estranged Glenn Frey to rejoin the band for the “History of the Eagles” tour in the mid-2010s.

How does it feel, getting back in the game with a formal album release? Good, or strange, at all, after all this time?

No, no. Very good. So, the quick narrative about how this came about is: I went back on the road with the Eagles in 2013-15 and did 175 shows around the world, and that got my juices going. And so I came off the road and was writing and I knew I wanted to play some more and probably do some recording. I owned a bunch of studio gear. so I’ve since built a building around the studio gear and then we began using that about three or four years ago. And then my friend Glyn Johns said, “Yeah, let’s get in the studio,” so he came over last July, we did a few and then we finished it in January and February. So to me, it’s the logical extension of having gone back out and getting the creative juices going and making a commitment to songwriting, where I became more faithful to work on it.

Glyn is a dear friend ever since 1972 when the Eagles first recorded with him in England, and we’ve stayed in touch. He’s used me on a lot of other people’s projects as a guitar player through the years, and we’re close. It was a bucket list thing to do this with him, and I’m really happy with it. We did it analog, all sitting in one room, four guys in one room playing, looking at each other, reacting. Recording on analog tape forces you to make decisions on the spot, which really speeds up the whole process.

Speaking of speed, looking back at your discography, it was 27 years between “Natural Progressions” in 1977 and your follow-up, “Mirror,” in 2003. You’re stepping up the pace now, following up that 2004 release…

Yeah, I’m all the way up to 22 years between projects. I’ll try to do another one before 22 years, I promise.

Let’s talk about the song coming out this week, “Just a Little,” which is more on the playful side. At least, it’s been a while since we heard anyone say “kicked in the nads” in a song in a while.

Yeah, there’s a couple good lines in there, you know — “cement-jacketed” is another one. First of all, it is a playful song. It’s Stones-y, in its somewhat distorted electric guitars. It’s tough-sounding…  But the lyric is, “I’m just a little pissed off. I’m just a little ticked off. I’m just a little hacked off. But now I’m a little older.” What does that mean? Maybe he’s older and wiser. Who knows? But in this period of time, everybody’s pissed off a little bit about something. Those lines are simply me trying to think of every possible phrase I could come up with to say that somebody’s been messed over. … Even just with the internet, and the fact that, trying to do this interview earlier today, I had difficulty in wrestling two laptops and a phone to the ground, and for a while it was uncertain who was gonna come out on top… The 21st century frustrates me sometimes, but I’m having fun with it.

And then with the song “Too Many Memories,” which you put out first in making our return… the lyrical upshot of that is “let it all go.” Does that mean that, for people of a certain age, you can collect enough experiences in life, and you don’t always need to be collecting more?

No, no, no. I think we need to collect more good ones. But we need to let go of some things, and resentments might be one of those.

I’ll just mention — this is part of the “History of…” tour also. If you look at my Wikipedia page, the first thing you’re gonna see is that I became infamous — on Wikipedia, anyway — for pouring a beer on Glenn Frey’s head in a band meeting in 1975, right? So we parted; that whole summer tour season, I finished it in 1975. And then I left and (Joe) Walsh joined and all that kind of thing. But I made sincere amends to Glenn in probably 2009, 2010, something like that. But I ended up writing him a letter and I didn’t hear back from him until 2013, when the band’s manager called me and said, “Hey, Glenn wants to talk to you about maybe going out on the road.” And so in that conversation with Glenn, he described the whole concept of the “History of…” tour, but about halfway through, he said, “I got your letter.” And — cool.

So then we went and did 25 months of touring. The last show, right before the encores, he came over to my side of the stage in the dugout where the guitars are and gave me a big hug and said, “Man, it’s been so great having you out here, and this is not the end.” And unfortunately he got ill later that same year and passed away by January (of 2016). So, I’m very sad about that, but happy that we made sincere amends, which was proven by a successful 25 months of touring and the fact that we parted friends. I’m really, really happy about that.

So letting everything go, letting grudges and resentments go… You think, “Oh, I wish I’d done that…” We gotta let it go, man, because it’s not helping us. We want to stay healthy and happy and productive and try to be uplifting for people. Smile at people — you know, the simple things, right?

Talk about a nick of time sort of thing, with you and Glenn.

And from the perspective of Glenn leaving the planet soon after that tour… You know, the difference between an apology and amends is: an amends is a living thing. And we were able to experience many moments on the tour in soundchecks and during the show where something cool would happen, I’d play something, he’d look at me and give me a grin. And we really had a good time out there playing, and it was lovely, to use a nice British phrase.

Another song on the album is “Coast Highway.” You moved to Tennessee a long time ago, but you are so associated with being one of the architects of a southern California sound. Does that song mean you haven’t really gotten the west coast out of your system, wherever you’ve relocated?

I’m a Southern Californian. I lived in San Diego when I was a teenager and then moved to L.A. as a young adult. It’s kind of like “Route 66,” where it’s leaving from Chicago and going out Route 66 to L.A. and name checks all the towns. My song starts in L.A. and name-checks the towns going up the coast. And he ends up in a funny place, but I won’t spoil it for you.

Has Tennessee been a pretty good base for you, though?

Excellent. I’m sitting out at a place out in the country an hour and a half south of Nashville. We also have a house in Franklin, so I’m up there often, especially now, but it’s lovely to get out in the country and it actually has some of the vibe of the beach, in a way. You’re just out in nature and kind of immersed — there’s a lot more trees here than people, and that’s the inverse of the city. I think we need restoration, and it’s a good place to write… We just spent almost two weeks in California, and it’s nice to be back out here. It’s very restful out here.

Let’s talk about the title track too, “Too Late to Be Cool.” It doesn’t seem you’re somebody who ever put a super big premium on being cool. Because you probably don’t go into the field of country-rock, or at least stay in it, if coolness is really what you’re about. What does that title mean to you?

There’s different interpretations to the term “cool.” I mean, it could mean you’re aloof. And that was kind of part of the hip thing, to pretend you were aloof but you couldn’t really pull it off. I mean, when I think cool, there’s James Dean and Paul Newman — and I think Paul Newman in particular actually was cool, partly because, though he lived in Connecticut and did summer stock theater with his wife. …  I don’t really think that was a big thing for me, to try to pretend I’m something I’m not. I think if you live a good life and are trying to do things in the world and have a family and just try to participate, and if you pull it off with some grace, that’s pretty cool. It’s a kind of a joke title. It’s probably too late to pretend you’re something you’re not. We all have to kind of wear who we are, but hopefully we’ve done a good job of getting here.

You have said you want to do some shows. What does that look like for you?

As far as material, obviously the stuff from the new album, and then there might be a few new songs and there might be a few covers. And from the Eagles’ catalog…

First of all, one of the things I’ve discovered that I think the album brings forward is, I finally realized or accepted what range my voice was in. I’m a baritone, right? When I was younger, I could sing some tenor stuff, if needed, like in bluegrass. But in the Eagles, one of the reasons that it had a good blend was because there were four people who were singing in their range pretty much. (Randy) Meisner was a true tenor, so when he’s singing up high, he’s comfortable. When I’m singing baritone down at the bottom of the stack, I’m comfortable down there, so I’m relaxed and it sounds good. And the same with Frey and (Don) Henley, who were singing more lead — Henley could sing pretty high too. So in the vocal stock, everybody was in their own range.

But I can’t sing “Take It Easy” in the key that the Eagles did it, which is G. So it’s my own arrangement, doing it in the key of D, actually. I’m not trying to do the Eagles’ arrangement, exactly; I’m trying to do my current interpretation of what works for me now. It’s very Eagles-derivative, but it’s not the same exact thing, and I think that’s better for everybody. I think it’s better for me if I’m more comfortable in that range, and therefore it’ll be more comfortable for the listener.

People will welcome hearing stuff in concert like “Train Leaves Here Tomorrow,” which counts as more of a cult song, even if it was on one of the biggest-selling albums of its era.

A lot of people really dig that song, and that was a song that we did with the Eagles, but was really a Dillard and Clark song, Clark being Gene Clark from the Byrds, a very prolific and interesting songwriter. I’m happy to promote Gene Clark a bit, because I think he’s under-appreciated.

And then some other songs, like “Hollywood Waltz,” which my brother and I had started and then Henley and Frey rewrote the lyrics… Buck Owens covered it, which I think really cool. I’m attracted to that song now. It’s a waltz, you know, and nobody does a pop song as a waltz anymore. People aren’t dancing to waltzes too much, but it’s a cool older form. And the themes are interesting, about Hollywood and of course that’s an analog for love relationships too, people’s obsession with Hollywood. We all know cases where Hollywood or the business ambition took people at a young age, so it’s a bittersweet song in a way, with some depth, but it’s lighthearted in presentation.

When will you be going out on the road?

I’m doing a show on Sept. 12 in Nashville at the City Winery during AmericanaFest, and then we we’re probably gonna do a few dates the rest of this year, but likely I would think it would be focused on when the tour season starts again in spring of 2026.