The Eagles came together in Los Angeles in 1972, a time when everyone was hungry for a different kind of music. With hits like "Lyin' Eyes" and "Peaceful Easy Feeling" the Eagles created some of the most popular music of the time - just as they were setting new standards for decadence, egomania, drug use and intra band strife. Drawing on interviews with people including band members, their friends, ex-wives and ex-lovers, handlers, roadies and hangers-on, Marc Eliot reveals what life was really like inside this hugely popular but deeply troubled group. The book follows The Eagles from their early, idealistic days as Linda Ronstadt's backup band to their self immolation amid multi-million dollar law suits, Lear jet courtships and debilitating cocaine habits - with a coda on their "Hell Freezes Over" tour, the comeback that made them the top grossing live act of 1995 and 1996. This is the story about a band that embodied the excesses of the 1970s and provided, in "Hotel California", a song for the decade's soundtrack.