Former Eagles guitarist Don Felder appeared on a recent episode SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation hosted by rock-radio veteran Eddie Trunk to promote his upcoming solo album, The Vault – Fifty Years of Music. During the conversation, Felder touched on the status of his relationship with his former bandmates following his contentious split with the group in 2001.
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After he was fired, the guitarist wrote an autobiography titled Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles—published in 2007—in which he expressed negative feelings about Don Henley, Joe Walsh, and the late Glenn Frey.
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In the interview, though, Felder maintained that he no longer carries a grudge against his ex-bandmates, and acts civil with them on the occasions that they meet.
“There are times here and there along the way that we bump into each other, and [we’re] very cordial about it,” the 77-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer noted. “I really kind of buried all the hatchets, you know, in 2000.”
Felder then explained that the process of writing his memoir helped prepare him to emotionally move on with his life.
“One of the things about writing my book was a very cathartic process and was very liberating,” he shared. “It set me free to realize, I don’t want to carry that stuff with me for the rest of my life. I don’t want to have grudges and anger and hatred and all that stuff. I want to be free of that, so I decided that I can either be happy or I can, you know, lug that stuff around with me. So I decided I’m just gonna be happy.”
Felder Talks More About His Post-Eagles Life
Felder explained that it was a positive experience for him to have to rebuild his career after his exit from the Eagles.
“You know, when good things happen, that’s fantastic, but when bad things happen that make you make a change … that’s intentional,” he told Trunk. “It’s there to push you out to do something else. And that’s exactly what happened when I left the Eagles. I was forced, myself, ’cause I still had the talent, still had the skills, to rebuild myself as a solo artist, and read, write, and record everything I could, as I like it, as I wanted to, without … a band control or anything like that.”
Don added, “I could just do whatever I want. I want to tour, I can go tour. I want to make a record, I can make a record. I like these songs, I’ll put ’em out. I don’t like these songs, I’m not gonna put ’em out. So it was a freeing, liberating thing for me to step outside of that organization.”
About Felder’s Upcoming Album, The Vault
As previously reported, The Vault – Fifty Years of Music will be released on May 23. The 10-track collection is Felder’s fourth solo studio album, and his first since his 2019 release, American Rock ‘n’ Roll. The Vault features nine new versions of previously unreleased songs Felder wrote and recorded as demos over the course of five decades.
The album also includes an updated version of Felder’s only charting solo single, “Heavy Metal.” That song originally appeared on the soundtrack for the 1981 animated sci-fi film of the same name.
Felder told Trunk that some of the songs on The Vault were built around demo recordings dating back to his early days with the Eagles. Don revealed that he rediscovered a variety of tapes in 2020 when he went through some boxes that he’d put in a storage unit back in 2000.
“I found a ton of old 24-track tapes from the Eagles, 16-track tapes from us rehearsing, rough mixes, boxes full of cassettes and ADATs and CDs of all the song ideas I’ve been writing for almost 50 years,” he said during the interview. “So I brought ’em back to my studio and we transferred ’em over to Pro Tools and got ’em off cassettes. [I]n the process, I heard … a good half a dozen great ideas that never got finished. So that’s what this new record is all about, The Vault.”
You can pre-order The Vault now.
Felder’s 2025 Tour Plans
Felder has a few solo headlining performances lined up in May of 2025. They’re scheduled for May 10 in Chandler, Arizona, and May 25-26 at EPCOT park in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Then, starting on May 28 in Greenville, South Carolina, Felder will team up with Styx and REO Speedwagon frontman Kevin Cronin for The Brotherhood of Rock Tour. The lengthy North American trek runs through an August 24 performance in Milwaukee.
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