Pete Townshend once said the reason why he licenses so many Who songs for use in TV shows and commercials is so they can be heard.
And the Eagles recently aired their new concert film, LIVE FROM THE FORUM MMXVIII, on ESPN for the same reason.
Irving Azoff, the band's longtime manager, in an interview with Pollstar, says, "We’ve been sitting on it, wanting to do something rather than just give it to a streaming service that wanted to own it into perpetuity, and if you do the research, live stuff doesn’t do that well anyway."
"People hadn’t had any live music for three months, and we were all sitting around watching ESPN on Sunday nights, we all thought it was cool as hell. We watched The Last Dance, and then the two weeks of 30 For 30. So we thought, it’s the Forum, it’s the Eagles, wouldn’t it be cool to be on ESPN?
"So, just on a lark, called and said, ‘Hey, here’s an off the wall idea,' and they went crazy, we went crazy. Then Chris Berman, who’s a longtime friend of Glenn and Joe and the band’s, got involved. It happened very quickly, and it was wildly successful.
"We sold a whole boatload of tickets to the rescheduled dates, we took a boatload of orders, and a lot of people got to see it. It excited us, we had a blast. It just seemed natural to us, and we’re thrilled that the guys at ESPN agreed with us. We were trying to give everybody a Sunday night of touring when they’re stuck at home.
Recorded over three nights at the iconic Los Angeles arena in 2018 -- September 12th, 14th and 15th -- during their first tour without Glenn Frey, who passed away in 2016 -- the live recording will be released in multiple configurations on October 16th.
Yesterday marked the fifth anniversary of the last show the Eagles played with Frey -- July 29th, 2015, in Bossier City, Louisiana. Frey died on January 18th, 2016.