Breaking news: “I don’t care what he says”: Don Henley on his sworn musical nemesis
No one becomes a legend in the music industry without making a few enemies along the way. It’s easy to say the right things in the press, but behind the scenes, it can get ugly—shady businessmen ready to stab colleagues in the back at every opportunity. Don Henley always had a clear idea of how he wanted to conduct himself in the business, but his falling-outs didn’t end when the Eagles broke up—they were far from over.
If anything, the band’s decision to cut ties as the 1980s began was almost a necessity. They had been worn out from years of touring and recording, and after trying to slog everything out during The Long Run, their long stints with cocaine addiction led to them eventually coming to blows before they could even finish one of their benefit gigs. Even if the future looked uncertain, though, Henley didn’t need to worry about a damn thing.
had been the voice behind all of their greatest hits, and when he started working on tunes like ‘Dirty Laundry’, there was doubt that he was going to be a solo star. But a good record only comes from the people around it as well, and while David Geffen had already fallen out with Henley when Eagles were tied up in legal matters with Asylum Records, he managed to patch things up enough to work on records like Building the Perfect Beast.
Despite still selling some of the biggest records of any former Eagle, Henley remembered thinking that his records were getting little support, culminating in him getting sued by Geffen for millions when he asked to leave the company. Although Geffen was ready for war, he did end up stooping a little too low as well.
Henley’s wife had been battling serious health struggles during the trial, and while she had no knowledge of what Henley’s deal entailed, she was forced to testify in court on behalf of her husband in pain. Even though Geffen labelled Henley as a “malcontent” on multiple occasions, the frontman said that his relationship with the industry mogul was never going to be the same after going through those court hearings.
Even as late as 2017, Henley thought that those wounds were too fresh to patch up, saying, “I think the hate is much stronger than the love! I don’t care what he says about me. Everybody knows who he is, and what he is. I don’t need to say a thing about him, because everybody knows.” That didn’t deter Henley from taking a few cheap shots at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, begrudgingly thanking Geffen for his support of Eagles over the course of his career.
Because for Henley, this was about more than business. He had become a songwriter to write the kind of tunes that would last long after he was gone, and since all Geffen saw was someone who he could exploit every time he made a new record, it would have been easy for anyone to see themselves as a piece of meat rather than a genuine artist. And looking at what Henley was writing right before the hearings, it’s no wonder why he felt stifled.
The End of the Innocence most likely wasn’t named that by accident, and even when Henley joined the Eagles again during their reunion, he was definitely a changed man than the naive kid who started out. He could always deliver the songs fans wanted to hear, but whenever it came time to make a new record or go out on a major tour, he would always have his guard up in case someone was trying to take advantage of him.
