When ‘the Dude,’ played by Jeff Bridges, got into a cab after a long, challenging day, it was the Eagles‘ song, ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling,’ that greeted him through the radio, but he couldn’t stand it. So, he would ask the driver to change it, saying, ‘I f*cking hate Eagles,’ which would frustrate the driver to the point of kicking our character out of his car.
That was only one of the most notable scenes of ‘The Big Lebowski,’ and don’t worry; it’s not much of a spoiler if you haven’t watched the movie. But getting into Bridges’ character, the Dude had quite the taste for rock, being a hardcore Creedence Clearwater Revival fan though not enjoying the Eagles as much, which frustrated not only the taxi driver driving him but also, apparently, the frontman Glenn Frey.
Frey and his bandmates’ relationship with critics and the press had been pretty complex since the act had never been the one to back away from confronting those who didn’t like them or their songs, so when the Dude’s line about how much he hated the Eagles surfaced, the late frontman knew how to deal with it.
Bridges recalled how he once met Glenn while chatting with Rolling Stone in 2012, saying the rocker called him out on his line in the film while confronting him. The actor was quite intimidated by Frey, even half-jokingly stating that he had his anus tightened a bit by the frontman’s words.
Jeff’s words on Frey intimidating him:
“As far as the Eagles, I don’t hate the Eagles like the Dude hates them. I remember I ran into Glenn Frey; he gave me some sh*t. I can’t remember what he said exactly, but you know, my anus tightened a bit.”
A few years later that interview, Bridges disclosed how Don Henley was cooler about the Dude’s line against the Eagles during a chat with the Telegraph in 2016, as the drummer knew Jeff personally. Still, that didn’t ease how much Glenn was pissed off at that specific ‘Lebowski’ line, as he carried on to intimidate the actor whenever he saw him.
Bridges recalled being not-so-close friends with Henley and how Frey scared him with the following:
“I wouldn’t say I’m a good friend of Don’s, but we know each other. Glenn Frey, I run into him at parties; he’ll always bust my chops and make me squirm a little bit. That was my character that hated the Eagles, not me.”
Although it was simply a comedic scene, the Eagles frontman still didn’t take things lightly, intimidating Jeff whenever the duo came across. Perhaps, Frey was only messing with Bridges a bit and was joking himself, but from what we gather from the actor’s words, there was a bit of truth in Glenn’s pissed-off attitude.
