Why the Eagles album ‘Hotel California’ is at the centre of a criminal trial
On February 21st, the long-awaited trial of three men, who were first arrested in 2020 after being accused of attempting to sell hand-written lyrics from the Eagles‘ seminal album, Hotel California, begins in New York.
The non-jury trial has faced several delays since criminal proceedings began, and was most recently set to begin late last year. The three defendants, who all have strong ties to the music memorabilia business, are also accused of lying about the ownership origins of the items, in addition to attempting to sell the content without permission of Don Henley, who wrote the lyrics.
The men at the centre of the case are Glenn Horowitz, a dealer of rare books, Craig Inciardi, who was previously a curator for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before his arrest, and Edward Kosinki, who sells rare memorabilia.
While the three men aren’t accused of stealing the literature, which extends to 84 pages, they are alleged to have known the goods were stolen. They deny all of the charges and their lawyers maintain no crime was committed by the trio.
Another notable figure in the case is Ed Sanders, despite not being named as a defendant in the case. The writer worked with the Eagles during the late 1970s and early ’80s on an authorised biography, which never saw the light of day.
The indictment states Sanders told Horowitz in 2005 that he was previously given access to whatever papers he wanted to access from Henley’s home when he worked on the project. In 2012, Kosinki then put a selection pages of Henley’s lyrics up for auction through his memorabilia business, which alerted the songwriter who paid $8,500 to purchase an item before filing an official complaint.
After Henley’s legal representatives came calling, Sanders initially claimed he found them lying around backstage in a dressing room while he was collecting “a lot of material related to the Eagles from different people.”
Sanders later changed his story, claiming in 2017 that he was given the material by Glenn Frey from the Eagles, who had died the previous year.
Meanwhile, in 2016, Sotherby’s auction house briefly listed the lyric sheet from ‘Hotel California’ before being alerted to Henley’s complaints, leading them to withdraw the item from auction.
After years of investigating, Manhattan District Attorney’s office raided the homes of the three men in 2019, leaving with plentiful electronic goods, 1300 pages of paperwork, banking records, and most importantly, 84 pages of handwritten lyrics from Hotel California.
Following the arrest, District Attorney Alvin Bragg said, “These defendants attempted to keep and sell these unique and valuable manuscripts, despite knowing they had no right to do so. They made up stories about the origin of the documents and their right to possess them so they could turn a profit.”
Additionally, Eagles manager Irving Azoff said at the time, “This action exposes the truth about music memorabilia sales of highly personal, stolen items hidden behind a facade of legitimacy. No one has the right to sell illegally obtained property or profit from the outright theft of irreplaceable pieces of musical history.”
It’s unusual for a case of this nature to be treated as criminal rather than civil, but after years of speculation, a resolution is finally set to arrive within the near future. The trial is expected to last ten days, with Henley also slated to provide evidence despite currently being on tour with the Eagles.
The Eagles’ Hotel California is one of the best-selling albums of all time, shifting over 26 million copies in the United States alone.
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