Extended Interview: Don Henley

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55 years and counting. And with their greatest hits album marking its golden anniversary, Sunday Morning's Tracy Smith has plenty of questions. For the great Don Henley. Let's talk about big picture eagles first.

Okay. I think. In response to the recent record that the Eagles set, which we'll talk about in a second, one writer said, and I'm going to paraphrase this: there's one thing in America that people agree on, or seem to agree on, and it's the Eagles. I don't know if I would agree with that. You don't think so?

Why not?

So then pretty good. We have our detractors. Ugh. I don't think people in America agree on very much of anything right now, but we are. I guess we're kind of a staple.

You know, we've been around for a long time. Where?

some of the last of our generation to still be Playing live. The band started in 1971. Our first record came out in 1972. And we've been Touring on and off since then, of 53 years of playing for people.

So it's, you know, it's been a miraculous run. And it's a run that people have heavily invested their hearts and their money in. You just. Eagles their greatest hits just set. Yeah.

of being a quadruple diamond seller. I do that.

Something that has never happened before in history. What was your reaction when you heard that? amazement and gratitude. I mean, I knew we were getting a I d I I heard a year two or three ago that we were at 38. Million.

So I knew that we were in that area somewhere. But they they have a whole new process now for certification. They count streams. I forget how many streams it is that make it that are equivalent to an album. You can look that up.

It's not in my database. But um So that's a combination of physical product and streaming. Um And um You know, we're just grateful. I don't know. I can't explain it.

I don't think about it too much. Why not?

It it doesn't um I have other things to think about, you know. Uh-huh. I have a family and I have, you know, health and and the state of the world and the state of the country and all these other things to think about. It doesn't I mean, it's nice, you know, and we all appreciate it, and we're. We're proud of having put in the work.

You know, we all have a good work ethic. And uh which has enabled us to to continue to play for the last 53 years. And Good. What makes us happy is that we make other people happy. And of that.

People need We we say that music is medicine. And people need some medicine right now. Um, you know, because uh We're ailing in this country. And it's great to get into a room with several thousand people and have everybody be on more or less the same page. And it's not like a sporting event where there's a winner and a loser, and somebody goes home.

happy and somebody goes home angry or mad. And we get to win every night and the the a the audience gets to win. And it's just it's a wonderful way to to Spend your time and It's a great job to have, and it is a job. Uh it's hard work. It may look glamorous, but it's hard work.

But we get to make people happy, and we get to make people have a. communal experience. You know, again, everybody's more or less on the same page. At our concerts.

So that's a great reward, and it's a wonderful occupation. Instagram. We're just lucky. We're lucky people. It is remarkable that the the album that is the number one seller is fifty years old in February.

that there's that longevity. Greatest hits is kind of a misnomer. It should just be called their best songs because. Every song on that album was not a great hit. You know, there are a couple of songs on that album that didn't break the top thirty.

But they're good songs. Um Desperado, for example, was never released as a single. Not by us, nor by Linda Ronstadt. It's amazing. It's become sort of a classic, beloved piece of material, but it was never a single.

Tequila Sunrise, Already Gone, didn't crack the top 30. But they're still good songs. They're well cracked. Um Some people consider music and songwriting to be an art, and maybe it is, but we also. We also thought about it as a a craft.

And we believe in craftsmanship. There are two or three different schools of thought in rock and roll. One school is the The amateur.

sort of school where it you know anybody can do it. And you just get in your garage and you just bang out some stuff and you just dash off some stuff. I used to have people come up to me and say, well, I wrote 15, 20 songs this week. And I went, wow.

Okay. I hope they're good. That's not how you did it. That's not how we did it. We took pains, we took time.

Uh we tried to get better. all the time. We studied other songwriters, we listened to a lot of music, a lot of people that we admired. And we formed a lot of opinions. about the work.

It it was painstaking work. Um And Yeah. you know, it seems to have paid off somehow. Because these songs have uh have endured. You know, I mean there are there are people who are uh Much more artsy than we were, who have had great success, you know, and that's fine.

Um But we um We we're we're more old school. even middle of the road, you might say, but but not uh But not boring. No, you're not boring him, yeah. There's a funny story about this Greatest Hits album. It was something that we weren't in favor of.

I was going to ask you that. You didn't want to make a Greatest Hits album. No, we were pretty much blindsided by. that but the record company telling us they were going to do that and Which they contractually had the right to do. We didn't have any way to stop them except just to complain.

And you complained? We complained. Oh, yeah. You can see it's documented. Uh-huh.

You know, back then The Beatles had set an impossibly high standard for productivity. you know, cranking out two or three albums a year. Then Of course, they stopped touring, so it was that helped. But we were touring. And it's hard.

We always had trouble writing songs on the road. We did better when we were at home. And we didn't have to worry about going onstage and preparing for that. Um But the but the Beatles the Beatles had set the standard of of Putting out all these albums in succession, and record companies came to expect that of everybody.

So they expected that of you? We didn't come up with something with it.

Well, we made our first album in two weeks. You know, and I can I can still hear it. What do you mean? And the flaws in it. Oh, you can.

Yeah. And and uh And then we started taking longer and longer and longer between each record because again, we were touring a lot. And that was that was tiring and exhausting. one of these nights The album before the greatest album came out in June of 1975. And so about six months went by.

We were still working on the next album, and so the record company got antsy. You know, they got impatient and said, Well, we got to put out something, we got to put out some product. and so they put out the Greatest Hits album in February of nineteen seventy six. It did well from the get-go. But again, the funny thing, the ironic thing is we hadn't reached our creative peak yet, Hotel California.

Is not part of the Greatest Hits album, and it didn't come out until December of 1976. It's amazing. You released the Greatest Hits album, and then you released Hotel California. And by the way, The greatest hits album is number one bestseller of all time. Then there's Thriller.

Number three, as you know, is Hotel California. That's what they tell me, yeah. Go figure. You can. Did you at least get to choose the songs that were on the Greatest Hits album?

Mm no, I don't think we did. We Our producer, Bill Simzick. Um Was tapped to master and sequence the greatest its album. And we found out later that he was doing it. We were recording in Florida, working on the Hotel California album down there at Criteria Studios.

And he was in the morning, he was working on the Greatest Hits album, doing the sequencing and the mastering. And then he and then we would show up at three or four o'clock in the afternoon and he would come in and And record Hotel California songs with us. Oh, my goodness.

So I don't think I was even aware that he was doing that double duty. at that time, but But I think he sequenced he did the sequencing. Um which is important. It's important uh to sequence Songer's own album. You have to take tempo and key and subject matter into consideration when you're sequencing an album.

Try to make it flow.

So he did that. That's about all we had to do with it, except writing the songs. Yeah. Go back to, you mentioned Desperado wasn't a hit. I want to go back and talk about that song a little bit.

That was the first time that you wrote a song with Glenn Frye? That's right. Did you immediately click as songwriting partners? Yeah, I think we did. I think we did.

That that was the first time we had we'd written together and you know, I'd I'd rented this little cabin up at the top of Laurel Canyon, and he came over, and I had an old upright piano in there. And I had beginnings of the song that I had started back in like 69 or 68, something like that. And I showed him the bits and pieces that I had and he sat down at the piano. And, um It was sort of based on an old American songwriter who, at one point in time, was America's most popular songwriter, a guy named Stephen Foster. Signed.

who died penniless in New York City. But it was based on his songs that my grandmother used to sing in her rocking chair. And Glenn knew who Stephen Foster was. And just sort of picked up the thread and went with it. And he was great.

We used to call him the Lone Arranger. The Lone Arranger. Because he was so good at arranging songs. And when you recorded it. You were only able to do so many takes?

Yeah, I've told it. Yeah, I've told it. I don't want him. Yeah. Well, we had a we had a a very well-known, highly respected British producer named Glenn Johns.

And He was He wanted to make the album in an economically An economic fashion that would not spend a whole lot of money. Because that was Thank you. That was what the record company wanted and that was Also his methodology of making records just to get in there and get it and get out.

So As I said, we made the album in two weeks. And I was singing Desperado, and they had part of the London Symphony Orchestra in the studio. which was very intimidating to me. I mean these all these older guys back there. And they were bored silly.

Some of them had chessboards set up between their chairs. And between takes, they would play chess. What that does to you, right? Yeah. It was funny, actually, in retrospect.

Um And it was You know, the stream part is a lovely stream part. It was written by my old friend and college mate, Jim Ed Norman. And he was conducting. And I don't know if he had ever conducted an orchestra before, but he got up there and faked it really well. And and you know, you're standing on a box.

in front of all these old crusty, gnarly string players. And there was nothing particularly challenging about the string, about the orchestration. You know, I think they were they were. There were just Doing it for the it was a job for them, you know.

So I think I got to do about Four takes Maybe five. And I still have a little trouble with the intonation on on the the lead vocal to this day. I don't listen to it. You don't listen to it? No.

We don't listen to any of your music. You don't listen to any of your music? No. Why would I? I have to play it every night.

Okay. No. I don't listen to much of any any Music anymore. Why not?

I don't know. I I I think I mean, once in a while I'll turn on the radio or I'll put on a classical record maybe, you know. I listen to audiobooks. But I know you anything can get old. After a while, you know.

No, I can listen. After maybe 20 years go by, I can go back and listen to something. But again, I hear I I hear the flaws. and what what we should have or could have done. in a particular instance.

Don't you think the flaws are sometimes what makes it, though? Yeah, yeah, I know. Rock and roll is supposed to be flawed according to that school. But. Yeah, I mean it's not terribly flawed.

It's it's they're they're minor things and obviously most people didn't notice. But it takes me back to times that were very pressurized and and in some cases difficult. I mean there was joy too, you know. We had a lot of laughs in the studio. We laughed ourselves silly sometimes, but there was also a lot of tension.

and some disagreement and and just So It's just typical band stuff. Anyone who's ever been in a band knows what I'm talking about. You just. Or working tightly with any group of people over a number of years. You get to know the other people so well.

You know all their Their tics and their piccadillos and their habits and their eccentricities and And it it it becomes Wearing after a while. Which is why you took some time away from it. 14-year break. Yeah. Which was a good thing in retrospect.

It was good. Why do you say that?

Well The First of all, it gave us all a chance to to uh express ourselves individually. It gave the public a chance to miss us. that we didn't get We weren't too ubiquitous. We weren't around all the time. But I have to give credit and thanks to what they call Classic Rock Radio for keeping our music alive.

You know, they we went away, but the tunes kept getting played on the radio.

So when we came back Uh I think people had. missed us a little bit in uh in terms of live performance anyway. I think last time Sunday M Morning spoke to you, you said that you're a guy who doesn't really like the limelight. Yeah. What brings you back, then?

Um I like working. I like Again, I like seeing all those happy faces out there. I like to see the audience having a good time. I like the structure of touring. I mean, we have a wonderful crew of about 100 people.

some of whom have been with us for fifty years. or more. And Everything runs like a Swiss watch. And and I I enjoy, I like that. I also like gardening and I also like reading books and I like cooking, but Yeah.

You know, I like to have. I like to have some variation in my life, but it's always good to come back to this. We call it the mothership. You know, we can all go off and do our own thing, and then we have this thing to come back to. that we all know very well, that that works really well for us.

So, you know, I think this year will probably be It. I've said things like that before, but I feel like we're getting toward the end. And that will be fine too. You think 2026 will be the end of the Eagles? Yeah.

And I'm okay with that. Yeah. Um because I would like to spend more time with my family, and I would like to spend more time. growing vegetables and I'd like to tra I've traveled all over the world, but I haven't seen much of it because we see the airports and the hotel room and the venue. And we don't get out much.

You know, but uh um And so I'd like to go back to some of the same places I've been and see more of those places. you know, before it all disappears or it all gets vaporized or or whatever. But yeah, there are lots of things to do. I mean, I don't ever want to have a one-dimensional life. I mean this is great, this is wonderful, but there are other things.

I mean, I have two nonprofit environmental organizations that I chair. And that I Shut up. feel are really important. for conservation and preservation. Mm-hmm.

you know, I have four kids and a grandchild. There's just lots of other things. To do. That makes sense. We'll have more from our Sunday morning extended interview after this break.

You produced a documentary on Henry David Thoreau with Ken Burns. Yes. Which was an honor. Ken Burns and two brothers who have worked with Ken Burns for a long time, called the Ewers brothers, Eric and Chris Ewers. E W E R S So they were deeply involved in this as well.

Yeah, we're done with it, and it's going to premiere on PBS on March 30th and March 31st. Three episodes. Do you think Because you Read so much, Thoreau, Emerson, all of these books. You were an English major. There's a poetry to your lyrics.

I mean I think about Take another shot at courage. Just that.

So simple, and it just says it.

Well, I Yeah, yeah, we We approached poetry sometimes. Poetry is a little bit of a different animal. It's harder, I think. Do you have a favorite lyric that you've written? Just go back to the shadow courage thing.

I think that's a line that came from. When we used to hang out at the Troubadour. And we'd say maybe see a pretty girl and we wanted to go over and talk to her. And w one of us would would ha hand the other one a a shot of tequila and say, here's some instant courage. That's literally where it came from.

That's literally where it came from. Here, have a have some instant courage. I think that was probably Glenn's line. It's a pretty good line. Yeah.

Do you have a favorite line that you wrote? Uh Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not not that not that I can pull out of the air right now.

Um Did it get to the point where you and Glenn could finish these other sentences? Yeah, we got to that point. Yeah. Around the mid-70s, when we would start to do an album, we'd just move in together, rent a house together, and And we were the odd couple. Yeah.

How so? Who was who? Glenn was a a smoker in smoked cigarettes and and He would leave butts all over them. He would stand them up. You know, like in little groups of cigarette buds standing on the filters.

And they look like little cities, you know, little little skyscrapers. And I would clean them up. I was the housekeeper. You were the Felix to his Oscar. Yeah.

Yeah. And we would, you know, we would get up and have coffee and then get out the legal pads and sit down at the coffee table and start to work. you know, in the early afternoon. And then we'd finish up around six and go down to the Troubadour, down to D'Antana's, and have dinner. People watch and try to gather material from observation.

And would you write while you were out?

Sometimes we wrote on napkins at Dantanas. Yeah. Did you save any of those napkins? Oh gosh, I wish. I I don't think I'd I don't know if I have any uh Glenn's wife might have some.

I don't know. It never occurred to, you know, you don't think about those things then at that time. Right. You're thinking about how am I going to get up the courage to go talk to that young woman? Yeah, or how are we going to finish this song?

Yeah, they're uh Who's gonna drive home? Mm-hmm. Okay. How different is it now? partying wise than it used to be.

Well, there's no party. There's none. There's none. Yeah. Yeah, I often say it's it's like a morgue vexation.

What do you mean? Well, it's just very quiet. We all have our. separate rooms and we all have our pre-show rituals that we do, you know.

Some people meditate, some people work out. What do you do? I work out. Like lift weights?

So you have a trainer and do you do push-ups, lift weights, that kind of thing? The first thing I do is I have a stationary recumbent bike and I ride that for half an hour. you know, the equivalent of about five miles. And then we do stretching. And then we do mat work.

I do uh crunches and um Yeah. And um Other kinds of stress remote. Wow.

So you're doing sit-ups before you go on stage. Before show, yeah. And then we do weights. And squats and lunges and all that stuff I hate. Yeah, that's before the show.

And that's my warm-up. I don't do voice exercises because It doesn't help. tightening the abdomen. It's where I sing from.

So I sing better if this, if I keep in sh that in shape. Oh, interesting. You got to keep your abs in shape for your voice. Yeah. I mean, I don't have a six-pack or anything, but there but there's one under there somewhere.

What's it like now to sit there and see Deacon Fry, where Glenn used to be? I burst with pride. I almost got tears in my eyes the other night when he had when he was filling in for Joe. And he's he's he's more talented than people know. You know, he can play pretty much everything in the in the catalog.

And he just stepped up, you know, and Back in 2017, whatever it was, his first show with us was at Dodger Stadium. before 56,000 people. That was his first show. Yeah. But he just Get it.

He's amazing. And now he's a father of two and uh All grown up. Thirty one, I think.

So I I d I really I'm proud of him and I love to watch him play. He plays his dad guitar on on a lot of the songs. Same guitar. Was there any sort of internal debate about going on after Glenn died? Yeah, we I didn't think it was feasible.

You didn't think it was going to happen? No. And then a year went by. And uh Our manager, Mr. Azoff, came to me and he said, you know, I've been talking to a lot of people in the industry, and there are still a lot of fans out there who would like to see you.

come back and play music. And I said, well, I don't think about that.

So we thought about it and um I said to them, I said, Well, I'll only do it if we can get. Grandson. to be in the band. That was your condition. Why is that?

because I wanted the blood. You know, there's a tradition both here and in Europe. Helps that. Called the Guild. We're that's on app apprentices, whether whether it's carpentry or glass blowing or or any kind of artisan Yeah.

Where there's an apprenticeship in the family, and the son works with the father.

Okay. Until the sun is you know, develops an ability That is high enough and good enough to go out on his own and carry on the creation of. What his father did. And I have to give Bono credit because he reminded me of that when I was At a convention in Europe, and he was there, and we were sitting by each other at dinner, and I was. telling him that I was in a quandary.

About what to do about the ban, and they said, Well, you know, there's this thing. Called the Guild. And I went, of course. Duh. And so I have to give him credit.

Bono told you essentially you could have Glenn's son. kind of his apprentice. you know, of things like that, of that kind of thing happening. I mean, Ringo's done as a drummer and, you know, and then and there are a lot of offspring Uh in the business. Then we decided that Vince Gill would be the other person.

Mm-hmm. Who would be capable. You know, basically it took two people to replace Glenn. But it works very well. I think people, I still read reviews where people are surprised.

That's a bit black. especially surprised at Vince because they thought He was just a country artist, but he's so much more than that. And he was so delighted to get the chance to play rock and roll. You know, he showed up the first day with these big amplifiers. I said, What is that stuff?

It's Then you just say my apps. Is it okay? Let's let's have that. We don't want that. He is so talented and such a great guy.

So it's been working. Pretty well. Sphere Run has been a late career blessing for us. You know, we just We're just grateful for it. It's a nice way to go out.

Talk about the sphere. Did you have any hesitation about playing in the sphere? Oh, yeah. Because It's kind of a different ballgame. First of all, you can't have any amplifiers on stage.

I mean, you can, but it blocks.

Some of the images that are projected on the that not projected, but that are on the walls on the dome.

So We have these mon you know in the old days we had monitors on the floor that were called wedges. But then they develop these inner things. that everybody uses now so that you hear everything in this little earpiece. like earbuds, but they're bigger. And we were used to accustomed to using those, but we were only accustomed to putting one in one ear.

and having the other open.

so that you can hear what's kind of going on on stage. Here you can't do that. Because there's a I was A sound anomaly. There's a bounce. And it's a delay.

And so when you're playing everything, it comes back like a few milliseconds later.

So you have to wear these monitors in both ears. And that's the only so you can't hear. any of the stuff that's going on around you, it all comes through here. which puts a big So Big burden on the monitor mixers, on the guys who mix the stuff. We have two of them, one on each side of the stage.

and one guy mixes the sound for half the band and the other guy mixes the sound for the other half of the band. And so that was. That was the learning curve, and it took some getting used to. But we're accustomed to it now.

So many of your songs, I think, of Hotel California are cinematic.

So, was that part of the allure? That, hey, we could actually put the images up? Yeah. We had mixed emotions about that because, on the one hand, you don't want to leave things to people's imaginations so that they can form their own. picture fantasies about what the song's about and have their own little movies.

And then when you do it, when we do it and put it on the wall here. It sort of makes it more concrete. And And pet. It's like explaining a song.

So we kept that in mind when we were doing some of these. And some of the images, I'll admit, are literal, like probably too literal. But is there a dark desert highway? There is. Yeah.

And there's a guy in a car and stuff. But we tried to do it in a fashion that was still mysterious and romantic and interesting. The other thing about it is that It's technologically difficult to do it because you have to use this camera. that belongs to the sphere. which has a 16K resolution.

I think there are only two of them in the world. This fear owns one and Sony owns the other one. And that's the only thing that will work in here.

So when you film when you make content I like to joke and say, now we're not just singer-songwriters, we're content providers.

So when you make content, you have to drag that camera around. all over the wherever to wherever the location is on the planet that you want to film something And it's It's a real big deal. It's a pain and it's time consuming. And that's expensive. It's very expensive.

millions of dollars that we spent on this content.

So all those things were a concern for us.

So maybe you need to extend the sphere residency into 2020. One reason we did extend it is because we, okay, we've made this stuff now. And we've made this thing, this thing that we're in called the pop-up. Which is a of Physical experience. We've sort of rebuilt parts of LA here.

So. That was as good a reason as any to extend it. customer demand, of course, of a consumer demand. to put it in business terms. But uh You know, March will be the end of it.

Stay. It's gonna And again, that's fine. But it's been it's been a Yeah. It's been a great experience. You know, we don't have to drag all the equipment and the crew all over the country.

fly back and forth to LA and back here and it's close and it's convenient and So it's been a great thing. How different or the same does it feel? Compared to the 70s when you started out?

Well, that takes me back to one thing I forgot to mention, which is the sound system here. The sound system is like nothing on the planet. There are about 167,000 speakers. in that dome. Is that intimidating?

It was at first. I'm going to God they can hear all the mistakes. But it's, I came to see you too, and I came to see the dead when they were here, the dead and company when they were here, just to get an idea of what it's like. And it is so clear. And so, and you can talk.

And still at the same time you can hear because it's not It's not too loud. And it's not too quiet. And it's just sort of just right. And you can talk to the person next to you, and you can still hear each other without yelling. That's really the thing that we like the most: the sound system.

There's nothing like it, and it's so different from playing. a venue that's made for sports, you know, for football or basketball, but they don't have any acoustical properties really. You know, but this thing was made for music and now film. And so it's wonderful to have something. of that hi quality that that you can Play with.

That's really cool.

So, what if people say, we want more eagles after this? I guess they'll just have to listen to the records. We're gonna film this. I think we already did, as a matter of fact. And so there'll be that.

You know, you two filmed their concerts, and you can see that here sometimes. It's not exactly like the real experience, but it's close. You know, three of us are 78 years old now, including yours truly. Yeah. You know, we all have uh various ailments.

I have what they call a drummer's back, and every drummer I know has a back problem. It just happens. What does that mean for you? Surgery eventually. Is it like a disc that?

Yeah, that's a collection. Yeah. in the lower the lumbar spine. But I've had it for a long time. And it literally comes from drumming.

Yeah. I think so. That and shoulders and hands and I'm not complaining, I'm just saying, you know, it's it's just part of the deal.

Okay. And I can't do anything about it while we're still working. I have to wait. Until we stop so I can you know so I can do something about it. I mean, I do Pilates and I do all that stuff every whatever whatever I can to Two.

mitigate the the the the pain and stuff, but it It could only do so much.

So there there's just wear and tear, you know, on everybody and in the voices, you know. That goes. I'm a worse just talking to you. Because we're in the desert. I know, I'm sorry.

And I know you have a show, and here we are talking, talking, talking. Not tonight, I don't. But, you know, it's hard singing in the desert, and it's very dry. Um But again, I'm not complaining. I'm just glad to be here.

How do you combat the dry?

Well, in the hotel, we all have humidifiers in our rooms. There's not much you can do on stage. I mean, we drink, I drink a lot of water during the show. You touched on this when we first started talking, but. Since you said this all Sounds like it's coming to an end.

What's the legacy of the Eagles? And the memories that it creates for people, you know, and that the The legacy is whatever it means to them. Yeah. And I've said this before, but we don't think about legacy too much. You know, it doesn't It doesn't do.

Uh isn't it uh And we've had a great run, you know, an extraordinary. Run and and uh Left people with a lot of good memories and some good music, and I'll be fine. Mm. when that's done. I love it.

So when you talk about people loving to hear the hits, are there ever times that you have to kind of psych yourself up to play the songs that you've played for fifty-some years now? Yeah. Yeah. Like every night. Which you know they become We went through a period like that where we were just really, ugh, you know.

And then after a while you learn to make friends. With these things, you know with the songs, yeah. You they they become Like an old jacket that you like, or an old. an old car that you love or and and you realize that that they're You have to realize what they mean to other people. You know, it's not about.

us. It's about what they mean to the people we're playing them for, and and therefore you have to play them every night with your heart in it. And you do it because of those people out there, because a lot of them Not only did they pay for a lot of money for tickets, they flew a long way. They made hotel reservations. They went to a lot of trouble and expense to get here.

Some people have come here from Europe to see this show. They come from the UK, they come from Scandinavia. Uh Some people come from the Middle East. Uh come from all over.

So we we have to bear that in mind. Not every song is a gym, but some of them are pretty good. Yeah. But Um You know, Thoreau studied Eastern religions. at Harvard.

which included Buddhism. Which again is about attention. Right. That's one of the things I fear about this modern age and about these phones and about the internet is that that people are losing their ability. to pay attention.

or at least to pay attention to things that have value, to things that matter. There's so much distraction, there's so much garbage on the internet. I mean, the internet is a wonderful thing, I use it every day. But there's also just tons of garbage and misinformation, and I mean, it's all other discussion. But you know what?

Maybe part of the reason that people That your album continues to be the number one seller is that people want.

something That is Not This information overload. I mean, I don't know how to explain it, but it's like there's something there.

Well Despite all the progress we've made in this day and age, sometimes. The past is better.

Sometimes older things are better. Yeah. Why don't we buy antiques? You know, it's why we love old cars and they have up A quality and a personality to them that's sort of missing. But maybe the eagle's music is in that?

I hope so. You know, I mean, that's nice to think. Um We'll see if it matters 100 years from now.

Well, we won't see, but someone will see.

Someone will see. Yeah. But I think we captured our time. You know, and I think we captured some universal themes that will be relevant. From here on out.

you know, things about human nature. And um human behavior. Human desire. Yeah. Human folly.

I think all all those things are in there. Um So yeah, there there must be a reason people are still listening to this stuff. But again, I don't want to think about that too much. I get that. I'm Jane Pawley.

Thank you for listening. And for more of our extended interviews, follow and listen to Sunday Morning on the free Odyssey app. or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm like a lion. You're the prey, I can sense it.

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