The one performer that Don Henley was in complete awe of: “Pretty amazing”
The life of a rockstar tends to come with a time limit. As easy as it might seem trying to play music for anyone who will hear you, many artists often find themselves confined to one sound once they get big, leading to bands that dissolve far too soon or creatively crash on their subsequent albums. While Don Henley may have sustained his career with the Eagles better than most, he still thought that one rock giant was the ultimate example of improving over time.
When the Eagles first started out, it wasn’t clear whether the band would stick around more than one summer. Although they had smash singles on their first self-titled album, the massive bomb they made on Desperado cast doubt on the rest of their career, leading to them refining their singles on their following records.
After working to make a creative statement on albums like One Of These Nights, Hotel California would become the group’s landmark achievement, painting a grim picture of what happens when someone attains the ideal American dream. Even though the band were riding high at that point, the success ended up eating them from within.
Following a massive tour for the album, The Long Run became one of the most belaboured albums the band ever worked on, eventually breaking up while on tour for the record due to tension between Glenn Frey and Don Felder. Although Henley may have recovered with an abundance of solo hits, he knew that he had to step up his game whenever he went out on tour.
For his solo outfits and various reunions with the Eagles, Henley remembered that he had to keep the same sense of emotion every time he sang classics like ‘Desperado’ and ‘The Boys of Summer’, not wanting to cheapen his audience out of an authentic show. While Henley may have been able to conjure up that emotion night after night, Mick Jagger had already been making it look easy for years.
Famously getting the tag of loitering onstage by various concert reviewers, Henley saw Jagger as the ultimate example of what a rock and roll frontman could be. Strutting across the stage throughout the 1980s and beyond, Jagger was nonstop energy every time he sang, treating audiences to excellent versions of ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Jumpin Jack Flash’ whenever possible.
Even though Henley claimed that rockstars might have an expiration date after a while, he was astounded by how much Jagger could still put into every Rolling Stones show, saying, “There’s the famous quote by Mick Jagger about not imagining, you know, that doing this after 30, and I thought that in my 20s too. I mean, he’s older than I am and still going strong, I guess. No, he’s pretty amazing in that respect; you know, yeah, it’s something that I stand in awe of.”
Jagger’s longevity is not just a matter of stamina, either. It is the discipline of treating each night like a fresh exchange rather than a victory lap, even when the setlist is made of songs that have been sung thousands of times. For a performer like Henley, who is acutely aware of how quickly emotion can turn into routine, that level of commitment reads as craft, not luck.
There is also something quietly instructive in how Jagger has let the Rolling Stones evolve without ever trying to outrun what they are. The songs might be the same titles on paper, but the presentation shifts with the years, the band’s chemistry, and the crowd in front of them. If rockstars do have an expiration date, Jagger has spent decades proving that the best way to extend it is to keep moving, not by chasing trends, but by refusing to coast.
Henley has seemed to take Jagger’s energy to heart, still finding time to tour with the surviving members of the Eagles and sprinkling in bits and pieces from his solo catalogue. It may not be easy trying to conjure up the same energy someone had in their 20s, but as long as Jagger can still strut across the stage, Henley can still find a way to deliver the sounds of California sunshine.
