How Duane Allman taught Don Felder to use slide guitar: “I didn’t want to be a Duane clone”
The Eagles have such a tumultuous history that some figures get overlooked in their story. One of those is former guitarist Don Felder. Not only is he an excellent guitarist, but he was also part of the band’s in-house trio of primary songwriters, adding compositional and guitar-playing aptitude to their eclectic mix of country, hard, and roots rock.
Lauded by his former bandmates and fans as ‘Fingers’ due to his skill on the fretboard, Felder’s essence underpins many favourite moments by the Californian outfit. However, you could argue that his status and significance to the group’s trajectory are often disregarded in favour of the sensational headlines and bitterness that his firing from the ‘Desperado’ group caused in 2001. This led to a protracted and vitriolic legal battle between him and former songwriting partners Don Henley and Glenn Frey, with him filing lawsuits claiming wrongful termination, breach of implied-in-fact contract, and breach of fiduciary duty.
Seeking $50million in damages, Felder claimed that starting from the 1994 Hell Freezes Over tour moving forward, Henley and Frey argued that they should receive higher cuts of the band’s profits. In contrast, the five members had traditionally been split equally. He even maintained that the pair had coerced him into signing a contract wherein they would receive three times more profits from the hit compilation Selected Works: 1972–1999 than him.
The pair also countersued for a breach of contract, and it was an acrimonious end to a fellowship that had been so fruitful for all three of them. It was eventually settled out of court, but the damage was done. It’s one of those things that we will never know what actually happened, despite Felder’s 2008 tell-all autobiography, Heaven and Hell, and the various comments from Henley and Frey. However, it’s clear that it overshadowed just how important Felder was to the Eagles.
After linking up with the group in 1974, Felder wrote some of the band’s quintessential tracks, such as ‘Hotel California’ and ‘Visions’, wherein his shimmering guitar lines added a heady dimension to the band’s sound. His excellence is exemplified by the former cut, the band’s biggest song for which he wrote the music, with his unrestrained guitar lines dovetailing and harmonising with those of former James Gang powerhouse Joe Walsh. In fact, the pair were so effective as a partnership that Henley dubbed them their version of “Duane Allman and Eric Clapton”.
While Henley’s point was meant to outline the brilliance of both men and the undisputable potency of their work together, just as Allman and Clapton had done in the short-lived Derek and the Dominos, his point had more substance. Felder is a native of Gainesville, Florida, and during his early musical chapter, when he was forming his influential style, he was taught to use the slide guitar, his best-known trick, by the man hailed as one of the greatest ever to use one: Allman.
When speaking to Gary James, Felder was asked about this and what kind of person the late Allman was, who tragically died in a motorcycle accident in 1971, aged 24. “Duane was really a brilliant musician in my opinion,” he recalled. “He was the first guy that I saw that played electric slide guitar in that E tuning and had just taken it light-years above where everyone else that I’d ever seen or heard was able to play it.”
Felder remembered sitting on the floor of Allman’s mother’s house, and him asking him to show him how to play using the slide. The Southern rock master, known for his unassuming character, willingly showed him the tuning and basic slide positions, as well as explaining how it worked.
This would be a consequential moment for Felder, and he would weaponise the slide over the rest of his career, in the Eagles and outside of them. However, he maintained that he never sought to emulate the storied Allman, as he knew success came through being original. “I didn’t want to be a Duane clone, although he had influenced me and started me, I needed to find my own technique, and I did,” he concluded.
