Billboard Exclusive

By Deborah Evans Price

NASHVILLE – Country radio listeners will get a special taste of Don Henley’s current "Inside Job" album Oct. 9, when Warner Bros. Nashville takes a mix of the tender ballad "For My Wedding" to country programmers.

The label is also readying a video for release to CMT, Great American County, and other country video outlets.

For Henley, working in the country format is like a homecoming. "My original band from Texas, Shiloh, had a great pedal steel guitar player in it named Al Perkins," Henley says of the pre-Eagles band, which included Richard Bowden, his cousin Michael Bowden, and current Warner Bros. Nashville president Jim Ed Norman. The group recorded one album, produced by Kenny Rogers.

"When Kenny Rogers took us to California, we played lots of country music," Henley says. "Al was, and probably still is, one of the best steel guitar players I’ve ever heard. So this is not exactly new territory for me. It’s a bit like coming full circle."

It was Henley’s idea to take "For My Wedding" to country radio. "I just thought the song was appropriate. The fellow who wrote it writes songs that might be categorized as country/folk. He’s an excellent songwriter, and it’s an excellent song," Henley says of the Larry John McNally tune, the only one on "Inside Job" he didn’t write or co-write.

"A songwriter named Jude Johnstone sent it to me, and it just fit in with the songs I was writing about my family and my relationships," Henley says. "I said to myself, ‘I’ve got to do this song.’"

His desire to expose the song to the broadest audience possible was a factor in taking it to country radio. "People love it, and I thought, ‘Why not give it a try?’ I have a history with country radio. They played ‘Lyin’ Eyes’ thousands of times. Then we had the ‘Common Thread’ album, the Eagles tribute album. I have a lot of friends in Nashville, and, last but not least, I am after all a country boy. I grew up in a town of 2,500 people in East Texas. I listened to ‘The Louisiana Hayride’ on KWKH with my dad."

Norman and Stan Lynch, who co-produced the album with Henley, went to a Nashville studio earlier this summer with acclaimed musician Paul Franklin to add steel guitar to the cut.

"The day I had a discussion with Don about the kind of character he would like from the steel, I said to him, ‘We have one of the best steel players in the world in Paul,’ says Norman, who has known Henley since their college days in Denton, Texas. "Don described to me a bit of what he was thinking and feeling about the sound. I think of Paul as somebody who naturally does some of the things Don was describing. It ended up being a perfect fit."

Henley is equally pleased with Franklin’s contributions to the cut. "Paul Franklin is one of the best there is. Stan and I were thinking we should have done it [with steel guitar] in the first place. It just didn’t occur to us recording in LA. It fits like a glove."

Franklin’s deft steel touches perfectly complement the heartfelt integrity in Henley’s vocals. The combination of song, performance, and subtle country flavoring should make the track a winner at country radio.

"It’s an honest wish for people to be happy, and I think Don’s voice is so in character with that statement," says Lynch. "I really hope that resonates. I hope people will slow down enough let that song sink in, because it’s not a fast little ditty."

Warner Bros. Nashville senior VP of promotion Jack Purcell believes country programmers will be open to "For My Wedding." "His ties and influences to the format have been incredible, the most recent with Trisha Yearwood and ‘Walkaway Joe’ and the ‘Common Thread’ album," he says, citing the Yearwood hit that featured Henley’s vocals (the two performed the tune on the 1993 Country Music Assn. Awards show) and the tribute album "Common Thread: The Songs of The Eagles," which featured Travis Tritt, Tanya Tucker, Clint Black, Alan Jackson, and other country artists covering Eagles tunes.

That 1993 released stayed atop the Top Country Albums chart for 13 weeks. The Eagles appeared with Tritt in the "Take It Easy" video, which received widespread airplay.

Henley has already garnered country radio airplay as part of the Eagles. "Lyin Eyes" peaked at No. 8 on Billboard’s country singles chart on Dec. 6, 1976. "New Kid in Town" charted in 1977 and "Seven Bridges Road" in 1981. The reunited Eagles once again graced the country chart in 1994, when "The Girl From Yesterday," a cut from "Hell Freezes Over," peaked at No. 58.

Norman believes the new single has a good shot at country radio. "The tradition of county music historically is about a singer and the song. It’s great, because the whole spotlight of that track is about the singer and the song. It’s Don with acoustic guitar and very simple instrumentation."

Purcell says Henley will be involved in promoting the single "You can probably expect him to show up on some morning shows out there," say Prucell, adding that Henley will likely be doing some country press as well.

Henley has already filmed a video for the song. "It was shot in Los Angeles at a very interesting place. It’s a house that Jackson Browne partially grew up in that his grandfather built. It’s called the Abbey, and it’s in East LA. Jackson’s grandfather was a sailor. He traveled the world."

"Then one day he had a spiritual epiphany and got saved, I guess, much like the man who wrote ‘Amazing Grace,’ and went and built this house as a sort of shrine with these two Mexican laborers," he says. "The three of them built it by hand. It’s made out of stone and has parts in it from all over the world, from his travels. It’s quite beautiful. We shot the video there."

Even though country programmers have yet to hear the new version of the song, reaction to Henley playing on country airways has been positive.

"He’s a Texas guy, so it’s easy for us to make that leap," says KPLX-FM Dallas assistant PD Smokey Rivers. "A good song is a good song, and it you look back, Eagles stuff meshes pretty well with country and always has. I don’t think the audience will have any trouble with it being Don Henley. So bring it on!"

"I really hope that ‘For My Wedding’ is accepted at country radio," says Henley. "I don’t know if they will accept me or not, but I certainly feel a kinship there. I don’t feel like an outsider. Lord knows the Eagles certainly had an influence on the country music we hear today. I don’t know if that’s good or bad," he says with a laugh. "That depends on who you ask, I guess."

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