Tim Pierce is one of the most prolific session electric guitar greats in the game. From pop megastars Michael Jackson, Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato, to Stevie Nicks, Shinedown and Adam Lambert, there are few big hitters he hasn’t worked with.
But, he says in a new YouTube video, in a bizarre turn of events he was banned from being backstage moments after opening for The Eagles on what he calls “the biggest night for musicians in history at that time”.
It was New Year’s Eve at the turn of the Millennium, and Pierce was part of Linda Ronstadt’s backing band. Jackson Browne and the Eagles were set to follow them at the then-newly opened Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. Tickets ranged from $50 up to $1,000 apiece. This was no humble bash.
“It’s the reality of big-time show business,” he says in his latest YouTube video, discussing the events that followed Ronstadt’s set. “Every musician and artist I knew had a huge gig for great fees that night. No matter who they were, somewhere in the world, they had a huge gig.”
The group, which also included another seasoned session guitarist, Waddy Wachtel, played a smattering of warm-up shows before the big night, on which security was understandably tight.
“Now, I even heard that Don Henley had trouble with security,” Pierce recalls. “I think he had a moment of, ‘Hey, don’t you know who I am?’ So, there was some sort of kerfuffle. Some angry words were exchanged.”
Pierce says his set went by quickly as the band performed at a multi-million dollar venue that “slowly began to be filled with New Year’s Eve revelers”. He intended to watch the rest of the historic evening from the side of the stage and made full use of his Access All Areas pass as the frivolities moved through the gears – until matters took a turn.
“About halfway through the Jackson set, my wife and I went backstage and I was informed all of a sudden that my backstage access was about to be revoked and denied,” the guitarist then says. “We were informed that at the end of Jackson Browne’s set, we were no longer welcome in the building.
“My mind went into overdrive and I began to investigate and I realized that all of the Eagles crew had a tiny yellow dot – a sticker – that had been attached to their laminated photo ID credentials. We didn’t have the yellow dot. My mind began to spin and I began to formulate workarounds. What could we do to stay in the concert?
“I was about to give up and then I remembered that my friend (audio engineer) Dave Covelli had spent four years with us on the road with Rick Springfield. He was the manager of the Staples Center. That meant he ran every event, sporting or concert. And I said, ‘Dave, any chance of us getting credentials to stay? Because they want us out of here.’”
Cavelli obliged and Pierce proceeded to sit by the side of the stage with his new “unimpeachable” Staples Center-issued pass. The acreage by the side of the stage was now “a ghost town as Eagles staffers passed us by with daggers in their eyes”.
“But there was one more moment of awkwardness,” he continues. “We decided to leave and drive away before the encore to beat traffic. So, I went backstage to my dressing room, and an LAPD officer stopped me.
“Even with all my credentials, during the Eagles concert, it was a forbidden zone to go back into the dressing rooms. I had to start telling this nice officer my story and (that) my guitar was backstage. So, he gave us an exemption to walk down the hallowed halls of Eagledom.”
Other recent Tim Pierce anecdotes include how an off-the-cuff guitar solo went down in Bon Jovi folklore, how Kurt Cobain changed the guitar landscape in the 1990s, and the time PRS hung up on John Mayer after he called regarding the prospect of making his now-best-selling Silver Sky.
Meanwhile, there’s been plenty of plot twists for the Eagles in 2025. Long-serving guitarist Steuart Smith was forced to retire from the band in January amid health issues. Smith’s replacement, Chris Holt, has also spoken to Guitar World about his nonexistent audition and how he’s settling into the gig.
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