A never-published biography of the Eagles delved deeply into the celebrity basic rock band’s 1980 breakup, their longtime supervisor testified Wednesday, saying co-founders Glenn Frey and Don Henley had been “very upset” with the manuscript.
The guide by no means discovered a writer. However 4 a long time later, it is a part of one other story: a felony trial that opened Wednesday and entails roughly 100 pages of hand-drafted lyrics to “Resort California” and different Eagles hits.
The defendants – rare-books supplier Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and memorabilia vendor Edward Kosinski – obtained the paperwork through Ed Sanders, a famous poet and nonfiction author who additionally co-founded the avant-garde rock group the Fugs.
Sanders is not charged with something, however a key query is whether or not he had the correct to promote the lyrics pages he obtained whereas researching the biography.
Manhattan prosecutors say Horowitz, Inciardi and Kosinski peddled the pages whereas understanding their possession historical past was shaky at finest. Then, prosecutors say, they schemed to thwart Henley’s efforts to reclaim what he says are stolen items of his legacy.
Mary Altaffer / AP
“All these lyrics are very private to him, they’re part of musical historical past, and it was merely unacceptable to him that they be stolen by anybody else,” Irving Azoff, the Eagles’ supervisor, mentioned throughout testimony. He mentioned he had by no means identified Henley to half with any of the authorized pads on which he, alongside Frey, labored out a few of the best-known lyrics within the rock songbook.
Protection legal professionals say Henley voluntarily gave away the paperwork and leveraged prosecutors to attempt to take them again.
“They’ve accused three harmless males of against the law that by no means occurred,” Inciardi’s lawyer, Stacey Richman, advised Decide Curtis Farber throughout opening statements. Farber will resolve the decision, because the defendants selected to forgo a jury.
“Resort California” lyrics and which means
The paperwork embody lyrics-in-development for tracks from 1976’s “Resort California,” the third-biggest promoting album ever within the U.S.
Frey and Henley crafted them in a Beverly Hills home rented for the aim, because the tidy Henley’s tendency to select up after Frey “would drive them loopy” in the event that they labored in their very own houses, Azoff testified.
Henley did a lot of the writing, he added, with Frey leaning in to make solutions such because the phrase “Life within the Quick Lane,” which turned the title of successful single.
The disputed pages embody lyrics to that music, to “New Child in City” and, in fact, to “Resort California,” the greater than six-minute-long, considerably mysterious musical story of a hedonistic however in the end darkish place the place “you possibly can take a look at any time you want, however you possibly can by no means depart.”
In 2016, “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King requested Henley concerning the which means of “Resort California.”
“Effectively, I all the time say, it is a journey from innocence to expertise. It is probably not about California; it is about America,” Henley mentioned. “It is concerning the darkish underbelly of the American dream. It is about extra, it is about narcissism. It is concerning the music enterprise. It is about plenty of completely different…. It could actually have 1,000,000 interpretations.”
If scorned by some as an overexposed artifact of the ’70s, the Grammy-winning music continues to be a touchstone on basic rock radio and lots of private playlists. The leisure information firm Luminate counted greater than 220 million streams and 136,000 radio performs of “Resort California” within the U.S. final 12 months.
“He had inside data”
The case was introduced in 2022, a decade after a few of the pages started popping up for public sale and Henley took umbrage. He purchased 4 pages for $8,500 but additionally reported the paperwork stolen, prosecutors mentioned.
On the time, the lyrics sheets had been within the arms of Kosinski and Inciardi, who had purchased them from Horowitz for $65,000. His firm had bought them for $50,000 in 2005 from Sanders.
A buddy of Frey’s, he was employed in 1979 to write down a band biography for $25,000 and loved in depth entry. However Azoff testified that the co-founders disliked the ensuing manuscript and that, “for me personally, all of the stuff concerning the Eagles’ breakup was unacceptable.”
Because the challenge stalled, a pissed off Sanders requested Azoff in a 1982 letter for “a considerable sum of money,” saying he’d “behaved with nice reserve” by not approaching a serious journal with a narrative concerning the Eagles’ cut up.
That fearful them.
“He had inside data,” Azoff mentioned, and with Frey and Henley cultivating solo careers, “we did not need some ugly story of the breakup of the Eagles to be revealed.”
They in the end paid Sanders about $75,000 and agreed to let him search for a writer, comfy that any guide nonetheless would wish the band’s approval beneath his 1979 contract, Azoff mentioned.
Sanders hasn’t responded to a telephone message looking for remark concerning the case. Emails despatched to him bounced again.
Sanders advised Horowitz in 2005 that Henley’s assistant had mailed alongside any paperwork he needed for the biography, although the author fearful that Henley “would possibly conceivably be upset” in the event that they had been bought, in response to an e mail proven in courtroom.
“It solid vital doubt on whether or not Sanders really owned Henley’s lyric notes or had the correct to promote them,” Assistant District Legal professional Nicholas Penfold mentioned in opening remarks.
Sanders’ contract mentioned the Eagles owned any materials they furnished to Sanders for the guide. Protection legal professionals mentioned their purchasers knew nothing concerning the contract till after they had been indicted.
Don Henley anticipated to testify
Prosecutors say as soon as Henley’s legal professionals asserted the paperwork had been stolen, Inciardi and Horowitz gave evolving accounts of how Sanders obtained them.
In line with emails recounted within the indictment, these explanations ranged over the following 5 years from Sanders discovering them deserted in a backstage dressing room to getting them from Frey, who died in 2016.
There was some enter and assent from Sanders, however he additionally rejected some, together with the backstage-salvage story, in response to the emails.
Horowitz’ lawyer, Jonathan Bach, mentioned the messages weren’t suspicious efforts to cowl tracks, however reasonably an effort by Horowitz and Inciardi to get “a easy assertion from Ed Sanders to rebut an allegation they know to be baseless.”
Kosinski forwarded one of many varied explanations to Henley’s lawyer, then advised an public sale home that the rocker had “no declare” to the paperwork, the indictment says. He additionally requested the auctioneers to not inform potential bidders concerning the possession dispute.
His lawyer, Matthew Laroche, mentioned Kosinski was upfront with all and “acted diligently and appropriately.”
Henley is anticipated to testify. Protection legal professionals have indicated that they plan to query how clearly he remembers his dealings with Sanders and the lyric sheets at a time when the rock star was dwelling “life within the quick lane” himself.
In 2016, Henley advised Gayle King that the band was certainly dwelling that life-style within the Nineteen Seventies.
“Yeah… Everyone was doing it. It was the ’70s,” Henley mentioned. “It was what all people was doing, which does not make it proper essentially. And , trying again on it, there’s some regrets about that. We in all probability may have been extra productive … though we had been fairly productive, contemplating.”
