Don Henley

Donald Henley (born July 22, 1947 in Gilmer, Texas) is an American rock musician who is the drummer and one of the lead singers and songwriters of the band The Eagles. He has since had a successful solo career and has played a founding role in several causes.

Solo career

Following the breakup of the Eagles, Henley embarked on a productive solo career, the most successful of any of the Eagles. His first solo release, 1982's I Can't Stand Still, was a moderate seller. The song "Dirty Laundry", a denunciation of local television news, received the most airplay. Henley and Stevie Nicks would co-write and duet on her Billboard Hot 100 #6 hit "Leather and Lace" that same year.

Related Topics:
1982 - I Can't Stand Still - Stevie Nicks - Billboard Hot 100

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This was followed in 1984 by Building the Perfect Beast, which featured layered synthesizers and was a marked departure from the Eagles' country-rock sound. A single release, "The Boys of Summer", reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song's haunting rhythms and lyrics of loss and aging, capped by seeing "a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac," immediately connected with a certain age group. The music video for the song was a striking, evocative, black-and-write, French New Wave-influenced masterpiece directed by John Baptiste Mondino that won several MTV Video Music Awards including Best Video of the Year. Henley also won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the song. The album's "All She Wants To Do Is Dance" (#9 on Hot 100), "Sunset Grill", and "Not Enough Love in the World" also received considerable airplay.

Related Topics:
1984 - Building the Perfect Beast - Synthesizers - The Boys of Summer - Deadhead - Cadillac - Music video - French New Wave - John Baptiste Mondino - MTV Video Music Awards - Best Video of the Year - Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance

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Henley's next album, 1989's The End of the Innocence, was even more successful. The title track, a colloboration with Bruce Hornsby, was a melancholy, piano-driven tale of finding bits of happiness in a corrupt world that reached #5 as a single. The hit follow-up, "The Heart of the Matter", was an emotive chance remembrance of a lost love. Both of these songs used the effective technique of varying the words in the chorus each time it is sung, to advance the song's narrative. The album's "The Last Worthless Evening" and "New York Minute" were among the other songs that gained radio airplay. Henley again won the Best Male Rock Vocal Performance Grammy for the album.

Related Topics:
1989 - The End of the Innocence - Bruce Hornsby - Piano

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In concert tours Henley would play drums and sing simultaneously only on certain Eagles songs; on his solo songs he would either play electric guitar and sing or just sing. Occasionally Eagles songs would get drastic rearrangements, such as "Hotel California" with four trombones.

Related Topics:
Electric guitar - Hotel California - Trombone

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A long period without a new recording followed, as Henley waited out a dispute with his record company while also participating in a 1994 Eagles reunion tour and live album. Henley finally released another solo studio recording, Inside Job, in 2000, to a generally indifferent response, although the track "Taking You Home" received airplay.

Related Topics:
Inside Job - 2000

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As of 2005, Henley continues to tour with The Eagles.

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