Why Don Henley Once Questioned if Anyone Really Cared About The Eagles’ Music

While art helps curb the pain of the world with empathy and understanding, as well as celebrate the joy with entertainment and imagination, the means don’t necessarily lead to a direct end all the time. In short, does art really change the world, and are people deeply changed by it? We don’t have an answer for you. However, the question we just posed is a question that is ingrained in every creative person who creates art, and Don Henley once asked himself a similar question many moons ago.

To an extent, being an artist is intrinsically vain but also incredibly selfless. If you are an artist, you are creating because you believe people will find it interesting or emotionally resonant. That what you have to say is worth something—that they need to hear it. Now, that isn’t the only reason you’re creating, but for many, that is ultimately part of it. Whether they know it or not.

Don Henley seemingly questioned this underlying vanity and value of the arts in an interview with The Eagles’ favorite journalist, Cameron Crowe. He didn’t answer the question, but he posed it. Frankly, it’s an artistically philosophical question that has stumped us, and if you’re an artist, might stump you as well.

Don Henley Wondered if Folks Cared About His “Wonderfully Sensitive” Songs

Now, in this interview, Henley might have been feeling a sense of imposter syndrome or just questioning the nature of being a famous musician altogether. It’s not for us to say. Whether or not people cared about his music, Henley told Cameron Crowe, working for Rolling Stone, “Every time I start writing one of these wonderfully sensitive songs that we write, I start wondering, ‘Who really gives a s—?’ Do I really give a s—?”

He continued, “I want to do something semihumorous on one of these records someday…Something that doesn’t demand so much f—in’ time and energy. We’ve never had an easy time making Eagles albums.” As always, we cannot dive into the mind of Henley and extrapolate the thoughts that were going on in his head when he uttered this statement to the famed journalist, Cameron Crowe.

From our reading, the question Henley posed relates back to what we mentioned previously. Ultimately, do people want to hear soulful, sentimental ballads by artists who believe they can enlighten them? Or do they just want to be distracted and amused? We can’t say, and seemingly, neither can Don Henley.

Photo by Pete Cronin/Redferns