The most “under appreciated” voice and guitarist in music, according to Don Henley
The Eagles are one of the best-selling and most influential bands of all time, and this boils down to the exciting way they helped innovate music.
They’re often dubbed the American Eagles, which is a pretty fair comparison. Granted, their music might be very different, but their success and the fact that they changed the way a lot of people approached writing music isn’t unlike what the Fab Four did. Of course, the way that the Eagles managed to leave their stamp on music as a whole was by merging the genres of country and rock.
They’re most well known for their rock music, as the album Hotel California was their most commercially successful record and it leaned heavily towards the rock side of their musicianship. A large part of this was Joe Walsh, who joined the band as a guitarist and gave them a bit of an injection of hard rock.
That state of rock ‘n’ roll didn’t just exist in their music but in their actions as well, as Walsh made sure the band started acting like they were a rock band, which meant trashing hotel rooms and throwing TVs out of windows. “Don and Glenn never approved of the room trashing, but they understood it,” said Irving Azoff when discussing the band, “They wanted respect as rock and rollers, and Joe brought that respect.”
Granted, Eagles may well now be considered one of the greatest rock bands in history, but a lot of the members’ initial love for music was the result of country. As such, even though Hotel California might have been one of their most commercially successful records, there is no escaping the fact that country music remained at the heart of everything they did, and they continue to have an adoration for the genre.
Don Henley was a huge fan of country music, the voices which grace the genre and the sweet narratives attached to so many songs always drew him in. There are plenty of artists that he was a big fan of, but one of his all-time favourites was Glen Campbell. He didn’t just like Campbell, he also advocated for him, saying that a lot of people don’t appreciate just how special his voice actually was.
“This gentleman I had the pleasure of meeting only once. We had a wonderful evening together talking about music and the recording industry many, many years ago,” said Henley when talking about one of his favourite musicians, “He has one of the greatest voices in music. He is also a very underappreciated musician. One of the best guitar players ever to emerge on the American music scene. He played on a lot of very famous records that people probably aren’t aware of.”
Henley attests that a lot of great music wouldn’t exist without Campbell, as he didn’t just make his own but was also a session musician for plenty of great bands, including the Beach Boys. “He did a lot of session work for The Beach Boys, played and sang harmony on some of the early Beach Boys records,” he said, “If I’m not mistaken he even toured with The Beach Boys at one point. He had his own television show at one point. He has recorded some beautiful, beautiful records.”
