Eagles’ Don Henley Opens Up About Teen Overdose in Lyrics Trial

Don Henley testified on Monday at a Manhattan court docket in a prison case involving practically 100 pages of allegedly stolen Eagles lyrics from the Hotel California album. Some of probably the most revealing early responses, nonetheless, handled a teen escort’s overdose at his dwelling in 1980.

Rare books collector Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and rock auctioneer Edward Kosinki have been charged with one depend of conspiracy in the fourth diploma, which might convey a most penalty of 4 years in jail. Horowitz is charged with first-degree tried prison possession of stolen property, in addition to two counts of hindering prosecution. Inciardi and Kosinski are additionally charged with first-degree counts of prison possession.

The paperwork in query, handwritten by Henley and valued at greater than $1 million, have been initially given to a author named Ed Sanders in the late ’70s as a part of analysis for a licensed biography of the band. Longtime Eagles supervisor Irving Azoff testified on Feb. 21 that Sanders had entered right into a contract that permitted him to buy the e book to publishers, although the content material of the paperwork nonetheless legally belonged to the Eagles. The e book was by no means printed, and in 2005, Sanders bought 5 authorized pads of lyrics to Horowitz for $50,000. Horowitz then bought them to Inciardi and Kosinski for $65,000.

Henley turned conscious of the gross sales in 2012 after shopping for a number of pages of his personal lyrics again for $8,500. He then filed a police report for stolen property.

In 2016, Inciardi approached a Christie’s auctioneer with 13 pages of lyrics, valued at $700,000, purportedly with the intent to have the public sale home handle the sale. But after studying of the papers’ questionable sale historical past, Christie’s known as off the deal.

In their opening statements, the prosecution argued that the three males knowingly dealt with the pages as “criminal actors” with the intent to “frustrate Henley’s just efforts to recover his stolen property and to forestall legal accountability.” The protection is arguing that Sanders has by no means been charged with against the law and so Horowitz, Inciardi and Kosinski have been unaware their buy was something aside from authorized – or that the aforementioned contract existed.

Henley appeared in court docket on Monday, initially answering fundamental questions in regards to the historical past of the Eagles and their formation. Then Assistant District Attorney Aaron Ginandes started asking Henley a couple of prior prison conviction involving a teenage intercourse employee.

“I wanted to escape the depression I was in,” Henley mentioned, following the Eagles breakup in 1980, “so I made a mistake.” He went on to explain a night in which he known as for a intercourse employee whom he believed to be of age on the time of their interplay.

Henley mentioned no sexual contact occurred, although the pair did cocaine collectively. After they each fell asleep, Henley testified that he awoke to seek out the lady having what gave the impression to be a seizure. He known as for medical help. They reportedly attended to the lady and located her to be steady, after which allowed her to remain at Henley’s residence. Hours later, the police arrived on the home and arrested Henley, the teenager escort and one other teenage good friend who had arrived to provide her a trip dwelling.

The escort was 16 years previous; her good friend was 15. Henley pled responsible to a misdemeanor cost of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and was sentenced to probation plus a $2,500 positive. “I made a poor decision that I regret to this day,” Henley added.

Henley was then requested to explain his writing course of with Glenn Frey in the Eagles. He additionally reviewed an employment contract for the Eagles, which was signed by each Frey and Henley in the mid-’70s. “My understanding was that I owned my own songs,” Henley mentioned after reviewing the doc in court docket.

Ginandes then turned to the authorized pads on the coronary heart of the case. Henley testified that for a few years, he has saved quite a lot of Eagles-related materials at his property he known as “The Barn” in Malibu, California. He famous that he has obtained a number of requests over time for his gadgets to be displayed, together with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He mentioned he’d loaned some artifacts to them, however not the authorized pads with lyrics.

“Those were things that nobody is supposed to see,” Henley mentioned, describing the pads as “private and personal.” He added that if he was requested to share these pages immediately, he wouldn’t accomplish that.

Henley recounted how he got here to know Sanders by Frey, who had met the author a number of years prior whereas he was in Los Angeles conducting analysis for a e book on the Manson household. He testified that it had been Frey’s concept for Sanders to write down a e book on the Eagles, however that he “didn’t think it was a great idea” given Sanders’ “colorful history.”

Henley went on to say that Frey had been advised by Sanders that the Manson household was in search of him with the intent to hurt him. Frey allowed Sanders to remain at his home, however Henley mentioned Sanders insisted they keep up all night time in shifts with a pistol anticipating the Mansons. “[I] thought that was a little wild,” Henley defined.

But, as Henley testified, “Glenn was the boss, so to speak. … In my mind, he had the final say. Since the band was in a state of deterioration, I was trying to keep him happy.”

The contract between Sanders and the Eagles was reviewed by Henley on the time. Later, when Sanders despatched the band roughly 100 pages of his preliminary manuscript, Henley described being “disappointed” with it, feeling that the fabric was “cartoonish” and did not precisely replicate the work ethic of the band. “You know, I was an English major,” he mentioned, “so I think I know good writing when I see it.”

Given his disappointment, Henley testified that he determined to grant Sanders entry to the Barn in order that he might evaluation the authorized pads himself, however mentioned that he advised Sanders to not take away them from the property. “I was desperate to make the book better,” he defined, “so I gave him access.”

In the a long time that adopted, Henley testified that he contacted his attorneys every time he found that his lyric pages have been being bought on public sale websites, and he realized that they could possibly be traced again to Sanders. In every case, Henley had a police report filed and despatched a letter demanding the pages be returned. Also in every case, Henley was given the chance to purchase again the pages ($8,500 in 2012, $12,000 in 2014 and $90,000 in 2016).

When requested why he selected solely to purchase the pages in 2012 and never the opposite years, he replied that his preliminary buy was “a bitter pill to swallow. … I was buying my own property back.” Then in 2014 and 2016, Henley refused the presents. “I’d already been extorted once,” he mentioned. “I wasn’t going to do it again.”

Defense legal professional Jonathan Bach then rose to cross-examine Henley, asking if he might recall whether or not or not he’d given Sanders specific permission to take the authorized pads off the property. “I would have never allowed him to remove them from Los Angeles,” Henley mentioned, although he couldn’t recall his precise dialog with Sanders.

“Memory is not a fixed thing,” Henley continued. “I can’t tell you what I had for breakfast last Friday, but I can tell you [the Eagles] played Wembley Stadium in the summer of ’75 opening for Elton John and the Beach Boys.”

The protection argued that Henley filed his police experiences primarily based on “the confidence of [his] memory,” and that he preemptively accused Sanders of theft. Bach then tried to nail down an actual timeline for when Henley permitted Sanders to entry the fabric and to what extent. A telephone name between Henley and Sanders from the summer season of 1980 was performed out loud for the court docket, in which Henley talked about discovering “old lyric pads” and Sanders expressing curiosity in utilizing them for the e book. “I’ve got a lot of that shit,” Henley mentioned on the tape.

Bach questioned Henley a couple of go to Sanders paid to Henley’s property in early August 1980, although Henley testified that he didn’t recall viewing any artifacts with Sanders throughout that go to. The protection offered a number of items of proof indicating that Henley willingly despatched supplies to Sanders at his dwelling in Woodstock, New York, together with one other taped telephone name from September 1980 in which Henley acknowledged he would ship pads to Sanders, in addition to the unique label of a delivery field addressed to Sanders that the protection mentioned was a 21 pound field of fabric.

Henley claimed he had no particular person recollection of both approving the delivery of the field or the September telephone name. “We’re cherry picking these tapes is what we’re doing,” an exasperated Henley mentioned on the stand. He did, nonetheless, concede that the “access” he granted Sanders initially might probably have included mailing some artifacts to Sanders, which, the protection argued, would imply Sanders did not steal them from Henley’s property.

Other items of proof displayed in court docket included a duplicate of Sanders’ e book manuscript, which contained handwritten edit marks from Henley and reproduced photos of lyric pads. They additionally launched a letter from Henley to Sanders dated Jan. 12, 1983, in which he wrote: “The book flows very well and is very humorous until the end…still I think the book has merit and should be published.” Another letter from June 1, 1984 was signed by Azoff and despatched to Sanders, notifying him that he had permission to buy the manuscript to different publishers after initially being rejected, however Henley as soon as once more testified that he was underneath the impression the Eagles nonetheless retained the appropriate to veto the publishing of the e book if desired, and questioned whether or not the manuscript proven to him in court docket was the ultimate model. (Bach additionally argued that Henley didn’t point out the contract between Sanders and the band when he spoke along with his attorneys in regards to the lyric pages in 2012.)

Henley is anticipated to return to the witness stand on Tuesday for extra cross examination.

This is a growing story.