..But Linda Ronstadt says she was the one who ‘discovered’
The Eagles. Maybe they both did.
Henley and Frey played in Rheostat’s stage band. Both left together to start their own band which became the Eagles.
He didn’t discover them. He just got Henley to Los Angeles, where he met the others.
Linda Ronstadt was a major part of the country-rock scene for a while. Gram Parsons, Little Feat, Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, the list goes on. I think most of the Eagles members were in her backing band for a while, before they got famous on their own, and that might the basis of her claim for having discovered them.
Her manager asked Henley and Frey to be in her band on her first concert tour. After a few shows, Henley and Frey decided to quit the tour and then formed the Eagles.
“..But Linda Ronstadt says she was the one who ‘discovered’ The Eagles.”
In 1971 Ronstadt had a gig at Disneyland and needed backup musicians. She hired Henley, Leadon, Frey and Meisner. They hadn’t played together before. She created The Eagles by accident.