In 1976, Tom Waits called the Eagles the most boring band in America: “Watching paint dry”

In a 1976 interview, Tom Waits called the Eagles dull, comparing them to watching paint dry and saying their albums were useful mainly for keeping dust off a turntable. The remarks reflected his preference for rough-edged, unconventional music over the band’s polished, radio-friendly sound.

Waits and the Eagles were label mates at Asylum Records in the early 1970s, and the Eagles later recorded a cover of his song “Ol’ ’55” for their 1974 album *On the Border*. The article says the cover’s smoother country-rock arrangement deepened Waits’s dislike of the band, whose mainstream success contrasted with his own avant-garde ambitions.