Don Henley is an anomaly among rock and roll stars. He’s happily married and raising a family, intelligent, articulate, and has a social conscience to boot…a true Southern gentlemen.

Almost 11 years ago, Don set out to raise 3.5 million dollars to acquire 25 threatened acres of Walden Woods—the birthplace of the American environmental movement. Since then almost 25 million dollars has been raised to protect nearly 100 acres, ensuring the land will be in a public trust for generations to come. In recognition of his efforts Don was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Clinton in 1997.

Henley’s history as one of the founding members of the Eagles is well documented, as is his subsequent solo career which yielded such classics as "Dirty Laundry," "The Boys Of Summer," "All She Wants To Do Is Dance," "Sunset Grill," and "Not Enough Love In The World." In 1989, his multi-platinum The End Of The Innocence produced the title track, "The Last Worthless Evening," and "The Heart of the Matter," and garnered him a Best Rock Vocal Grammy.

Henley’s career as a musician continues to roll on. He is currently touring to promote his latest CD, Inside Job, featuring 13 new songs. His career as an activist also continues. In addition to The Walden Woods Project, Don is involved with the Headwaters Forest issue in Northern California, the passage of clean water legislation in California, and numerous other environmental causes.

The Weekly Planet recently spoke with Don about his new record, his new life as husband and father, and issues of the day. We were gratified to note that the fire still burns…Don Henley continues to be one of the most vocal and articulate spokesmen of our time.

I’d like to see it filled with Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, and several others. I don’t think it’s time for my generation of artists to be relegated to the oldies pile yet.

I like David Gray. His album is called White Ladder. I think he’s from Ireland. I think Ani DiFranco is very interesting. My respect for Rob Thomas [of Matchbox 20] is growing.

All my albums could be categorized that way. They’re chronicles of what I was thinking and feeling at that particular time and place.

I’m proud of the Thoreau Institute. It’s a state-of-the-art educational and research facility in the middle of Walden Woods. It contains a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled archive housing the largest Thoreau collection in the world. We also have a state-of-the-art media center. We have a great Web site [www.walden.org]. We offer seminars, lectures, and study programs for students and teachers. We will soon have overnight accommodations for serious scholars from other parts of the world to study these materials. It’s a place for serious study and contemplation. It’s a wonderful place…a work in progress.

The challenge we face now at the institute is raising a 15 or 20 million dollar endowment fund so that the institute can be self-sustaining after I’m gone. A portion of the ticket sales from this tour will go to the Walden Woods Project.

Big business: the global corporations that are sucking the life out of this planet and squashing the independent workingmen and women of this world.

It’s difficult to write these things. To put forth your most personal feelings and opinions to be judged.

An artist has to have a skin that is almost adjustable. An artist has be thin-skinned to create and thick-skinned to take whatever comes toward that creation.

Yes. It’s very personal. It’s also about the various kinds of rebellion, suicide being one. And about the emptiness and pointlessness which often coincides with rebellion of any type.

I don’t know. Hopefully not.

It’s funny. Some people can sell out and get away with it completely unscathed. Especially British artists. But if someone like the Eagles or me were to do it, I think the criticism would rain down upon us.

We’re moving toward a state in this society where everything is for sale. People seem to accept it because I suppose they think they don’t have any choice.

The only way I would allow any material to be used is if I were in dire straits. If I needed money to support my family or if one of the charities I support—primarily The Walden Woods Project—if there was no other way I could get funding, then I suppose I would consider it. It would depend on what the product was and whether I had respect for the product and the company that made it.

I think the establishment has just about won—and nobody seems to care. The new Bob Dylan song—which I think is great—is called "I Used To Care, But Things Have Changed." It’s a great piece of work, best thing he’s done in years.

It’s hard to be one of the last holdouts, when nobody else cares; when these things don’t seem to mean anything to people anymore. The temptation is to cash in like everybody else. I’m going to hold out as long as I possibly can.

The good news is that yesterday afternoon [9/19/00] the repeal of the amendment passed the full House of Representatives with no opposition. Now the bill goes to the Senate and we expect it to pass, and things will be back the way they were. Which simply means that the matter will, in a few years, be tested in court. At least the playing field has been leveled again.

"It’s not the way," Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said yesterday, "a democracy is supposed to work." It heightens my disrespect for what the large record companies have become. It doesn’t make me feel good about our supposedly representative government in Washington either.

Knowing what I know about his record here in Texas, I certainly don’t think he’s qualified to run the entire nation.

I think he’s the best man for the job. He’s certainly got the experience. He’s been in government for a long time—both as a senator, and Vice-President of the United States for eight years. I think that he has far and away more experience than Mr. Bush.

I could give you a whole laundry list of bad things that Bush has done here in Texas. I don’t necessarily think he’s a bad person, but I think Mr. Gore is more intelligent and more experienced. He certainly has the ability to lead this country. I know him well enough to know that.

If you take away the Lewinski scandal and look at what he’s done for the country, I think he’s been one of the best presidents we’ve ever had.

We have funny criteria in this country. We allow white-collar crime every day, acts of the most heinous sort of immorality going on in business every day.

What he did was wrong and it foolish, but it will color his presidency to a degree that is unfair in my mind. It will take, probably, 50 to 100 years for people to look back and get an accurate, objective view of what kind of president he was. Just as history will bear out Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

I think part of that is due to a couple of things. It’s due to the media having a tendency to throw gasoline on the fire to sell newspapers and magazines and to get TV ratings. The other is the rabid partisanship that has just about brought our government to a standstill.

In the old days gentlemen on both sides of the aisle in Congress could agree to disagree for the betterment of the country. But these days they fight like petty schoolboys

It is ugly. It is unbefitting the people in those high positions of government and it is not good for this democracy.

Those issues have the effect of waking up the record companies and letting them know that they are really behind the curve in the technological revolution. Not as far behind as the government, but behind.

The record companies need to focus on ways to do what Napster and MP3.com have been doing. But they need to make sure that artists get fairly compensated for their work.

You may see the big record companies in bed with Napster and MP3.com in the near future. Hopefully, at least, all the free downloading—or to put it another way the stealing—on the Internet will be curtailed to a great degree.

Artists deserve to get paid for their work just like anybody else. When a company like Napster or MP3.com invents a technology that makes it so easy for Internet users to illegally download copyrighted works, it’s very damaging to the artistic community. I can understand the temptation—it’s so easy and it’s free. But they need to understand that when they do that they are taking away somebody’s livelihood. They’re making it very hard for new artists to get a foothold in the business.

There’s no justification for it. I’ve heard all kinds of misguided, wacko arguments in favor of it, but it still boils down to stealing. It’s just not right.

Record companies probably charge too much for CDs. They certainly put too much in their own pocket. Under a standard recording contract the record company makes $8 to every $1 the artist makes. Questions ought to be asked about that. I have no sympathy for the record companies. I do have a great deal of concern for both established artists and beginning artists who are trying to make their way in this business, because it’s getting harder and harder.

It’s become so expensive to tour now that it’s hardly worth it. I’ve been barely breaking even on this tour. With fuel costs, production costs, the cost of the musicians and hotel rooms, and the transportation, there’s not much left.

Our recorded works are one of the primary sources of income. If that’s taken away, it will change the whole industry, close a lot of doors, and result in less music. And less choices for consumers.

That depends on how much sleep I get. Some days are more optimistic that others. It also depends on what I see on the news or read in the newspaper.

I wouldn’t disagree with that. We get so accustomed to being addicted to what’s going on in the outer world that we completely ignore our inner worlds, our hearts and minds.

It’s easier to watch the problems of other people or the fluctuations of the stock market than to think about our own lives and whether we are happy. To put it another way, someone once said, "Thinking is hard, that’s why so few people do it."

I think it’s really good to shut off everything—television, radio, and the newspaper on occasion and just try to get in touch with how we’re really feeling inside.

So few of us get a still, quiet moment throughout a day. Those little interior voices that guide us, get drowned out on a daily basis by the noise and clutter and chaos in the world. That leads to our basic unhappiness. We can’t be still and we can’t listen.

I don’t want to completely lose my anger. I don’t like people who say "whatever," because I don’t agree with whatever" That’s the path of least resistance. If you don’t take a stand you don’t get criticized.

I can’t sum up what I believe in a few words. I do believe that actions speak louder than words. I love life. I’m very passionate about it and every minute of it is fascinating to me. I wish I could live for 200 years because I could fill it up.

Breakfast anywhere with my family, time outdoors with the kids, some time for reading—preferably outdoors, taking the kids to the vegetable garden and harvesting some tomatoes and chili peppers, cooking a nice dinner—letting the children help, bathing the kids, reading bedtime stories to them, and tucking them in. Then settling back and watching The Daily Show with my wife and laughing hysterically at Jon Stewart.

John Lennon, Nietzsche, and Mother Mary.

Interestingly enough, flying. That’s only come about since my first child was born. Until then I was fearless.

Intelligence coupled with modesty and concern.

Overblown self-importance and ruthlessness—especially in business.

Uninformed opinions.

Gardening, fishing and spending time with my wife and children.

As a guy who tried.

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