cronincal

Friday, December 21, 2007
Don Henley proud of new Eagles album



The Eagles' latest album Long Road Out Of Eden is still riding high on the charts two months after its release. This week, the set tops the country album charts and sits at Number Three on the pop charts. The album's lead single "How Long" has also peaked at Number 24 on the country singles chart.

Don Henley spoke to The Associated Press and said that he's thrilled that country audiences have embraced the new album and joked, "As long as we're on the charts. Any chart will do... I'm sort of proud of that."

Henley added, "I'm glad that we've been accepted because there is some rather pointed political commentary on this album. Others have found the going to be difficult. I think we've been around for so long that people know what to expect from us and just take what they like."

Henley said that although the band turned down a chance to perform at the 2008 Super Bowl, they would gladly accept an offer to perform at the Grand Ole Opry.

He went on to say that he finds it uncomfortable that the band is constantly asked why they feel the need to carry on well into their 50s: "I never hear painters being asked why they still want to paint after 60 or novelists why they want to write after age 60. It's insulting, as if we're only doing it for the money and the glory and not for the creative and spiritual aspect. Writing songs and performing for people is my life. It's what keeps me young and interested and curious and vital."

Henley added that the band never made a concerted effort to write and record material on their albums that was both pop and country friendly: "We don't sit down and calculate or target anything... they come out in various ways. We've always done that. Hotel California had a lot of different material, and so did One Of These Nights. So it's not like this album is radically different."

In other Eagles news:

Former Eagles lead guitarist Don Felder who was forced out of the band in 2001, has published his memoir on his time in the band called Heaven And Hell. Due to legal snags, the book has only been released in the UK with an American printing looking doubtful.

Felder's book takes a harsh and critical look of the band's co-founders Don Henley and Glenn Frey whom he claims forced him out of the band when he began asking questions as to how equally the band's money was being divided. Felder told The Word magazine, "The key point to my book was to show how greed, power and control are really corrupting elements and how they can change all your morals and values very quickly."

He went on to talk about Henley and Frey's current relationship explaining, "It's a co-dependency relationship with them now. Neither of them can make a tenth of the money they make on a 60-date solo tour as the Eagles. They're stuck with each other as long as they choose to use the name."