The Big Lebowski’s Eagles Line Got Jeff Bridges Into Trouble

The Big Lebowski features a line that’s dismissive of The Eagles, and that dialogue caused some tension between Jeff Bridges and members of the band.

The Big Lebowski is known for some of its memorable dialogue, but one of its lines actually got Jeff Bridges into trouble. The 1998 Coen brothers movie follows Bridges’ Jeff Lebowski, a.k.a The Dude, a laid-back stoner who has a penchant for bowling and little else. But when he gets mistaken for a millionaire also named Jeff Lebowski, he’s pulled into a conspiracy regarding the other man’s kidnapped wife and forced to solve what actually happened to her. Despite all its surreal goings-on and the unique concept, the movie ultimately ends with the Dude’s life ironically completely unchanged and with intentionally zero character development.

The Big Lebowski has a great soundtrack, and when the movie isn’t playing hits, characters are debating popular bands. Along the Dude’s journey, he finds himself in a cab where the Eagles are playing on the radio. He politely asks the cab driver to change the radio station, but the cab driver refuses. The Dude comments, “I f***in’ hate Eagles, man,” and it hilariously leads to the Dude getting kicked out of the cab. Not everyone found the gag in The Big Lebowski all that funny, though, as the Eagles themselves took offense.

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The Eagles Weren’t Happy About The Line

The joke in The Big Lebowski is multi-layered, as it isn’t just the Coen brothers getting a cheap dig in at the band. It’s also ridiculous that a cab driver would be so upset about a client’s music taste that they’d throw him out. Unfortunately, while it’s one of the best quotes in The Big Lebowski, the band’s members didn’t see it that way. The Eagles are a famous American band from the ’70s, and as they live in California, a couple of their members have bumped into Jeff Bridges on the street and at parties, and one of them hasn’t held back on giving the actor a piece of his mind.

Bridges has run into the Eagles’ Don Henley on several occasions, noting, “I wouldn’t say I’m a good friend of Don’s, but we know each other” (via Ultimate Classic Rock). Yet it isn’t Henley that Bridges is worried about. The actor has also bumped into Glenn Frey. “I can’t remember what he said exactly, but you know, my anus tightened a bit,” Bridges said. “I run into him at parties; he’ll always bust my chops and make me squirm a little bit.” As the Dude is Bridges’ most iconic character, he likely influenced a lot of viewers’ opinions on the band, which actually makes Frey’s dissatisfaction valid.

Jeff Bridges Actually Likes The Eagles

The Dude’s hatred for the Eagles’ “Peaceful Easy Feeling” in The Big Lebowski is unfathomable, but Jeff Bridges has specified that he actually likes the band. The actor explained, “I don’t hate the Eagles like the Dude hates them,” adding, “That was my character that hated the Eagles, not me.” It’s always difficult to separate the art from the artist, which is the case when it comes to fans seeing their favorite characters when looking at the actors who play them, and vice versa. Bridges and the Dude share some personality traits, so it’s easy to see why the Eagles would take his words personally.

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