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Sun 19 October 2025 18:45, UK
If you need a dose of wholesomeness – here you go. We talk so much about drama and feuds, of bandmates hating one another or fall outs tearing it all about. But for now, here is a moment of sweetness, courtesy of Eagles.
This certainty wasn’t always the case. Eagles had such an intense history of feuds that it tore the band apart repeatedly. Initially, the band only lasted from 1971 to 1980 as a fight at the heart of the band made it all unworkable.
Things were already rocky after Bernie Leadon, one of the band’s founders, quit in 1975 after a dramatic fight that ended with him pouring a drink over Glen Frey’s head and storming out.
However, the main fight involved Don Henley and Don Felder. During a recording session in 1976, Felder was working on ‘Victim of Love’ which he’d made it clear that he wanted to sing on the record. However, the band weren’t happy. “Don Felder, for all of his talents as a guitar player, was not a singer,” Glenn Frey said, with Henley agreeing that the recording “simply did not come up to band standards.”
Unsure how to broach the topic with Felder, they did perhaps the worst thing they could in that situation. When Felder was out of the room, they deleted his vocal take, and had Henley rerecord it.
Obviously, Felder was furious. It caused cracks in the band that they never really recovered from, only worsening and deepening over time throughout other fights, fall out and walk outs, eventually leading to their initial 1980 split.
But fights happen and friends fall out, talent is something else. Despite it all, Felder could never bring himself to bad mouth the band’s ability and still had kind words to say about Henley regardless, even naming him as the band member he revered the most in a lashing of praise.
“I think Don Henley is a brilliant contemporary rock writer. He would have been a fabulous poet if he weren’t a musician. He was a literary major, and not only that – he’s gifted with a brilliant voice,” he said.
Talking in 2008, he’d clearly got over the betrayal of that recording session as he packed the praise onto Henley’s voice. “To me, Don could sing the New York City Yellow Pages and I’d buy it. I just love the sound of his voice,” he said, though he’d perhaps still prefer to have not heard that voice singing ‘Victim Of Love’.
Two things can be true at once. Felder can have had his issues with Henley’s personality in the past and can admit that maybe there are parts of Henley that aren’t quite as palatable as his smooth voice, yet still appreciate his talent and abilities. “Just because some people are blessed with some elements of genius, and they’ve been given some fabulous gifts, it doesn’t mean they don’t have warts,” he said as a perfectly balanced conclusion.
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