Don Felder, a former Eagles guitarist, recently discussed if he harbored any animosity against Don Henley and the late Glenn Frey in an interview with St. Louis radio station KSHE 95.
The performer explained:
“I have no animosity towards any of those guys, especially Glenn. He’s gone, and I regret that I didn’t have the opportunity to sit down with him and just have a good human relationship.”
He proceeded by recalling a wake-up call that could have allowed the band members to maintain their relationship during the Eagles’ heyday:
“We were like a family when we first got together, and the bigger it got and the more famous and the more money and the more drugs we were all taking, the harder it got. There was a point when I first joined the band; Bernie Leadon, who was in my high school band in Gainesville, Florida, called the Maundy Quintet, said we just needed to take a break.
‘Everybody should just take two or three weeks and relax and go to Hawaii and be fresh and get strong and get off drugs and then come back and regroup and go at it again.”
However, Henley and Frey disregarded this advice, which caused more issues within the band.
“That was the smartest thing anybody could have said, and nobody listened to it. Don Henley and Glenn Frey just wanted to keep going, keep writing, keep recording, keep touring, and keep pushing.
I gotta say there’s some wisdom in that, but the result of doing that non-stop, 11 and a half months out of the year, is that you just get worn down at every nerve; the ending you have in your whole body is frayed, and so the slightest little thing can be irritating that you’d normally know otherwise not pay any attention to.”
Felder feels that the band would benefit more from following Leadon’s recommendations at the time:
“So that when that started happening during the long run, that’s when all the real personality conflicts and troubles started happening. So I think we should have Bernie’s advice back into one of these hotels and taking breaks.”
Don Felder maintained his career as a solo artist and collaborated with several artists, including Sammy Hagar, Slash, Mick Fleetwood, and Alex Lifeson, after departing the Eagles during a turbulent period. He performed on tour with several groups, including REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, and Styx.
The full of his interview is available to listen to below.
