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THE EX-EAGLE
HAS LANDED...
By Dennis Hunt
Don Felder, the former Eagles' guitarist, has a solo career by default. “If the Eagles still existed, I'd be with them," the laid-back 36 year-old musician admitted over cocktails one afternoon recently. Felder's first solo album, "Airborne" is just out on Asylum Records. On it, he served as singer, songwriter and chief instrumentalist. He sounded enthused about it, and devoted the first half-hour of the interview to describing, how he spent the last year recording leisurely in the studio in his Malibu home, but he couldn't hide his dismay at having to record a solo album in the first place. "If things had worked out, I would have spent that time on a group album," he said. Though it wasn't acknowledged until 1982, the Eagles disbanded in the fall of 1980. Felder waited two years before tackling a solo album. "I really wasn't anxious to assume the responsibility for a whole record," he said. "I was afraid. I said to myself, 'I have to do this all alone now.' That was scary after having those guys to work with and rely on all those years. I wasn't sure I was ready. Irving (Azoff, the Eagles' manager) had to coax me into doing my own record. "I did the album because I missed recording and I had some songs I wanted to record. I didn't do it for the money. I don't need the money. Financially, I did very well in the Eagles." According to some industry sources, the reason he waited so lone to record this album was that Felder, primarily a background Eagle, was intimidated by the solo albums of the principal Eagles, Glenn Frey and Don Henley, that were released last year. Some doubters were betting that Felder's album would never even be released. Felder vehemently denied the intimidation charge: "I wasn't worried about what those guys did. I'm not comparing my album to theirs." But others certainly are. Felder's album, featuring gutsy, guitar-oriented pop/rock, doesn't fare too badly in such comparisons. While recording the album, Felder said he had one thing in mind. "I didn't want to make a 1983 version of an Eagles' record. So, of course, some people have said, 'So, this (his album) is what the Eagles would have sounded like in 1983.' "We were shocked, emotionally upset. . . . I still remember how devastated we all were. . . . It was like getting hit in the face from out of nowhere. . . . The bottom dropped out of everything." Felder shuddered a bit as he recalled the demise of the Eagles. The beginning of the end, he said, was Frey's decision to record a solo album. "Glenn told everyone in the band that he wasn't going to work with the Eagles anymore, that he was going solo. At that point we were in the middle of the Eagles' live album. He refused to participate as a group member. Everyone else wanted to finish the album, so the four of us went ahead and finished it. "Glenn was in L.A. and we were in Miami. We flew tapes back to L.A and Glenn went into the studio with his own engineer. He did his part and mailed the tape back. It was like phoning in his part. He was tired of the group. He didn't want any more to do with us."
Initially, the other Eagles thought Frey's defection was only temporary. "We all were clinging to the hope of changing Glenn's mind," Felder said. "We figured he would do his solo record and get it out of his system and then reconsider reforming the band.” When they finally realized Frey wasn't going to reconsider, the solo album craze swept through the band. "Henley said if Frey is going to do an album, then me too. Then Joe (Walsh) shortly after that said, 'Me too.' Then I said, 'Me too,"' recalled Felder. Felder insisted that this wave of solo albums doesn't mean the split is permanent. The other four members are still hoping Frey may eventually have his mind changed by one of the lucrative offers they've had to reform the Eagles. "We've been offered millions to do shows again," Felder said. "Henley and Walsh and Timmy (Schmit) and I are all for it. We'd like to get back together and make a record and do a tour, not so much for the money as for the fun of it. But then we call Glenn about these offers and he doesn't want to know about any regrouping. We're on hold waiting for him. We can't really do it without him." According to Felder, there's a serious lack of communication between Frey and the rest of the band. "He alienated himself from everybody else in the band. We talk to each other but Glenn is out there on his own. I'd like to talk to Glenn. I respect him. I don't hate him." The Eagles recruited Felder in 1974 for the "On the Border" album. At the time, the band had recorded two soft, country-rock albums, "Eagles" and "Desperado," and wanted a punchier sound. "They were having trouble with concerts," Felder recalled. "The music was too quiet. They wanted to beef it up. I was called into the band because I was a rock 'n' roll guitarist. On 'On the Border,' they wanted to rock 'n' roll." Felder was recruited by Eagles member Bernie Leadon, who played with him in a high school band in Florida. Leadon was replaced by Joe Walsh the year after Felder joined. "Bernie's expertise was country," Felder recalled. "He wanted the band to go back into country but every one else wanted to move toward rock 'n' roll. Bernie lost the battle." With the 1976 album, "Hotel California," which sold more than 10 million copies, the Eagles became a superstar band. Felder was never one of the band's principal writers but he did co-write the album's title song, which won a Grammy as the year's best single. By 1980, the Eagles were America's top rock band. The consequences of that prestigious position, Felder insisted, were the band's undoing: "We were big-too big. There were so many restrictions within the band as far as making records. There was such high pressure to do high-quality work. We had to come up with an album that measured up to incredibly high standards. That restricted us. We had to play it safe. We didn't want to make any mistakes. The stress in that situation was heavy. The pressure was often unbearable." Why does Felder want to return to that unpleasant situation? "I miss playing with those guys, I miss the friendships," he replied. "Sure, there was some bad stuff, some awful stuff. But there were good things about being in the Eagles. It's like a divorced guy missing his ex-wife. You remember the good stuff but you don't remember the bad stuff as much. If we got back together there'd be some battles. The bad stuff would probably surface again. But, in a way, it would still be nice to do it again."
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