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ON HENLEY HAS
the haunted blue eyes of
ByBhnrlttilfl,luunu
wants you to be in pain from muscle
cramps in your back. You are here to
suffer."
Stress, not original sin, however, is
Henley's earthly explanation for his
malady as an accupressurist manipulates his spine-a nightly ritual so he
can play the drums without wincing.
"It's the price you pay for being sensitive," says Henley, prostrate and shirtless on a folding table. "You are, of
course, going to get the humor in mY
voice as I said thatl'
iq 7?
l(ol.i./N(,
pay more lateq" says Irving Azoff, head of the aptlynamed Front l.ine Management, which handles the
Eagles and several other status acts. "Figure our a fair
price. add a third. and rlrat's whar we ger ir (ur (.ntracts."
Just this side of dwarfism, Azoff surveys the bustling
roadies onstage *ith the calm eyes ofa guiltless man. I ask if
tlre long-overdue Eagles album, late starting and now six
nronths in the womb, is causing problems fot their record
company, Elektra/Asylum.
for you?"
"He's the least of the worst," says Azoff, still angry
because Miller cut his set short the previous night. "Some
open
T.yin"').
1leir
joiro Henley
.\
tion. A small blond boy named Jerry Dale Surratt, a champion trumpet player who'd given it up for rock g roll, rode
his motorcycle adoss the road, straight into the path of an
oncoming car. With his family and band watching, he was
crushed to death on its hood. Shiloh was never the same.
I
I
I
I
I
Joe
the
Henley sort of roils his eyes and sinks back into his
nausea.
"Mrs. Henley was a real 6ne lady, but she didn't have any
conttol over Don," says Bowden in the soft drawl of the area.
"Not that he didnt respect her, he just always did what he
wanted. And then his father would have ro come down on
him. They couldn't get along for years Don always felt he
had to prove somerhing to him."
laundry
Mrl
money-a little
over $600."
Failing at football because he was too small and auerse
to pain, Henley drummed for Bowden's 6rst band, the Four
as
I T
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Il
I met a girl
therc
etgl"r
becarrse
it
is rhe end
*;i::':nt' :*"ru"i:*::H:i:;:i:li:if ;;
6rst interuiew.
It
rct achioabb,
I figured out a long time ago, when my father got sick and
died, that life wasn't fair, but I got mad about it. I used to go
around and cuss God all the time, because my father died
too early and he suffered. And a lot of my friends from
Texas that came to C:lifornia with me and are real talented
but didn't make it when I did-I feel guilty about that too
There's a lot of imbalance, and I like to buck it whenever
I can. You're right.
What was your father like?
He
"Witchy Woman." He literally worked md worried himselfto death, and he had a cardiac and he died on July 7th,
1972, afrcr four or five other heart attacks You don't know
what's real until you see your father in the emergency room
heaving and gasping for breath and saying, "Oh God! Oh
Cnd!" Everything else gets real trite after that. There's
fi77
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meanings
all
are looktd
I rcfuse to
tlrc
c,n by some
you
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If I do
close
',
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get-an-album-from- you-in- 1978-and-it's-not- going-to[ook-good-ot-our-stock-report-and-what- about-theprofit-sharing-plan. Shit like that. I get a little self-righteous
sometimes about the whole thing.
RE-
tq 71
HE WOOD PANELING
OF
of
II
tablets.
"Its
nil'$[t[0[tl:
'ftlnl{ilTil,il
says, munching on a
writing.
Cut offfrom any light, sound or people from the outside
world, the studio is as inner as a sanctum can get. Aurally, it is
irrpossihle for a layman to decipher, because you literally
cannot hear what the musicians are hcaring. Someone sings
thc same three syllables over fifteen tirnes-identically,for all
rctr can tell-and then they all listen, leaving you mysdfied,
ith nt tcbooks full .f comments like. "Gire me a little more
"
Ilodney in the phones."
[i.rtrernelv puritanical ahout tlre use ofany mind,altering
:rrl"trrrc,, hcforc r sho* r'n rlre r,rad. rhc Eagles in rhe
strrdio plav thcir brains as they play rheir instnrments: ttrey
trsc rvhatevt r they nee<l to get thc proper effect. "Wcll," the
intcrnal Iogic sccnrs ro go. "l need some energy so I'll drink
srnrt' C-oke firr a srrgar rush....'lhat was too much of an edge,
sounded likc
Encouraged
lJ$
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PIBIilI lIP [[R
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so I'll smoke ajay and eat two cheeseburgers and digest for a
while....This is rock 8t roll! What I really need is a libido
vocal.
it
ask me t,,
I grear "Fingers"rhe Eagles
Felder. who bears rhe disrirrcrion ,,f
I Don
rhe least-knoun Eagle during a brcrk at Bay.
I being "'This
is terri6c. l *as rhirrl.ing. and rhel I g,'r to
I shore.
I the studio lor On the Bor*r. Bcrnie was botrncing .'ff
tv7
Rul/.i NL, \
joined
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he says. "I
spend my spare
"l enjoy being anonymous,"
time with my wife and three kids. Don and Glenn have n,r
anchors like that, and they lrandle being rock stars well.
Everybody in the band is a different piece of the puzle. I'm
a musical catalyst. I can't worry or be ptrlitical, so back
when Randy quit and everything was real insecure, I just
recorded a lot of racks in my home studio and gave Glenn
and Don each a ninety-minute cassette to work with. No
vocals, just music, hecause they sometimes need a scene to
paint their lyrics on. That was the start of this album. I see
myself as an offensive lineman who has to take out the
middle linebacker so Don and Glenn can make the big
Pl^y.
ffOll{ff TO
Bil THil
[la$TP[n$0IlIT0
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PIIT I SlIIPIt[llI{II
tt{T00nBn!'
| -.n,h, since the Eagles cut the firsr Lrack ("1 Cani TLll
I Yr,, Wl'u" nn M^ih 9(h. Ie78) o[ thc ne,u alhtr-.
I D..n the hall at Oue Srep Up Recordrng in Los
I Ang"l"r. Don Henlcu lt", ,p"ni the last 6"ve horr.s
I.u"idrbbing some thumps from a big hass drum on tl,e
-oldies
"In '72, the punks had long hair and wore cowboy
boots," yells Henley over the Rebel's version of "Sonic
"They don't look so tough. Thcy look like dorks,"
shouts Frey over "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistok
Henley thro.s down a couple more beers and makes a
us,
ifit
WE
t,tur
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ne$.'
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!
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"
I got
What's
it
-that's
ftre Devil
Dsil
is
sil. Arn't
you equting
sa
with
oil?
to),''l
fl
| | Iwood
lI
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iltl;f
is
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in
Calfomia' a*icocaire?
It
tqTq
Ror-r-lNG .t7()Nr,
N OV EM
B E
29, I 979
BMW through
intersection.
"Uh, Don," I
say.
ilything, but I think the other guy had the right of way.
That was a stop sign."
"I know," he replies "I drive this road all the time"
Pause-
ICKNAMED "PRINCE
Roving Hand" for his habit of goosing the other
Eagles, Joe Walsh joined the band after [*adon's
departure To otsiders, he seemed an odd choice,
personally and musically, but the Eagles knew what
they were doing. Azoffhad mamged WaIsh since just
before his second solo album, TDe Smoker You Dink, the
Player You Get,in 1973. He had jammed with the Eagles at
several concerts and they, in turn, had sung backup on four
songs on Walsh's So Wfat. When Henley and Frey
mnted
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in Santa Barbara), Walsh is in a thoughtful mood and says
he doesn't want to look like an idiot again in the pres. He
is running for president these days on a plarform of "Free
Gas for Everybody," but eventually wants to get into some
serious issues to express his disgust with current politicians. He has prepared an outline of the subjects he wants
to cover and pretty much conducts the interuiew himself:
"I rcalized I didn't have to be paranoid of you the other
night at dinner when you said in a serios my that you had
noticed that kids were getting dumber. That's the 6rst
thing I want to talk about on my outline Now when I was in
high school in Montclaiq New Jersey, I was riple naive. I
didn't lcnow anything about drugs or pussy, and I got along
grcat with everybody. The only thing I was aware of ms the
Beatles. I'm glad of that, because if they'd had drugs when
I was in high school, I'd still be in high school.
"I got rut in '65, and when my bmther got ot in'6i
there was drugs all over the place. Chicks were getting
Lnocked up. Therc was racial conflicts That was just in
four yeatq and it's getting worse. Kids are getting aware of
shit earlier and earlier.
"All right. The next category on my list is how hard it is
to be a solo artist. Before Ijoined the Eagles, I was the boss
and everybody thought I knew what I was doing. No my. It
completely fried every bnin cell I had just to finish an
album, and then Il have to go on the road. I would tell the
musiciaro that I wanted them to get off and back me up.
They would want me to show them how to do everything'
and then they'd go down the hall and talk about me because I'm the boss It was overwhelming. It was not music'
So that is why solo artists have a hatd time. Or they are
pricks
from
davs.
NilTlINI{ TO
a couple
I make' I
rut of the
At three
have
a.m., with
amounts
to play them
through. Ancient
ghosts from Henley's past keep popping out ofthe speakers. "We thought we could change this world/With words
like love and freedom," Henley sings in "The Sad Cafe," a
reminiscence of his early days at the Troubadour. I have to
smilg wondering if he ever believed that, seeing a ghost of
my own night at the Troubadour when he almost trashed
a punk. "Now I look at the years gone bylAnd wonder at
the powers that be/I don't know why fortune smiles on
some,/And lets the rest go free."
Bone tired, the Eagles accept everyone's congratulatiom.It is not a moment of victory. They are just relieved to
have it over. Time now to return to the'Uecadence fesrival" of the rcad. as Frey terms it.
"So tell me, Don," I say. "Why do you .ant to
survive?"
Henley ponders a moment "I'd like to stick around for
the Apocalypse," he says. "That's showbit."
fi7q