Top 25 Don Felder Quotes

My story, is how a kid that’s born into really destitute poverty on a little dirt road in Florida winds up in one of the largest bands in history.

I try to balance work and family. As long as I’m able physically and mentally to do it, I will.

Every once in a while, it seems like the cosmos part, and something great plops into your lap.

There were about 400 heads of state from countries all over the world. I walked out and played ‘Hotel California,’ and everybody in the place gave me a standing ovation, and half of those countries don’t even speak English.

Don’t forget, Stephen Stills and I had a band in Gainesville called the Continentals when we were 15. And, of course, you had Lynyrd Skynyrd in Jacksonville.

Early on, one of my favorites was Ray Charles. I remember hearing ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ in the early ’60s and thinking, ‘What an unbelievably soulful voice.’ In those days, the Deep South was extremely segregated.

If I put 3,000 miles a year on my car, that’s a lot. If I buy them, it just doesn’t make sense, so I lease them, and my company writes the whole car expense off.

I especially enjoyed some of the old hairstyles, with my hair down to my shoulders and a beard. And Henley’s nickname used to be ‘Furry Basketball’ because he had that fro. It was fun to just look at what was going on in that era and how we presented ourselves on stage.

When the band first formed, everybody had been sidemen. So they said, ‘In this band there are no sidemen,’ and when I joined the band, it was still the same. There were some power struggles emerging, because Henley and Frey had sung all the hits at that point.

Tom Petty was one of my guitar students; I knew Duane, and Stephen and I had a band. When he left, Bernie Leadon moved to Gainesville. His father was a nuclear physicist who was sent to the University of Florida to start their nuclear research facility, so he and I became friends.

The new material includes a Latin-flavoured song, some electric rock songs, and a ballad. Something strikes me, and I follow that. I’m as excited now as I was when I was 15.

One of the songs we recorded for ‘The Long Run’ was called ‘You’re Really High, Aren’t You?’ Which never really made it onto a record, but later on, it became ‘Heavy Metal.’ I took that track that wasn’t used, and when I was invited to write a song for that movie, I took that track and recorded that song for that movie.

I’ve known those guys for decades and done some charity fundraisers with them in L.A. The response was so great from the Boston/Doobies/Felder package.

I used to drive up and down Pacific Coast Highway in this black Porsche, and I had seen a couple of accidents on the highway involving Porsches. I realized if you’re in any kind of head on accident in one of those cars, they’re going to get you out of it with a can opener, one of those Jaws of Life.

When you got on the private plane, you had your own private lounge where you could close the door. So there wasn’t a lot of friendly conversation; we were in incubators by ourselves. That just bred a void – avoid each other, and avoid the issues.

I never challenged control of the band. Basically, all I did was start asking questions. There’s an old adage in Hollywood amongst managers: ‘Pay your acts enough money that they don’t ask questions.’ And I started asking questions.

Glenn’s passing was so unexpected and has left me with a very heavy heart filled with sorrow. He was so young and still full of amazing genius. He was an extremely talented songwriter, arranger, leader, singer, guitarist – you name it – and Glenn could do it and create ‘Magic’ on the spot.

I was constantly in the studio at my home writing ideas that would later become ‘Hotel California’ or ‘Victim of Love.’

Being in a band with three guitar players, one thing you need to do is learn to make each guitar voice sound separate and identifiable.

Shortly after I moved to Los Angeles, I was looking for work, and I happened to be invited to Ray’s studio and sat in and played on a couple of his demos. I didn’t charge him a dime for it. I was on cloud nine to be working in the same room as Ray Charles, one of my huge idols.

If I had a pull on ‘One of These Nights,’ on the first high note on ‘One of These Nights,’ that was just a tiny hair flat or something, I could just feel Henley’s eyes scouring into the back of my head. No mistakes were allowed, and it really kept the quality at a high level.

When we were writing songs for the Eagles, Don Henley would be involved in some new love relationship, and he was always excited about them. But we were all waiting for the day that they would break up.

Once I got into driving those little Mercedes convertibles, I just absolutely loved it. They feel really – great crash safety ratings, mechanically they’re unbelievably sound, and I’ve been driving them ever since.

I try to write five or six songs each year and not just in one genre.

Your nerve coatings are only so thick. When they get worn really thin and frayed, that’s when people say things, do things, misbehave.