Major lineup change for sold-out Rupp Arena ‘Goodbye’ Eagles concert

If you’re heading to Rupp Arena on Tuesday for Lexington’s last roundup with the Eagles, be aware there has been a change in the support act slot. It’s gone from Dan to Doobies.

When the long-running, multi-platinum selling Eagles outlined the itinerary for its Long Goodbye tour, the band’s final concert run after a 52-year career, Steely Dan was announced as opening act for all dates. Led by founding singer and writer Donald Fagen, the jazz-pop leaning troupe’s career closely paralleled that of the Eagles. Both ensembles released debut albums in 1972, disbanded after issuing records in 1980, then reformed in the early 1990s.

Following word of recuperation needed by Fagen relating to an unspecified illness, Steely Dan bowed out of the tour following a Sept. 20 concert at Belmont Park in New York. Since then a series of marquee acts were enlisted to take over the support role. Sheryl Crow was added to the bill for two concerts in Denver, the Steve Miller Band opened for a pair of Indianapolis shows and Tedeschi Trucks Band handled performances earlier this month in Atlanta. Country music veteran Vince Gill, a member of the Eagles since 2016, in effect doubled as opening and headlining act for an Oct. 15 concert in Pittsburgh. An email from Denver’s Ball Arena sent to ticket holders said “Steely Dan has fallen ill and will no longer be opening,” referring to the Donald Fagen-led band as a person.

Doobie Brothers to replace Steely Dan as opening act for Eagles show

So what star attraction will fill the Steely Dan role for the Eagles’ sold-out Rupp Arena concert on Nov. 14? Why, it’s the Doobie Brothers, yet another act that ruled rock and pop radio for much of the 1970s. The band also opened for two Eagles concerts this week (Nov. 7 and 9) in Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.

While the Eagles last played Rupp in 2018, the Doobies haven’t played there — or anywhere in Lexington — since September 1979. Its current run of shows caps off a nearly two-year tour marking the band’s 50-year anniversary. The shows welcomed back keyboardist/singer Michael McDonald, whose pre-Doobies credits included work with, you guessed it, Steely Dan. McDonald was the voice behind the band’s more pop-soul inclined hits of the late ‘70s (“Takin’ It to the Streets,” “What a Fool Believes” and “Minute By Minute”). He re-joined a long-running line-up that included founding guitarist Patrick Simmons (who sang lead on the band’s 1974 country-fried single “Black Water”), guitarist Tom Johnston (vocalist on early ‘70s rock radio staples that included “Listen to the Music” and “China Grove”) and guitarist John McFee (who joined the Doobies in 1979).

Johnston, in another health-related move, left the tour in May to have back surgery. That leaves Simmons, McDonald and McFee as the Doobies’ front-line members for the Rupp concert. Regional fans should take note, though, that the full touring lineup of the Doobies includes bassist/vocalist John Cowan. Longtime member of the ‘70s/’80s progressive bluegrass and country troupe New Grass Revival, Cowan has played Lexington regularly through the decades, from early ‘70s New Grass Revival dates at such long-gone Lexington haunts as the Jefferson Davis Inn to a show with his own band as recently as March at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center.

“It never gets old for me,” Simmons told me in an interview prior to the Doobies’ 2022 performance at Bourbon and Beyond in Louisville. “You’re on the road and you’re out there throughout a summer, which might mean three, four or five months of touring. You hit it with a lot of enthusiasm and expectation and by the end of the year, you’re going, ‘I need a break.’ But by the time a few months go by, you’re just chomping at the bit to get out there and start playing again.”

Vince Gill will be ‘up there with my heroes’ playing Rupp ‘Goodbye’ with Eagles

Eagles: The Long Goodbye tour

Opening act: The Doobie Brothers

When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14

Where: Rupp Arena, 430 W. Vine

Tickets: Sold Out

Online: eagles.com, rupparena.com