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“I’m dropping my voice,” Don Henley mentioned in New York Supreme Courtroom on Wednesday. No shock: The 76-year-old chief of the Eagles was wrapping up his third day of testimony in a case involving allegedly stolen pads containing developmental lyrics for Eagles songs.
After being handed a lozenge by one of many prosecutors within the case, Henley resumed answering questions concerning the pads, a 1979 contract between the band and author Ed Sanders (who was writing a licensed biography of the group), and different issues from his previous. Within the case, through which three males are charged with felony possession of stolen property (the pads containing handwritten lyrics by Henley to Eagles songs), Henley was the third witness — following Eagles supervisor Irving Azoff and a former Christie’s manuscripts government whose firm was provided a number of the pages for public sale however opted in opposition to the sale.
The first day of Henley’s testimony included his recounting of an 1980 incident involving a girl recognized as an underage intercourse employee at his house, in addition to his account of the band’s association with Sanders, who had the lyric pads in his possession for over 30 years (and bought them to Horowitz in 2005). Though many bases have been touched upon that day, there was nonetheless loads of floor to cowl, as the following two days demonstrated.
What did everybody know concerning the contract, and when did they comprehend it?
Attorneys for the defendants — rare-books supplier Glenn Horowitz, rock memorabilia businessman Edward Kosinski, and former Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame curator Craig Inciardi — repeatedly circled again to the Eagles’ authentic 1979 paperwork with Sanders, which arrange the phrases for the licensed biography. Signed by all events, it stipulated that every one “supplies” provided to him for his analysis remained the property of the band, which, within the eyes of Henley and his staff, meant he had no proper to promote them. “There is no such thing as a tape or doc anyplace the place I say, ‘Mr. Sanders, you’re free to maintain this stuff in perpetuity, and also you’re free to promote them,’” Henley testified on Wednesday. Later he added, “I had a common sense understanding that he [Sanders] would return the fabric when he was executed with it.”
The primary batch of lyrics appeared on a memorabilia website, Kosinski’s Gotta Have Rock and Roll, in 2012. Legal professionals for the defendants tried to hammer house the concept that none of their purchasers have been, on the time, informed concerning the contract or given a replica of it. The identical, they introduced up, utilized to Sotheby’s, which was planning to public sale a few of these papers. This argument is without doubt one of the grounds for the defendants’ case: for the reason that pads got to Sanders for his undertaking, they claimed to be unaware of allegations that the papers have been stolen.
One of many first police experiences claimed the pads had been burglarized from Henley’s barn in Malibu, California. Given it was established that a minimum of one bundle of analysis supplies was mailed to Sanders at his house in Woodstock, New York, Inciardi’s lawyer, Stacey Richman, requested Henley, “The concept the gadgets have been stolen out of your barn was maybe an overstatement, truthful to say?”
Kosinski’s lawyer Scott Edelman requested Henley if he knew the situation of the unique copy of the contract: “In whose file wouldn’t it have been for 30 years? Did you ever look?” In each instances Henley mentioned he didn’t know.
Thomas Jirgal, considered one of Henley’s legal professionals, testified that he hadn’t despatched a replica of the contract to Sotheby’s as soon as the public sale home had been contacted concerning the allegedly stolen pads. Jirgal asserted attorney-client privilege quite a few instances, however did say that Sotheby’s didn’t request a replica of the contract both. A testy second got here when Horowitz’s legal professional Jonathan Bach requested Jirgal if he’d reached out to his consumer. Jirgal didn’t bear in mind, main Bach to exclaim, “You had a cellphone, sir? You had e-mail, sir?”
Among the much-discussed yellow word pads lastly emerge
Throughout questioning, Henley was handed a number of manila envelopes and requested to open every and id their contents. Pulling out pads, he started rattling off the names of music drafts, from “After the Thrill Is Gone” to a number of songs from The Long Run (the title observe and “Unhappy Café”). Sadly, the papers weren’t held up for all within the courtroom to see, making the second much less dramatic than it may have been.
Extra particulars about Sanders’ unpublished guide dribble out
In an earlier presentation of proof, a letter from Henley to Sanders was displayed; despatched within the Eighties, it included Henley’s largely optimistic phrases concerning the work Sanders had executed and the way it was a publishable product. As a part of the follow-up questioning, one other a part of the letter was mentioned, this time concerning the ending of the guide.
The Eagles broke up in 1980 whereas Sanders was writing and reporting his work, and particulars of that collapse, which apparently included disparaging feedback from band members, was included in Sanders’ draft. Within the letter to Sanders, Henley questioned if the guide would conclude with that portion or if they need to “let the guide finish on a barely gentler word?” (The Eagles had closing say on the guide’s contents.) As Henley wrote, “I’m wondering how these feedback will age.” It’s unclear how the ultimate draft of the guide wrapped up.
Frank Ocean cameo!
To display Henley’s inclination in direction of authorized motion each time he felt his creations, mental property, or likeness have been infringed upon, legal professionals for the defendants introduced up a number of previous instances. One was Henley’s 2014 lawsuit in opposition to the clothes maker Duluth Buying and selling Co., makers of the Henley shirt. In courtroom, Henley clarified that the go well with was the results of promoting copy for the product. (Though the musician didn’t state it in courtroom, he referred to advertising and marketing textual content that learn: “Don a Henley and Take It Straightforward.”)
Henley was additionally requested concerning the time the band threatened authorized motion in 2014 in opposition to Frank Ocean, who included the melody of “Lodge California” into “American Marriage ceremony” from Nostalgia, Extremely, with out securing permission. “I believe we talked some sense into him,” Henley mentioned. “He’d written new lyrics excessive of the melody. You possibly can’t try this.”
When Richman requested about Azoff’s position in defending the group and its model, Henley appeared genuinely bemused. “Are we a model? Campbell’s Soup is a model.”
The notorious Eagles after-show events made a cameo too
Beneath cross examination from Richman, Henley was requested concerning the Eagles’ reported, long-ago behavior of distributing passes to “handsome girls,” in Richman’s phrase, for after-show events. (Former Eagle Don Felder described these supposedly hedonistic bashes, known as E3, in his memoir Heaven and Hell.)
Requested if the story was true, Henley chortled, “No, however that’s a good suggestion!” The crack resulted within the loudest laughs of the trial up to now.
The notorious 1980 incident at Henley’s house returned
Inside his first hour of questioning on Monday, Henley was requested concerning the notorious incident in 1980, when a intercourse employee (who turned out to be 16, one thing Henley mentioned he didn’t know on the time) went right into a seizure at his house. Each have been finally arrested for medicine, and Henley pled responsible to contributing to the delinquency of a minor and served two years’ probation.
Requested by Edelman whether or not Henley knew the woman’s age, Henley replied, “It by no means occurred to me that she was underage. I don’t ask for ID after they come to my home.” That response prompted Edelman to retort, “Do intercourse employees come to your own home usually?” Replied Henley, “It was only a common assertion.”
Henley was additionally grilled on his drug use on the time and whether or not it may very well be deemed important. “Important?” Henley replied. “Intercourse, medicine, and rock and roll isn’t regulatory. We used cocaine all through the Seventies … If I used to be some sort of a drug-fueled zombie, I couldn’t have completed every little thing I’d completed.” When requested if he continued to make use of cocaine after the 1980 incident, Henley mentioned, “I used it much less and finally stopped.”
Extra moments of levity!
Throughout a dialog concerning the recording of “Lodge California,” Henley was requested by protection legal professionals concerning the variety of guitars used on the music, apparently as a solution to additional display the involvement of Felder, who additionally co-wrote the music with Henley and Frey. When Henley mentioned there have been 4, together with a bass, Decide Curtis Farber mentioned, “I don’t understand how related it’s, however it’s fascinating.”
When the primary batch of lyric pads appeared on Kosinski’s Gotta Have Rock and Roll memorabilia website in 2012, the Eagles have been on tour, a timeline that protection legal professionals needed to recreate. “Let’s return to South Africa,” lawyer Bach introduced. “I’d fairly not,” Henley retorted.
Assistant District Lawyer Aaron Ginandes concluded his preliminary questioning of Henley by asking him concerning the possession of the pads, from the time he purchased them at a stationery retailer to the present day. Every time, Henley answered, “I did.” On his means out of the courtroom for the ultimate time (the Eagles’ “Lengthy Goodbye” tour resumes in Florida this weekend), Henley walked previous the desk the place the defendants sat and gave the slightest of disapproving nods.
