tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight part two of our conversation with glenn frey. the eagles are celebrating their 40th anniversary. he is out with his first new project in years. it is called "after hours." we are glad you joined us for our interview with glenn frey, coming up. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where

walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: we're back with part two of the conversation with glenn frey. it was not supposed to happen this way, but sometimes you get a conversation that is so rich and inspiring and you want to spend more time with a great guy. we have a wonderful collection of standards and classics, and you will want to hear how he puts his own spin on this classics o stuff. we were in the middle of a story last night that i could not

stop. you were talking about the heat is goneon. take of the story. >> i never thought i would get a song in beverly hills cop. they sent me this sounded like something i might do, so i sang background vocals, and i did not think too much of it, and when the movie came out and the record came out, and not only that, but they are playing the heat is gone for the basketball tournament -- the heat is on for the basketball tournament. i was very lucky. i happen to be at the right

place of the right time. >> you cannot imagine the opening of that song. that opening chase is unbelievable. it is not the same without the song. of how much of your career -- your gift is undeniable, but how much of your success has to do with being in the right place at the right time? are there things where it just happens to you? >> i think it happens often, but you have to be there. you have to be ready. when light shines you are able to step up and do what you have to do.

if i had not met jackson browne, i would never have met david geffen, and if i had not met david geffen, i would not have a place to bring the eagles. bob seger gave me a great piece of a device which is you have to write your own songs. jackson browne was very kind to a lot of us guys who were slain -- playing the folk music not circuit. i went on the road with linda ronstadt, and we have three days off. he said, what do you want to do? i said, let's go to muscle shoals. i called david geffen on, and i said, can i have $500 to do a demo? i spent $2,300. i was in there for two days, and i brought the stuff back to david geffen. not only was he man i spend

extra money, but he was not too impressed. he said, you should be in a band. you can play to your strengths. you can hide your weaknesses. you can be around some guys who are good. i set out to put together a band, and i knew i wanted to be with don henley, and i wanted great singers as well as great players, and we told linda ronstadt we want to have our own band. we said, we want to have our own end. -- band. you know who would be really good with you is bernie.

good night she brought him in, and -- she brought him in, and we met him, and she helped us get randy meissner to replace the bass player, so linda really helped us get the eagles together, but that is a little serendipitous. tavis: you said a couple of things. i think you are right that you have got to be open to constructive criticism, but not everybody is. particularly if you are bent on the idea that this is how i want to do it. you have to respect his style,

but what was it that allow you to except his critique? >> he was the golden boy. he was representing joni mitchell, crosby stills and nash, he was the song writer's agent, so he was right. at 22 or 23 years old i was not ready to make a solo album. i was just getting going, so he was right. we got bernie to jam. we got randy to jam, and then i called randy and said, i

just told them i know you, and i am not sure if they believe me, so i said, can we get together? i walked into his office. he was released earlier -- was really surly. he said, do you want us or not? david did not know what to say for a minute. he said, here is what i want to do. the first thing they did was send us to colorado to play in a ski bar for four weeks and get our act together.

we got the british producer to produce this. imagine, i take it easy, desperado, all of those things were recorded in london with their california country rock. tavis: one thing i want to go back to, geffen gives his critique that being in a band you can hide your weaknesses and play your strengths. gradin vice, but you have to know what your strength -- great advice, but you have to know what your strengths and weaknesses are. what are they? what are you good at, and what were your weaknesses when you first got together? tot did the band allow you mask? praxair was not the best guitar player in the band, so we needed

another guitar player. >> most people do not want to get anywhere near that. i did not even know how to write a song. i was living in echo park a really small $60 a month place, and underneath in an apartment that was probably illegal lives jackson browne. go out late and try to meet girls. i hear the tea kettle going off, and we would hear him playing the piano. he was working on these songs, and he worked on averse he plays six or seven times, and i would roll over in bed, and there would be silence, and i would fall back to sleep, and i would hear that he thought again, and he would play the second verse.

he said, that is how you do it. it is repetition and revision. i took that to heart. he was showing me how to write songs. it was a lot of work. dodi marco -- kofi carmichael said, first you have to really want to. it is a challenge. it is one i welcome. i still write songs, because you never know how it is going to turn out. tavis: why have you and do you still want to? >> it is what i am good asset.

i am good at writing songs and making records. i eoy the exploration. i remember when we got together in 1984, and we had not written a song together in 14 years, and i remember when we wrote get over it, we still got it. that started us on another cycle of writing songs. i think the songwriting is a key piece you're a good >> that is when hell freezes over. >> they would say, when are the eagles getting back together? but as a pretty good way to

start. tavis: you have referenced, when we were talking about the heat is on, you reference going to at a screening, and use of quincy jones and stevie wonder and a few other great songwriters. what kind of songwriters and would intimidate you? i do not mean in the terms of frightening you and schering the gift out of you, but people who just look at you and say, that is a songwriter? >> brian wilson, smokey robinson, marvin gaye, paul simon, james taylor, for starters, don henley. tavis: have you figured out -- i

always ask this question of every great songwriter what makes a great song for you. >> nothing is out of place. everything that happens in a song is natural, and you never go, why did he go to that gordcord? it always has a natural flow to it, so it is a certain combination about the lyrics and how it all flows together, and the other thing is it is visceral, and it gets you in a place of his mind, spirit, body, a cause big plays that happens when we listen to music -- a cosmic plays that happens when we listen to music. i have been playing some shows

at the orchestra, and people in the audience -- i am not going to just indulge myself with gov. whatever i want, and then i start to play songs from this record, and i see some people who say, i like that song. people say, i like that song. give something happens to people, this romantic music, and that is what music does. it gets us to a place where language does not go. tavis: i have always loved strings. do you have to beat -- when you achieve a certain age, can you appreciate this better?

>> i think so. i do not think these are easy to write a very good -- i do not think these are easy to write. we do synthesizers to do mockup s. there is nothing like the real players being in a room with them, having all that happene. it is like you are on a magic carpet ride, and it is hard not to sing well and with feeling when you are with all this orchestration. tavis: the use an ipod? >> no, i am kind of xenophobic -- technophobic.

i text, but that is as far as i have gone. tavis: i was in a conversation the other day about how nobody writes letters, and i actually like that. over the course of my life and my career, i guess i started out as a pack rat, but at some point i really started to appreciate that nature, because i have a wonderful collection of anything ever said to me by anybody who mattered to me. i have kept every letter my mother wrote to me, and from presidents, kings, personalities and -- i just have a huge basement. it was so cool to sit in the middle of the floor and go through all these handwritten letters are received from all kinds of people here regard the richness of being able to put your hands on this as opposed to

looking in on an iphone, it did something for me, so to hear that you still right stuff down, it is pretty cool. >> it feels comfortable to me. it is the way i have always done it. i think there is something about looking at the words on paper as opposed to on screen. i was writing an outline for a votbook. i wanted to write a book about my time with the eagles. i was writing my outline, and my friend said, go on the computer. i barely got the tiger cage -- the title page centered. i said, i am going to write on a legal pad, and i'm going to take a look at it and make my changes, but that is the way i am going to do it.

my best friends father-in-law was ray bradbury, and i was getting all frustrated about computers, and he says, it is ok. ray writes on an old typewriter, so he said, do not worry. you do not have to be computer proficient to write. i have not embraced that yet. tavis: i am still writing on legal pasds. 40 years since the eagles have got together, i suspect there are a lot of stories, and i am also told you are going to get 25 million publishers trying to close that deal and offer you a ghostwriter who would have one done, but what is it -- i do not want to get too far inside the book, but are there seems --

things you want us to know about his journey we think we know but really do not? >> i think there are things that explained better. this year we have a two dvd history of the eagles, so i have been digging through the past, and we hired a great director to do this project for a spirited -- force us -- for us. i have seen a bunch of videos, and i said, just send me a real of the guys who got from -- who got nominated for best director,

and i said, can i have a meeting? i remember before i met with him, i went back to my out line , and i said, alex, every year the eagles had huge obstacles that had to be overcome. we have to change producers, record companies, managers, personnel, business managers. every time there was something they really had to overcome. i am pushingon its commo, the boulder of the mountain so i realize there are things we have to overcome, and the other thing i noticed is we have a lot of fun. we are serious guys.

we all care about what we are doing. we do not always agree, but it is because we are passionate. maybe one of the figures misnomers is people think we argue a lot. i think this is a worthwhile relationship here again we have had peaks and valleys, and we sustained. i think one reason we have been able to survive is because we really care about each other. i think we may be did not have as much fun as maybe we really did. tavis: i do not find that hard to believe. i am going to close with where we began last night. yous thinking vie-- thanking for being so kind to me. i was a nobody, and you spend

so much time with me like are really mattered, and i have never forgotten that. you were not married then, and since then, you have gotten andied, had a few kids commo, that is what happened when you stick around. you are not out in the club's meetings shakes, so how has that changed -- meeting chicks, so how has that change things? >> it is nice having someone to share your ups and downs with. it means a lot more when you can talk about it. a great wife and great kids. i have a rule, never tried about your marriage -- never brag about your marriage. marriage and children is the real world. the eagles is a vacation.

people do what i tell them. i just played with the orchestra. it was a wonderful performance with the santa monica high school orchestra. everything is great. and we are at the after party, and they are getting ready to close the place, and i think, i am going to stay for another hour, because i know what is waiting. the dishwasher, dog doo, but that is the real world, and that is the biggest challenge and the biggest reward. tavis: i am glad i lived in the real world, and i am glad i am part of this real world. >> we are in the real world together, and it makes me feel good i had this conversation. that is the way we are, able to enjoy this moment and to look

back. >> you have enhance my life with your kids and your humanity as well, and is greeted with your gift -- you have enhanced my gift.with your honored to have you here. i have enjoyed this immensely. until next time, keep the faith. ♪ of all the joy that life can bring ♪ ♪ i will be remembering smile ♪adow of your ♪ >> for more information on

today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with the pulitzer winning writer plus mira sorvino. that is next time. we will see you then. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> be more. pbs. pbs.