Former Eagles guitarist Don Felder says he practices the Hotel California solo every night before stepping out on stage.
The 78-year-old left the Eagles in 2001, but hasn’t left the track he co-wrote with Don Henley and Glenn Frey behind him. He says that nailing the iconic guitar solo, as it is on the record, every night is an obligation to his fans.
“I’ve played it so many times,” he tells Ultimate Classic Rock. He played it “hundreds of times” with the Eagles, and has always included it in his solo shows, his trademark white Gibson EDS-1275 double-neck in hand. He never takes it for granted.
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“The one thing I do at every show, before I go on stage, is work on Hotel California, because I don’t want to disappoint anybody,” he explains. “Everybody knows every note in that solo, and I’m afraid if I started jamming on it people would go, ‘What is he doing? That’s wrong! That’s not the solo! Is he having a moment? Or maybe he’s just too old to remember it?’”
That’s an understandable concern. With the solo rightly regarded as one of the best, he understands its appeal is just as big as it was half a century ago. Fans are paying big money to hear the track live.
“I think people want to hear it as they remember it from 50 years ago,” Felder adds. “So I do my best to play that, and it really takes the most amount of intense concentration to execute that solo over and over. You never want to just go on autopilot with it.”
He’s also jokingly blamed “lugging that beast [double-neck] around for the last 50 years,” as the reason for his back problems. Angine de Poitrine, take note.
Chris Holt is the Eagles’ latest guitar recruit and has called trading solos with Joe Walsh on Hotel California a “terrifying” experience.
The 1976 track centers on its elongated guitar solo, and though it is now considered a masterpiece, its composition relied on a heavy dose of luck and vision. There were some strange gear picks behind the scenes, too.
