In the third and final installment (at least as far as the print publication goes) of our interview with The Eagles’ Don Felder, the guitarist talks about Joe Walsh, the writing of the song “Hotel California” and other matters pertaining to one of rock’s most enduring, yet dysfunctional, units.

When Joe Walsh joined the band for the Hotel California album, was that a boost for you as a player, someone who could stand toe to toe with you and play that kind of rock guitar?

Don Felder: Yeah. Joe and I had done some things together before he joined The Eagles. We had done a TV show project called “Joe Walsh and Friends.” We also did some shows with that band. We’d also done some recordings together, too. We’d done some stuff just as friends. It was also a little bit of me wanting to find out how well we could play together before he was officially invited in to replace Bernie (Leadon).

I really felt bad that Bernie had decided to quit the band. He was a longtime friend from our high school days, and mainly when he left, I had to adopt all the pedal steel, five-string banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar parts, and all this other stuff that he had brought to the band. There was nobody else who could play that, so when we did those songs I wasn’t able to play electric rock and roll guitar, which is what I wanted to do. 

When I wrote “Victim of Love” or “Hotel California,” I was really aiming it in the direction where Joe and I would have the opportunity in The Eagles to do some of the things we had done on some of his records. That’s where I was focusing those tracks. Don and Glenn both heard and realized that and said something like, “OK, we’ve got the players, and we’ve got the tracks; now we can do some of these songs.”

You wrote the music for what has become The Eagles’ quintessential song, “Hotel California.”

DF: Yes. That song is such an unusual combination of music and lyrics. I just did an interview for Japanese television, and they were asking me how I put together the musical elements for “Hotel California.” I looked at it and said that it kind of has a reggae feel; the bass part comes from jazz roots, and it’s got an acoustic 12-string, which gives it a country sound, but it’s in a minor key, which makes it rather dark.

And then, it’s got these electric guitars on it, too. It’s like a convergence of four or five different styles that makes it fairly unique as a track. Then, on top of it, it’s got Don’s brilliant lyrics. I really like the line “they stab it with their steely knives” — that was a tip of the hat to Steely Dan. “You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave” I believe was about Jackson Browne’s wife, who had committed suicide. The lyrics are really great visual images that sit well within the framework of being in this hotel. When Don first heard the music I wrote, he really liked it and wanted to work on it. It was either Don or Glenn who called it “Mexican reggae” because it sounded to them like a Mexican band playing reggae. 

“Hotel California” was originally in the key of E minor, which is a great guitar key. That’s the key I made the demo in, and we actually recorded the first time it was in that key — the whole basic track, almost everything except for the guitar solos.

Then, Don had filled up a bunch of legal pads with lyric ideas and went out to the microphone to sing and to me, he sounded like Barry Gibb from the Bee Gees, a really high falsetto, and nasally. It just did not fit the track, so he said, “The key’s too high.” I went and got a guitar and sat down with him and said, “Instead of E minor how about we move it down to D minor?” And I played it in D minor, and he said, “No no, it’s still too high.” “Okay, how about C minor?” And I played it, and he said it was still too high. “Okay, how about A minor?” I tried it, and he said, “No no no, that’s too low.” So, it became B minor, which is not a great key for guitar. So, we had to record the whole track from top to bottom again in the right key.

You thought it was crazy to release it as a single.

DF: I did, yeah. When the finished track was first played back in the control room, Henley said, “That’s gonna be our first single.” I said, “Don, you’re crazy. It’s six minutes long; it breaks down and stops in the middle. You can’t dance to it. It’s not gonna work on AM radio. I think that’s not a good idea.” He said something like, “Nope, trust me, that’s gonna be our first single.” So, I said, “Okay.” Boy was I wrong!

I was honestly shocked to find myself in the middle of the success that was given to all of us as a result of making these records. At the time we finished making the song “Hotel California,” I thought it was a good track, and it had great guitar parts, but I didn’t really think AM radio. I was just flabbergasted and surprised when the song had the response that it did. There’s no way in the world that I ever thought that song was going to be as big as it was on worldwide radio.

And, ultimately, it became the defining song of the band’s career.

DF: It was. It became the crown jewel of The Eagles’ portfolio of songs. “Hotel California” is the only song that I know of where the same artist recorded the same song twice and both times it was nominated for a Grammy. I don’t think that’s happened to any other artist in music and that’s pretty cool.
 
Does the Hotel California album deserve its acclaim as the Eagles best work?

DF: Yeah, I really think that album was absolutely the apex of our climbing Mount Everest in the music business. Everything that took place after that was anti-climactic. The writing, the stress, the pressure to top that album with The Long Run placed an enormous weight on everyone’s shoulders. Instead of being fun, free and exciting, the creative process now had this weight along with it, this heavy seriousness and intensity that things had to be better than Hotel California.

I like The Long Run album, but it’s a lot softer and weaker in its writing, mainly because, in my opinion, I didn’t feel Glenn was very present in the writing part of that album. The record company was pounding the table for a follow-up album. We put out a greatest-hits record in the meantime to keep the record company off our backs.
If you asked me what the worst record is that The Eagles ever made I’d say “Teenage Jail,” which in my opinion is the worst song The Eagles ever bothered to record. That and “Funky New Year” are my least favorites (laughs).

Tell me about writing “Those Shoes.”

DF: I wanted to write a track that would use two talk-box guitars like two trumpets. I had played around with the basic groove for “Those Shoes” until I had reached a final progression that I was happy with. The next part was writing the horn lines and playing them to sound like trumpet parts.

I played the first part, which was the lower part, and then overdubbed the higher harmony. It worked! I thought it was a unique enough idea to include it on the demo reel that I presented to Don and Glenn for The Long Run album. Henley loved it and started writing lyrics. I had always hoped that the song would make the final cut for the album because I wanted to play it live with Joe, and we finally did. I was very happy with the entire song.

In the book you speak about how touring was a major high for the band but life on the road was also tremendously isolating and lonely.

DF: Everybody thinks being on the road is so much fun, and, indeed, it is for a while. The excitement, the thrill, the experience of living that lifestyle is great. But you only spend about two or three hours of the day playing music, and the other 20-something hours a day are spent by yourself. You spend a lot of time in a hotel by yourself. You spend a lot of time in a plane or in a car, you know, in motion somewhere, and you feel very isolated.

During the “Hell Freezes Over” tour, one of the things I did on the road was play six or seven hours a day. If I was going to sit in a hotel room, there was nothing more I’d rather do with my time than play guitar. Every morning I’d just sit and play, make up stuff and improvise. I had a little portable studio, and I’d make little basic tracks and play on top of them. Later that afternoon, we’d get on a plane and fly out to a show. We’d do a sound check for about an hour. Then we’d go backstage, and I’d have two hours to sit backstage. What am I gonna do backstage, watch TV? No, I’d just sit and play guitar, and then we’d do a three-hour show. I would play between six and seven hours a day.

I’d also read a lot of spiritually enlightening books. There was a lot of dissension and negative energy on the “Hell Freezes Over” tour. There were a lot of sins presenting themselves, the old habits, the drugs and the women. Temptations were everywhere. So, I read a lot of books about a spiritual higher power to combat that within my mind. Then, with the other free time, I didn’t sit around with idle hands. I used them to play guitar. And it worked. It was very good for me.

You state in the book that the pressure of following up such a huge record like Hotel California exacted the biggest toll on Don Henley. Why?

DF: Because I think Don was the primary one responsible for writing lyrics on the Hotel California album. I think there was a great writing union between Don and Glenn on Hotel California. Unfortunately, that relationship had deteriorated substantially by the time we got to The Long Run. It was really difficult for Don to withstand that critical pressure.

To be truthful, I always felt it was a bit of a fear of failure for us all. Nobody wanted to put out something that wasn’t as good. I think that’s why it took so long to finish that record. Finally, I don’t know if we finished it or it finished us, but it got done (laughs). 

On the band’s final tour to support The Long Run, you had an altercation with Glenn that acted as one of the factors that precipitated the breakup of the Eagles.

DF: We had burnt ourselves to a crisp in the studio trying to finish The Long Run. As soon as we finished the record, we were out on the road. We had toured and toured and toured to try and promote that album.

It was the last show on the final leg of our tour. We called it “The Long Night at Long Beach” or “The Wrong Night at Long Bach” or something like that (laughs). It was actually a benefit for a politician named Sen. Alan Cranston. I was never particularly a big fan of doing benefits for politicians. I don’t mind doing benefits for children with cancer or any other goodwill benefit. But politicians, I always felt like if you wanted to contribute your money to a politician, that was great, but I wasn’t so sure about doing benefits for them. But I did it without regret. I didn’t honestly know who Alan Cranston was. Politically, I was ignorant, to tell you the truth.

We went down to the Long Beach Arena, and before we went on to play, there was a green room “meet and greet” cocktail party in honor of Alan Cranston. I got to meet him and said, “Okay, great, see you later.” Then, his wife came over by herself, and she said, “Oh, hi, I’m Mrs. Cranston, nice to meet you.” I said, “Oh, nice to meet you,” and as she walked away, I kind of turned to my wife and said under my breath, “I guess...” And I really had no idea who he was or who she was or what I was doing the benefit for. I just didn’t care. She had heard me say “I guess” and looked back over her shoulder. Glenn saw this whole thing take place and thought I was being disrespectful to Mrs. Cranston. He came over and told me he wanted to see me in the dressing room. I said, “Okay.”

And I could tell he was just steaming. We were both completely cooked around the edges after all the recording and touring we had done.

So, I went into the dressing room, and he got right up in my face and said, “You’re an asshole. How dare you talk to her like that!” And I tried to apologize to him and say, “Look, I didn’t even know who she was.” He said, “I know you don’t even want to do these benefits.” He was all over me. I said, “Fine, whatever you wanna say, let’s just go out and play.” So, we went out onstage, and he was still just steaming. He came over maybe halfway through the show and said, “Only six more songs, and I’m gonna kick your ass!” We used to have Courvoisier,  wine or VSOP brandy on our amps, which would keep your throat in good singing form. So, we both started drinking, which was only adding fuel to the raging fire.

We were getting near the end of the set, and I told my road crew guitar tech, “Don’t I have an old crappy Takamine 12-string acoustic guitar?” And he said, “Yeah.”  I said, “Well, get it out of the case and put in by the backstage door.” When Joe would get really angry or upset he’d wait ’til everybody had left the building, and he would take a guitar and just smash it. I always thought, “That’s a great way to release your anger and your frustration.”

So, we finished the show, and I let everybody walk off the backstage ramp. They were supposed to go get in their cars and take off like we had always done. So, I waited for a few seconds, walked down the ramp, grabbed that guitar and smashed it against this big concrete column by the back door. I turned around and standing right behind me was Mr. Cranston, Mrs. Cranston and Don and Glenn with these huge eyes which screamed at me, “Oh my God!” (laughs). I went “Oh, jeez.” Then, I got in the car and just drove off (laughs). So, that was “The Wrong Night at Long Beach.” It was all inadvertent, unintended. There was no ill will intended by me. I’ve explained this all to Glenn, but he just won’t let it go.