Don Henley said Monday he never provided handwritten pages of rough lyrics to “Hotel California” and other Eagles hits, calling them “too personal” in testimony that also delves into an ugly but unrelated episode: his 1980 arrest .
Henley, the Grammy-winning co-founder of one of the most successful bands in rock history, is the star of prosecutors in an unusual criminal trial surrounding the lyric sheets.
Henley says they were stolen decades ago from his barn in Malibu, California. He testified Monday that he was shocked when the material began appearing at auctions in 2012.
“It just wasn't something that was meant for public viewing. It was our process. It was something very personal, very private,” he said in a rough drawl. “I still wouldn't show this to anyone.”
The defendants are three collectibles experts who bought the pages years later through an author who had worked with the Eagles on a never-before-published biography of the band. The defense argues that Henley willingly gave them to the scribe.
Under cross-examination, Henley acknowledged that he did not remember “the entirety” of his conversations with the author, Ed Saunders, who is not charged in the case. Nor, Henley said, could he recall whether he gave Sanders permission to remove the documents from the property.
But Henley insisted he only gave Saunders access to the documents, not permanent possession, in the hope that a first-hand view of the “time and effort it took” the lyrics would improve the book.
He said he told Sanders he could look at the pages, ideally on a breakfast table in an apartment upstairs from the barn.
“I never gave him permission to keep those items,” Henley said.
The issue is about 100 sheets of legal-pad paper with etched lyrics for several songs on the “Hotel California” album, including “Life in the Fast Lane,” “New Kid in Town” and the title track that became one of the most enduring rock hits. Famous for its lengthy guitar solo and enigmatically poetic lyrics, the song is still streamed hundreds of millions of times a year.
The defendants – rare book dealer Glenn Horowitz and rock memorabilia experts Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski – have pleaded not guilty to charges including criminal possession of stolen property. Their lawyers say there was nothing illegal about what happened to the lyric sheets.
The defense has indicated it plans to cross-examine Henley, 76, about how clearly he remembers his conversations with Sanders during an era when the rocker lived in his own fast lane. In an apparent attempt to defuse some of those questions, a prosecutor referred to Henley's 1980 arrest.
In 1981 Henley pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after authorities found cocaine, quaaludes, marijuana and a naked and overdosed 16-year-old sex worker at his Los Angeles home last November. . He was sentenced to probation and fined $2,500 and required a drug education program to have certain possession charges dismissed.
Henley testified on Monday that he had become depressed over the breakup of the Eagles in 1980 and had sought “an escape” by calling a sex worker.
“I made a bad decision that I regret to this day,” he said.
As for his memory, he said, “I can't tell you what I had for breakfast last Friday morning, but I can tell you where we stayed when we played at Wembley in 1975 and opened for Elton John and the Beach Boys.” referring to London's Wembley Stadium.
Sanders began working with the Eagles in 1979 on a biography of the band that was never released. He sold the documents to Horowitz, who sold them to Kosinski and Inciardi. Kosinski has a rock 'n' roll collectibles auction site. Inciardi was then a curator at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
In a 2005 email to Horowitz, Sanders said Henley's assistant had sent him the documents for the biography project, according to the indictment.
Henley said they were stolen after Inciardi and Kosinski began offering them at various auctions in 2012.
Henley also bought back four pages for $8,500 in 2012. He testified that he resented having to buy back what he claims was his property. However, he said he saw it as the “most practical and expedient” way to get the auction listing, which contained photographs of the verse sheets, off the Internet.
Kosinski's lawyers, however, argued that the transaction implicitly recognized his ownership.
Meanwhile, Horowitz and Inciardi began creating alternative stories about how Sanders got hold of the manuscripts, Manhattan prosecutors say.
Among the alternate stories were that they were left backstage at an Eagles concert, that Sanders received them from someone he couldn't remember and that he got them from Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, according to emails cited in the indictment . Frey was dead by the time Horowitz presented this last option in 2017.
Sanders contributed or signed some explanations, according to the emails. He has not responded to messages seeking comment on the case.
Kosinski relayed one of the various explanations to Henley's attorney, then told an auction house that the rocker had “no claim” to the documents, the indictment says.
Henley has been a staunch supporter of artists' rights in their work. Since the late 1990s, he and a musicians' rights group he co-founded have spoken in venues from the Supreme Court to Congress on copyright law, online file sharing and more. As recently as 2002, Henley testified before Congress to ask for an update to copyright law to combat online piracy.
Henley also sued a Senate candidate for unauthorized use of some of the musician's solo songs in a commercial. Another Henley suit hit out at a clothing company that made T-shirts with a pun on his name. Both cases resulted in compromises and apologies from the accused.
Henley also testified before Congress in 2020, urging updates to copyright law to combat online piracy.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/business/legal/eagles-stolen-song-lyrics-trial-don-henley-testifies-theft-case-1235615251/
