The Eagles' "Long Goodbye" farewell tour, now longer

It's Sunday Morningon CBS, and here, again, is Jane Pauley.

More than 50 years after they started making music, the Eagles remain one of the hottest tickets around. Their residency at Sphere in Las Vegas, which began in 2024, is breaking records. And that's where Tracy Smith caught up with Eagles co-founder Don Henley. [EAGLES, "HOTEL CALIFORNIA"]

The nighttime lights of Las Vegas are too bright to let you see the stars, but sometimes, you can find them under one dazzling roof. (SINGING) On a dark desert highway Cool wind in my hair

One of the greatest old school bands on Earth, the Eagles are in residence at the state-of-the-art Las Vegas Sphere, led by the band's co-founder Don Henley, along with longtime guitarist Joe Walsh and country legend Vince Gill. One writer said, and I'm going to paraphrase this, there's one thing in America that people agree on or seem to agree on, and it's the Eagles. I don't know if I would agree with that. I guess, we're kind of a staple. Our first record came out in '72, so, it's been a miraculous run. (SINGING) It's another tequila sunrise

And it got even more miraculous this past January, when one of those Eagles albums from the '70s, Their Greatest Hits 1971 to 1975, was certified quadruple diamond, the first to sell more than 40 million copies, cementing its place as the best-selling album of all time. (SINGING) Take another shot of courage Greatest hits is kinda a misnomer. It should just be called their best songs, because every song on that album was not a great hit. There are a couple of songs on that album that didn't break the Top 30, but they're good songs. "Desperado," for example, was never released as a single. Not by us, nor by Linda Ronstadt. (SINGING) Desperado Why don't you come to your senses

And, Henley says, the album wasn't even their idea. It was basically forced on them by the record company execs. You didn't want to make a greatest hits album? No, we didn't have any way to stop them, except just to complain. And you complained? We complained. Oh, yeah. You can see, it's documented. You mentioned "Desperado" wasn't a hit. I want to go back and talk about that song a little bit. That was the first time that you wrote a song with Glenn Frey? That's right. Did you immediately click as songwriting partners? Yeah, I think, we did. He was great. We used to call him the loan arranger. The loan arranger? Yeah, because he was so good at arranging songs. [VOCALIZING]

Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey died 10 years ago, at age 67, but his legacy is larger than life. [CHEERING] [EAGLES, "LIFE IN THE FAST LANE"]

Frey's wife, Cindy, helped create this, the Eagles Third Encore, an almost life-size model of the key places in the band's history, including a mock-up of LA's Troubadour nightclub, which includes a real working bar. What was your drink of choice back in the day? Oh, well, we were trying to be macho back in the day so you would have a shot of tequila and chase it with a Dos Equis beer. Which was-- Take another shot of courage. --which was pretty stupid. Yeah.

These days, Henley's pre-show routine is a bit more sensible. So you're doing sit-ups before you go on stage?

Before a show, yeah, and that's my warm up. I don't do voice exercises because it doesn't help. Tightening the abdomen, it's where I sing from, so I sing better if I keep that in shape. Oh, interesting. You got to keep your abs in shape for your voice. Yeah. I mean, I don't have a six pack or anything, but there's one under there somewhere. [LAUGHING] (SINGING) And I get a peaceful easy feeling

One of the emotional highlights of the show is the moment where Glenn Frey's son, Deacon, takes the stage in his father's spot, often with his father's guitar, and sings his father's songs. What's it like now to sit there and see Deacon Frey, where Glenn used to be? I burst with pride. I almost got tears in my eyes the other night. Was there any sort of internal debate about going on after Glenn died? Yes. I didn't think it was feasible. So we thought about it, and I said to them, I said, well, I'll only do it if we can get Glenn's son to be in the band. That was your condition.

Yeah. [VOCALIZING] [CHEERING] Thank you.

And at the Vegas Sphere, dad is looking down. A father of four himself, Don Henley has always had a rich life outside the band, and he recently co-produced a PBS documentary, with filmmaker Ken Burns, about Henry David Thoreau.

Thoreau was trying to make sense of life. He lived exactly the way he wanted to live. There are so many parallels to what he was seeing during his time and what we're seeing now. As Mark Twain said, history doesn't repeat itself, but it often, rhymes. I think that's what's happening now. (SINGING) You can't hide your lying eyes And your smile is a thin disguise

What's happening now for the Eagles is more live performances. They've extended their run here into next year, using technology that didn't even exist when they first started making music together. The sound system is like nothing on the planet. There are about 167,000 speakers in that dome. Is that intimidating? It was at first. I'm going, God, they can hear all the mistakes. (SINGING) Oh, witchy woman

The Eagles current tour is called The Long Goodbye, and Don Henley says this time, he means it. (SINGING) Oh, witchy woman I feel like we're getting toward the end. And that will be fine, too. So what if people say, we want more Eagles after this? I guess, they'll just have to listen to the records. Are there ever times that you have to psych yourself up to play the songs that you've played for 50 some years now? Yeah.

Yeah? Yeah. Like every night. Every night. You know, it's not about us. It's about what they mean to the people we're playing them for. And therefore, you have to play them every night with your heart in it. And, you do it because of those people out there. What makes us happy is that we make other people happy. We say that music is medicine, and people need some medicine right now. (SINGING) It's another tequila sunrise This old world still looks the same Another frame