Henley Might Check Out, But He Never Leaves
Author: Charles Passey
Publication: The Record
Date: February 22, 2001
Abstract: Henley talks about the ideas behind songs on Inside Job.
At 53, Don Henley is in no hurry to make a name for himself again.
Consider that the former frontman of The Eagles waited more than a decade before releasing his latest studio album,"Inside Job." More importantly, consider that the once hard-partying singer songwriter, whose solo career has yielded such hits as "Boys of Summer" and "The End of the Innocence,"is now a family man with three children.
Henley, who performs Sunday at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, lets his new life serve as the emotional backbone for his new recording, but he still hasn't lost some of the angry edge of his youth. The album contrasts gentle songs about love and home with bitter opuses about today's corporate culture. Some critics have been less than kind about the admittedly overwrought songwriting and production, but it's hard to ignore the album's message, and Henley's still heartfelt, 1 aching voice.
"I think life is a duality," Henley says by phone from his home in Texas. "I believe that we all have, or should have, an inner life and an outer life, a private life and a public life."
The "inner life" is revealed in songs like "Taking You Home," a pull-at-the-heartstrings ballad in which Henley chronicles the journey home from the hospital after the birth of one of his children, or "Everything Is Different Now," a gospel-and-blues inflected tribute to married life. In the latter, Henley makes his present situation quite clear: "It's sweet to know/The wisdom that living brings/Since I got a telegram from the god of simple things," he sings.
"I've never been very much into this rock star thing," explains Henley. "We have a very normal life here in Texas. We don't live in opulence."
As for the "outer life," you'll find it reflected in "Workin It," a scathing condemnation of the music industry, and "Goodbye to a River," a more thoughtful song that focuses on Henley's long outspoken concerns for the environment. (Much of Henley's profits go to support his Walden Woods Project, which helps preserve endangered land.) If you get Henley going on any of the above subjects, he'll give you an earful.
Take the matter of who controls the music industry, especially in radio. "Most of the stations are owned by one or two companies... It's a reflection of what's happening in our culture. We're losing our individuality," Henley says.
As for the concert business, he doesn't spare any harsh words for the country's top promoter and venue owner, SFX Entertainment. "I told my manager before I started on tour...in any city, if there is a venue besides the one SFX owns, put me in there," Henley says, noting his concern that the company is fast on its way to becoming a monopoly.
Those are not exactly the kind of sentiments that are going to win you friends in the industry. But the bigger battle Henley faces is that his singer-songwriter approach has largely fallen out of favor with today's mainstream audience. In the decade since his last album, grunge has come and gone, bubble-gum pop has returned en masse, and rap has made its indelible mark on popular culture. Where does an old-time rocker fit in?
Henley admits he's in an awkward 1 spot. "There aren't many of us carrying the banner. I had so much trepidation about this album," he says. At the same time, he notes that "good music is good music. There are still 78 million members of the baby boom generation out there and they need something they can relate to."
Of course, Henley hardly was idle in his long absence from the studio. In addition to tending to his family and the Walden Woods Project, he did a not-so-small reunion tour with The Eagles, appropriately titled "Hell Freezes Over" in reference to a comment Henley once made about the possibility of the band getting back together again. (As for another reunion, Henley says,"it's probably a 50-50 proposition.") On his recent tour dates, he's kept the spirit of the much-beloved band alive, performing Eagles classics.
"'Hotel is 24 years old now," Henley says, implying it was due for an update. "The first order of business is that I need to enjoy what I'm doing. If I'm not, nobody else is."
