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.....