Tom Waits didn't like the Eagles' cover of 'Ol' 55': 'As exciting as watching paint dry'

While the Eagles are one of the most successful bands in rock history, there have still been plenty of people over the years who weren't big fans of their music...including the iconic singer-songwriter who wrote one of the band's most popular covers, Tom Waits.

Originally released as the lead single from Waits' 1973 debut album, Closing Time, "Ol' 55" was inspired by the musician's 1955 Buick Roadmaster, which he called "the first real luxury automobile I had...about as slick as deer guts on a doorknob." Even though the song wasn't a major hit on the charts, like the rest of the album, it was praised by critics and other musicians.

The Eagles, who were on the same label as Waits, definitely took a liking to "Ol' 55," as they released a cover of the track on their 1974 album On the Border. Their version was more of a soft-rock kind of thing than its piano-led predecessor, and while Eagles' fans liked it, Waits did not.

In a 1975 interview quoted in the book Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits, Waits admitted that he wasn't "particularly crazy" about what the Eagles did with "Ol' 55," adding, "The song is about five years old, it’s one of the first songs I wrote, so I felt like it was kind of flattering that somebody wanted to do your song, but at the same time I thought their version was a little antiseptic."

About a year later, in an interview with NME, he was a bit more blunt.

"I don’t like the Eagles," Waits said, according to the book Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters. "They’re about as exciting as watching paint dry. Their albums are good for keeping the dust off your turntable and that’s about all.”

The Eagles didn't have much to say about Waits' criticism at the time, but decades later, Glenn Frey brought it up during the Eagles' millennium concert in Los Angeles at the and of 1999.

“Tom didn’t really like our version of ‘Ol’ ’55’ when it first came out,” Frey quipped from the stage, per American Songwriter. “And then he got the [royalty] check. Since then, Tom and I, we’re really close.”

At least Waits was financially compensated for his disappointment. Plus, the Eagles weren't the only ones sending royalty checks to Waits for "Ol' 55": Eric Andersen released a cover of his own in 1975, as did Sarah McLachlan on her 1994 album The Freedom Sessions. McLachlan's version was also used on the soundtrack of the 1995 movie Boys on the Side.

Related: 1977 No. 1 Soft Rock Ballad Became a Timeless Ode to the 'Fleeting Nature of Love'