Don Henley Talks About His New Album and New Controversy
Interviewer: Jim Moret
Publication: CNN "Showbiz Today" Transcript
Date: May 26, 2000
Abstract: Brief television interview about Henley's new album and his reaction to some insulting comments made by a Congressman.
MORET: Don Henley has a new album and a new controversy. He was harshly criticized on Capitol Hill Thursday, after a hearing on a testy copyright dispute. In written remarks, Congressman Howard Coble of North Carolina ridiculed Henley for missing the hearing convened to discuss the new works for hire provision of the copyright law. Henley has lambasted Congress for quietly enacting that provision, which gives record companies and not artists permanent ownership of their recordings. Sheryl Crow testified against the provision, but Henley couldn't make it because he was busy with a live TV special promoting his new album, "Inside Job."
Representative Coble suggested that Henley's absence indicated where his priorities lay. In a statement, Henley called that quote "hateful and petty rhetoric."
I talked with Don Henley before this issue flared up at a launch party for his new album. Even there, though, he had political subjects on his mind.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MORET: You point out the tyranny of multinational corporations and how they're stripping individuals of rights and dignity and so forth.
DON HENLEY, MUSICIAN: Particularly media corporations.
MORET: Thank you.
HENLEY: You're welcome.
MORET: You're a part of that.
HENLEY: I am, hopefully not for too much longer.
MORET: You've always had an edge to your music, and this continues that in many of your songs. The direction seems to be shifting ever so slightly.
HENLEY: My primary concern is still the environment, you know, with the Walden Woods project and various other projects. But there's more of a balance in my life now. I have a refuge in my home and my family. In what I consider to be a completely illogical world, I find a great deal of comfort and solace if my wife and in my children. My children bring me back to earth, and seeing the world through their eyes is a wonderful thing. You notice the little things that adults tend to forget and to overlook.
MORET: Eleven years is a long time between solo albums. You've had a lot happen to you since then, obviously. How is your music different today?
HENLEY: Well, I'd like to think it's more mature, it's more focused. I'd like to think that the songwriting is more concise and better crafted. I think there's more of a balance in the music.
MORET: You are a rock artist, you sing ballads, but your music in some senses is a lot like folk music in that the words are extremely important. Do you try to tell a story?
HENLEY: Lyrics are important to me. I have always loved language. I love words, I love reading, I collect books, I like information, although there's a little bit too much of it these days. It's hard to absorb it all.
Songwriting is something I revere and I respect. And I think the art or the craft, which -- I don't know if it's an art or a craft, but I think it's not doing very well these days. I hear a lot of stuff on the radio that in my opinion is pretty sloppy stuff.
MORET: Well, fortunately, you're doing very well. What's this tour going to be like for you?
HENLEY: I enjoy touring, and the touring is about touring. It's about the show, it's about the music. I conduct business in between times. I set up an office in every hotel room that I'm in. I have, you know, the fax machine and the phone, and I do business all day. And then at night, we do the gig and I go to bed. It's pretty boring except for the show part.
MORET: We're going to get a chance to listen to that.
Don Henley, thank you very much.
