Too Late to Be Cool

Born in Minneapolis in 1947 and raised in Gainesville, Florida, Leadon was deeply involved in the Southern California folk and country-rock scene before the Eagles. He played in The Flying Burrito Brothers alongside Gram Parsons and Michael Clarke, and he also appeared with Dillard & Clark, one of the great late-1960s bluegrass-country fusion groups. By the early 1970s, he was already considered one of the finest banjo, guitar, and mandolin players in Los Angeles.

When Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and Randy Meisner were recruited by Linda Ronstadt to back her in 1971, Leadon was the final piece added to what became the Eagles. His virtuosity on banjo, pedal steel, and guitar, along with his sweet tenor voice, gave the fledgling band a distinctive edge.

Too Late to Be Cool arrives more than two decades after Mirror and nearly 50 years after Leadon first walked away from the Eagles.