The one Eagles performance Don Henley regrets most: “I sort of wish we hadn’t done it”
Most bands aren’t really in the business for all of the accolades. It must feel nice getting recognised by your peers, but at the end of the day, any artist would feel more fulfilled by having a song that touches people rather than a trophy that tells them what a great job they did. While Don Henley was still grateful for all of the massive awards that the Eagles have garnered throughout the years, he could have done without performing at the Grammys for their legacy following Glenn Frey’s passing.
The Grammys have always been a touchy subject when it comes to rock bands. On occasion, they’ll get it right, but looking at some of the most recent selections by the Recording Academy, it was far more likely that they would end up picking out something that was either middle of the road or too big to really deny.
Take the 1981 ceremony, for instance. The ‘Album of the Year’ seemed to be guaranteed to be given to Pink Floyd for The Wall, but with the wind in their sails, it lost to Christopher Cross for his debut album. That’s not to say that tunes like ‘Sailing’ aren’t phenomenal in their own right, but they aren’t having as big an impact on the culture as what the heavy hitters had been doing.
During their prime, the Eagles didn’t even have time to be bothered with the ceremony. When earning awards for their blockbuster album Hotel California, the group didn’t show up that night to pick up their award, but when they were given the status of a legacy artist, Henley felt uncomfortable up there among the biggest names in the business.
While talking about their appearance on the show, Henley felt that the performance wasn’t a good look for them, saying, “I sort of wish we hadn’t done it, frankly. It was too soon, too weird. I don’t know why we said yes. We were still in shock and didn’t know what to do. Then, at the end of it, these two Grammy honchos walked out with the award for Hotel California, which we had refused to show up and accept in 1977.”
If you know anything about the Eagles, that wasn’t outside the norm. Henley was always cautious about flying too close to the sun, and the fact that they made a deal with Wal-Mart so that their audience wouldn’t be overcharged for their comeback album Long Road Out of Eden was all in the service of putting the fans and musicians first.
Then again, the fact that they were getting accolades for their greatest hits album may have also rubbed them the wrong way. Frey and Henley never wanted the record to be put out in the first place, and for it to become the best-selling album of the 20th century probably did nothing to boost their confidence as an album-focused act.
Considering how Henley has moved on from the Hollywood side of the business, though, it’s safe to say that he isn’t going to be coming back to the Grammys unless it’s for the right reasons. The ceremony is supposed to be about celebrating the biggest names in music, but Henley is more concerned with making music for himself regardless of whether anyone listens to it or not.
