The country singer that gave Don Henley his first break
The Eagles have never been that far away from country music. As much as Don Henley may have wanted the band to be a hybrid of all different genres of music, songs such as ‘Take it Easy’ and ‘Desperado’ ended up resonating as much with the wannabe cowboys of the world as they did with the rock and rollers of the time. Although Henley had to fight for his rock credentials, he did get his first big break from one of the titans of country.
Before Henley even started in the music industry, he had always been interested in playing music. First listening to Elvis Presley on the radio show The Louisiana Hayride, Henley knew he wanted to do something with music that wasn’t the typical rock and roll formula, often playing Dixieland jazz during his youth.
While he may have gotten by playing drums throughout his first few years, it wasn’t until seeing The Beatles play on The Ed Sullivan Show that Henley knew that he had found his calling as a rock and roll star, wanting nothing more than to be in a band. After playing in various outfits around town, it wasn’t until the group Felicity that Henley started to hone his craft as a singer and a songwriter.
Even though most bands coming out of Linden, Texas, ended up moving out of the state to chase their dreams, Henley would eventually get the chance of a lifetime when bumping into country music legend Kenny Rogers. Fresh off working on classic songs like ‘The Gambler’, Henley approached Rogers about potentially getting him to scout his new group.
As Rogers told History of the Eagles, though, he initially didn’t think twice about Henley, saying, “He said, ‘Mr Rogers, my name’s Don Henley and I’m with this group called Felicity. We’re playing tonight, and we would love to have you come and see us.’ I said, ‘Thank you very much, but I really don’t do that. I don’t go to bars and watch groups’. But he said, ‘I really think you’d like us’, and I thought that was pretty cool, so I did.”
After getting a taste of what Henley could do behind the microphone, Rogers moved the band into his house in California to help them put together an album. Changing their name to Shiloh, their debut sunk without a trace, only featuring the hit ‘Simple Little Down Home Rock and Roll Love Song for Rosie’.
Even though Shiloh petered out around that time, one person who saw the spark in Henley was Linda Ronstadt, who first came onto the scene with her brand of country rock. Drafting in Henley on drums, Ronstadt began working the club circuit when a young rhythm guitar player named Glenn Frey joined their ranks.
Liking the way that Frey sang with him, Henley got the wheels turning for the next major outfit of his career. After graciously asking Ronstadt to leave her band, Frey and Henley formed the basis of the Eagles, putting together songs that had the same melodic sensibilities as country music with a rock and roll edge to it. Although Henley may have been able to find his calling after a few years, it took the power of Kenny Rogers and a dream to get him out of his Texas home.
