The singer Don Henley called the biggest inspiration: “We’re all extremely grateful”
Don Henley understood better than anyone that there was a deadline in rock and roll.
There was no way the Eagles could be playing forever and still be making hits, and even when they were at their peak, it only took one wrong word before everyone would start fighting amongst each other when they made a new record or changed a song in the set. But even if that all came from them worrying about their future, Henley didn’t really need to concern himself with that stuff when the band plotted their comeback.
Then again, I need you to realise how rare it is for someone like Henley to have a second act. Some of the biggest comebacks of all time might look great on the service, but look me in the eye and say with a straight face that everything Elvis Presley did after his 1968 comeback special was perfect. There are many times where people make a comeback and it falls on its face, but Henley wasn’t going to let that happen.
That said, was there anyone expecting him to still sing the same way he did back in the day? It would have certainly been interesting to see him even attempt to reach the same high notes that he did when he was singing ‘The Boys of Summer’, and while it would have been hilarious to hear him to try to reach those ‘One of These Nights’ notes these days, he knew where the musical walls were to a certain extent.
If anything, the fact that he’s still performing has everything to do with how he took care of himself when he wasn’t singing. He knew that it’s a big job for someone to get up there every single night and even attempt to be a rock and roll star at his age, but even if so many artists have tried and failed to recapture what they had back in the day, the fact that Mick Jagger could still do it is what kept people like Henley going.
Which is actually kind of hilarious because Jagger was the one saying that no one over 40 had any business playing rock and roll back in the day. He figured that the genre was going to be out of his depth by the time that he started working on the later Stones albums, but looking at the way he moves around every single time they perform to this day, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone else that had that much energy.
Eagles didn’t have to do much whenever they made their songs, but Henley felt that Jagger was still one of the greatest heroes for people like him that wanted to still try and be a rock and roll star in his advanced age, saying, “We’re all extremely grateful. I think Mick Jagger once said he didn’t plan to be doing this when he was 30 years old, or 35 years old. And look at him now. He’s an inspiration to all of us.”
And what’s even crazier is that Jagger didn’t really want to slow down, either. There have always been rumblings about how Keith Richards wants to get off the road for good and spend his time playing music on his terms, but when you look at the way that all of them operate, it’s all about those moments onstage where all of them click together and find that one moment to wow people whenever a song like ‘Gimme Shelter’ starts.
Jagger didn’t ever want to be the perfect frontman or anything like that, but someone like Henley knew that there was still a future for him if he kept everything moving forward with Eagles. Because if Jagger could be well into his 80s and still find the energy to perform at the top of his game, then the young whippersnappers in Eagles had no excuse for why they couldn’t get up there again.
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