Don Henley faces new lawsuit over stolen Eagles lyrics after case was previously dismissed
Eagles’ Don Henley is being sued for millions of dollars following a complex case about supposedly stolen lyrics. After three men were charged in 2022 with stealing handwritten lyrics to ‘Hotel California’, one of them is now suing Henley and his manager.
The complex tale begins in the 1970s. After being hired to write a biography on Henley and the band, Ed Sanders stole the lyrics for ‘Hotel California’, ‘Life in the Fast Lane’, and ‘New Kind in Town’. Then, in 2005, he sold them to rare books dealer Glenn Horowitz, who paid $1 million for the artefacts. These were then sold on to Edward Kosinski and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi.
In 2022, all three men were charged, and Inciardi was suspended from his position as they awaited trial.
But as more revelations came out during the process, including emails between Don Henley, Eagles manager Irving Azoff and their attorney that proved they were aware that Sanders had legally obtained the lyric sheets, the case was dismissed.
However, now one of the men originally charged is suing Henley and Azoff. The lawsuit filed by Glenn Horowitz claims he “was deprived of his liberty and suffered humiliation, defamation, media harassment, diminished reputation, loss of business and/or loss of wages amounting in more than ten million dollars ($10,000,000.00), in addition to mental anguish, indignity, frustration and financial loss.” He seeks to receive this ten million dollar figure from Henley and his team as damages.
But the Eagles’ musician’s team claims that Henley is still the victim. “The indictment highlighted the dark underbelly of the memorabilia business that exploited the brazen, unauthorized taking and selling of Mr. Henley’s handwritten lyrics,” his attorney, Dan Petrocelli, said in an official statement, adding, “The only malicious prosecution involved here is the filing of this case by Mr. Horowitz.”
Henley also filed his own lawsuit in 2024 in an attempt to regain possession of the original lyric sheets in question. Currently, the Manhattan district attorney’s office still has control of them.
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