Songfacts®:

• Glenn Frey of the Eagles sang lead on this one and wrote it with Jack Tempchin. It finds him settling in, looking back on his life and stepping aside for the next generation - not something every Baby Boomer is willing to do.
  
  Frey was a huge star throughout the '70s and '80s both as a solo artist and with the Eagles. He waited until the '90s to have kids (three), which gave him a new perspective and slowed his roll considerably. This song in many ways is a message to his children, letting them know it will soon be their turn to shine.
• Don Henley likes this song a lot; he told Billboard, "The crux of the whole thing for me is those two lines: 'Be part of something good, leave something good behind.' For me that sums up everything - to my children, to my fans, to everybody. If there was one message to this album that I want to impart, that would be it."
• When Glenn Frey passed away on January 18, 2016, the Eagles posted the lyrics of this song with the announcement of his death. "Words can neither describe our sorrow, nor our love and respect for all that he has given to us, his family, the music community & millions of fans worldwide," the statement read.
• After Frey's death, Don Henley called this song his "beautiful valediction to his wife and kids."
• This is the last of 20 tracks on Long Road Out Of Eden, the 2007 double album that was the first studio album the Eagles released since The Long Run in 1979. It took them six years to make, even with technology allowing the group members to work separately. They seemed to sense the finality. "It's almost as if we knew that record would be our last," Henley told Rolling Stone.