“Hotel California” by Eagles is a legendary song. In fact, it’s probably the band’s most famous, long-enduring tune of their career. They’ve played it over 1,000 times live, and it never seems to truly get old, at least for the diehard fans. The song was written collaboratively between Don Henley, Don Felder, and Glenn Frey. It’s been the subject of much investigation and study. Even today, decades after the song came out in 1976, people are still picking apart the lyrics to unearth some deeper meaning.
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Naturally, getting asked about the same song over and over again would get old really quickly for anybody. Unfortunately, for one interviewer in 2009, a question about “Hotel California” earned a little bit of an attitude from Henley himself.
The infamous interview in question was conducted over email from one Joe Soeder, a longtime pop music critic for The Plain Dealer, based in Cleveland, Ohio. The interview took place in 2009.
At first, all seemed well in the interview. Don Henley was asked about everything related to Eagles, from the band’s then-new album Long Road Out Of Eden to longevity in the music world. However, when the subject of “Hotel California” was brought up toward the end, Henley’s response seemed to be less than thrilling. Even the interviewer himself mentioned the “snippy” response from Henley in the introduction of the article.
Don Henley Once Got Testy About an Interviewer’s Question About “Hotel California” in 2009
Soeder brought up a particular lyric in “Hotel California”: “So I called up the captain / ‘Please bring me my wine’ / He said, ‘We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969.’” Everybody knows that one.
“I realize I’m probably not the first to bring this to your attention, but wine isn’t a spirit,” said Soeder. “Wine is fermented; spirits are distilled. Wine also has a lower ABV (alcohol by volume) percentage than spirits. Do you regret that lyric?”
Henley wasn’t exactly thrilled by that question, and that much is evident in his response.
“Thanks for the tutorial and, no, you’re not the first to bring this to my attention,” said Henley. “And you’re not the first to completely misinterpret the lyric and miss the metaphor. Believe me, I’ve consumed enough alcoholic beverages in my time to know how they are made and what the proper nomenclature is.”
Don Henley went on to say that the lyric in question has “nothing to do” with alcohol at all. Rather, it was a “sociopolitical statement.”
“My only regret would be having to explain it in detail to you, which would defeat the purpose of using literary devices in songwriting and lower the discussion to some silly and irrelevant argument about chemical processes,” Henley continued.
I have to say, that’s a pretty eloquent way of telling somebody off.
Photo by Lester Cohen/WireImage
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