(Credit: Alamy)
Fri 28 November 2025 18:54, UK
The brooding Don Henley is almost the centre of the Venn diagram of American music, alchemically bringing its best parts together.
The multi-instrumentalist, co-lead singer and founding member of Eagles, found immense fame and fortune in bringing a new breed of country music to the more globalised conduit of rock. In the 1970s, when it seemed rock ‘n’ roll was running out of road, he steered it in a new direction.
With assistance from bandmates such as Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon, Henley penned a selection of the most memorable pop songs of the whole era, which continue to inspire artists today. The tracklist to Hotel California reads like a greatest hits collection, featuring classics such as the title track, ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ and ‘The Last Resort’, as well as the titular global smash.
The record has sold over 32million copies, making the band, at one stage, the world’s most popular group. The secret to their success was a healthy mix of influences, partially down to Henley’s eclectic taste. Moreover, they were enticingly enigmatic in an age increasingly hungry for fame. But all their heroes had been wary of the limelight, too.
Never shy to discuss his favourite artists, Henley has championed such musical heroes as Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell and Patsy Cline as key early muses. His output clearly shows that Henley has a penchant for the country genre. For his money, there has never been anybody better than Merle Haggard, the late, eminent songwriter, guitarist and fiddler from Oildale, California.
The genius Ray Charles. (Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
After years of grinding in the shadows, Haggard became prominent towards the end of the 1960s. He created a series of chart-topping tracks, including ‘Mama Tried’, which made him a household name. Although mainstream success inevitably dried up, Haggard remained incredibly revered for his work, including the 1983 collaborative album Pancho and Lefty with Willie Nelson.
“My absolute favourite country singer of all time is probably a gentleman named Merle Haggard,” Henley revealed in an interview on BBC Radio 2 in 2019. “[He] has a voice that is just like gold to me. It’s one of the greatest voices of all time, I think,” he said. But there was still one man who even Haggard couldn’t match.
Continuing, “Merle’s family originated, I believe in Oklahoma, they were ‘okies’ who went west, and Merle ended up out in California. He recorded many, many hits over the years, beginning way back in the 1960s, and he is someone that I only met a couple of years ago.”
Henley then shared a poignant memory of meeting his hero when Haggard stopped by in his hometown, Linden, Texas, to perform at a “little theatre”. While the adage says that one should never meet their heroes, Haggard proved to be an exception to the rule, and the experience only enhanced his reputation in the eyes of Henley, who continued: “He is quite a character, to say the least [laughs]. He is really something else. There are a number of songs that are of his that are my favourite country songs. One of those songs is a ballad called Silver Wings.”
Although Haggard takes Henley’s trophy for being the greatest country singer, the spot reserved for his all-round favourite singer, the zenith regardless of genre, belongs to the late Ray Charles. The soul sensation couldn’t be more different from Haggard in every sense, but both have played a key influence on Henley’s life and career, which goes some way in demonstrating how the Eagles carved out such a richly textured sound that spanned genres.
“This man is my favourite singer of all time, and he has never been known necessarily as a country artist, but he did a groundbreaking album back in the 1960s called Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music,” Henley opined of the late, great Ray Charles.
Heaping further praise on Charles, Henley continued: “That album changed my life. I wore out at least two vinyl copies of it. It had some wonderful songs on it. This song (‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’) has been recorded by a number of country artists, but this is, in my opinion, the definitive version of this song.” But no matter the album, Henley has always heard something singularly stirring in Charles’ voice.
As is evident from the music he has produced over the last half a century with and without the Eagles, Henley has never tied himself down to one specific genre or sound, which helped his band stand out amid their sea of contemporaries. Few individuals would list Haggard and Charles among their favourites, but Henley has never been one to explore music through an ordinary lens.
He’s not alone, either. Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Hornsby, and an array of other names have all put Charles at the top of their tree.
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