Vince Gill on Being Heckled by Eagles Fans at Sphere

Even Don Henley, who emerged from behind his drum kit to welcome the audience early in the night, caught flak.

“Don came out to talk for the first time. We had done three songs, and there’s obviously no Joe, and some guy screams, ‘Where’s Joe?!’” Gill recalls. “Don looked at him and said, ‘Shut up and I’ll tell you.’”

Eventually, other Eagles fans had enough of the heckler, according to Gill. “Finally, the crowd turned on him,” he says. “A guy in the crowd…grabbed him and said, ‘If you don’t shut up, I’m going to beat your ass.’”

The Eagles, with Gill and Walsh, continue their residency at the Sphere into April. They’ll also play a series of tour dates in May at stops including New Orleans JazzFest and Vanderbilt University’s FirstBank Stadium in Nashville.

Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone’s weekly country-music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by senior music editor Joseph Hudak, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with artists and personalities like Lainey Wilson, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Kings of Leon, the Black Crowes, Carly Pearce, Breland, Bryan Andrews, Devon Gilfillian, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Ink, Rival Sons’ Jay Buchanan, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, Clever, and authors Marissa R. Moss, Josh Crutchmer, and Jonathan Bernstein.