In a music career now in its sixth decade, guitarist Don Felder has performed in front of millions of people, especially during his time with the Eagles. But it was at a private event in 2019 where one audience member made him nervous. Very nervous.
“I was at the Museum of Modern Art for the ‘Play it Loud’ exhibit,” he recalls. The exhibit was a traveling showcase and display of some of the most famous guitars in rock and roll history from an A-list of six string players.
“And I get out on that little stage to play the last verse and the solo of ‘Hotel California.’ There’s all kinds of press there. And sitting right there in front of me, dead center, was Jimmy Page. The legend. So, I did it. And after, he was the first one to stand up and applaud. And I went ‘Whew!’”
The memory comes up because Felder is wearing a Led Zeppelin T-shirt on a Zoom interview. He’ll be playing that epochal tune, along with other Eagles favorites, when he opens for reunited Canadian rockers the Guess Who on August 8 at the Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land.
Don Felder first came into the Eagles orbit in 1974 at the suggestion of his friend and founding member Bernie Leadon. Felder played the solo on “Already Gone” and contributed slide to “Good Day in Hell” for the On the Border album. Lead birds Don Henley and Glenn Frey were already considering adding a more rock edge to the group, and quickly made Felder an official member.
The band then released One of These Nights, Hotel California, and The Long Run before an acrimonious breakup in 1980. Felder co-wrote “Victim of Love” and “Hotel California,” famously creating the introductory solo and then burning it down with Joe Walsh on a twin guitar attack.
“My main forte was rock and roll, even though I also played jazz and was in a jazz fusion band called Flow. I have the greatest admiration for jazz musicians. They have unbelievable dexterity,” Felder says. “Like when I had to write the solo for ‘One of These Nights,’ I thought ‘This isn’t a rock track, it’s more R&B.’ I thought ‘What would David Sanborn play?’ since I heard an alto sax. So, I wrote the guitar solo like it was a sax.”
He says his musical mind expanded early when the met guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins at the age of 14. Young Felder was enthralled at how Atkins seemed to play the Civil War-era songs ‘Dixie’ and ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ at the same time while they came out separately on two different speakers he had wired to different strings. It was something he didn’t forget when he started to play “Hotel California” onstage.
So, he sent a guitar tech to get a double necked guitar and when he came back it was colored white. Felder had wanted a black one, but the tech told him that was all that was left.
What Felder couldn’t have predicted is that the white Gibson EDS-1275 model with one 12-string neck on top and a 6-string neck on the bottom would become his signature instrument. And when he pulls it out in concert, the audience literally goes wild because it signals the inevitable start of “Hotel California.” And it’s rewired just like he saw Chet Atkins do all those years ago.
The song, of course, is one of classic rock’s greatest anthems, right up there with “Stairway to Heaven,” “Smoke on the Water,” “Hey Jude” and “Freebird.” But it wasn’t until about 12-15 years ago that Felder realized it had ascended to that sort of level.
He was playing a party for the United Nations in New York to a guest list of about 500 people from all over the world. And when he started on the song, he was shocked to hear so many people singing along—especially those who didn’t know English.
“It was like a Louisville Slugger to my forehead! It hit me that it had a global life!” he says. “Kenny Loggins texted me. He was at a beach somewhere in Mexico and there was this mariachi band. He asked them to play ‘Hotel California’ and he sent me the video. And I get thousands of people who want me to watch them playing the solo!”
He adds that he “never thought” the song would be released as a single, given its 6 ½ minute length bookended by a minute of music before Don Henley sings the first word and a two-minute instrumentation at the end. “I thought it would maybe be just an FM hit. And I’ve never been so happy to be so wrong in my life!” he says.
His original double-necked Gibson is on loan for display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Felder was inducted with the Eagles in 1998) and he estimates that he’s got “about 15 others” in case one gets dropped, stolen, or “evaporates.” And he always brings two on tour.
The last Eagles lineup reunited in 1994 for the “Hell Freezes Over” tour and record (the name taken from a Henley quote when asked if they would ever get back together). But Felder was fired in 2001 after questioning the financial split which favored Frey and Henley.
Lawsuits flew back and forth, and Felder’s 2007 memoir Heaven and Hell only stoked the animosity. A settlement was eventually reached. And while he was interviewed for the sanctioned The History of the Eagles documentary (in which he said he was made to look bad), he was not invited to be part of the subsequent tour.
Don Felder’s most recent solo effort was last year’s The Vault: Fifty Years of Music 1975-2025. The project’s impetus came when Felder was moving and came across a box of recorded demos that stretched back to 1974. So, he dug in, picked out what was most interesting, and set about turning them into completed songs.
“I didn’t know what was on any of those tapes, CDs, and DATs. One of them had me just playing slide guitar and drumming on a cardboard box. By the sixth cassette, I already had ideas for 15 songs,” he says. “No lyrics, no melodies, just grooves and pockets. It ended up being about 200 song ideas. But I don’t know I want to go in there and do The Vault 2!”
His current setlist opening for the Guess Who has included all Eagles tunes, save one from The Vault. “Hollywood Victim is a cautionary tale of a girl who arrives in town with dreams of being a star but faces all too many pitfalls.
“I wrote it as a track for The Long Run. And I wrote another one that was for Joe and I to follow up ‘Hotel California’ with. We recorded the basic track and it was much heavier rock than that one,” he says. “We set a date for the tour and just killing ourselves to finish the songs and take tour photographs and we literally just ran out of time to finish it.”
That song would eventually be completed by Felder and become his biggest solo hit. “Heavy Metal (Takin’ a Ride)” also served as the title track for the cult classic 1981 animated movie Heavy Metal.
But rather than go full bore into solo work after the band disbanded, Felder stayed close to home, literally.
“My four kids had grown up without a father in the house. So, when I got home, I stopped everything. No more partying, no more smoking, I was going to be Mr. Mom. I was driving carpools, coaching soccer that I didn’t know how to play, and was the Commissioner of the Malibu Little League. I was in carpools with Dustin Hoffman and Rick Springfield because our kids went to school together,” he recalls.
Currently, Felder is hosting the Rock And Roll Retreat Sweepstakes to benefit St. Jude Children’s Hospital. People can purchase chances to win a trip October 22-25 to Nashville where Felder will guide the winner and a guest events and historic music sites. Check his website for more information.
Finally, we have to ask one last question. The one that Felder likely fields in some format in every interview he’s done for the past quarter of a century. With the Eagles currently on their “Long Goodbye” Farewell tour, does he see any situation in which he joins his former group onstage, perhaps at the very last show?
“I have no idea. I haven’t heard anything about that, and I haven’t held my breath for that phone call since the year 2000. If it happens, it would be great, and if not, that would be fine,” he says. Though he does say he saw Henley and Eagle bassist/singer Timothy B. Schmit at the memorial service for fellow Eagle Randy Meisner.
“We shared a few laughs and memories,” he says. “Just about some of the crazy things we used to do!”
Don Felder plays at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 8, at the Smart Financial Centre, 18111 Lexington. For more information, call 281-207-6278 or visit Us.Atgtickets.com. $29.50-$284.50 plus service fees. The Guess Who opens.
For more on Don Felder, visit DonFelder.com.
