(Credits: TIDAL)
Sun 18 January 2026 17:00, UK
No one was ever expecting Don Henley to keep track of what the new hot thing was going on in the charts.
Every single rock and roll star can easily fall back on the records that they loved when they were kids, and while Henley has gone back to people like Ray Charles and The Beatles for inspiration, sometimes it’s better to see what the new musical legends are making of themselves on the charts. Sometimes he would be very surprised by what they were doing, but the charts often look a lot different these days than when Henley grew up.
Granted, it’s not hard to see why everything shifted on a dime when the age of streaming took place. Everyone might have their own specific taste in music, but when everything ends up getting homogenised to one person’s taste, there’s no room for anyone to come out of their shell. If someone likes country, they will be directed by whatever new country star is storming up the charts, but that’s not the life that Henley knew when he first tuned into the radio back in the day.
There were country artists that he gravitated towards and rock and roll bands that he loved, but the beauty of the radio was hearing different cultures that no one had ever heard before. There would be everything from folk songs to protest songs to funk to R&B all on the same station, and when they all branched out into their own separate categories, there was almost a dividing line that said rock and roll artists couldn’t like soul or country for some reason.
If you listen to Eagles’ music, though, nothing could be further from the truth. Henley was indebted to all kinds of American music, and while they do get the tag of being a ‘country rock’ band at times, there are many genres that they touched on, from playing bluegrass tunes to gargantuan riffs to Henley practically trying on his Teddy Pendergrass voice on the song ‘Wasted Time’.
Change wasn’t a bad word to him, but rap was always going to be a bit tough to get his head around. If there was one thing that Henley was protective of, it was his own music, and while sampling has been a prominent part of music ever since the days of Run-DMC and Public Enemy, Henley had a bone to pick when people like Frank Ocean started using pieces of his material on his songs.
While he had no problem calling Ocean one of the most talentless musicians he had ever known, he had even less kind words for Kanye West when the rapper started making a campaign to run for President, saying, “I don’t like him, either. He won’t be president. He’s either incredibly arrogant or incredibly insecure, or some combination of the two.” But, really, do you need someone like me to run down all of the evidence for why Mr West has fallen off in the past few years.
He can hide behind the mad genius tag all he wants, but seeing him make songs that were made to defend his anti-sementic remarks isn’t exactly putting him in anyone’s good graces, regardless of whatever politics he wanted to run on during his bid for public office. And it’s not like Henley was the only one who had problems with it, considering Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne both condemned the rapper for using samples from ‘The Prince of Darkness’ without permission.
Sure, West does have a lot of talent and doesn’t really know how to use it in an effective way, but Henley’s comments about his arrogance really have reached a fever pitch at this point. Anyone can manage to make music that is designed to shock people, but when shocking people becomes the only appeal that you have, there’s no way anyone will be able to take you seriously.
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