Don Henley testified Monday that a “bad decision” led to his arrest in 1980 when authorities said they found drugs and an overdosed 16-year-old at the rock star’s Los Angeles home. worker.
Henry was asked about the arrest while testifying at the criminal trial, which he said contained stolen handwritten drafts of lyrics to “Hotel California” and other Eagles hits.
Henry said he called a sex worker one night in November 1980 because he “wanted to get out of the depression he was in over the breakup of his superstar band.”
“I wanted to forget everything that happened in the band, but I made a wrong decision that I regret to this day. I have lived with it for 44 years. Today, in this courtroom, I still live with it. Bad decision, “The 76-year-old testified in a hoarse, drawling voice.
Henry said that, as before, he did not learn the girl’s age until after his arrest, that he took cocaine and slept with the girl but never had sex with her.
“I don’t remember the anatomical details, but I know there was no sex,” he said.
He said he called the firefighters, who checked the girl’s health, found she was fine and left, promising to take care of her. Authorities said at the time that paramedics called police after discovering her naked body.
Henry said Monday that she had recovered and was preparing to leave with a friend she called before police arrived hours later.
Authorities said at the time they found cocaine, sleeping pills and marijuana at his Los Angeles home.
In 1981, Henry pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was sentenced to probation, fined $2,500 and ordered to undergo a drug education program to have some drug possession charges dismissed.
Henry spoke in a New York courtroom Monday about something else — his description of how a handwritten page from the band’s 1976 blockbuster album made its way from his barn in Southern California to a New York auction decades later.
But a prosecutor asked about the circumstances of the arrest early on, apparently before defense attorneys.
The Grammy-winning singer, drummer and vocal artists’ rights activist is prosecutors’ star witness in the trial in which three collectibles professionals face charges including unlawful possession of stolen property.
They are accused of conspiring to conceal the ownership of the documents in an attempt to sell them and deflect Henry’s demand for their return.
The defendants – rare book dealer Glenn Horowitz and rock memorabilia experts Craig Incialdi and Edward Kosinski – have pleaded not guilty. Their lawyers said there was nothing illegal in the handling of the lyrics sheet.
The dispute involves approximately 100 scraps of paper with lyrics from several songs on the “Hotel California” album, including “Life in the Fast Lane,” “New Kid in Town” and what would become the title track of one of the songs. The most enduring song in rock music. Known for its lengthy guitar solo and mind-bendingly poetic lyrics, the song is still played hundreds of millions of times every year.
The defendants obtained the pages through writer Ed Sanders, who began working with the Eagles in 1979 on a biography of the band that was never put into print.
Henry testified Monday that he never leaked handwritten draft lyrics to “Hotel California” and other Eagles hits, calling them “very personal.”
