Don Henley: Out of the Fast Lane

7/28/2019 Don Henley: Out of the Fast Lane

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CONTENTShis issue's cover story on ex-Eagle Don Henley is, in away, the matching book-end for our Glenn Frey cover ofa few months back. Together, Henley and Frev were theguicling lights of the most popular band America pro-ducedln the '70s. While they avoidecl the press for themost part in their Eagles days, now they are each trying to build solocareers, so being nice to the press suddenly has its advantages Aiter

all, even thougliyou've heard Henley's voice a million times, do youknow his nami or face? The transition from being in a superstar bandto trying a solo career was a roup;h one for F{t'nley, but it seems to be

p.rving off, as "Dirty Laun.lrv" c!)ntintrL's to lcap upr the singlc's ch;rrts'' A.i.rn"'""oectirri eitht'r n surlv, eg()[istie'rl roek st']r-tvP('rrr a "Liieirr thJ Fast Liirre" pirty 'rnimal' will be rerv strrl'r'i'ccl hv tlris sl'rrr' Itc.rtclres .r uootl-liumi)recl, intelligent. a.d thrrughtirtl sitrgcr'sonu-*.ritt,r at.r ii.iti..-rt turning poi.t in liis lift. .\rrd irr iltc tluiet.sccltrsi.nof his r.trrch, Flenlev looks i-ack at his p'lst 'llrcl 'thea'i ttr tht'ftrttrrc O,r\lillCl.i:5

DON HENLEY: OUT OF THE FAST LANEBv B/rrir /rlckstrtt .AVA CHERRY: BOWIT BACKUPS AND BEYONT)tsq Mnrk Ln'itltt .DREAM SYNPTCNTT: PSYCHEDELIA UPDATEDBy Muk Lat,ittttt .IOSIE COTTON'S,,QUEER,, SUCCESSBy Mnrc Slnltiro .JEFFERSON STARSHIP,S,,WIND,S OF CHANGE,,By loa TarrihtPRODUCER DAVID KEHNE: A PROFILEBry Datt Mtnrtgottrcry . . .GOOOTTANU'S KEYBOARD EXPOBv Micfulk'Klaitr... ITFCULAR FE,\1'UI{ES

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DON HENLEY

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((T\ ASICALLY, I HAVE- - KA VERY CAUTTOUSL' ixl:: i :'i::?: 1T ft i?ri 3ii ii it;converted bam at the dry Malibu hills - scorchedblack from a recent arson fire - that lie beyondhis cattle pen. "l think mankind is marching to-ward annihilation; at the same time I'm happy.I'm very proud of what I've accomplished. I havea good life, I'm in love with a wonderful woman,I don't want for anything. What family I have left

Out of the Fast l-ane, at Home on the RonryeBy Blnir Jacl


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in the raspy, soul-tinged voice that poweredEagles classics as "Desperado," "Hotel Cali-"Life in the Fast Lane" and "The Long(all co-written by Henley and other mem-of the group, most notably Glenn Frey,own recent solo LP, No Furr Aloud, has al-spawned two hit singles, "l Found Some-and "The One You Love").The tracks on I Can't Stand Still are rough andin stark contrast with The Eagles' usuallyapproach. Henley's drums boom andlike gunshots; the guitars of Henley's co-and co-writer Danny Kortchmar are iag-and searing; and most songs feature piercingthat soar and whine above the in-assault. For his first outing, Henley as-a predictably stellar crew of session play-including guitarist Steve Lukather, drummerPorcaro and keyboardist Steve Porcaro ofBen Tench, keyboardist of Tom Petty & theguitarist Waddy Wachtel; EaglesTimothy Schmit and guitarist Joe Walsh;Warren Zevon; and J.D. Souther,others. "l really want to stress that Ihave made this record without the sup-of these people," Henley says. "l didn'thave too good an idea of how to make athese people came through andme tremendously."The record has a more urgent tone than anyrecord, sounding in places like Henley isbacked by a bona fide new wave band. Thereurgency, too, to the lyrics, which have al-been important to Henley. Aside fromLaundry," with its catchy chorus, "Kickwhen they're up, kick 'em when they're(something Henley knows about from be-slagged by the Eagles-hating rock press overyears, and dragged through the mud by thebecause of a couple of unfortunate inci-in his personal life a few years back), the LPa strong anti-nuclear rocker, "Them and("ln forty-five minutes/lt'll all be done/We'llbe good and crispy/But we'll still be numberthe galloping "Nobody's Business," which

people's insensitivity and vindictiveness;"Johnny Can't Read," a serio-comic indict-

ment of our cultural illiteracy: "Football, baseball,basketball games/Drinkin' beer, kickin' ass andtakin' down names/Well-a top down, get-a-round, shootin' the line/Summer is here andJohnny's feelin' fine/But Johnny can't read/Summer is over and he's gone to seed.""Johnny Can't Read" was the first single from 1Can't Stntttl Still and, not surprisingly, it met someresistance from radio programmers. Henley isblunt: "lt stif fed. And the reason it stif fed is a lotof radio stations refused to play it. In Atlanta,Georgia, they said it was 'un-American.' I thinkit's about as American as you can Bet. It's aboutsomething that's going on in America. ln thecities where it did get played it did fine. It got upto the Top Ten in many places. But I expectedsome resistance. I wanted to take a chance, turnleft a little bit. I don't think the new single, 'DirtyLaundry,' is any less controversial, but 'JohnnyCan't Read' apparently hit a note that peopledidn't want to hear. It hit home a little toomuch."Henley also feels that some people are notlatching on to the humor in his "message" songs."l think there's humor in some of those songsthat people will pick up on if they listen to themclosely. It's black humor a lot of times, but hope-fully it keeps things from seeming too serious. InThe Eagles we never got much credit for ourhumor; instead, everyone thought we werebrooding, serious guys. I guess it iust wasn'tobvious enough."l don't think this album is mired in serious-ness," he continues. "There's a lot of'up,'bouncy stuff. I tried to strike a balance betweenthe two, because I don't think that preaching andbeing pedantic is very entertaining. I think youhave an obligation to entertain. It's a very touchypoint - some people think rock and roll is just toentertain; other people want to 8et across a mes-sage. I think you can do both: you can have amessage you can dance to." As examples of song-writers he feels are successfully making intelli-Bent, entertaining music, Henley cites JacksonBrown, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon andRandy Newman (who Henley feels is "probablythe most brilliant writer around").

More than half of the songs on I Can't StantlSfill aren't "message" songs at all, dealing insteadwith romantic entanpilements. (l wonder, though,if "l Can't Stand Still" is really directed at a wo-man, as it appears, or at Glenn Frey, catalyst ofThe Eagles' break-up.) "Talking to the Moon,"co-written by J. O. Souther will undoubtedlystrike a chord with Eagles fans, with its hints atthe melody of "Desperaclo" arrd its western imag-ery. Throughout the album, Henley's vocals arestrong and sure - familiar, of course, but set in abold new musical context. If there is no "l{otelCalifornia" on this record - could.any career pro-duce two? - there is more passion than TheEagles usually could muster, and, at last, there isa sense of a real, defined personality behincl thatmarvelous voice."l guess I sort of cultivated mv anonymity inThe Eagles," he says. "We never clid many in-terviews to begin with. And when r,r'e did it was alittle strange because you're put in the position ofanswering for tbur or tive other people who usu-ally have conflicting egos. Now, with my own al-bum, I only have myself to answer for. It's an ex-hilarating feeling. I have a new freedom I haven'tquite adjusted to, but it feels good."Far from being the moody "doomsday Eagle,"as a review in these pages painted him recently,Henley struck me as a good-natured, fiiendlyman who is self-assured enough to let his vul-nerability show, at peace with his past and look-ing forward to the future. His Malibu ranch is thepicture of tranquility - rustic with few outwardsigns of Henley's affluence. It is exactly the kinclof place you'd expect a small-town Texas boy-who-made-good to live. And certainly it is lightyears from the coke-ancl-Jacuzzi world of "Life inthe Fast Lane." "That seems so long ago," hesays wistfully. "l don't fe'el close to that song atall anymore."On a sunny late October afternoon, Henley andI chatted for a couple of hours about his roots, hisrise, the struggles of his post-Eagles life, and thefuture. Henley is a candid, articulate speaker witha slight Texas drawl, which, alas, will not showup in print. Enough of me, though. Let's haveDon Henley tell his own fascinating storv.

RoorsWAS BORN ANDRAISED IN Atown of about 2,000 - Linden,Tr.xas. It's in an area known as"cieep East Tex.rs," kind of a TwilightZone where the South meets theWest. It's 30 miles from Louisiana and40 miles from Arkansas, so Lindenmight .rs well be in either of those

sta tes.My prrrents both loved music. Mymothc'r playeti piano and sang gospelmusic. Mv father was a bass in abarbershop quartet. My grantlfatherplryed piano and nry grandmotherwas nlzlnrls singing. She used to sit ina rocking chair day after day singing"The Unclouded D.ry," which I puton my album. None of the people inmy family were great players, butthey were good in sort of an ethnic,gospel-country way.I took piano lessons as a kid. Mymother started me off when I wasabout 5, I think, but I was too youngto be interested in it. I just wanted togo outside and play with the otherkids, so I didn't practice piano, andthen quit altogether.Down behind my house there was agtxrd sized pond where, on certainSundays, black people from the area

Johnny csn't read, but Donny can. Photo; Jim Sheawould have baptisms. ln the Baptistchurch I grew up going to, we hadthis phony baptismal with a paintingof the River Jordan behind it, but theblack folks would .rctually get out intothe mud and in the lake. I used tosneak down and hide in the weedsand watch. The preacher wore thisweird leopard-skin outfit that lookedlike it was out of a Tarzan movie. Icouldn't figure it out, but I knew it wascool. And the people sang their buttsoff. We could hear 'em all the way up

at the house. It was scary in a way -they were so fervent and the waterwas murky and filled with crayfishand minnows - but it fascinated me.Linden was totally segregated untilI got out of high school. The blackshad different schools, different restrooms, different drinking fountains,and most of them lived in their ownlittle village on one side of'town. Inever went to black clubs when I wasgrowing up, s() most of my musiccanre from Louisiana via the air-

waves. I hcart-l a lot of rhvthm.rndblues and I also likecl some countrv.KWKH in Shrieveport lr.r.l ,r shoitcalled T/rc Lottistrtrtn Hnyririr, *'hichwas sort of a miniature Granrl OIdOpry. I renrember hearing EclclieArnold cloing "C.rttle Call," ancl ll.rnkWilliams, Patsv Cline, Recl Folc'r,, Ern-est Tubb. I still love a lot of countr\,.My favorites n()w dre Mcrlc Hrggritland George Jones.My first rock and roll flash wasElvis. My mom used to make a weeklvtrip to a bigger town to a record store,and I rememhr.r one clav she askedme if I wanted anvthing. I said, "Yeah,get me this thing called 'HounclDog."'That was my first record.From there, I bought a lot oi Sun Rec-ords - [ had "l Walk the Line" bvJohnny Cash. I had strrif by Jerry LetLewis. I had "La 8amba." "Do YouWanna Dance?" by Bobby Freeman.When The Beatles came along in the'50s, it completely changed my lifeand I knew I wanted to be involvetl inmusic. I said, "This is it!"I played trombone in high school,but I also beat on books with pencilsall the time, so a friend of mine sug-gested I switch from trombone todrums. I did and it was great, thoughI never really practiced much. I gtressvou can tell.Before Igot seriouslv into music Iloved to plry sports. I tried to playNOVEMBERI9, t9E2lIAM


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Desperado-era Eagles: (L-R) Bemie Leadon, Randv Meisner, Henley, Glenil Frcy. Photo: Henry Diltz

in ton,n or where to go. We haci thisratty little ap;rrtment somewhere insouthwest Lonclon. We were clrivenb the stu('lio and driven back b the.rpartment every clay. We'cl iust sit inthe apartment and drink tecluila anciwait for the next day.We recorderl Dtsperntltt in Lontlon,too. The first record had clone well.rnd Iguess everyone thotr6;ht rveslrould try to follow the same thingswe'd done on th.rt album.I still like a lot of Dcspcrorlo, but Ithink some oi it looks a little sillvnow. The whole metaphor of "rurckmusicLrns-as-outlaw" seems sillv. Itwasn't re.rllv.rccur.lte. I mean we rli.lIive outsitle-the larvs of nomalitv, butwe ditln't kill pc.ople. At the time; itwas fine because that kincl of musicwJs Bctting popuLrr anrl thc imagehelpc.ci get the music across, I thirrk. Itholds up nrusicallv. That and Hotu'iCiliitnttirt are probablv mv favoritcEagles albums.It's funnv - growing rrp in Tex.rs Inever paitl anv attention kr all thestories ;rborrt otrtlru,s. Actuallv, n,herethe n,hole- concept of that album c.rmefrom u,trs this book that JacksonBrowne, .f.D. Souther, Neti Doherrv.rnd Glcnn ha.l. lt was ftrn rt thc tirrti.Llrt uniortun.rtelv u,r' g()t tvpecnstfronr that.rlbum.rncl we wcrc neverreallv .lblc to break out of it, cvcnwith Orl' 1rf Th'sr Niq/rts anci I/trfu'lCaliltnria and .rll our.rttempts.rt rvhitrR&B ancl soul music. We were alu'avstvpccnst ls d country-r(rck brntl rrnthe strength of our first three albtrms.

football in the 9th grade but I onlyweighed 98 pountls, so I'd Bet creamedon everv play. This guv n.rmed Ver-non Snellgrove would be across fromme on the line and he'cl iust run rightover me like a freight trairr, so I de-cicled football wasn't for me.Getting Serioru

HE FIRST BANDI WAS IN WASfomed bv Richard Bowden,who vou mav have heard oi.He used to use his band to recruitpeople for the high school band, andone dav he saicl to me, "lf you'll lointlre marching band, you can play inmv combo." 5o we started this bandth'at had several names over a periodof a few years. We were doing fratparties mainly, and they wanted tohear Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett.I went to college about 40 milesnorth of Dallas, in Denton, at NorthTexas State. They've got a real goodmusic school - Stan Kenton used tofind a lot of his players there - but Imajored in English lit. I took onemusic theory course and got a "D."The teacher was an asshole.I had a rough time in college be-cause I was one oi about three guyswho hacl hair touching the top of theirears. I also had a real beautifulgirlfriencl so all the frat guys hatedme. They'd pull up in their cars andmake smart-ass remarks, threaten towhip my ass.I went to North Texas State for fourvears, making A's and B's mostly, butI took a light loacl and would've hadto go another year to get my degree. Iguess music was more important tome. Someday, I think I'd like to get ade6;ree, though.The first real break our group [Shi-loh] got came in 1969 when we raninto Kenny Rogers in a psychedelicclothing boutique in Dallas, where heand the First Edition were playing.We talked to hinr and he told us hewas looking tbr groups to produce.We maintained phone contact withhim for about a year.rnd then finally,in February of 1970, he brought us outto California to make a single. Wewent back to Texas right after that to

wait to see if anvthing would happen.Nothing dicl happen, of course, be-cause the song wasn't worth shit.Then a member of the gpoup, who'dbeen.r friend of mine for vears waskillecl when lre was hit bv a car. Isaw it happen, .rnd the image of himc'lrapecl over the hood of this car,which was being driven bv anotherfriend of mine, is something ['ll neverget out of mv mind. The banci had toregroup and lve recruited this guy l'dmet at North Texas State named JimEd Norman anci a pedal steel playernamed AI Perkins, both of whomhave done real nell in the music busi-ness. .fim Ed Norman arranged thestrings on Dtsptradtt and otherpeople's records, and he's producedsome albums, too - he did Glenn'srecord, he did one for Jennifer Wames.Al Perkins played steel with ('r'('nl(,,rcfor a while. Now he's.r devout Christ-ian and I guess he plays mainly thatkind of music.So we all got together anci movedout to Los Angeles for good. Shilohmacie one terrible, na'fil album thatKenny Rogers produced. lt wascountry-gospel-rock. The Flving Bur-rito Brothers were fusing country androck and had long hair and we thoughtthat was iust great. I loved - still love- that first Burritos album, Tlrc GilLlaLl

A fupically joaidl Henlev in 7974.Photo: Henry Diltz

psllss 1tf Sitt. But our recorcl was reallybad - I'm still trying kr buv up all thecopies of it.Eventually, Kennv turnecl us overto the woman who was then his rvif-e,for management. She hacl us plavingclives in Northridge for the better partoi a year, btrt basically tlre banclrvasn't working out. So I used to hangout.r lot at the Troubaclour, mainlvgoing to sc.e. The Dillards evc'ry chanceI could. Thev we.re reallv lltt'senrin.rlband in the'country-roc'k movement.Thev influenced the Burritos, TheByrds, Buffalo Springfielcl, Poco, ancl,of course, The Eagles.I met a lot of people han8ing out atthe Troubacfuur. That's where ImetClenn. We became friencls ancl thenone day he asked me if I wanted tomake $200 a week going on the roadwith Lincla Ronstadt. Clenn intro-duced me to David Geffen, who wasmanaging all these hot songwriters,anci through Clenn I met Bernie Lea-c-lon and Rantly Meisner. The four ofus hecame The Eaglt's, ancl Geffen gotus our record deal.Tequila SnnnserT7 7E RECORDED\X/sv*TI*:T#kV Y praces, Decause ,ur pru-

tf ucer w.rs Glyn Johns, who'cl workedwith the Stones and a bunch of othe.rbig acts over the years. He was .rsuperstar producer, we were n0-bodies, so we had to go where hewas. We recorded it at Olympic Stu-dios in this huge room with hard-wood floors and a basketball back-boarcl on one wall. It was pretty weird.We felt pretty out of place inLondon. At the time, Pink Floyd anciEric Clapton and Yes were popularthere, and here we were this littlecountry-rock group with a banjo. Iguess countrv-rock was just begin-ning to take off there, because theBurritos hacl broke"n sonre ground.But it was still really strange for me'cause I'ci onlv been in Californi.rabout a year 6efore they carted usoff to London. lt was like being rrnanother planet. We didn't know anv-bodv, we didn't know where we were

Soul Strutnn'E RECORDEDTWO SONGSft>r Ou tltt Bordtr -"Best of Mv Love".rnrl"Crv Like A Lover" - in Londorrwith Clvn Jolrrrs .rnd then w,e clecidcclwe were sick of making recorcls inLonclon anri we wantetl .r change. Sowe tolcl Geffen we wantecl to recortl

with Bill Szvmczck and he rvorkerl itout. Szvmcick hatl elone sonre gooclstuff alreatly. He'c-l tlone a great J.Geils album'.rnd the Edgar Winter .rl-bum that h.rc1 "Frankenstc.in" on it.llc rvas into R&B .rnd that rvas .r eli-rection rv!'wrnterl to go irr.I grr.n' up liking a lot of R&B. I usetlto listen kr this NL'w Orlcans station,WNOE, th.rt rvas n 50,000-w'att sta-tion. It was tht'onlr, ont'lcorrltl get atnight. So I hr.arcl .r lot of Nerv Orleansmusic - Ernie K-Doe, Dr. Fet.lgtxrcl,Piano Recl, the guys ulro Lrec.rme TlreMeters, .rnd all these people influ-c.nced me. Clenn, being fronr Detroit,was .rrr R&B freak, and he antl Szynr-ezck wcre IarHelv resl.onsihle fttr ihatshift towards R&B in The E.rgles.Thev found out prettv earlv on thatI could sing R&8, so thev gave me theb.rll, so to spt'ak, and we got into it.Otis Reclcling was .rlso one of my big-gest influences. Icoulc'ln't sing likc'him, but I tried.Parts of Ont'ttf Tlrcsr: Nlc/rfs, werereal goocl, I think. It was a change forus and it helped us move into areasother th.rn country-rock, which issomething we neecled to do.IFrrlrr Ont' of lhese Nights, T/lr Errgltsi{'c,rl Jlrl?igi,t tu lltt, lttp it'lllt HotelCalifornia, r"'ltrh rotnir tnrc oi tfu lttstsc/iirt rtllrrlrrrs oi Llll tina, rrlrl l/rL,rr TheLtlng Rttn. Tltt' trou1, alrrl lhnrrrr',lr sri-L't1l1 pL'rst)ilttL'l r,lrarrtts, lltl Httth-t1 ruulI:rtt1 rtntnitttrl tltL' bi,td's crcalii't nt,n't'-tt'ttlt,r thrttugh r'oil/ tirrts uul lttd. Itt-crzaslrrglrT tlu, rtcrtrds ltt'ctnn lntrLil'r ltt

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friction behteen Henley nntlincraased. This tale has hecn loldelsanherc, so u,a pick up the stLtryagairt nfter The Long Run is rclmsed andltc groult scath:rs f(ill(ridtts ttltttt ttoulLltlrcir fiml tuur.l

T BECAME CLEART I WAS GOING TOI m.rke a solo alhum the dayCl*.. told me lrc was going tirone. The thought h.rd nevercrossed my mind. We'd alwaysgrorrp ancl we'd sworn off thealbum trip because it's really hardhave a band and he a solo artist.seen so many cases wherehad broken up because of it.so few perfomers suruive thefrom being in a successfulbecoming a solo performer.solo albums f krp.It took me a while to get over tlreshock. I itrst hadn't expectedthorrgh making T/rr Lolg I{rrrr wasrough. None of them had beenbut TJrr Lrlr{ Rlrr wars tlreWe were s()rt of running out ofbv that point. We wereof each other ancl tired of thewe were facc'cl n,ith tlreof trving to top Hofu,/ Crrli-We all kneu, it woulci enti\{e knerv that ciay probablvfar off, but for some reasonthought it woulcl end clift'erentlv. Ipictured in my nrincl sitting inwith the b.rnd .rnd havintl rr\jtrst sort of rlecidt' to call it cltrits.It u'asn't until later Ilearned Glennber.rr pl.rnning to nrake his alburnThat hurt me a little.lrrrrl,'rstancJ his reasorrs for tloing it,bV n()h' I agree witlr it completelv,l'rtt rcrtllv protrcl of mv;rl-Irr .r rv.]v it's tlre best thing thathappenecl to rne. lciicin'ttinre th.rt rve'd betn-fhe Eaulcs goirrg ,ust to keep

trrirrg.

KootchANNY KORTCH-MAR [ALIASKootch] had been a casualfriend for years, since he'd

a bridge or a chorus. We both workedon the music and the words on mostson8s.Eventually, we got down most ofthe songs in a finished fom un thePortastudio. In fact, if I'd hacl it mvwav we would've user-l those tracLsbecause they sounded so good, But ofcourse that's not dont,. It sounded rawand funky, which is what I wantecl,but even Danny thought using thetracks like that was a little crazed. Sowe went into the studio and dicl 'emover, and I'm real pleased with theway it came out. Obviously you lose alittle of the rawness, but you g,ain inother ways. I just didn't want to laborover the record endlessly, Iike we didwith The Eagles. This is the '80s andit's time to try something different.

In tfu OpenHIS ALBUM ISREALLY THEfirst time I've been out in theopen as myself. Even whenthe;rress or whoever woulti tw topick' out inelividual p('rsonnlities ()f

PresentTerueT THINK WE CAN DOI A LOT OF GOODI with rock and roll. People canI be moved purposefully throughrock and roll. That's what gave ourSeneration a voice originally. But som.rny people don't want to think aboutthings. They just want to have fun -instant gratification. Ancl a lot of therdck and roll that's out now reflectsthat. It's become background musicfor most people instead of somethingthat nloves them. I think rock and rollcan be a wonderful medium to getkicis' attention, just like televisioncould be. But look at television - it'sthe single nrost dangerous drug onthe market.I feel like we've gone down thewrong-path in the last decade or two.I think the c'mphasis is on the wrongthings. We're all victims of an over-crowdecl techno-society ancl tlrestrains of that are beginning to show.Look at this fire. [He points to theLrurned ridge right bevoncl lris prop-t'rtv.l Some sick person scl this fire,and it's happened before. Then

'60s will come to fruition, becausesomewhere in the'70s we got lost.Verv few of the people wlro werc. outon the streets in thr' '60s kept it going.I'm hoping tlrat more.rncl morepe'ople will see th.rt ch;rnge L?,r conrethrouglr the svstr.nt. But sitting backanc'l watching it fall apart is not.tnvkincl tlf an answer.

A Look Ahead,Y'M ALREADYI rHrNxrNG ABourI mv next album. l've stdrted toI wiite a few things and l'vc gotsongs that I've had lying around for avear or tlvo that I've been waiting tofit in somewhere. There'll be .r lot ofstuff that has to do with Americanaand the state of the union, the denriseof the small farmer, the loss of agri-cultural land, .rncl some of the things Itouchecl on in "'Ihe Last Resort" [onflottl Cnlilttnia).Iwant to u,rite about some of thethings in me that were iniluenced bymv f.rther and his life. anci rvherr'lgrew up. There's a little of that on 1

"I'd like you to meet my nru band," says Henley as he stands among tononow's 8ig Macs, Photo: Robert Matheulayed guitar with iust about every-I know..How he and I decided onvgorking as closely as weon my album I don't really re-It was probably more of adecision than, "l'mto get him to help me." I knew Ia good electric guitar player,l'm a lousy guitarist. AIso, l'dproduction he'd done onGoffin's albums. He's kind ofraw guy, and I knew one of theI wanted for my album was asound than The Eagles. Weup collaboratin6; on nearlyaspect of the album. He helpedwrite most of the songs, he workedtracks and co-produced it withGreg Ladanyi.At the beginning of making the rec-before we really had anything, Ihim a Teac Portastudio for himparts on. He'd make uptracks, with 'guitar and drumon them - he's a prettv goodactually - and then I'dwith that. Sometimes he'd iusta rough idea of a riff or line, andI'd make a melody from it or add

The Eagles based on the songs, it wasnever accurate because we a'crc agroup and most of the songs werecolored by several different personal-ities.I always had something to dowith the songs Clenn sang and he al-ways had something to do with thesongs I sang. Some of the ones I hadmost to do with, though, are "Desper-ado," "Hotel California" - the musicwas mainly Don Felder's - and "TheLast Resort." But in those cases too,Glenn was always there helping toshape the music and comint up withsome key words, so even the songsI feel closest to aren't purely mine.'So I'm glad in a way that with thisalbum my personality is toing to bedefined a little more clearly than it hasbeen in the past. Obviously, it hasmore of "me" on it. At the same time,I've never wanted to be the guy out infront and I've never relished the ideaof being a "star." I iust want to be rec-ognized by my peers and be good atwhat I do and erryor7 what I do.

there's the Tylenol thing. And some-one's cutting the beaks off pelicansdown at Dana Point. Something isbasicallv deeply wrong with thissocietv.People blame it on unemployment,they blame it on drugs, they blame iton whatever they want to blame it on,but I think it goes deeper and is morefundamental than that. I think it goesdeep to some roots. that are fadingaway because we've allowed our-selves to lose contact with them - theland and certain basic family valuesthat are important.It's come to the point where patri-otism has become "comy" and peoplethink that nothing can be done tomake things better. They think,"Well, things are going to hell any-way. Why should I vote? It won'tmake any difference." That's wrong,that's bad and 1 don't believe it.I'm hoping that when the babyboom comes of age - which is hap-pening - maybe some of the p;randideas and premises we started in the

Cntt'l ltaud Sti// but I want to get intoit cleeper.I grew up working real hard. Myfather was a part-time f.rmer whogrew up real poor - about as poor asvou can be ;rnd still survive. He hadto tluit school in the 8th gr.rde to gohome and work in the fields to helpsupport his familv. He worked allsorts of odd jobs - everything frombeing.rn ice man to a dry cleaner torunning an auto parts store in anearby town. I'm going to write asong about how seriously he took hiswork - eventually the stress killedhim. But he was a good man. Thefarmer never Went out of hinr, either.He was always planting, alwaysworking on the land. I have some ofthat in me, too, I guess.I'm never at a loss for things towrite about. It's not always easv - itwas tough for Clenn and me to comeup with songs for .rn album everycouple of years - but there arz thingsto sav. Anrl rock and roll is as good amediunr as.rnv to say them. f IINOVEMEERt9, 1982/8^r\r

Documents

Don Henley: Out of the Fast Lane