Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Jeff Stevens guitar players. Eagles fans, Don Felder fans,
(00:05):
listen up, I've got the man Don Felder right here.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey, Jeff, how are you doing this? Funny buddy?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Oh my goodness, rock legend, rock royalty. Don Felder. Nice
to talk to you, my friend. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm doing great. It's an absolute beautiful California tequila sunrise.
But it's beautiful days starting not so great.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Very nice. You immediately painted a picture when you said
tequila sunrise. I think a lot of people went, Okay,
I got you. So great to talk to you, man,
and so much music. I am so excited. I want
to tell everybody about the vault fifty years of music.
Which where did that fifty years go? That's my first
question for you, Don, How has it possibly been fifty years?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well? I started writing for the Eagles in nineteen seventy four,
and I was just writing all sorts of ideas. And
my friend Bernie Leeden, who was in a high school
band with me and was a founding member of the Eagles, said,
if you want to write songs for the Eagles, don't
write lyrics, don't write melodies, just write music. Beds in
(01:10):
song structure like intro verse verse chorus, intro verse chorus,
you know, that's kind of song structure. And given those
music ideas, they'll write the lyrics, they'll write the vocals.
So I would just crank out tons of idea music
beds like that and never finish them. So I found
this box in my storage unit about five years ago
(01:33):
that had been there for over twenty years. It was
full of cassettes a AT's CDs that were all these
rough ideas that I had made over the decades of
fifty years. And I said, I don't even know what
these things are. I'm going to take these back to
my studio, plugged in a cassette machine and transferred them
(01:54):
into pro Tools ninety six K real high quality. Before
the cassettes would just shred and just be gone. So
in the process of playing some of these things back,
I went, that was a great idea. I should finish that.
And I found five or six ideas that just were
I thought great ideas to start. One of them was
(02:14):
from nineteen seventy four of the very first idea I
had written to submit for the Eagles, and it was
tentatively titled slide on because it was me playing slide guitar.
Oh nice, and I thought, I thought that that's a
little corny. How about move on, Let's move on and
a break up. So but the slide park that I
(02:37):
heard really spurred me to just rebuild that whole basic track.
And I have some amazing players that came in on
that record. I had Nathan E's probably the best of
my favorite bass player around, Matt Bissonett who played with
Elton John for twelve years as bass player. Yeah, Keltner,
everybody knows that name from history, Brian Chishey, Greg Bissonette,
(02:59):
ringos drummer, Hard Superman from Stick, Chad Caromwell from Neil
Young's band, Geez, David Page, David Page, Oh Toto, Yeah,
from Clapton's band, and just amazing players. But I know
that they had come in and work on this record
with me, and they took some of these ideas. Some
(03:19):
of them we played exactly like the demo. I mean
I heard the solos and stuff on guitar and I
played so one of them. I just recreated Hollywood Victims verbatim,
the solo and everything that was on it, so it
sounds like it was. It should have been an Eagles
record when you listen to it, because it sounds like
(03:41):
the Eagles.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, oh, Don, this is so great, So for for
Eagles fans, for Don Felder fans. The Vault fifty Years
of Music is out a bunch of rerecorded demos that
were never finished and by the way, nice to have.
I guess if you're Don Felder, you can do that.
You know, you pull out this, all these listeners to come,
you know, help you finish the song. I gotta tell you, Don,
(04:03):
I'm I think, I'm I'm so impressed by your obviously
your your talent, your skills, your career, but you actually
had a cassette player that worked to be able to
play these That's impressive.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well, it's built into a rack. It's not one of
the things plug your your air pods or your air pods.
Right yeah, I've still got and ay dads and all
sorts of old or else you'd never be able to
hear those things.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well right, right, And I'm still one of those weird
people that has, of course kept all my vinyl, but
I kept all my cassettes, and I'm I have the
worst time finding something that will actually play them, And
like you said, I'm so afraid that when I do
find something, I'm gonna put it in the tape's gonna
snap or crumble and uh, but you know, I digress.
This is this is an incredible collection. Uh, all of us,
(04:53):
Don Felder and Eagles fans are excited that you're doing this,
but also that we get to see you on tour
this summer with some I mean, what a night this
is going to be. It sticks and then Kevin Cronin
doing all the Rio stuff and you out on the
Brotherhood of Rock Tour.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Wow, that's going to be four hours of nothing but hit.
You're going to hear the whole catalog or a lot
of the catalog that I co wrote and played with
the Eagles and toured with them for twenty seven years,
some solo stuff, heavy metal and things like that that
I did by Hero tracks, a new track off the Ball.
You never know, Nic but Kevin's going to come out
(05:30):
and do all of his hits from Rio and the
six going to come out and play in the areas
from their history and it's just going to be four
hours of amazing hit after hit after hit. It's a
great show. And not only that, but we've toured together
on and off for since I think twenty twelve or something,
a long time. We've known these guys. There's no hissy fits,
(05:52):
there's no divas. We're just guys having a great time
playing great music and having a great show for a
lot of people that enjoyed. So it's really a fun
summer coming up. I'm excited about it. As a matter
of fact, I have the key to Cincinnati. It was
given to me in the mid seventies by Jerry Springer.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Really all the mayor Jerry Springer. Yes, wow, Uh that's
something you don't hear every day. So Don Felder has
a key to Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well, unless it has locked the doors, we're going to
be there on the playing Uh forward, No, it is.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
It is. That key still works, friend forever for you.
Uh yeah. It is August nineteenth at Riverbend and of
course all over the US. A very very exciting tour.
And I got to tell you the first time I
heard heavy Metal on the radio, I was just getting
into popping rock music and I was like, oh, this
is such a great song. And then I found out
(06:50):
that like, oh, that's Don Felder of the Eagles and didn't.
Didn't Timothy and and Don Henley sing with you on
that one too?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah, they came in and sang background on that's the Harmonies.
And then and Don said you should recut this as
a reggae track. I went, well, you've had some wild
suggestions in the past. I think it needs to be
a rhyme track. You know, heavy metal. I need to
have a heavy metal reggae track tract. There's one track
(07:19):
on this new album Line called Digital World. It's kind
of a reggae based field, great pocket to it, but
it's really about everybody being addicted to their iPhones. I
don't care if you're at the airport and people are
waiting for their flight, everybody in the place is looking
at their phone. At dinner, you see a husband and
a wife and their kids. The kids have got an
(07:40):
iPad and the mother and father are looking at texting
each other on their phone. Family dinner. You know, there's
been a serious addiction to the digital world. So there
is a reggae track on this new album Mine called
the Balt called the Digital World.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Well, I will definitely look at that. A lot of
people need to listen to that one. Don We've got
just a minute or so here we got to talk
about Hotel California. It is obviously it. I think personally,
as do millions of others, that it's the most iconic
song ever written. And you've got your hands all over that.
That's just incredible.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Well, I don't know if I'd go that far, but
I guess I would say Hotel California been vere. There's
a couple a couple of times and my life where
I just got a Louisville slugger to the forehead. I've
played a show for the United Nations in New York
City about five six years ago, and there were five
(08:40):
hundred representatives from countries all over the world at this thing.
The people in the UN were at this big banquet
and I came out and played Hotel California. In everybody
in the place, didn't met of the country, the language, whatever,
knew that song and were singing along to that. I
(09:00):
was just astounded that it has such global impact all
over the world. You know, And uh, sometimes you just
stuff comes out of you and it's brilliant like that.
Other times stuff comes out of you and it just
doesn't stick to the wall. You just cover that.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, Well, Don, We all want to thank you for
that one, because it's truly and that's one of the
ones that not only do people sing the lyrics, they
sing the guitar parts, which that that doesn't happen very often, right,
but people will you know, you know, I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It happens. Well, you know, somebody said a long time ago,
if you want somebody to remember something, set it to
a simple melody like the ABC song for kids. But
they're two or three years old, they can learn the
entire ABC before they even know what an A or
a B or a C looks like. So when I
play solos and write, I write simple enough and melodical
(09:53):
enough that you could say just about every solo that
I record, I'm not a shredder.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I'll tell you I'll take your melodic stylings anytime.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
There you go, yeah, all right, well yeh.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Oh, I would Don, I would love to. I really
hope that works out. August nineteenth Riverband The Vault fifty
Years of Music. Don Felder, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Thanks Jeff in the show
I'm Jeff Stevens guitar players. Eagles fans, Don Felder fans,
(00:05):
listen up, I've got the man Don Felder right here.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey, Jeff, how are you doing this? Funny buddy?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Oh my goodness, rock legend, rock royalty. Don Felder. Nice
to talk to you, my friend. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I'm doing great. It's an absolute beautiful California tequila sunrise.
But it's beautiful days starting not so great.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Very nice. You immediately painted a picture when you said
tequila sunrise. I think a lot of people went, Okay,
I got you. So great to talk to you, man,
and so much music. I am so excited. I want
to tell everybody about the vault fifty years of music.
Which where did that fifty years go? That's my first
question for you, Don, How has it possibly been fifty years?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well? I started writing for the Eagles in nineteen seventy four,
and I was just writing all sorts of ideas. And
my friend Bernie Leeden, who was in a high school
band with me and was a founding member of the Eagles, said,
if you want to write songs for the Eagles, don't
write lyrics, don't write melodies, just write music. Beds in
(01:10):
song structure like intro verse verse chorus, intro verse chorus,
you know, that's kind of song structure. And given those
music ideas, they'll write the lyrics, they'll write the vocals.
So I would just crank out tons of idea music
beds like that and never finish them. So I found
this box in my storage unit about five years ago
(01:33):
that had been there for over twenty years. It was
full of cassettes a AT's CDs that were all these
rough ideas that I had made over the decades of
fifty years. And I said, I don't even know what
these things are. I'm going to take these back to
my studio, plugged in a cassette machine and transferred them
(01:54):
into pro Tools ninety six K real high quality. Before
the cassettes would just shred and just be gone. So
in the process of playing some of these things back,
I went, that was a great idea. I should finish that.
And I found five or six ideas that just were
I thought great ideas to start. One of them was
(02:14):
from nineteen seventy four of the very first idea I
had written to submit for the Eagles, and it was
tentatively titled slide on because it was me playing slide guitar.
Oh nice, and I thought, I thought that that's a
little corny. How about move on, Let's move on and
a break up. So but the slide park that I
(02:37):
heard really spurred me to just rebuild that whole basic track.
And I have some amazing players that came in on
that record. I had Nathan E's probably the best of
my favorite bass player around, Matt Bissonett who played with
Elton John for twelve years as bass player. Yeah, Keltner,
everybody knows that name from history, Brian Chishey, Greg Bissonette,
(02:59):
ringos drummer, Hard Superman from Stick, Chad Caromwell from Neil
Young's band, Geez, David Page, David Page, Oh Toto, Yeah,
from Clapton's band, and just amazing players. But I know
that they had come in and work on this record
with me, and they took some of these ideas. Some
(03:19):
of them we played exactly like the demo. I mean
I heard the solos and stuff on guitar and I
played so one of them. I just recreated Hollywood Victims verbatim,
the solo and everything that was on it, so it
sounds like it was. It should have been an Eagles
record when you listen to it, because it sounds like
(03:41):
the Eagles.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, oh, Don, this is so great, So for for
Eagles fans, for Don Felder fans. The Vault fifty Years
of Music is out a bunch of rerecorded demos that
were never finished and by the way, nice to have.
I guess if you're Don Felder, you can do that.
You know, you pull out this, all these listeners to come,
you know, help you finish the song. I gotta tell you, Don,
(04:03):
I'm I think, I'm I'm so impressed by your obviously
your your talent, your skills, your career, but you actually
had a cassette player that worked to be able to
play these That's impressive.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well, it's built into a rack. It's not one of
the things plug your your air pods or your air pods.
Right yeah, I've still got and ay dads and all
sorts of old or else you'd never be able to
hear those things.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Well right, right, And I'm still one of those weird
people that has, of course kept all my vinyl, but
I kept all my cassettes, and I'm I have the
worst time finding something that will actually play them, And
like you said, I'm so afraid that when I do
find something, I'm gonna put it in the tape's gonna
snap or crumble and uh, but you know, I digress.
This is this is an incredible collection. Uh, all of us,
(04:53):
Don Felder and Eagles fans are excited that you're doing this,
but also that we get to see you on tour
this summer with some I mean, what a night this
is going to be. It sticks and then Kevin Cronin
doing all the Rio stuff and you out on the
Brotherhood of Rock Tour.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Wow, that's going to be four hours of nothing but hit.
You're going to hear the whole catalog or a lot
of the catalog that I co wrote and played with
the Eagles and toured with them for twenty seven years,
some solo stuff, heavy metal and things like that that
I did by Hero tracks, a new track off the Ball.
You never know, Nic but Kevin's going to come out
(05:30):
and do all of his hits from Rio and the
six going to come out and play in the areas
from their history and it's just going to be four
hours of amazing hit after hit after hit. It's a
great show. And not only that, but we've toured together
on and off for since I think twenty twelve or something,
a long time. We've known these guys. There's no hissy fits,
(05:52):
there's no divas. We're just guys having a great time
playing great music and having a great show for a
lot of people that enjoyed. So it's really a fun
summer coming up. I'm excited about it. As a matter
of fact, I have the key to Cincinnati. It was
given to me in the mid seventies by Jerry Springer.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Really all the mayor Jerry Springer. Yes, wow, Uh that's
something you don't hear every day. So Don Felder has
a key to Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well, unless it has locked the doors, we're going to
be there on the playing Uh forward, No, it is.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
It is. That key still works, friend forever for you.
Uh yeah. It is August nineteenth at Riverbend and of
course all over the US. A very very exciting tour.
And I got to tell you the first time I
heard heavy Metal on the radio, I was just getting
into popping rock music and I was like, oh, this
is such a great song. And then I found out
(06:50):
that like, oh, that's Don Felder of the Eagles and didn't.
Didn't Timothy and and Don Henley sing with you on
that one too?
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Yeah, they came in and sang background on that's the Harmonies.
And then and Don said you should recut this as
a reggae track. I went, well, you've had some wild
suggestions in the past. I think it needs to be
a rhyme track. You know, heavy metal. I need to
have a heavy metal reggae track tract. There's one track
(07:19):
on this new album Line called Digital World. It's kind
of a reggae based field, great pocket to it, but
it's really about everybody being addicted to their iPhones. I
don't care if you're at the airport and people are
waiting for their flight, everybody in the place is looking
at their phone. At dinner, you see a husband and
a wife and their kids. The kids have got an
(07:40):
iPad and the mother and father are looking at texting
each other on their phone. Family dinner. You know, there's
been a serious addiction to the digital world. So there
is a reggae track on this new album Mine called
the Balt called the Digital World.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Well, I will definitely look at that. A lot of
people need to listen to that one. Don We've got
just a minute or so here we got to talk
about Hotel California. It is obviously it. I think personally,
as do millions of others, that it's the most iconic
song ever written. And you've got your hands all over that.
That's just incredible.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Well, I don't know if I'd go that far, but
I guess I would say Hotel California been vere. There's
a couple a couple of times and my life where
I just got a Louisville slugger to the forehead. I've
played a show for the United Nations in New York
City about five six years ago, and there were five
(08:40):
hundred representatives from countries all over the world at this thing.
The people in the UN were at this big banquet
and I came out and played Hotel California. In everybody
in the place, didn't met of the country, the language, whatever,
knew that song and were singing along to that. I
(09:00):
was just astounded that it has such global impact all
over the world. You know, And uh, sometimes you just
stuff comes out of you and it's brilliant like that.
Other times stuff comes out of you and it just
doesn't stick to the wall. You just cover that.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah, Well, Don, We all want to thank you for
that one, because it's truly and that's one of the
ones that not only do people sing the lyrics, they
sing the guitar parts, which that that doesn't happen very often, right,
but people will you know, you know, I mean.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It happens. Well, you know, somebody said a long time ago,
if you want somebody to remember something, set it to
a simple melody like the ABC song for kids. But
they're two or three years old, they can learn the
entire ABC before they even know what an A or
a B or a C looks like. So when I
play solos and write, I write simple enough and melodical
(09:53):
enough that you could say just about every solo that
I record, I'm not a shredder.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I'll tell you I'll take your melodic stylings anytime.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
There you go, yeah, all right, well yeh.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Oh, I would Don, I would love to. I really
hope that works out. August nineteenth Riverband The Vault fifty
Years of Music. Don Felder, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Thanks Jeff in the show
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