![\"Don](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Don-Felder-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credit: TaurusEmerald)<\/p>\n
Fri 26 December 2025 20:30, UK <\/p>\n
When talking about the Eagles at the peak of their powers, it\u2019s a lot easier to forget about what Don Felder<\/a> contributed to the equation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Don Henley and Glenn Frey may have been the two champions of the band leading them to one musical height after another, but without Felder\u2019s licks and song ideas, we wouldn\u2019t have had the bass line to \u2018One of These Nights\u2019, the massive solo in \u2018Already Gone\u2019, and the basis for a little song called \u2018Hotel California\u2019. He was a key part of half of their classics, but he was the first to admit when he wasn\u2019t playing the most original tunes in the world.<\/p>\n But when looking at the guitar scene that Felder grew up in, it\u2019s not like he was some hack fumbling his way through rock and roll history, either. He had studied every piece of the neck that he could before he had even started jamming with Eagles, and anyone who helped give a few guitar lessons to someone like Tom Petty was sure to have more than a few tricks up their sleeve when they were called up to the big leagues.<\/p>\n And when listening to him in tandem with Joe Walsh, Felder could always hold his own next to his fellow legend. Walsh may have been the court jester of the band half the time they performed live, but when listening to them going back and forth on \u2018Hotel California\u2019, it\u2019s almost like watching a bunch of kids trying to outdo each other with every single lick they played. But both of them wouldn\u2019t have been anywhere near as good as they were without a healthy dose of American rock and roll.<\/p>\n They would be the first to say that every guitar player would have bowed to someone like Jimi Hendrix when they were starting out, but there\u2019s a piece of musical history that sometimes gets lost when talking about the South. Hendrix is a deity for a reason, but for anyone who grew up south of the Mason\/Dixon line, The Allman Brothers Band took everything that Hendrix was known for and put a Southern accent behind it.<\/p>\n While The Allmans often get labelled as \u2018Southern Rock\u2019 half the time, that\u2019s not exactly an accurate description of what they do. Listening to At Fillmore East, a lot of what they are playing is almost closer to fusion jazz than anything else, especially with the odd time signature changes that are going on in \u2018Whipping Post\u2019. But beyond the style of music, Felder was transfixed by nearly everything that he heard coming from Duane Allman\u2019s guitar.<\/p>\n Felder had developed his own sound by this point, but when it came to slide playing, he felt that there wasn\u2019t a single note that he played that wasn\u2019t taken from one of Duane\u2019s solos, saying<\/a>, \u201cI like to say I stole most everything I know about slide guitar from Duane. If you\u2019re going to steal, steal from the best. I was always so impressed with what a great slide player he was. Although if you listen to me playing slide guitar and you listen to Duane, we don\u2019t sound like the same guy.\u201d<\/p>\n