Ex-Eagle Felder recalls flight and fight

By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Friday, May 16, 2008

Special to the Rocky

Felder

Guitarist Don Felder's acrimonious, lawyer-filled dismissal from the Eagles ended an era for the band - and for him. Felder recently wrote an autobiography, Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles, that lays bare the dirt and division in the band. He spoke recently on the phone with Rocky pop music writer Mark Brown about the early days, the good old days, songwriting and his regrets.

What was it about Gainesville in the late '60s and early '70s? The Allmans, Tom Petty, Stephen Stills, you, Bernie Leadon and more grew up together.

I don't know if there was just something in the water or something in what we were all smoking. It didn't seem strange at the time to have a lot of people who were playing in different bands and hanging out together. It never dawned on me that it was unusual.

The most fascinating part of your book are the tales of songwriting, especially Hotel California.

I rented this beach house in Malibu in '74 or '75 and was sitting on the sofa in a pair of swim trunks looking out over the sand there and the Pacific blue water and gorgeous sunny skies. My two little kids were on this swing set, just a glorious day. I had an acoustic 12-string and just started picking away on that progression, that introduction . . . I got up and ran to the back bedroom and had an old reel-to-reel, four-track TEAC tape recorder. I just put down that 12-string chord progression, turned it off and went out and played with my kids. A couple of days later I was putting together tracks for the Hotel California record and I went and listened to that. I played a bass part, a little drum machine, and played almost all the guitar parts close to what's on the record.

How about the guitar solos?

When I was writing for that record, knowing that Joe (Walsh) was in the band, I tried to write for two lead guitar parts. I wrote things like Victim of Love that would have a slide guitar part, plus another part. This track for Hotel has those harmony guitar parts. When we got in the studio in Miami and started to set up to record those guitar parts, I just threw on those things off the cuff when I'd laid down the demo. When we got in the studio I was going to plug in and make up another solo. I started playing and Henley said, 'Stop, that's not it, that's not right. Play it like the demo.' I said, 'I don't know what that was. That was a year ago. It was something I just made up on the spot.' He'd been listening to it over and over. So I had to call my housekeeper back in Malibu and she took it and put it in a little blaster, held the phone down to it and played it to us in Miami. We took the phone and recorded it on another cassette so we could hear the part. I had to relearn the solos.

Where did it go from there?

When it was done I remember sitting in L.A. and listening to the record and Henley said, 'That's going to be our single.' I said, 'You gotta be kidding me.' AM radio in the '70s, you had to be 2 minutes and 45 seconds. You couldn't be over 3 minutes. That track was 6 minutes long, it was slow, it stopped in the middle, you couldn't dance to it. I said, 'That's not the right song. It's definitely an album cut.' He said, 'No, it's going to be the single.' The record company just went along with what we chose. There'd been a big train wreck prior to that on the song Best of My Love. They'd put it out and the record company had edited the single to get it down to that two minutes 45 second length without approving the edit with the band. We heard it on the radio in some rent-a-car we were driving in the Midwest and went 'What the heck happened?' Henley went through the roof. Irving (Azoff, the band's manager) or someone had this gold record mocked up with Best of My Love on it and a hacksaw inside the glass. They sent it over to Joe Smith at Elektra Records and had it epoxy-ed to the wall in the hallway so they couldn't take it down. It was our way of saying, 'Don't do that again.' "

What was the reaction after you left the band?

That whole situation has felt to me very much like a family that you took to the airport, put on an airplane, waved goodbye, watched them take off, and got a call later that the plane had crashed and everyone is gone. It's a really kind of unusual feeling to have so many relationships severed, including the crew, the band members, the management, the PR company. There were a lot of people around that organization that I'd been close with for 30 years. To just have everyone slam the door, it's harsh.

Did you have any ethical qualms about breaking confidences about what people did 30 years ago?

I tried to be as honest and truthful not only about myself but about everyone who was there. It's me, with all my ugliness, my warts, everything. I didn't try to paint them in some ugly and bitter way and make myself out to be the shining star. That's just crap.

Any regrets?

I miss them . . . there were a lot of good times I shared with those people. My ex-wife, we're the best of friends. I wish I could arrive at that place with the Eagles.

It's in the book

The outlandish rock 'n' roll lifestyle of the Eagles is thoroughly documented in Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001) by Don Felder (John Wiley & Sons, $25.95) A few excerpts:

* Excessive behavior: "(Manager) Irving Azoff joined in the fun by buying Joe (Walsh) an electric chain saw . . . you wouldn't know what (he) was up to until the blade started coming through your wall."

* Women: "Night after night . . . I witnessed the barrage of (sex) that was offered up. It was a sleet storm of women; they were literally everywhere - in hotels, at shows and on planes."

* Drugs: "A man we called The Party Doctor . . . was carrying a huge prescription bottle, the size of a large mayonnaise jar, full of Quaaludes."

• May 17, 2008

  9:48 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  I_Slay_The_Dragon writes:

  Wow, for my final day as a reader of The Rocky Mountain "News"
  (Como se dice: Tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you
  who YOU are), another excellant piece.
  "Sad Cafe", indeed.

• May 17, 2008

  10:45 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  RMAnderson writes:

  Gotta get that book. I love The Eagles. Ive seen them live a couple times and play their music myself. Joe Walsh gave them that 'hard edged' sound they needed to appeal to the changing musical styles and tastes of the day but Felder was a great songwriter and clean, crisp and tight guitarist. Im sure Henley is very difficult to get along with. The guy is a huge ego-maniac! When The Eagles opened Invesco Field a few years ago, the night went well (after the crew got the sound dialed in!) until they played Desperado...I think it was one of the encores. Henley was on the big monitor, but didnt realize it, and gave the 'jerk off' motion when the crowd recognized the song and started going nuts. He should be more of a professional and realize that their live performance, for many in the crowd, was a first. I was pretty disappointed with his attitude and even though I will always love the music of The Eagles, Ill always remember that Don Henley did that. Anyway, great music sometimes comes from great big personalites.

• May 22, 2008

  12:56 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  DenverRocks writes:

  The Eagles are not the same band without Don Felder. Period.

• May 31, 2008

  12:54 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  LAinCA writes:

  After being an Eagles fan since their first album I have now become very disappointed. The "new" band, uniformed in suits are a long way from the cool guys I remembered and admired. The jeans, long hair and the MUSIC!! It's no longer the same.

  Fans don't always appreciate modernized old songs and to me, to hear Hotel California with horns was just horrible. Many of the songs from the last tour just don't sound right...

  Sorry guys. Bring Felder back and get back to you roots if you want to keep me as a fan... but I think it's too late anyway..