A few motives behind Henley's 'Request' appearance
Author: Jean Prescott
Publication: The Times-Union (Albany)
Date: May 25, 2000
Abstract: Brief telephone interview where Henley promotes his "Live by Request" show and his upcoming album, Inside Job.
How much can you learn about a man in 10 minutes? Not much, not even when you can look into his eyes. When all you have is a disembodied voice -- even a very famous voice -- on the telephone, you're at his mercy.
Don Henley, being a Southern gentleman, helps the discovery process along almost in spite of himself. In a recent long-distance interview he immediately revealed several things. He is amiable and intelligent, quick of wit but with a weariness of fools that surfaces as often in conversation as it does in his acerbic song lyrics.
He unabashedly declared that rock and live TV go together like oil and water and that he agreed to do a modified version of A&E's popular ''Live By Request'' series (9 tonight and 8 p.m. June 2) ''because I have respect for the arts and entertainment channel.''
He added without apology that he's also spent two years and a little more than $1 million making his first album in 11 years, ''Inside Job'' (released Tuesday), and he wants it to get a crack at its share of the marketplace.
''I'm encouraged by the reception Carlos Santana and the new Steely Dan albums have received ... all of them excellent, intelligent musicians,'' Henley said. ''Teen-age children of my friends in Texas are so fed up with the state of modern music, they're going back and rediscovering people like Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles'' from the '60s.
So says the man who was the overriding voice and ''heartbeat'' of a quite successful '70s rock band. Well, yes, he said, he understands fans' tender feelings for all things Eagles, but creativity is about moving forward, and heaven knows he's done that since the band dissolved in 1982. Three solo discs (''I Can't Stand Still,'' ''Building the Perfect Beast'' and ''The End of the Innocence'') and two Grammys in seven years is not too shabby.
He spent most of the '90s caring passionately for the Walden Woods Project, the Thoreau Institute and his family, not necessarily in that order. And toward the end of the decade, hell froze over and that '70s band reunited with a whoop.
Henley also obviously spent some of that time with Stan Lynch (another manic drummer, late of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) who with Henley wrote and produced ''Inside Job,'' the latter's first new music since 1989.
The 13 tunes ''are not that different ... though some of them might be a little harder-edged,'' Henley explained, and then he said he hopes and believes the album is yet another step forward.
He understates his case. ''Inside Job,'' which does rock hard in places (''Nobody Else in the World But You,'' ''Workin' It''), is ballad-laden but without the yearning associated with many Henley ballads. Here he delivers not one but four intensely personal love songs: ''Taking You Home,'' on which he marvels at having found the love of his life; ''For My Wedding,'' on which he bargains with the fates; and ''Everything Is Different Now,'' a reiteration of joy. No. 4 is strictly between dad and daughter ''Annabel.''
Lovers of Henley's no-bull perspective, be assured he has not forgotten you. ''Workin' It'' -- Inside Job's ''Dirty Laundry'' -- and ''Damn It, Rose'' are loaded with delightfully acidic turns of phrase.
He has good company on this outing and brings along, in addition to Lynch, Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, former Fabulous Thunderbird Jimmie Vaughan, the incomparable Randy Newman and, singing backup on the opening track, Stevie Wonder.
''One of the reasons I always admired the Beatles,'' Henley said, ''is that even when they made radical changes, they still sounded like the Beatles.'' Instantly he added, ''I'm certainly not comparing myself to them.
''Call me a public person, please. (Celebrity) is not something I like to think about. I don't really believe it's healthy to contemplate yourself like that. I think it's one of the things that are wrong with our narcissistic society. When I wake up in the morning, I don't immediately think, 'Oh, hey, I'm a celebrity.' I'm concerned about the environment, about my family, a lot of thought goes into my work.''
He said he hasn't actually despaired of finding something worthwhile among the current crop of tunes from younger artists and, in fact, he is taken with Jill Sobule's ''Pink Pearl,'' except for the first track. ''I didn't care for it, and I almost took the CD out of the machine ... but then I thought, 'No, let's be fair. Let's give it a chance.' And the more I listened, the better it got.''
The inevitable touring about to begin, will it wrench Henley away from the wife and family he writes about so lovingly on this album?
''Actually, I'll probably see them more on tour than when I'm out here (near Los Angeles). They will travel with me when they can,'' he said. Their presence will help to define his ''off duty'' hours, which he said he takes much more seriously as a husband and a dad.
