(Credits: Far Out / Don Henley)
Sat 14 March 2026 18:30, UK
The biggest names in rock and roll had to mean something a little more to Don Henley.
He loved the idea of making the best music that he could to get in the charts, but when he looked at his fellow contemporaries, he started to see that not all of them were putting the same care and attention into their lyrics that he was. Not everyone was going to be cut out to be another version of Bob Dylan, but Henley felt that there needed to be a bit more substance to what he was hearing on the radio every time he turned on a station.
But that involved him seeing how the sausage got made more often than not. No one was really prepared for all the background effects happening on the hit parade, and even before Henley was dealing with his own problems, there were already payola scandals that were running rampant throughout rock and roll, just so people could hear one specific artist over the other every time the radio came on.
Henley may have had a much more workman-like approach to his songs, but he felt that the times were changing as soon as he reached the MTV decade. The biggest radio station in the world had suddenly become everyone’s television screen, and while the genesis of the station looked more than a little bit crappy, it was about to become a blockbuster smash the minute that people like Michael Jackson and Madonna started to become the biggest names in the music world.
Music videos started to feel like cultural events every single time they played on the station, and it’s not like Henley didn’t lean into it a little bit. ‘All She Wants To Do Is Dance’ had a video to go along with it, but given how uncomfortable he looked trying to dance his way through all of the songs, it’s not like he was going to be one of the most electric frontmen in the world. He didn’t sign up to be Mick Jagger or James Brown, but when the icons started to branch out, that meant paving the way for other kinds of artists.
And by the late 1980s, the concept of ‘boy bands’ had first started to enter the public consciousness. Everyone was much more accustomed to the medium once bands like NSYNC and Backstreet Boys started to become the biggest names in music, but as far back as New Kids on the Block, things were starting to change, and Henley wasn’t sure if he was ready for that kind of change just yet.
Any kid deserves a shot to make the best record they can, but Henley felt that the songs they were making didn’t have the substance he was looking for, saying, “What’s encouraging to me is that as the years go by, time separates the men from the boys musically. You’ve got these pop acts now where someone takes some pretty young boys or pretty young girls and actually manufactures a group, and some of them are successful, but only for a while. So, the good stuff always manages to transcend the slings and arrows of time, and that makes me feel good.”
Even when looking at these “manufactured” groups, that seems to hold true in most cases. The Runaways had been put together before Joan Jett became one of the biggest names in punk rock, and even after people started fawning over One Direction, it was clear that Harry Styles was going to become one of the biggest stars in the world based on his charisma alone.
Some people are born entertainers, and while they didn’t have the kind of depth that Henley would have liked, there’s a reason why they are going to stand the test of time just like legends like him. Everyone can remember certain lines from their songs and even think of the seismic impact that they left on the world, but they aren’t going to forget the way that they felt listening to those tunes for the first time.