According to Henley,
Bill Szymczyk, who had produced their previous albums, was a producer on the album, although Henley described Szymczyk's role as that of "a mediator, a consigliere, a ringmaster" since they (Frey and Henley) had already learned how to produce records themselves. Three studio versions of songs from
Long Road Out of Eden: "No More Cloudy Days", "Do Something" and "Fast Company" were first released in 2006 in a bonus
CD of a special edition exclusive to
Wal-Mart of the
DVD release,
Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne. On August 20, 2007, the song "How Long", written by
JD Souther – who had previously worked with the Eagles co-writing some of their biggest hits including "
Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "
Heartache Tonight" and "
New Kid in Town" – was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at
Yahoo! Music and debuted on television on
CMT during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time due to Souther's desire to use it on his first solo album. The deluxe collector's edition of
Long Road Out of Eden was released on November 20, 2007, featuring two bonus tracks, "Hole in the World" and "
Please Come Home for Christmas". This version of the CD is wrapped in a red linen cloth, screen printed with panoramic imagery, and includes a 40-page booklet with lyrics, credits, exclusive photos and desert scenes from the making of the "How Long" video. "No More Walks in the Wood" is a song using the words from "An Old-Fashioned Song", a 21-line poem (without choruses either in the poem or song) by
John Hollander. The song is in four-part harmony with guitar chords, but mostly sung
a cappella. In a 2007 interview with
CNN, band member Don Henley declared, "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." When questioned about the possibility of a follow-up album in November 2010, band member Timothy B. Schmit said, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." In a 2010 interview with undercover.fm, Joe Walsh said that the band might be able to make one more album before the band "wraps it up". At the
2009 Grammy Awards, the album won
Best Pop Instrumental Performance and was nominated for three more: Best Pop Vocal Album; Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals for "Waiting in the Weeds"; and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals for "Long Road Out of Eden". Joe Walsh previously recorded "Guilty of the Crime" for the 1995
soundtrack album A Future to This Life: Robocop – The Series Soundtrack. In 2009, "I Don't Want to Hear Any More" was released as the fifth single from the album. The song's writer
Paul Carrack had already cut his own version, with Henley and Schmit singing backing vocals, in 2007. For the first year after the album's initial release, the album was available in North America exclusively via the band's website, or through
Wal-Mart and
Sam's Club retail stores. It became the first account-exclusive album to reach number 1. The album blocked Britney Spears'
Blackout from hitting number one, ending her record-breaking streak of number-one albums as all previous four opened at the helm. ==Tour==