‘The Count’: The drug dealer who inspired a classic Eagles song
The Eagles’ Hotel California is one of the most celebrated rock albums of all time. Released in February 1977, it produced two US number-one singles, ‘Hotel California’ and ‘New Kid in Town’, and has sold an astounding 32 million copies. Another standout track from the album, ‘Life in the Fast Lane’, may have only reached number 11 on the Billboard charts, but it remains a classic—complete with a fascinating backstory to match its enduring legacy.
Although the Eagles are best known for Hotel California, it’s not actually their best-selling record. That distinction belongs to Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975), which holds the title of the biggest-selling album in US history. Released during a transitional period for the band, it came out shortly after founding member Bernie Leadon departed and was replaced by virtuoso guitarist Joe Walsh, marking a new era in the Eagles’ sound and lineup.
Although the band was unhappy with their label’s release of a compilation of greatest hits without their permission, it did give them more time to integrate Walsh into the band and work on their new record, Hotel California. Walsh would play a pivotal role on one of its classic tracks.
The Eagles’ Glenn Frey delved into the genesis of the song during a 2003 interview with The Uncool. After Walsh came up with the song’s distinctive riff, Frey’s encounter with a local drug dealer inspired the song’s lyrics. “The true story is: I was riding in a car with a drug dealer – a guy we used to call ‘The Count’ because his count was never very good,” he laughed.
“We were driving out to an Eagles poker game,” he explained. “I was in the passenger seat. He moved over to the left lane and started driving 75-80 miles per hour. I said, ‘Hey, man, slow down.’ He goes, ‘Hey, man, it’s life in the fast lane.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, my God, what a title.’ I didn’t write it down. I didn’t have to. Joe started playing a riff at rehearsal one day, and I said, ‘That’s ‘Life in the Fast Lane.'”
Described by Glenn Frey as being about “the couple that had everything and did everything—and lost the meaning of everything,” the song’s lyrics echo the themes of excess and emptiness found in Hotel California’s title track. Co-written with Don Henley, the song depicts a “brutally handsome” man and a “terminally pretty” woman who share one thing in common: “They were good in bed.” Despite knowing “all the right people” and taking “all the right pills,” they remain unfulfilled: “We’ve been up and down this highway, haven’t seen a God-damn thing.” Frey’s experiences riding in The Count’s Corvette helped inspire the imagery of a lost couple drifting along a lost highway.
It’s a fitting back story for a band who were infamously heavy drug users, with their follow-up album defined (and ruined) by the band’s monumental cocaine consumption. Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler – not known for being a shrinking violet when it came to narcotics – admitted the Eagles’ drug use was something of a legend in the music biz. They were once recording in the same studio as the Eagles but found themselves having to clean up after the legendary rock band.
“Before we could even start recording we had to scrape all the cocaine out of the mixing board. I think they’d left about a pound of cocaine in the board,” he said.
As for ‘The Count’, nobody knows what became of him. He may have made a pretty penny from meeting the Eagles’ insatiable demand for the white stuff, but he’ll be more famous for coining a phrase that is still used widely today. So next time you mention life in the fast lane, think too about the mysterious drug dealer from 1970s California that inspired it.
