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View Full Version : Don Henley Runaway Tour in Dallas, TX - July 23, 2017.



Houston Baby
07-24-2017, 01:46 PM
Don spoke for around three and a half hours! So this will take some time to get down.

Don started by welcoming us all. He had a cup of coffee with him and said he didn’t feel awake yet, as he’d been up to about 4am eating BBQ and birthday cake with his son. He joked about people thinking he’d been up all night partying with Joe, but no, they didn’t do that, they’re all old. He said he was glad to be there, and that the night before had been pretty exciting, and he was glad his voice showed up. He said he was very happy that his friends were there, Stevie, Patti, Timothy, and Joe. He said that Stevie will be celebrating 70 next May and he planned to be there in some form or fashion to help her celebrate, and he wasn’t sure what Timothy and Joe were planning to do.

He mentioned that Paul McCartney was playing in nearby Shreveport, LA the night before, so he was flattered that people showed up for his birthday bash. He said if he’d had the night off, he’d have gone down there himself. He said that Paul had sent along birthday greetings, and said that both Paul and Ringo were his musical heroes, and he at least partially learned to play drums by playing along to Beatles songs.
He mentioned it was just a Q&A, no singing, because he couldn’t, he’d used it all up on stage the night before, and that he’d given it everything he had. Of course there was a lot of applause for that, because he definitely had.
He said he got off tour ten days ago or so and his voice had been shot, and so he went to a voice coach who looked at his throat and listened to him and said, “I can’t help you now.” So he talked to a different one via Facetime and he was able to help, but he thought that sleeping for two days before the show was what really helped. He said that rest was important for singing, but he is a nocturnal animal who stays up late on the internet, answering emails, doing business, just making sure everything’s OK, that someone needs to stay up and watch.

First question: Could he talk about the preservation efforts regarding Caddo Lake? He started by giving some background info for Caddo Lake for those not from around Texas, which prompted him to ask who in the room was out of state. Nearly the entire room raised their hands, which seemed to surprise him, and the look on his face was rather comical. People then shouted out where they were from, mostly people from out of the US. There were folks from Japan, Norway, England, Scotland (so Don mentioned his mother’s ancestors came from SW Scotland). Then he started talking about Caddo Lake. It’s on the border of LA and TX, but the watershed comes from TX. The only (semi)natural lake in TX. It was a series of natural lakes at one time. Once oil was discovered, they wanted to build oil platforms over water, and they needed to get out to the platforms without going through mud. So they built a small dam at one end to fill it. Caddo Lake was the place where they first learned to drill for oil over water, and Howard Hughes was instrumental in making that happen. There are more species of fish than any other lake in TX. There are several endangered species and has bald eagles, alligator snapping turtles, and an ancient prehistoric fish called ‘paddlefish’, which his outfit is in the process of replenishing. It was declared a wetland of international importance by the Ramsar Treaty not too many years ago. It is 2700 acres of wetland. There are Cypress trees that are over 400 years old, and it’s a great place to fish. He encouraged people to go there, you can kayak, canoe, go fishing. You can get a fishing guide. There are cabins for rent. He caught his first fish there in 1957 with his dad.
2nd question: A lady from Cambridge, England. She mentioned a lot of artists are doing tours where they sing an album start to finish, and she wondered if he was considering doing the same for the 30th anniversary of End Of The Innocence. He seemed surprised it had been 30 years, and laughed said he was glad that we kept track of these things (implying that he doesn’t). He said he was sure he’d be back in the UK either as a solo artist or with the Eagles. He said the UK was one of their favorite places to play. Last year was the 40th anniversary of Hotel California album, and they are getting out a 40th anniversary edition of it soon. It will include some live tracks from the 1976/77 tour. He explained he’s been doing the mixes of it remotely with a guy in Austin. He said he has a lot of things going on and mentioned the show in LA. He said he didn’t feel he’d had a good night, but it seemed the audience didn’t notice. He said that Deacon Frey did a wonderful job, and so did Vince Gill.
3rd question: A lady from Connecticut. She scratched an item off her bucketlist over the weekend (seeing Don live), and wondered if he had a bucket list, and if so, what was on it, and what has already been scratched off? He said there were several things scratched off. He wants to travel more with his children. He’s been gone a lot and missed a few things. He tries to be home for the really important things, but when he’s gone he’s gone, when he’s home he’s home. He would like to show them the world while it still exists. He talked about a huge cornfield that his dad had, and that it was a magical place for him (I think that only people who have been in a cornfield, especially as a kid, can really understand what he was talking about here). A place to hide, a place to dream, a place to lay on your back and look at the sky and clouds. This kind of thing, dream time, is missing today. He wants to do more of that kind of thing with his kids. He wants to fish more with them. He wants to travel more. He’s been to a lot of places, has seen a lot of places from the inside of a hotel room or airport. You see the roads between the airport, room, and venue. He doesn’t go out much on tour, even to restaurants as he can’t talk over loud restaurants without tearing his voice up. He wants to see the places he’s traveled to, but hasn’t really seen. He would like to eat his way through Italy. He’d like to go to the Galapagos Islands, Antarctica, Iceland. He’d like to spend more time in Great Britian tracing his family’s roots. He wants to live a really long time so he has time to do all these things. It’s important to him to do these things with his kids. He has a really long list of things he wants to do, and parachuting is not on it.
4th question: A lady from Georgia. She said that the song The End of the Innocence has really meant a lot to her over the course of her life, and she wondered if there was one song or lines of a song that he’s written that still really touches him. He said TEOTI has taken on a whole new meaning since the November election. The Heart of the Matter still resonates because we always need forgiveness from somebody. He enjoys singing The Last Resort. On Cass County, the song with Merle Haggard, The Cost of Living, moves him and especially because he was honored to have sung with Merle. He said he was moved by the concert Saturday night, it was a special occasion, some nights it’s just a job. It depends on how drunk the audience is and how many cellphone cameras with the white lights that make him feel like a deer being hunted. There are still songs and concerts that move him.
5th question: A man from New York City. Said Don’s lyrics often have a clever turn of phrase. His favorite is from If Dirt Were Dollars, “She just looks at me uncomprehendingly, like cows at a passing train.” He wanted to know if Don made it up or if it was an old Texas saying. The look on Don’s face was comical. Don replied that it was neither. He said he paraphrased it from a British saying, he thinks. He said no one ever talks about that song. He said that sometimes you say something to someone and you can tell they didn’t understand a word you said, so it was a great image. He said he likes the cartoon by Gary Larson where cows are standing in a field talking to each other and one yells ‘car’, then they get back down on all four legs and pretend to eat grass, then the car goes by and they all stand back up again.
6th question: A man from Cass County Illinois. He asked how they met Steuart Smith and how they got together, that when he sees him play he can’t take his eyes off watching him play. Don said he is an absolute master, then went back to the fact the man was from Cass County. He mentioned there are nine of them in the US, all named after the senator from Michigan, Louis Cass. Promoted to be Secretary of War. Back to Steuart, he met him at a concert in the early 2000’s, after Felder’s exit. The concert was Shawn Colvin, and he said he was a big Shawn Colvin fan. He said he was very impressed with Steuart’s ability, so he met up with him and mentioned the Eagles and that they needed someone who could play both Bernie’s Bendilick and in Felder’s style, and there weren’t many in the US or even in the world who could do that. Steuart said he liked playing with Shawn. Don told him “Listen, I’m talking about serious employment here.” He had a couple meetings with him, then it was time to take him to meet Glenn. They went to Glenn’s studio in West LA and ran through three or four songs, when finished, Steuart left so that Don and Glenn could discuss it. Once Steuart left, Don asked Glenn what he thought and Glenn replied, “Bingo.” Then, “That’s the guy.” Don then said that Steuart is not the kind of guy who can sit still. If the Eagles or Don aren’t doing anything, he finds side projects to do, that he loves to play. Don said that if they hadn’t found him, he’s not sure they could have continued on.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

shunlvswx
07-24-2017, 02:24 PM
Thanks for some of the recap, HB. Aww. A father and son moment. I remembered reading at last year's Runaway Tour that he had to get home and helped Will with his homework and that he was mad at him. LOL

I didn't know it was Don who suggested Steuart to Glenn or found Steuart. I always thought it was the opposite. I can't believe Steuart was about turn down the Eagles. Thank goodness he didn't.

Don is right about Steuart not sitting still. He still plays with his old boss Rodney Crowell when they are not touring.

I don't know when Don started going to the vocal coach after that first meeting, but from what I hear and saw in the videos, he sounded amazing especially on Patty and Stevie's songs he hasn't sung in years.

I can't wait to hear more.

Houston Baby
07-24-2017, 03:24 PM
Moderators - it just dawned on me that maybe I should have created a new thread for the Don Henley Runaway Tour stop in Dallas 07/23/17? :doh:
If one of you get a chance would you be able to do that and then I will continue with the recap tonight. Thank you!!

shunlvswx
07-24-2017, 03:30 PM
I started a new thread for yesterday's event.

Houston Baby
07-24-2017, 04:48 PM
7th question: A lady who did not say where she was from. She asked about his collaborations on Cass County especially regarding lyrics. How does it work? He said that the process is different than it used to be. In the beginning, he and Glenn used to be in a room together sitting across from each other with a couple of acoustic guitars. Then it evolved to working separately, and getting together to show what each had done. Then from there to completely separately and sending each other tapes or CDs. With Steuart, they never work together, they work separately. There is no set way now, via phone or computer, rarely work together in the same room. What he likes now is someone to send or work with him on music, he prefers to work on lyrics on his own, he doesn’t like to share it. Being that he doesn’t like to criticize or reject people’s ideas he said. Songwriting is like acting, a lot of rejection. You need to learn to reject or criticize in a very inoffensive way. He said it was why he and Glenn worked so well together, they could say anything to each other. They could say “that *&%$ stinks” and not have their feelings hurt.
8th question: A man from Littleton, CO. He wanted to know what Don’s favorite song was, and some (most? Could not hear well) of his songs were sad, so who hurt him? Again, there was a priceless look on Don’s face. Don said he thought the best songs were sad songs. He said he didn’t like happy songs. I think. (The lady beside us seemed to think his answers were interactive and commented on nearly everything he said, and sometimes quite loudly, and she was speaking at the same time as this statement). Happy songs are harder to write, you need to be happy at the beginning, happy all through the song, and happy at the end. He prefers the sad songs, you can only hear You Are My Sunshine but so many times, but he can listen to Yesterday by Paul McCartney again and again. We’ve all been hurt at one time or another. Joni Mitchell once said you take all your pain and turn it into art. He said it’s easier to work from tragedy. Not just individuals, but everything on the planet can hurt you. Randy Newman has a new album coming out. Randy, Leonard Cohen, and Paul Simon were ‘it’ when it came to songwriting as far as he was concerned. Randy’s new album is coming out Aug 4 and is titled Dark Matter. He then talked about a blog/interview with Randy about happy songs vs. sad songs.
9th question: A man from Arkansas. He said a lot of Don’s songs spoke to them (he and his wife) and some spoke for them. He said some of Don’s songs had a unique twist or turn of phrase. Examples were TBOS sunglasses/Wayfarers on, in WITW Don talked about the egg and dart. He wondered where they came from. Don explained that Wayfarers were sunglasses, and that Ray Ban should have sponsored his tour, they got a lot of free advertising (he laughed as he said this). When explaining the egg and dart, he mentioned that he’s seen it misquoted so many times, the lyric sites are never right. (Then he went on a tangent about the different lyric sites and their mistakes) But back to ‘Egg and dart’ which is an architectural term. You see them in older houses. It’s a design used for moldings on the ceiling. The egg is a little round thing that’s an egg shape. The darts, or arrows, are on either side. I will add that it’s also called ‘egg and tongue’, and that it dates back to ancient times, so more than ‘old’. Don mentioned the egg means life, the dart means death, so….he just threw that in the song. He said WITW is one of his favorite songs that he’s written, which got much applause (he got a lot of applause on nearly everything, he got more on this.) Someone randomly asked him if he’d play it live, I think, based on his answer. He said it was very hard to do, hard to sing, but that he’d give it a shot. He said he’s often accused of being too serious and too morbid in his songs, but that some of his songs have humor in them. He said Randy Newman talked about that the other day when talking about songs with satire in them, that Don was one of the few who did that, but nobody notices.
10th question: A lady from Cleveland, OH. Wanted to know when he was coming to Cleveland. Rock and Roll city (Hall of Fame and all that). He tried to tell her he was just there, then realized it had been Cincinnati. He said he’d get there.
11th question: A lady from Phoenix, Arizona. Wanted to know if he liked to sing in the shower, and if so, what did he sing? He said he never sings in the shower. Sometimes his kids do, but he does not. The water is too loud (with a laugh).
12th question: A man from Boston. He said he appreciated Don’s involvement with Walden Woods and asked about how he got involved. Don gave a good, lengthy reply. He said it’s been 27 years. He talked about an early appreciation for nature, then an old teacher that got him on the path to reading. Then a class in college where he may or may not have read Emerson. Then later in life (not much later), when his dad got ill, he left college in 1968 to help his mother take care of his dad. He said he and his mom were members of a Southern Baptist church, and he wasn’t getting what he needed there. It was a lot of hellfire and brimstone. It didn’t help with his dad, so he turned to the philosophers, including Thoreau. ( VA - As an aside, while you would seldom, if ever, hear about hellfire and brimstone in a Lutheran church, I often wonder how often my little church fails its members in such a way.) He talked about relearning an appreciation for nature while at home, and it sometimes included the use of ‘substances’, and jokingly said it would make a tree to be a great tree. Don really got amused reflecting back on his and his friends’ experiences with a substance and enjoying the woods around Linden. One time during a trek thru the woods one of his friends (I forgot what Don said his name was) stopped, pointed to a tree and then exclaimed ‘now that is a tree’. Fast forward to 1980, he was in LA in the kitchen with CNN on the tv and he hears the name Walden Woods, said up to then he hadn’t realized it was a real place. He always thought of it as some mystical, magical place. So he called the guy and offered to help out. A couple of months later, he went to walk through it (crunching thru the snow the whole time with the wrong type of shoes on) and realized that the Woods really needed to be saved and this guy was not going to be able to do it. Don went to Senator Ted Kennedy’s office since he knew him to ask for assistance. Senator Kennedy’s legislative aide for many years Kathi Anderson told Don that he would need to start a non profit foundation and raise millions in order to save Walden Woods. Ms. Anderson also told Don that she would be willing to quit working for Sen. Kennedy and run the organization for Don. She did not think Sen. Kennedy would have a problem with her doing this since his mother used to take him and his brothers there to swim. In fact Sen. Kennedy learned to swim in Walden Pond so it had a special place in his heart. And today Ms Anderson is still running it. He talked about what all they’ve done, and mentioned they still need money so to feel free to donate.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

Delilah
07-24-2017, 06:19 PM
Thanks, Houston Baby, this is great! :thumbsup: (too bad about the "interactive" lady).

New Kid In Town
07-24-2017, 07:09 PM
HB - OMG - This is wonderful ! Keep going with the story. Thank You.

Did he discuss Glenn or tell any funny stories about their times together? Hope I'm not jumping the gun. I know last year from the Fast Lane post he had a very difficult time and could barely talk about Glenn.

sodascouts
07-24-2017, 07:10 PM
Thank you so much for typing all this out!

Houston Baby
07-24-2017, 07:23 PM
Thank you everyone! This is a joint effort between VA and I and she gets a lot of the credit as she is doing the majority of the work. But you can blame the spelling and grammar errors on me. I am just trying to get this online as fast as I can.
So excuse the errors and hopefully our fearless leader, Soda and other educators here are not grading me. ;)

sodascouts
07-24-2017, 07:28 PM
You and Verna both get A+! :)

Houston Baby
07-24-2017, 07:41 PM
NKIT - In my opinion, he did talk more easily about Glenn though it looked like the emotions were still right there below the surface. In the above story about songwriting, he looked a little reflective/wistful when he spoke of first writing with Glenn. Or at least that is how it looked to me - like he enjoyed remembering how he and Glenn could be totally honest with each other.

And again to me, he was beaming and once looked like he was on the verge of tears when he talked about Deacon and what a fine job he did in LA and how proud his dad would have been of him. The emotion was clearly showing then.

buffyfan145
07-24-2017, 08:52 PM
Thanks HB so much for all of the posts!!! :D

WalshFan88
07-24-2017, 08:58 PM
6th question: A man from Cass County Illinois.

Was he really from Cass County, in Illinois? If so that is extremely, extremely close to where I live and I'm honestly surprised someone from this area made the trek and had the ability to go. I'm not trying to sound bad, but seriously. That's awesome. The Cass County I'm thinking of is a very remote, redneck area and most people wouldn't go to something like this. It has to be a different place. lol

Roey
07-24-2017, 09:57 PM
HB......thank you..sounds like Don's responses were detailed and honest. What a special night

Houston Baby
07-24-2017, 10:44 PM
Was he really from Cass County, in Illinois? If so that is extremely, extremely close to where I live and I'm honestly surprised someone from this area made the trek and had the ability to go. I'm not trying to sound bad, but seriously. That's awesome. The Cass County I'm thinking of is a very remote, redneck area and most people wouldn't go to something like this. It has to be a different place. lol


He said he was Austin. 😊 And that is how we all received a history & geography lesson from Don regarding the Cass counties of the US.

WalshFan88
07-24-2017, 10:50 PM
He said he was Austin. 😊 And that is how we all received a history & geography lesson from Don regarding the Cass counties of the US.

Wow! I'd be curious which town in Cass County....

longtimeeaglesfan
07-25-2017, 09:18 AM
HB - Thanks for posting the Q&A here...no small feat considering the amount of questions that were asked during the session!

It was an incredible experience at both the concert itself and the Q&A. We had seats in the third row, slightly right of center at both the concert and the Q&A. I am glad they allowed a few photos to be taken.

I didn't ask any questions but during the photo session my fiance told him that he inspired me to propose during the concert. (near the end of Desperado.) He congratulated us. I told him that "I had to let somebody love me before it was too late!", which made him laugh. :laugh:

He did seem to really enjoy himself at the concert (as he said he did because his voice was well rested and he could relax more and not be as concerned with hitting the right notes.

It was great to see him so at ease and happily answering questions - a more relaxed Don Henley than sometimes his reputation garners!

Houston Baby
07-25-2017, 10:09 AM
I totally agree LTEF! At the concert, Don seemed to be so excited & happy and then at the Q&A, he seemed much more relaxed than last year. Plus he was smiling lots more. He seemed to be having a great time!

And congratulations on the upcoming nuptials! You should have shared that story at the Q&A. Everyone would have loved it!

shunlvswx
07-25-2017, 10:14 AM
Did Don say or even Runaway Tour if they will do more with Don? I know he said he would like to do more when he said that last year. IF I didn't have my 20th class reunion next year(we're going a cruise), I would save just in case Don decided to do it again next year. I think he will since he seems to enjoy and more comfortable at these things. 3 hours with Don and then a picture with him after, it is worth the money. Is the picture session included in that 3 hours or a separate time.

IMO Don should do a birthday concert every year. LOL

As I watched the videos from this weekend, Don sounded great.

Congrats to you and your finacee, longtimeeaglesfan

Houston Baby
07-25-2017, 11:39 AM
Question 13: A lady from Las Vegas. She asked why they quit performing songs from the album LROOE after the tour for that album. Don went through the songs they did sing on tour, with the help of many in the audience, and he said that BBF was hard to sing. He said it was a good question and he didn’t have a definitive answer except that they decided there were other songs that people wanted to hear. He said that it was how things worked, that people wanted to hear songs from a certain time period in their life, that they wanted to hear things from the past. He said that after every concert they would gauge the reaction from the audience, judging from the amount of applause, etc. Then he said that sometimes they rebel and decide to play a song they want to play anyway. He said that at the end they had honed it down to a greatest hits sort of thing, but that going forward, with the changes in the band they’ll dig down and do some of those other songs, because they really should. Everyone seemed to agree. He mentioned that radio is to blame for some of it, that they will not play newer songs which doesn’t let people get accustomed to the new stuff like they did the old stuff. He reminded us that Cass County didn’t get played hardly at all on radio, and it was because he was over 40. He said he could do a whole sermon about corporate radio but he wouldn’t. He said that it used to be that local radio stations could play what they wanted, but now their playlists are handed down to them from the corporate conglomerate. He said some writers like Leonard Cohen got better as they got older, but instead of playing that music, we get treated to plastic bubblegum crap. Radio was programmed to the young not people his/our age. So though he wasn’t going to give the whole sermon he gave us the Reader’s Digest condensed version of radio nowadays.
Question 14: A lady from Richmond, VA. She said she’d read an interview in RS with him where he said he’d been under a lot of pressure to release a song before it was finished, and she wondered what songs he’d felt were unfinished and if there were any songs he’d like to finish now. He didn’t know the year the interview was published, so he didn’t know what song she may have been referring to, but he laughed and said that many would tell us that he could work on a song for a millennium and never consider it finished. He said sometimes a song finished itself and other times it didn’t and you’d need to bluster your way through to get it done. He said that sometimes he’s written a song where he wrote the ending first, and some where he wrote the middle first. He said that not all songs on an album are equal. Some are filler, but that they always tried to make each song the best it could be. (VA -I wish I could have told him that it shows).
Question 15: A lady from San Francisco. She said she loved his duets, and she didn’t think there’s been another artist that has mastered the duets like he has. She mentioned Trisha Yearwood and Axl Rose, which got a good laugh from him as he mentioned the big leap between the two, and she said that was her point. She wondered if at the time of recording, he’d known any of them would be hits. He said you never knew for sure what would be a hit. He said it had been pretty obvious to him that Walkaway Joe with Trisha would be a hit. Leather and Lace had been a ‘maybe’. He said that often duets are done to give a song more clout, a bigger chance of being a hit. He talked about he and Dolly singing When I Stop Dreaming, and how she had asked for the key to be changed, it was too high for her. Don politely told her that everything had already been done in that key so Dolly told him that she guessed she would ‘need to rare back and get it’. He said she did it in about 2 or 3 takes and then was gone. We looked around and wondered what just happened. He also talked about Merle and how he was not happy with doing so many takes. He said Merle came to his studio in Dallas with his whole entourage, and Merle told him he really liked the song (The Cost of Living) and Don said that was good because he wrote it with Merle in mind. Merle then asked him – ‘Don, what’s happened to the music’ (today’s music) and Don told him he felt we’d gotten too far from the land, too far from the church, and Merle agreed with him. So it was all good until he made Merle do 18 takes. He said finally Merle stormed into the control room asking ‘is this a f’n joke’ and Don said ‘no sir’, he (Don) felt he was back to calling him ‘sir’. He told Merle he was trying to find a particular sound, something about a baritone, I missed it as the lady next to me was talking. Whatever Don told him, Merle’s response was that he believed Don was looking for a younger man. Don said Stan elbowed him and said, “That’s a great song title.” So they wrote it down. He said he was very honored and privileged to have sung with Merle, that Merle, George Jones, and Ray Charles were three of his favorite singers. Then he added Trisha Yearwood.
Question 16: A man from Orlando. He wondered how long we could look forward to seeing Don perform, that if he wanted to at 80, there’d be a room full of people who would come and listen. Don replied that Leonard Cohen was close to 80 when he stopped. He said he looks at Mick Jagger, if only he could get that thin. He said that Keith Richards was a miracle. Then he got more serious and said there were two factors involved. One is their physical health. It may look easy up there, but it’s not, it’s athletics, especially playing the drums and singing at the same time. He said he works out before performing, stretches, riding a bike, all very different than the 70’s. He doesn’t drink on tour because alcohol swells the vocal cords, and he’d rather sing well than drink, although God knows sometimes he wants to. The second factor is if the people want to still come and hear them (they’ll find out in these next few gigs). As long as those two things hold out, we can count on a few more concerts.
He said the thing at Dodger stadium a few days ago wasn’t their best work. They were a little nervous. There were technical things that went wrong. He felt he had to say that Deacon Frey, Glenn’s son, he was so proud of him. He was cool as a cucumber. He’s 24 years old, and has never played in front of an audience more than 100 – 150 people. Then he was in Dodger stadium, with 50,000 people, and he just killed it. He said that Vince Gill is one of the best singers and guitarists on the planet. He said he and Joe had a bad show, but the new guys did just fine. He said they had some new crew members and were ironing out some things. He said there will be a few more shows. There will be one in Seattle “at some point”, and one in Atlanta, and then they’ll see. It’s an experiment and they’ll see how it turns out. If the reviews from the LA show are any indication, things are looking pretty good. He said he won’t say it’s not strange up there without Glenn, because it is. He said that looking at Deacon from behind on stage, he swears his hair looks exactly like Glenn’s, it’s like looking at Glenn when he was that age. He said it was heartwarming and creepy at the same time, but it was a wonderful thing. At this point, Don, to me, seemed very emotional.
All of this is only an hour and twenty minutes into it!

More to come…

Houston Baby
07-25-2017, 11:47 AM
He didn't say anything about another Runaway tour stop this time Shun. However he seemed to be having a great time! So hopefully.....

And the photo session is after the 3 1/2 hours of Q&A so that is another hour or so of looking at Don. :grin:

sodascouts
07-25-2017, 11:54 AM
You're putting so much work into this... I can't thank you enough!

shunlvswx
07-25-2017, 12:01 PM
He didn't say anything about another Runaway tour stop this time Shun. However he seemed to be having a great time! So hopefully.....

And the photo session is after the 3 1/2 hours of Q&A so that is another hour or so of looking at Don. :grin:

SO basically 4 1/2 hours with Don. I would had been in heaven.

New Kid In Town
07-25-2017, 12:24 PM
OMG HB - This is fantastic - thank you so much. My gosh you both took incredible notes ! I would have loved to have been there !
Am I wrong or does this cost about $2,500 including air fare, hotel and concert-event ? A lot of money for me but I know Don will only be doing this for so long.
TY again guys ! :bow:

NOTE - Wow - I just realized my 300th post !

Houston Baby
07-25-2017, 01:34 PM
SO basically 4 1/2 hours with Don. I would had been in heaven.

AND I got to put my arm around him & rest my hand on his back. His arm was on my shoulder!:grin:

Dawn
07-25-2017, 01:38 PM
AND I got to put my arm around him & rest my hand on his back. His arm was on my shoulder!:grin:

An already memorable event sealed with a ... an arm ... gotta love it good for you HB, so cool! :cheers:

And thank you so much for the Q&A recap, awesome! :bow:

shunlvswx
07-25-2017, 02:05 PM
AND I got to put my arm around him & rest my hand on his back. His arm was on my shoulder!:grin:

And you're still breathing? :rofl: In the words of Don to Timothy. Were you puking? LOL That's a lot of putting arms around people for an hour.

Are we going to see your picture with Don soon?

Brooke
07-25-2017, 03:41 PM
HB!!!!!! :woah: This is all so wonderful! Thank you so much for all of this! And Va, too!

What a terrible thing, to sit and listen and look at Don for 3-4 hours! :wink: Awesome! Can't wait to 'hear' the rest and see your pictures!

Houston Baby
07-25-2017, 04:19 PM
OMG HB - This is fantastic - thank you so much. My gosh you both took incredible notes ! I would have loved to have been there !
Am I wrong or does this cost about $2,500 including air fare, hotel and concert-event ? A lot of money for me but I know Don will only be doing this for so long.
TY again guys ! :bow:

NOTE - Wow - I just realized my 300th post !

CONGRATULATIONS ON 300 NKIT!!

My Runaway package included the hotel, concert, Q&A, photo with Don and an autographed DH photo, autographed Cass County cd, lanyard, Runaway bag and an after party that included drinks & food and I believe it was $1895.00. You can buy a cheaper package that does not include the hotel for I believe @ $1400.00.

Houston Baby
07-25-2017, 04:25 PM
And you're still breathing? :rofl: In the words of Don to Timothy. Were you puking? LOL That's a lot of putting arms around people for an hour.

Are we going to see your picture with Don soon?

They said they should be ready in @ 5 days. Depends on how I look :rofl:

I guess I could crop me out so you could see Don. Then again I know most of you would only have eyes on Don anyways. ;)

buffyfan145
07-25-2017, 05:02 PM
Thanks again HB for all the posts!!! :D

And congrats on 300 NKIT!!! :D

New Kid In Town
07-25-2017, 05:50 PM
Thanks. I have enjoyed my time here and wish I had discovered this site earlier. :grin:

Houston Baby
07-25-2017, 07:09 PM
Question #23: A lady from Dallas, TX. She said she was at the Classic West in LA and didn’t hear anything that sounded wrong referring to the previous statement of Don’s that a few things went wrong in LA and she asked what kind of things go wrong. Don replied good, that was the idea for the crowd to not hear what goes wrong. One of the problems in LA was the in-ear monitors weren’t mixed correctly. He said they had two new guys, one on each side of the stage, one mixes half of the stage, the other mixes the other half. They were getting some weird noises and couldn’t hear or understand the music/words. He mentioned that it had also happened the night before at the birthday concert with too much keyboard in the mix for Timothy. There’s also equipment changes that don’t go right. For him, he and Scott use different snare drums, and they prefer different placement of some things like the high hat. He said it’s a very precise thing especially for drummers, that even a difference of an eighth of an inch in equipment placement can make a difference in being able to play. He said that the night before (birthday concert), he had to play Scott’s drum kit and it was miserable for him. He then went back to the mixes in the ear pieces and said how if it’s wrong it can really affect them such as harmony vocals too loud or not loud enough. Don then laughed and said if Joe’s guitar accidentally gets in his mix, it can blow his brains out.
Question #24: A man from Amarillo, TX. He had two questions. One, does Don change the key of any of his songs to preserve his voice. Two, was there a song other than HC that is the most misunderstood song. Don said songwriting is like poetry, you try to leave some ambiguity so that people can “glue” their own experiences to that song. Like End of the Innocence can mean so many things to different people. Break up of a family, politics, etc. So he’s reluctant to give his interpretation of a song, so that it doesn’t interfere with how others see it. He said it was why he never liked videos. Some doozies of interpretations include Desperado being about the Symbionese Liberation Army (Patty Hearst). He said they have files of mail from people who are seriously unbalanced, and each of them have gotten threats but they have security to handle that. He couldn’t really think of one that was widely misinterpreted, so he did talk about HC. He mentioned the preacher in Oklahoma who thought the woman in the photo represented Satan, and they represented Satanism. He said this topped all the misinterpretations. He then explained that they had invited all kinds of people to the HC photo shoot. One of the people was a mulatto girl who must have been a model as she was so beautiful. She was the one who went up to the balcony railing and leaned over the railing. Don demonstrated how she spread her arms out. I am trying to remember if he said her name while he was talking about her, I think he did. The way he talked I interrupted it as they did not even realize she was up there till later. Then he talked about the hotel in Mexico that is selling their t-shirts, and playing their music in the lobby. Said none of them have ever been to the hotel there. They are suing them, and the hotel is in the process of ‘caving’. He said they will probably settle and make some kind of licensing arrangement. Then he mentioned the tribute bands, which would be fine if they were actual tributes, but they’re not he said. At this time he admitted he was trying to stall for time so he could think of another song that’s been misinterpreted. He asked the crowd for help, and he eventually settled on The Garden of Allah. He said on the corner of Sunset Blvd and Crescent Heights/Laurel Canyon, back in the old days, there was a hotel there. A Spanish style hotel that was named Garden of Allah. It was a favorite gathering spot of movie stars, and they had some really wild parties there. He thinks it was still there when he got to LA in 1970. Now it’s a McDonalds which Soda and Dreamer - I believe it was the McDonald’s that we went to a couple of times last year (the one with the narrow curvy drive-thru). That’s where he got the name, and it was the basis of the song. He said he didn’t realize it was going to pi$$ off all his Jewish friends, it hadn’t been his intent. He said then the song turned into something else entirely. As he wrote it, the OJ Simpson trial was going on. There was also a Russian writer who wrote a book called 'The Master and Margarita'. He said it was a fascinating book, and it was about a visit from the Devil to Washington, DC. [Here VA goes off on a tangent of her own…'the author is Mikhail Bulgakov. The book is in Russian, and other authors have translated both censored and uncensored copies. The book is actually about the Devil visiting the Soviet Union, not the US, so I have to wonder at his mistake (or what version he read, since I assume he didn’t read it in Russian). Perhaps not a mistake at all, just a statement given everything in the news. It is said that the Rolling Stone’s Sympathy For The Devil was inspired by this book, and other popular songs as well that I cannot remember'.] Either way, it was an influence on the song, and with the Simpson trial, it was a movie in his head. Don said there is a video of the song, probably on YouTube, because everything’s on YouTube (roll of eyes). He talked about Kirk Douglas being gracious enough to be in the video.
He never answered the question about changing keys… We know the answer is ‘yes’.
Question #25: A lady who said where she’s from, but I didn’t hear it. Any unreleased material for an upcoming solo album? Nope. He very nearly made that a two-syllable word, lol. Then after realizing she was asking about material for an album (as opposed to songs he doesn’t plan to release), he did say he had a few. One called Human Condition. He wants to build an album around it and he recorded it a few years ago.
Before that question, the Runaway staff said it was the last question. Once he answered this question, Don said he’d take a ‘couple more’ questions. At this point he had been answering questions for two hours, and he went on for another 90 minutes. He says why later…
Question #26: A lady from McAllen, TX. She asked about his relationship with Stan Lynch. At times, he had a really hard time hearing people’s questions, and I can understand why. It wasn’t a good quality microphone and sometimes people sounded like they were talking with a mouth full of mashed potatoes. But we digress. Don said that Stan was supposed to be there with him, but he ‘flaked out’ on him, then said that no, he was really in Florida with family things to do. He reminded us all that Stan was the original drummer for Tom Petty, and has been one of Don’s best friends for a very long time. He was at the concert the night before. Don said he’s a funny guy, and sometimes his one-liners make it into songs. An example is ‘a man with a briefcase can steal more money than a man with a gun’. He’s sure they’ll work together more in the future, he’s a very extraordinary guy.
Question #27: A lady from Norway. She asked what his life would be like if he hadn’t become a musician. He replied he didn’t know the answer, probably a school teacher. He said he never had a Plan B, it was this or nothing. So he talked about how Richard and him (who was there in the audience) hooked up with Kenny Rogers. Then he talked about Kenny wrapping up his career at a farewell concert in Nashville this fall and Don hoped to get there and sing with him. Don said he feels very fortunate for all that has happened in the last 45 years.

TO BE CONTINUED.......

UndertheWire
07-26-2017, 06:15 AM
Thank you for these detailed reports. I'm enjoying reading them. What happened to questions 17 to 23?

groupie2686
07-26-2017, 09:40 AM
These reports are great! Keep 'em coming! Someone said on facebook that Henley said they were releasing the full 1977 DC concert on DVD, is this true?

Houston Baby
07-26-2017, 09:42 AM
Good grief - I am so sorry! I have been putting this on my computer, copying and pasting and I just skipped this section.
Here it is.......
Question 17: Lady from San Antonio. She said that if they are doing future dates, somewhere in the center of the US, rather than the coasts, would be nice. Jokingly he said there was nothing in the center of the US. Then he asked about Chicago. She suggested Texas. He ended up saying they’d be around.
Question 18: Same lady as #17. She asked what the strangest or weirdest place he’d ever done a concert, referencing playing Dodger Stadium one night and right after doing a backyard concert. He replied that the backyard concert was for Walden Woods and Oceana, so that was OK. He said there’ve been a few. A soccer field in a Middle Eastern country (Qatar), there was a dust storm. Two hours before the show, you couldn’t see anything. He said dust had to be cleaned off all the equipment and everything, but the show did go on. Moscow and Iceland were interesting. He said that back in 2000/2001, they played in Northern Ireland the day they dissolved the Northern Irish government. He said they played the grounds of Stormont Castle, which was very nice. He said Singapore and South Korea were interesting, and he doubted he’d want to play in South Korea again, given the North Korea situation. Sweden, Japan, Australia, New Zealand. He said that New Zealand was the place to go when the $#!@ hits the fan, it’s all mountains, water, and way out of the way. It should be safe.
Question 19: A guy who didn’t say where he was from. He wondered who Don would have dinner with, living or deceased, if he could. Don said it was a big list. He thought about it awhile, then said he’d like to have dinner with one of his ancestors, Alexander Mac’Something’. I’m so sorry I can’t remember his last name, need to research that. He was a Presbyterian minister in Newark, NJ. He got a degree from Princeton and an honorary degree from Yale. He was the minister for George Washington’s troops. This ancestor said the blessing before Washington crossed the Delaware river, he was part of that group that you see in the painting of Washington standing on the boat. He’d like to ask him what that was like. He’d like to have dinner with John Lennon. He’s the only Beatle Don had never met. He thought about a third and then said that Christ is always on the list. He’d like to meet Chopin and tell him how awesome his stuff is. He also mentioned Einstein.
Question 20: A man from Concord, NH. He said he loved Waiting Tables off the new album. His question was how the setlists were constructed. He wanted to know how he decided what new cuts or deep cuts, like Talking To The Moon, to play against the songs everyone wants to hear. He said you have to play the hits, but he liked to throw in a few album cuts. He referenced Clint Eastwood’s theory about movies, two for them and one for me. So he likes to throw in things like Talking To The Moon, which he said he only does in Texas as it’s about his growing up there and lonesome little towns. He said Waiting Tables was also influenced by his home town, and he’s always had a soft spot for waitresses because it’s a thankless job. He said that when he throws in songs that he wants to hear, the audience gets really quiet, and he doesn’t get much applause, but sometimes he does it anyway. He said they look at the setlist every night before a show, and that it can depend on where they are and how his voice is doing. He said it’s a tricky situation, thinking about how many fast songs, how many slow songs, how many of each before you do the other. It also depends on what keys the songs are in. There’s a lot of things to consider to make sure the show is balanced and has flow. He said sometimes he throws things in on the spur of the moment. His band can play anything and he said that as he gets older he’ll probably do it more. He said if he’d be honest, it gets boring playing the same songs every night for 45 years. He knows the songs are important to people, part of the fabric of their lives, but he hears these songs in his sleep (laughter). He said again that he will mix it up more in the future, and mentioned WITW, which got applause. He said with the Eagles, it’s a different story, you know what you’re gonna get. He can do what he wants in his solo shows, in the Eagles it’s a compromise.
Question 21: A lady who was originally from Australia, I didn’t catch where she lives now other than it’s in the US. She’s a journalist of some sort. She first mentioned all the things she wasn’t going to ask him about (songwriting, preparing for a concert, favorite covers), then asked how he felt emotionally when he was singing. How he feels when he gets past all the technical things and can just sing. He asked her if she was addressing the songs he doesn’t normally sing, or the ones he sings every night. Since the microphone had been taken away, I didn’t hear her response, but it was along the lines of how he feels emotionally while he’s singing anything, I think. He said it depends on how his voice is doing. He mentioned that the night before, he had a really good night, and of course we all agreed. He again mentioned how important sleep is. He said he doesn’t sleep well, and so then he struggles, and so during a show, he’s busy struggling in his head, he has to concentrate on that. He said it’s either a struggle or a joy. He said his voice gets better by the time they get to HC, so he may take a page from Stevie’s book and warm up for three hours before a show, but it sounded like a lot of work to him. He said that when it’s a song he’s sung for 45 years, there’s acting involved. You have to go out and sing it like it’s the first time. He said that a lot of the voice problems are due to age, the wear and tear of it. He said he’s started going to a voice coach, and was told all this time he’s been singing wrong. They are trying to teach him to sing correctly, and they promised him it wouldn’t change the tone of his voice. He said that voice coaches can’t seem to agree on where you sing from, the diaphragm or higher up.
I’ve not mentioned it, but usually as he wrapped up each answer, he would look to the person who asked the question and ask in some way if he answered their question. He did here as well, and the lady reiterated she wanted to know how he felt emotionally when he sang. He again said he rarely loses himself in a song, he’s too busy thinking about technicalities. He said he did the night before because everything was working, and he didn’t need to worry about it. He said there were a few times the night before he did feel emotional. He said he was overcome with gratitude a few times (being up there at that age, his friends being there, his great band, all the people who came to see him), but it was only because his voice was working. He said that singing is biological and emotional, it needs to be a balance between the two.
Question 22: A lady from North Carolina. She said her happy place has always been TBOS. She’d gone through a terrible divorce, and then her mother passed away, and even when crying, she’d sing it at the top of her lungs, and after a while she’d feel her heart smile. Even now, if she has a bad day, her current husband will greet her with a glass of wine and have the song on. She wondered what song did that for him. His answer? “Silence.” Then he told her that what she just said about what the song meant to her is why he still does what he does. Then he said that what she’d just said was MORE important to him than the gold records, the Grammy’s, the awards. He mentioned reading old fan letters and those things mean more to him than anything else. Then he answered her question, said it was usually the Beatles. Aretha Franklin. Randy Newman. He said he wrote TBOS at Zuma Beach along the Pacific Coast Highway, that PCH has been really good to him, and when he wrote it, he was feeling nostalgic.

Houston Baby
07-26-2017, 09:50 AM
Thank you for these detailed reports. I'm enjoying reading them. What happened to questions 17 to 23?

I obviously got off track here. I added it and corrected the numbering.
Thank you UTW! I would have felt bad leaving 17 to 22 off as #22 answer was very special.

Houston Baby
07-26-2017, 09:52 AM
These reports are great! Keep 'em coming! Someone said on facebook that Henley said they were releasing the full 1977 DC concert on DVD, is this true?

I don't remember hearing that G2686 but I will look thru my notes. I remember he said they would have some live cuts on the HC reissue.

shunlvswx
07-26-2017, 10:21 AM
I like the fact that Don is going to a voice coach. If it helps to make his voice get better as he gets older and keeps him on the road longer, I'm all for it.

I sing in the choir and I was always told to sing from my diaphragm. So I guess it just depends on that coach.

Don never answered that question about changing the key in his songs. He only answered the second half. Well we know he has dropped the key on his songs. lol

Thanks for much, HB. I know you probably got a few questions to post. I'm enjoying reading them.

Houston Baby
07-26-2017, 11:16 AM
Question #28: A lady who did not say where she was from. She wanted to know since Will (Don’s son) had played on Cass County if he was going to choose to be a musician as his career. Don replied he didn’t know. On one hand, he didn’t want him to live in his shadow. On the other hand, Don said Will is a very good musician. Don continued - Unfortunately, the music business is not the same. You don’t get paid for songs really, it’s fractions of cents. It’s very difficult to make money at it. In addition, when Don was growing up, there were places to play, Elks Lodge, frat parties, etc, and now there isn’t. Will’s not sure he wants to be in the business. He told Will that if he wants to do it for fun and joy, that was fine. It was why he got into it. And to get the girls… (BIG smile) He’s not pushing him to do it for a career. Perhaps he’d join Deacon and carry on that legacy, but he wouldn’t want them to be locked into playing their fathers’ songs but perhaps they could write some of their own to go with the legacy songs, that would work. He wants him to have a creative career and not just be a ‘jukebox’. He’s just graduated from high school, and he’s taking a ‘gap’ year. They’ll travel around some and see the world. Don said that if he wants to be a musician, that was fine with him, and he’d give him a lot of advice. Though he won’t listen. (laughter)
Question #29: A lady from Los Angeles. She wanted to know more about the History documentary and his participation in it. Don said that Irving had been wanting them to do it for a long time. They were very reluctant to do it. Irving kept pushing and they finally agreed. They told him they needed to have control of it, and it couldn’t be another sex, drugs, and rock and roll documentary because that had already been done. He said he needed to credit Glenn for finding Alex Gibney, that he wanted a real documentarian. Glenn watched lots of documentaries and did plenty of research. Glenn had told Don that he thought Gibney was the guy but that Gibney wasn’t necessarily keen to do it. Gibney wanted to meet with them and determine if they had a story worth telling. Gibney’s stipulation was that if he tells the story, the guys needed to be forthcoming, and it had to be the truth. Don said they agreed, but stipulated that there were some things they didn’t want in it, for example, their kids and families. He said their kids were nobody’s business. Don continued they didn’t ask to be born to famous parents, they just showed up (it sounded more amusing than it reads). They also stipulated that they got ‘final cut’. It took two years to do it, interviews, editing. Don said he thought it was very well done. He said they did leave some things out, but it had enough controversy in it to make it interesting. He said a lot of people have seen it, and it was certainly good for business. Then he again credited Glenn for finding Alex Gibney.
Question #30: A guy from London, right up the street from Olympic Studios (where the first two albums were recorded). He said he’d always been curious how two albums that so closely identified with a West Coast sound came to be recorded in London. Don named the famous bands that had recorded there. Don asked him if it had been torn down yet, the man said it was currently a cinema and would soon be a studio of some sort. Don said they recorded there because it was Glyn Johns’ favorite studio, he didn’t want to record in LA. The band’s management wanted them out of LA and its distractions, and it was cheaper to record in London. He said that during recording of the first album, there was a coal strike there, and power kept going out. They get partway into a take and everything would slow down, then shut down. So they got diesel-powered generators. He said they were put in an apartment on the edge of London, i.e. boondocks, and they spent most of their time trying to find Mexican food, which was impossible. He said they had some shipped over, then grinned and said it was probably Velveeta (a reference back to his story before playing Sunset Grill the night before).
Don then said they did the first two albums there and part of the third before they got homesick and decided they were going back home to record. The man who asked the question had a deep, loud voice, so he didn’t need the mic to tell Don that Glyn said they got sick of him. Don said that Glyn and Glenn butted heads over various things, recording techniques, etc. He then said ‘we’ wanted more control, and Glyn was a control freak. He said that he still considers Glyn a friend of his and a brilliant engineer. But they wanted to start recording with a different technique. And they really were homesick. He told the story of recording Desperado with the London Philharmonic, saying the way it was set up, the conductor (who wasn’t really a conductor) was in front, then the band, then Don on drums, then the orchestra behind him. So he could hear the orchestra comments. They’d brought chessboards and set them up, and between takes he’d hear “I don’t feel like a desperado. Your move.” (in Don’s British accent - so funny) He said it’s one reason the vocal on Desperado is a little shaky, and since Glyn was trying to save money, he wouldn’t allow more than five or six takes. He said Desperado was one album he regretted not being able to do better, and that he does do better sometimes live. (I wanted to shout out that he always does it better live, sometimes so well it makes me cry.) He said they recorded the whole album in two weeks, then it was around two years for the next one.
Question #31: A man from Kansas City. He told a story that would lead to a question. He said they went to the Runaway event last year and as they drove down to Dallas, they stopped in Edmund OK at the Holiday Inn Express to get a room. A lady and a guy behind the counter, and they asked where they were headed. He told them they were going to see Don Henley and she said she didn’t know who he is. So the guy said he was part of the Eagles and she said she didn’t know who they were either. So he turned to the guy, figuring it was Oklahoma, he’s gotta know, so he asked if he knew the Eagles and the guy said he didn’t really follow sports. Don laughed at this. So then he said it went back to the story Don told last year about the mission trip, he thought it was to Costa Rica (Don clarified later it was Honduras), where the guy came out of the hut with the CD and he asked if Don could tell the story again. So Don did, but he started with the ‘sports’ thing. He said he used to tell people or others would mention he was with the Eagles, and they’d say, ‘he seems awfully small to be a football player’. Then he said the story the man was speaking to was the question of whether there was anywhere on the planet he could go that hadn’t heard of the Eagles, and everyone agreed that apparently Edmund OK was it, so maybe he’d vacation there, he was sure there was a lot to do there.
The story goes…….20 years ago, or so (he wasn’t sure how long ago it was) he went with some friends from LA to Honduras at the request of an organization called Care. They wanted them to see the conditions there. He described the trip from the airport, they were in trucks, and they went into the jungle, and they went up this mountainside. The road was very narrow, only room for one car, and it was mud. On one side it was a drop off, he didn’t know how many feet, but you would have died if you’d gone over. He said it seemed like they were on this road for three or four hours. They got to the top where there was a state forest kind of a place, where the mountain had flattened off. He said there was a leader, a woman, who’d gathered up people from the cities below, where it was pretty violent, and taken them up there to live in a commune kind of a place. They had no electricity and no regular plumbing. They lived in little lean-to’s, very primitive. They were there about 15 or 20 minutes when one of the young men went into a hut and came out with a somewhat small boombox with a cassette in it. He went up to Don and pointed at the boombox and said, “You”. Don said, “What?” So the guy took the cassette out and it was HC. So he’d thought to himself there was no place he could go where they’d not heard of the Eagles. He said they were very sweet people, and they ended up doing some things for them.
Question #32: A lady from Illinois. She mentioned that in OOTN, right before he sings “one that really screams”, he does a little inhale. In HC, he does a grunt after “Mercedes bends”. She asked him to talk about how those two things came about. He said they’re just little ad libs that you do in the studio, spontaneous little things. He said she should listen to a Stevie Wonder record, he does all kinds of stuff. They’re part of the musical process, and the producer decides to keep it or take it out. They weren’t premeditated. Some were joy, some were trying to emulate James Brown or something.
Question #33: A man from Alabama. He said he’d read recently that Don was thinking of doing a solo album, and he was wondering if he really was. Don said he thinks about it all the time. Then the guy said he wanted to invite him to record to one of the great places to record, Muscle Shoals. Don said he went there in 1971 with Glenn. Glenn went to cut a few tracks there, and they did with the original Muscle Shoals band, so he’s quite familiar with the place, and maybe he will get down there. He said he believes that all the musicians there now are the sons of the guys who used to play there. The guy who asked the question said some of the originals are still there. Don went on to say he may get another album out. He still has three kids to get through college, and he has this other band thing happening, he’d like to get a couple more out before he ‘fades away’, but it just depends on what else is happening. He reminded us that it would never get out on radio anyway, so it would just be a personal love project, that maybe the people in the room might like it.
Question #34: A guy from Minneapolis. He asked two questions, the first was wondering when Don really started drumming and singing at the same time. The second was that the night before, Don looked so in his element drumming, it was a highlight of the show, and could he talk about that? Don was surprised at the latter since the drum playing was one of the technical gaffes he mentioned earlier. He ended up having to play on Scott’s kit and he was miserable. He reminded us what he’d said earlier about the drums and the placement of them being important. He went on to say that he got started playing in Richard’s (Bowden) living room, again gesturing at Richard since he was there. He thought it was 1963, and Richard agreed. Don then introduced him and talked about playing music at Richard’s house, and how they could play whenever they wanted in their living room and Richard’s mom would feed them. He said he would also play at his own house but out at the end of the porch and play along with Beatles records.
Question #35: A guy from New Haven, CT: He said he and his wife just had a baby boy, and when they can’t get him to sleep, they play Don’s music, and Eagles’, and he’s out like a light. Don said he wished it would do that for him. The guy also mentioned Taking You Home, so Don explained he wrote that song about his children, his firstborn. He said he put his children to sleep with Kenny Loggins music. Then the man asked his question. He mentioned Don’s great covers of other artists, particularly the Tears for Fears cover that had been amazing the night before, then asked if Don had any favorite covers of his songs. Don smiled and said a definitive ‘no’. He said there were a couple who came close, but he couldn’t think of one at the moment. People in the audience started shouting out covers, and Don said “Well, of course, Linda Ronstadt’s version of Desperado, and Kenny Rogers did a pretty nice job on it, too.”
Question #36: A lady from Ontario, Canada. She wondered if Thoreau’s passage in The Village was a precursor to Dirty Laundry. He said that television news was the precursor to Dirty Laundry. When the news became gossip and theater is when DL came about, and it’s only gotten worse. He said it was an interesting analogy (The Village / Dirty Laundry). He said he’d have to go back and look at that.
Before the next question, he said he’d get to everyone sooner or later.
Question #37: A guy apparently from Florida. He started out saying David Geffen said to say ‘hi’. Don laughed and said ‘sure he did.’ He talked about sinkholes and alligators. The guy said there was a public perception of Don, five years ago he’d have never imagined that Don would do this (a Q&A). Don said that five years ago he wouldn’t have. The guy said in the past it seemed like Don was the one without much to say, and now his public persona, at least, is much different. Does he see himself as having changed? Don grinned and was quiet a long time. I do want to say it was all handled with smiles and laughter from everyone. Finally, Don said he thinks he’s been misunderstood, and there was more laughter. He said when they first started out, he thinks he was an angry young man. He said fame is a scary thing, it scared the hell out of all of them, and they didn’t know how to handle it. They were very defensive and very insecure. He doesn’t like the spotlight, and he still doesn’t like the whole celebrity ‘thing’, which he feels is tacky and disgusting. It was something none of them wanted any part of. He said that back then, usually when he opened his mouth, he would make a smart-ass remark. Don continued - He was talking back to the press, which is always a mistake, because they always win, it’s their paper. After a while you get older and you get used to ‘wearing it’. He’s much more comfortable in his own skin now. He’s gotten used to the territory that comes with being famous. He doesn’t worry about it now. He goes to the supermarket and pushes the cart around. They write about it in the local magazine, “We saw him at Whole Foods, he was pushing the cart around.” He said everyone’s gotta eat, and he likes pushing the cart around, it was therapeutic. He goes late at night and wears a baseball cap. He said there in Dallas, it’s not like Hollywood. In Dallas, people are very polite, and they don’t rush up to you screaming, yelling, and jumping. Some do, but mostly they don’t. He went back to talking about the past, and how it was to be thrust into a public spotlight when so young. Criticized, analyzed, and you have to develop a skin. He said it’s worse now (for younger people). Every show on TV is about judgment. It’s always a contest and someone is always better than someone else. Back to themselves, he said they had their arguments with Rolling Stone and the New York Times , and once you’ve been trashed by the New York Times, you can pretty much handle everything. He said he changed a lot when he had kids, because if you can raise three kids, you can handle pretty much everything else after that. He said he’s gotten comfortable that it is what it is, and bad reviews don’t bother him much anymore. He said there was a saying that old buildings, old politicians, and old madams all get respect if they stick around long enough. He said he still shuns fame except when he wants to raise money for charity, and that’s when he finds it most useful. Otherwise, it’s a pain in the @$$. He said he’s grown up some, he’s mellowed some.

TO BE CONTINUED......

shunlvswx
07-26-2017, 11:36 AM
Oh Kenny Loggins. I love Kenny Loggins. I wonder if Don was talking about the two children's album he put out.

Thanks again, HB. I'm loving these answers.

Delilah
07-26-2017, 12:00 PM
Thanks for all the time and effort you're putting into this, HB!

And Shun, I didn't know Kenny Loggins put out any children's albums. :D

NightMistBlue
07-26-2017, 12:11 PM
This is really interesting. Thank you so much for your heroic labors, HB!

I'm so happy that you got to snuggle with Don.

sodascouts
07-26-2017, 12:15 PM
Fascinating!

shunlvswx
07-26-2017, 12:19 PM
Thanks for all the time and effort you're putting into this, HB!

And Shun, I didn't know Kenny Loggins put out any children's albums. :D

Yes. Actually three. Return to Pooh Corner, More Songs from Pooh Corner and All Joined In. I have Return to Pooh Corner and More Songs From Pooh Corner. More Songs from Pooh Corner is my favorite out of the three.

New Kid In Town
07-26-2017, 02:40 PM
HB - I said it before and I will say it again - THANK YOU !:cheers:

L101
07-26-2017, 02:51 PM
HB - I know others have already said this but THANK YOU for your wonderful posts on the Runaway tour!! It's almost as good as being there :grin:

Brooke
07-26-2017, 03:46 PM
HB, lovin' every minute of it! Thank you so much!

buffyfan145
07-26-2017, 05:02 PM
Thanks again so much HB!!!! :D

New Kid In Town
07-26-2017, 05:06 PM
HB - Question - Was there any questions besides maybe family that were off limits with Don ? Did the organizers say not to discuss or ask Don certain questions ?

Dawn
07-26-2017, 05:27 PM
HB - Question - Was there any questions besides maybe family that were off limits with Don ? Did the organizers say not to discuss or ask Don certain questions ?

I am glad you asked NKIT - that is something I wondered about as well. Had i been there I might have asked about the early days when Laurel Canyon was in full bloom if you catch my drift, lol.

shunlvswx
07-26-2017, 05:51 PM
In one of the post, Don did answer a question about his Will. So I guess it wasn't completely off limit.

New Kid In Town
07-26-2017, 07:53 PM
Dawn -I most certainly do - lol ! ;)
I wonder if he discussed/talked about Glenn at any length.....

Shun - thank you for the reminder about Kenny and his kids records. I happily remember listening to them with my nieces and nephews. Boy, you are a music encyclopedia ! :bow: I am embarrassed to say I don't know some of the people/groups/music you post. I salute you and everyone else here who knows this stuff- God Bless Ya all !

shunlvswx
07-26-2017, 08:22 PM
I'm a huge Kenny Loggins fans and I saw him in concert once almost twice. I was going to see him this past March, but my accident stopped me. That was interesting that Don said he had Kenny Loggins playing to put his kids to sleep. I knew he was talking about Kenny's children albums since I heard for years by Kenny's fans that they would play his album to put their children to sleep.

Their are some artists I've been following for many years. Plus I loved country music(well 90s and older). That's why I know so much about Vince because I've been following him since I was 14. Plus I also look stuff up about artist.

Houston Baby
07-26-2017, 09:19 PM
HB - Question - Was there any questions besides maybe family that were off limits with Don ? Did the organizers say not to discuss or ask Don certain questions ?

I did not hear the organizers say anything or make an announcement regarding that. On Saturday when we registered, the organizers said we could go to another table and leave a question that we wanted to ask Don. At that time, VA and I thought maybe they were going to screen the questions this year. However when we got there Sunday, people just raised their hand and asked away. Of course for the price we paid, you know everyone was a fan and would not say or ask a question that would offend Don. We all wanted our photo with him. :grin:

RudieCantFail
07-27-2017, 04:38 AM
Thank you HB and VA!

I liked his response for Question 13 about how the songs aren't being played on the radio. They don't even promote new music on the classic rock or 80's and 90's stations that I listen to. The classic rock songs will repeat, and just the other day, I was a little surprised to hear the Stone Temple Pilots as 'classic rock.' I don't blame them for that, but it would be a nice change if they risked it.

Houston Baby
07-27-2017, 10:11 AM
Question 39: A man from Poquoson, VA (quite close to VA), and he and his wife were there to celebrate their 33rd anniversary. He asked Don how he relaxes (besides shopping at Whole Foods). Don said he likes to garden. Tomatoes, chili peppers. He likes to go fishing, go back to his hometown and sometimes take Richard with him and hang out there and fish. He’s usually working. He called it a 24/7 job. 100- 200 emails a day with Irving and others in the organization. He said it seems to be speeding up instead of slowing down, and at some point, it’s got to stop. He’s going with it now because he knows that not many people get the chance. He’d like to make more records, tour more, finish funding his charities. He’s got a list of things to finish. He’d like to take his kids to travel around the world. It’s all about health. He works on that really hard. He said he takes a fistful of vitamins every day whether they help him or not. He works out 3 or 4 times a week for an hour and a half or two hours, and before every show. I missed what he said right after this due to the chatty person beside me running her commentary, but he ended with saying he didn’t want to stink (I think) or start giving half-assed performances. He’d rather quit, he’d rather pump gas than do that.
Question #40: A man from South Columbia, TN. Emerson is attributed a quote that says, ‘the years teach much, which the days never knew.’ He said he was curious, now that he’s so far along in his career, what the present-day Don Henley would say to the 20-year-old Don Henley. Don said, “Oooh.” Then he said we don’t have time here. He said he’d tell him he did a lot of things right, he made a lot of mistakes. He wasted some time. Some tangents, some side tracks. He said these types of questions you think about what you’d go back and change, but he couldn’t do that, because all the things he did made him who he is today. He learned from the mistakes. As the song says, “I have some regrets, but too few to mention.” He said you could go back and tell your younger self, but your younger self probably wouldn’t listen. So, it all worked out the way it was supposed to.
Question #41: A lady from Salt Lake City, UT. She said he’d mentioned some pessimistic things about the future, she wondered what he was optimistic about, regarding the future. He mentioned the pessimistic things first…North Korea and the lunatic that runs it, he worried about that. Climate change, and the people that don’t believe it’s real. He’s talked to scientists, he’s traveled to places where the glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate. He’s seen places where the sea level has risen already, and he worries about that. He has friends in the Silicon Valley that, with all the new technology, are extremely worried about artificial intelligence and that it may take over. He said he doesn’t lay awake nights thinking about this stuff, but it’s on his mind. He said the political scene is a mess. On the positive side, he sees incredible advances being made in the field of medicine. If his father had gotten the kind of treatment that he’d gotten, he’d have lived another twenty or thirty years (I THINK this is what he said, the lady beside me was again talking, this time saying what she thought he’d say next instead of what he actually said). He sees great advances in medicine, they saved his life back in 2010. Technology…the internet is an incredible thing. It’s good and bad, we tend to waste a lot of time on it. He doesn’t like the pop-up ads (he must not use an ad blocker, lol. I’ve not seen a pop-up ad in years.) The cell phone is a marvelous invention. He sees a lot of good things happening in technology. He sees people doing things about the environment. Texas, for example is one of the leading states in wind power. Electric cars are becoming more popular. Battery power is becoming more popular. He said the news is so alarmist, they’d have you think the world is just falling apart. In a lot of places, the prime rates are lower than they were ten years ago. There are a lot of good things happening, just tend not to hear about them because what sells news is tragedy and drama. The journalism of conflict. Music, on the other hand, is getting worse. There’s good stuff out there, but it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. He said maybe these difficult times will bring about better songwriting. Good songwriting occurs in times of turmoil, but we’re at the shallow end of the pool right now. He knows he sounds like an old fuddy-duddy when he says that, but it’s true. It’s all about trends and research and youth. When you get to our age and begin to know something, they don’t make music for us. He said he gets up every day, and it can be easy to slip over into the ‘glass is half empty’ thing a lot, but when it’s half empty it’s also half full. There’s a lot of good things happening in technology. He hopes we’ll get things sorted out in Washington, and get rid of radical partisanship, because nothing’s being done. There used to be something called statesmanship, where people reached across the aisle and worked with each other. Others may not have had the same beliefs as them, but they were willing to compromise in order to lift everyone up. It’s called the Common Good. These days all political rhetoric is designed to make us think that we have nothing in common. The rhetoric is to divide us now, and we’re not going to get anywhere that way. The rhetoric is designed to destroy all sense of common purpose. He feels someone is going to come along, they may only be ten or twenty years old right now, but they are going to come along and show some leadership and some common sense, and will appeal to a wide range of people. Someone shouted his name and he grinned and said, “No. I don’t want that job.” He said he didn’t know why anyone would want that job, it’s a no-win situation. He said he has to be optimistic because he has children. Things might get worse before they get better, but they will get better in the long run.
Thirty more minutes to go. We apologize for this taking so long, but there’s this little thing called ‘work’…

New Kid In Town
07-27-2017, 10:30 AM
HB(&VA) - Thanks again for the awesome job!
Question - Maybe I forgot, but what happened to Don in 2010 that saved his life ?

shunlvswx
07-27-2017, 11:10 AM
I was thinking the same thing, NKIT. I thought I read somewhere about it, but I forgot what it was about.

Delilah
07-27-2017, 11:31 AM
What health issues was Don having in 2010? If he did say medical advances could have saved his father (too bad that lady was talking at the time) then perhaps it involved a heart condition, which plagued his father, I believe. I'm glad he's fine now.

So much of what he said rings true, especially the gloom-and-doom alarmist headlines by the media.

No need to apologize, HB. You're doing a great service for Eagles fans.

New Kid In Town
07-27-2017, 11:38 AM
I second that one !:bow::yay::applause:

Houston Baby
07-27-2017, 03:11 PM
If I remember correctly, they were touring in 2010 and I believe they had to cancel or postpone a few concert dates due to Don's "illness". We need to check in the 2010 threads regarding concert dates. And I may be totally off on this but I think the rumor was he had a stent(s) put in.

Like I said, I may be totally off on this but the way it sounded at the Runaway it could have been similar to his Dad's medical situation but his father's was probably a lot more serious than Don's.

shunlvswx
07-27-2017, 03:43 PM
I went back to re-read the thread again from 2010. From what ya'll said 7 years ago, you heard a stent was put in his heart and then they came back with knee. I'm starting to think it was his heart. Why would a doctor save his life for a knee problem.

Brooke
07-27-2017, 03:55 PM
I'm guessing a stent too. They are such a common thing now.

My bnl went in for a cath and got one today and my boss has had 7!

HB and Va, fantastic job on all this and we appreciate it so much!

New Kid In Town
07-27-2017, 05:18 PM
Thanks - I had remembered something about his knee and also wondered how that could be life threatening. The stent sounds more like it. My BIL had one put in after a HA last year and is doing great. Sadly, Don is right when he said if his father had the same medical advances back then he could have lived many more years. I would bet that is one of many the reason reason he exercises so diligently. I guess we can say we are all grateful he is doing well.

Glennsallnighter
07-27-2017, 06:39 PM
HB and VA, thank you so much for your all your diligence in recounting Don's Q&A session. Sounds like a great evening and well worth the cost and the travel. Delighted you all had a wonderful time and were able to have such insights into Dons life and music that we would not normally have the chance to hear. Maybe if he does another such session I might get to go. What I would have given to have had that chance with Glenn :heart: Its such a pity he wasn't around for these new ventures.

Houston Baby
07-27-2017, 07:53 PM
HB and VA, thank you so much for your all your diligence in recounting Don's Q&A session. Sounds like a great evening and well worth the cost and the travel. Delighted you all had a wonderful time and were able to have such insights into Dons life and music that we would not normally have the chance to hear. Maybe if he does another such session I might get to go. What I would have given to have had that chance with Glenn :heart: Its such a pity he wasn't around for these new ventures.

My exact thoughts as I was waiting in line for the photo session....
:cry: :hug:

longtimeeaglesfan
07-28-2017, 06:16 PM
HB - Very nice of you to put all the Q&A on here!! It's great to go back and reread - certainly a lot of questions!

I thought I would post our photo. I cleared out some of the Runaway Tours logos in the background...I think it makes the photos a bit too busy!

Houston Baby
07-28-2017, 08:17 PM
HB - Very nice of you to put all the Q&A on here!! It's great to go back and reread - certainly a lot of questions!

I thought I would post our photo. I cleared out some of the Runaway Tours logos in the background...I think it makes the photos a bit too busy!

Great photo of y'all LTEF!! Don does look quite amused! :grin:

buffyfan145
07-28-2017, 09:28 PM
Great pic LTEF!!! :D

New Kid In Town
07-29-2017, 10:25 AM
LTEF - Great photo of you all ! and I agree, Don does look quite amused !

HB & VA thank you again for your wonderful recap of the Q & A. Made me feel like I right there with ya all .

Funk 50
07-29-2017, 12:34 PM
Thank you very much Houston baby and VA for sharing all Don's three and a half hour Q&A. Far and beyond anything we could hope for from official press sources. Such detail could only come from the most generous of ardent fans.

Wonderful reading, both entertaining and informative. I've had a high respect of Don for decades, it has slipped a little lately but this is definitely a large tick in the plus column. Thanks again for bringing it to us. :thumbsup:

A couple of responses, regarding Don's comments about radio. YouTube has taken over the role that radio played during the Eagles heyday. Just like the bands, radio stations feel a need to play tracks that their target audience are familiar with. To hear new music, fans go to YouTube. Don needs to embrace YouTube. That's what I currently believe anyway:shrug:

Don's comments about Long Road Out Of Eden were surprising. No doubt, he'll be performing Waiting In The Weeds, solo or with the Eagles very soon. The Last Resort seems to have gone down well since he reintroduced it to his live repertoire ;)

Houston Baby
07-29-2017, 01:09 PM
You are very welcome from VA and me everyone!

CONTINUING.......

Question #42: A man from Cleveland, OH. He said that Don has talked about struggling some nights, he’s also talked about singing the same songs each night. He’s also mentioned about how sometimes his mind wanders and goes to some interesting places. Don said, “Yeah, what I’m gonna have for dinner later.” After much laughter, the man said he was hoping for something a little more romantic (I’m positive that’s the word he used) and interesting than that. Don said, “I’m sorry.” After more laughter, the guy said he thought then the question became, “Burnt ends, ribs, or brisket?” (VA - I’m such a plebian when it comes to BBQ, I had to look up Burnt Ends. It’s really a thing.) Don said he had ribs the night before. Then Don answered the original question and likened it to driving in a car, where you can think and drive at the same time. He said it was the same with drumming, and they call it ‘going into the zone.’ He said if he thinks too much about what he’s doing, he’ll mess up. In his mind, he knows what to do, he doesn’t need to think about it. He’s not phoning it in, he’s trying, he’s focused on what he’s doing, but there’s another part of his brain that’s doing something else. Like thinking about ribs and brisket. He can do both without messing up. He had some great BBQ the night before. He said the BBQ came from the Pecan Lodge (which he’d mentioned in concert the night before). Quite a few shouted out that they’d gone there earlier that day.
Question #43: A man from Houston, but said he was at the Runaway event last year. He said there’s a lot of disposable income that’s spent chasing him all over the US (I can’t imagine who would do that, lol!). Don said we should be putting it into Johnson & Johnson. So the guy said that at last years’ Runaway event, Don had said he’d look into getting an Eagles channel on SiriusXM radio. Once again, Don thought they already had one (apparently they do on iHeart?). The crowd emphatically told him they didn’t. Don said he could fix that. (Who am I to remind him he said that last year? SXM just ignores my emails on the matter at this point.) So then the guy said he wondered what to get a guy for his birthday who could probably afford to get himself whatever he wanted. Then went on to explain that since we’d been told we could leave gifts for him on a table, he and his wife brought him butt nuggets. He explained they have chickens, and butt nuggets are eggs. So apparently, they brought him fresh eggs for his birthday. Don mentioned he has some chickens, and they stop laying when it gets so hot. He mentioned he’d never heard eggs referred to as butt nuggets before. Don said he’d take them, he’s not really into the gift thing, but he’d take those. Then he said that all of us being there that day and the night before was gift enough for him.
Question #44: A lady from Houston. She asked for details on how they prepared for the Classic West and East concerts, the set list, who would sing what, etc. He said the setlist was pretty much already decided from previous setlists. He said they rehearsed for 2 ½ weeks. They rehearsed at first without Vince, since he was on tour. After he got there, they rehearsed for two weeks at a place near Culver City, CA. They had to change up some harmony parts, a lot of details they had to work on. Some they’re still working on. He said they always rehearsed a lot in their career, they liked to over-prepare. He said when they go to NY they’ll rehearse for a couple of days in the stadium. You can rehearse in a rehearsal hall, it’s one thing, but in a stadium, it’s an entirely different ballgame. (haha!) Sound is different, mixes are different, everything is different. They rehearsed for two nights at Dodger stadium so the lighting guy could get it right. There’s a lot of things that go into it. Also, the big IMAX screens in the back. They’ll do the same in NY. He said they’ll sit around rehearsing vocal harmonies, in a circle, the Circle of Fear. Figure out the harmonies, then go up to the mics and sing with the instruments, then go back to the Circle of Fear and do the next song. They do that over and over again for each song, they usually rehearse for 6 to 7 hours at a time.
Question #45: A lady from Westlake Village, CA: She mentioned she was 70, and Don expressed surprise. We all did, she looked like she was in her late 30’s. She said she had been surprised to hear that Vince Gill would be with them, as in her mind, she’d always separated the genres. She was at the Classic West, and with Vince and Glenn Frey’s son, the emotions were so overwhelming. She wondered what prompted them to ask Vince, and is he going to stay with the Eagles? Don said, “Probably.” He said that several things prompted them. One was that Vince and Glenn had been good friends, they were both avid golfers and golfed together. Secondly, they all admired Vince’s singing, he’s one of the best singers on the planet, one of the absolutely best singers there is. One of the best guitarists as well. So they knew he was one of the only guys that would fit. He’s like Steuart Smith, he’s one of the few that could have stepped into that position. He said he can’t think of anybody else who could have. He said he was surprised, that he’d thought of Vince as a bluegrass guy, and he brought these big, gigantic amplifiers with him. Two of them that are custom made. So it’s really loud on that side of the stage. It’s as loud as Walsh is on the other side of the stage. He said it balances things out. So Timothy and he will have to get used to it. Don continued - Vince is a hell of a musician, a really good singer, and a really nice guy. He fits in really well. He said they’re all very proud of Deacon as well. As he said before, for a 24-year-old kid to get up there and do that is great. He said that Deacon is really into it. He’s taking voice lessons. Working out with a trainer. He’s all in. They’re all very proud of him, and he knows Deacon’s dad would be proud of him.

Houston Baby
07-29-2017, 04:38 PM
These are the final questions........
Question #46: A lady from British Columbia, Canada. Don mentioned that British Columbia was awesome, and she agreed. She said his first album was her favorite. It was one she could go to through good times and bad times. His subsequent albums have done the same thing for her. She said that for the last year or so, she’s been dealing with some traumatic health news. A tumor in her neck, and MS diagnosis. She’s gotten a lot of support from family and friends (some of whom were there), but one great thing was that she’s always been able to fall back on his music. His voice has always been so soothing to her. She said that it this point, when it’s another bad test result, or she’s very tired, her husband will just tell her to go lie down and listen to Don. Sometimes it’s not easy for him. She said that his music has been such a help, that she’d not be doing as well as she is without her husband, her children, her friends, and his music. She thanked him for it. He was obviously touched. He said it was exactly the kind of thing he’d been talking about earlier. He said there are times he gets cynical, times he gets sick and tired of doing the songs. Times he thinks he’s just not going to do them any more. Then he hears something like that. Or he reads a fan letter like he did the other night, where someone has a similar situation. He reads a letter from a guy who was in the Iraq war, or Vietnam, and his songs have that effect on him. He said it brings it home to him what these songs mean to people. He forgets sometimes, he’s so close to it that he can’t see it. He said he doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it, because he’s just trying to be a normal person, especially for his kids. But, it’s good for him to be reminded once in a while. It’s also scary, it’s a big responsibility. When he hears something like that, or reads something like that, he’s reminded that these songs are much bigger…(he didn’t finish the sentence). It’s like he said in a recent interview, the songs are much bigger than the band or anyone in it. It’s the songs that are going to always be there. It’s good for him to be reminded how much they mean to so many people all over the world. It keeps him grounded, and gives him the enthusiasm to go out and keep on doing them. Not for himself, not for the money, but what they mean to so many people. He thanked her for her words, and said that they had no idea when they were writing them that they would be accepted the way they are. He went on to remind her that his wife has MS, and they are doing great things for MS these days, that it’s improving.
Question #47: Richard stood up and just said his first name. Don said he’s known him since he was 6 or 7. He said they started making music in Richard’s parents living room, that’s where it all started. Richard just wanted to comment that it’s been over 4 or 5 years since they went fishing on Caddo. Don said he’s too busy saving Caddo lake to go fishing on it. He told Richard he was right, they’d go, but not in July or August. He said October was good.
He asked if there were more questions, a couple more, that he needed to go eat more BBQ.
Question #48: A guy from Spring Hill, FL. He said he saw him at Ruth Eckerd Hall this past January. He wanted to know Don’s take on NYM. Don said his take on NYM was that it’s a dark song. He said he had some good collaborators on it (Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar and Jai Winding). He said it was written before 9/11/2001, but it took on a new meaning after that. He said he didn’t play it for 2 or 3 years after 9/11. It’s simply about how things can change quickly, unexpectedly. That you should appreciate your friends and family while you have them, because in an instant they could go ‘kapuff’, with a hand gesture that indicated ‘gone in an instant’. It’s about a guy down on Wall St, and a lot of those guys are very unhappy, because it’s all they live for, especially the day-traders. He likes the song musically because of the trumpet solo and the chord progression. They didn’t play it the night before, they did Talking To The Moon instead since they were in Texas.
He said they had time for one more question.
Question #49: A lady from Chicago, IL. She was at the rained-out concert there from a month or so ago. Her birthday is the same as Don’s so she thanked him for having a concert for her birthday. He thanked her and wished her a happy birthday, then discussed others who had the same birthday, none of which I could hear except Rose Kennedy.
Question #50: A lady from Richmond, VA. ( VA - With all these people from my neck of the woods, perhaps he should do one of these here. Or at least a concert… Jus’ sayin’…) She mentioned that she was the winner of a Walden Woods sweepstakes a few years ago. Don said he thought he recognized her. She then said she’d lived on a street named Linden in Richmond. Then decades later she spent her wedding night in a boutique hotel with the name Linden in it. She said she went to Linden, TX in Sept. 2015 with two friends from the UK, and met JD Souther there. She said she’s been nominated to board of the Linden Heritage Foundation. She said Linden feels like a second home to her now. She said it was the best way to thank him for all that he’s given her. He thanked her, and she interrupted to say she was almost done. She said something about not knowing what the world will be like in 20 years, and as he’s said, the whole world has gone bat-shit crazy. He said that it’s true, but in the small towns, at an individual level there’s a lot of hope. There are still a lot of good people out there. He’s not so crazy about the human race as a whole, but individuals are where it’s at. He thanked her for all that she was doing in Linden, and she said that all those in Linden want him to know how very proud they are of him. He said it was a great place to grow up. That so many there supported both he and Richard. He did gigs at the American Legion, their first show was at the Chevy dealership. Linden has the oldest continuously operating courthouse in the state.
**
He asked if there were more questions. People seemed surprised, and he said that we’d come all this way. He knew we’d paid a lot of money, and he wanted us to feel like we’ve gotten our money’s worth.
**
Question #51: A lady from Chicago. She wanted to know, when recording with the Eagles, how was it determined who got to sing the lead vocals. He said, “Ooh.” There was a lot of laughter at how he said it. He said a lot of times it was who brought the song in, or even just the beginning. He said Glenn had started Lyin’ Eyes, and it was natural for him to sing it as he sang most of the country-oriented stuff. He said Randy had started TITTL. Sometimes Glenn would decide who sang the lead. Sometimes there was some conflict, it’s been written about. It was usually whoever brought the song or whoever had the right voice for it. It was done that way most of the time.

**
That was the end! We all stood and gave him a standing ovation, then he went out a nearby door and it was time for us to line up to get pictures taken with him. The pictures went very quickly, and any discussion with him was greatly discouraged.

In my opinion (VA), the concert the night before and the Q & A made the trip completely worth the cost and the time off work. Meeting up with friends as well. However, once again, I was not impressed with Runaway’s handling of the event at all. I absolutely would never consider paying this amount of money to see an artist who wasn’t at the very top of my list of favorites. I think they get away with a lot of poor planning because the artists they have do this make up for a lot. To me, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be getting better at this. I realize that Don went way over the time they’d thought he’d take, but it wasn’t why the food wasn’t very good. It certainly had nothing to do with the fact they had around 300 people and only seating for about half that amount at the After Party. They served food that required the use of a knife and fork, and there was nowhere to even stand and put your plate somewhere where you could use the knife and fork. So we tossed our food and went to a hotel restaurant and paid for food and drink. There was a lot of standing in very long lines, to check in, to get into the Q&A, to get the photograph, and all that could be eliminated with smarter planning.
I know it was a lot of photographs to be taken, but they rushed you through like cattle. I heard the shutter on the camera before I even looked at it. The lighting was very poor, in most you can’t even really pick out Don’s hair. My hair has streaks of red in it, and my old hairdresser sent me a Facebook message asking what I’d done to my hair. I had to explain that it’s as blonde as it’s ever been! We have access to all the pictures, and one unfortunate guy has wings sprouting from his head. They have the Runaway insignia all over the backdrop and it just so happened that where he stood, his head was over the heart in the insignia, and the wings or whatever they are, they’re the same color as his hair, and they come out from behind his head, and it looks ridiculous. I would be horrified if after that amount of money, that would be the picture I had to show for it. I guess it’s better than last year where they lined us up outside and then didn’t give us time to undo the damage from the wind. It just seems that for that amount of money, a little more thought would be put into the organization and pictures.
I will end by saying again that Mr. Henley himself more than made up for it. Once again, he gave thorough and complete answers, he made each person feel welcome. He acted like he wanted to be there, and he did genuinely care that we felt we got our money’s worth. I felt the staff were not very happy at the amount of time and the number of questions, they wanted to herd us out of there much sooner. In their minds, an hour and a half was enough. Don didn’t feel that way, and it was very much appreciated.

AftertheThrill
07-29-2017, 06:15 PM
I was the last question. Don was awesome about looking at the person that asked the question.

I agree about the food. It was a little disappointing. We ran into people in the elevator that had gone out to eat after the event. We at least got cake. But I would recommend the weekend if you are a diehard of the Runaway artist.

AftertheThrill
07-29-2017, 07:37 PM
Wow! I'd be curious which town in Cass County....

I spoke to the couple after the Q&A. They were from Beardstown. I'm from Morgan County so I very surprised to hear from someone else from my neck of the woods.

WalshFan88
07-29-2017, 08:38 PM
I spoke to the couple after the Q&A. They were from Beardstown. I'm from Morgan County so I very surprised to hear from someone else from my neck of the woods.

Oh my gosh, how cool!!!!!! I live 30 minutes away from Beardstown...

Brooke
07-31-2017, 12:49 PM
Eek! I know a couple from Beardstown that are huge Eagles/Don fans! I will have to ask them if they went! I really doubt it's them, but.......

WalshFan88
08-07-2017, 12:37 AM
Wow, small world!

Magnolia
10-16-2017, 11:52 PM
I just wanted to add my thanks for writing all this down. It was a great read and I'm glad you had a wonderful time.

Houston Baby
10-24-2017, 01:44 PM
You are very welcome Magnolia!
And welcome to THE BORDER!!