[ad_1]
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
“I’m losing my voice,” Don Henley said Wednesday in New York Supreme Court. No wonder: The Eagles’ 76-year-old frontman was wrapping up his third day of testimony in a case involving allegedly stolen notepads containing development lyrics to Eagles songs.
After being handed a pill by one of the prosecutors in the case, Henley continued to answer questions about the pads, a 1979 contract between the band and writer Ed Sanders (who was writing an authorized biography of the group), and other matters from his past. . . In the case, in which three men are accused of criminal possession of stolen property (the pads containing Henley’s handwritten lyrics to Eagles songs), Henley was the third witness, after the Eagles manager , Irving Azoff, and a former Christie’s manuscripts executive whose company was offered some of the pages for auction but chose not to sell them.
The first day of Henley’s testimony included his account of a 1980 incident involving a woman identified as an underage sex worker at his home, as well as his account of the band’s deal with writer Ed Sanders, who had the lyric notebooks in his possession for more than 30 years (and sold them to Horowitz in 2005). Although many bases were touched that day, there was still a lot of ground to cover, as the next two days demonstrated.
What did everyone know about the contract and when did they know it?
Lawyers for the defendants — rare book dealer Glenn Horowitz, rock memorabilia entrepreneur Edward Koskinski and former Rock and Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi — repeatedly returned to the original 1979 Eagles document. with Sanders, who established the terms of the authorized biography. Signed by all parties, it stipulated that all “materials” provided for his investigation remained the property of the gang, which, in the eyes of Henley and his team, meant that he had no right to sell them. “There is no tape or document anywhere where it says, ‘Mr. Sanders, you are free to keep these items in perpetuity and you are free to sell them,’” Henley testified Wednesday. He later added: “I had a common sense understanding that he (Sanders) would return the material when he was done with it.”
The first batch of lyrics turned up at an auction house, Kosinski’s Gotta Have Rock and Roll, in 2012. Lawyers for the defendants tried to drive home the point that none of their clients, at the time, were told about the contract nor were they given a copy. of it. The same thing, they proposed, with Sotheby’s, which planned to auction some of those papers. This argument is one of the defendants’ arguments: since the pads were given to Sanders for his project, they claimed to have no knowledge of the allegations that the papers had been stolen.
One of the first police reports claimed that the pads had been stolen from Henley’s barn in Malibu, California. Since it was established that at least one package of investigative materials was mailed to Sanders at his home in Woodstock, New York, Inciardi’s attorney, Stacey Richman, asked Henley: “The idea that the items were stolen of his barn was perhaps an exaggeration. Is that fair to say?”
Kosinski’s attorney, Scott Edelman, asked Henley if he knew the location of the original copy of the contract: “Whose file would it have been in for 30 years? Did you ever look? In both cases, Henley said he didn’t know.
Thomas Jirgal, one of Henley’s attorneys, testified that he had not sent a copy of the contract to Sotheby’s once the auction house was contacted about the allegedly stolen pads. Jirgal asserted attorney-client privilege numerous times, but said Sotheby’s also did not request a copy of the contract. A moment of irritation occurred when Horowitz’s lawyer, Jonathan Bach, asked Jirgal if he had contacted his client. Jirgal did not remember, prompting Bach to exclaim, “You had a phone, Mister? You had emailMister?”
Finally some of the much talked about yellow notepads emerge
During interrogation, Henley was given several manila envelopes and asked to open them and identify their contents. Pulling out pads, she began reciting the names of draft songs, from “After the Thrill Is Gone” to several songs from The long-term (the title track and “Sad Café”). Unfortunately, the documents were not displayed for everyone in the room to see, making the moment less dramatic than it could have been.
More details leak about Sanders’ unpublished book
In an earlier discovery, a letter from Henley to Sanders was shown; Submitted in the 1980s, it included largely positive words from Henley about the work Sanders had done and that it was a publishable product. As part of the follow-up questioning, another part of the letter was discussed, this time about the ending of the book.
The Eagles broke up in 1980 while Sanders was writing and reporting their work, and the details of that collapse, which apparently included testy comments from band members, were included in Sanders’ draft. In the letter to Sanders, Henley wondered if the book would conclude with that part or if they should “let the book end on a slightly softer note.” (The Eagles had the final say on the book’s content.) As Henley wrote: “I wonder how those comments will age.” It is unclear how he concluded the final draft of the book.
Frank Ocean cameo!
To demonstrate Henley’s penchant for taking legal action whenever he felt his creations, intellectual property, or image were being infringed, lawyers for the defendants cited several previous cases. One was Henley’s 2014 lawsuit against clothing manufacturer Duluth Trading Co., makers of the Henley shirt. In court, Henley clarified that the lawsuit was the result of advertising copy for the product. (Although the musician did not testify in court, he referred to marketing copy that said: “Don a Henley and Take It Easy.”)
Henley was also asked about the time the band threatened legal action in 2014 against Frank Ocean, who incorporated the “Hotel California” melody into “American Wedding.” Nostalgia, Ultra, without obtaining permission. “I think we talked some sense into him,” Henley said. “He had written new lyrics on top of the melody. You can not do that”.
When Richman asked about Azoff’s role in protecting the group and its brand, Henley seemed genuinely taken aback. “Are we a brand? “Campbell’s soup is a brand.”
The infamous Eagles after-show parties also made a cameo
During Richman’s questioning, Henley was asked about the Eagles’ long-standing custom of handing out passes to “pretty women,” in Richman’s words, for after-show parties. (Former Eagle Don Felder described these supposedly hedonistic attacks, called E3, in his memoirs The heaven and the hell.)
When asked if the story was true, Henley laughed: “No, but it’s a good idea!” The crack provoked the loudest laughter of the trial to date.
The infamous 1980 incident at the Henley home is back
During his first hour of questioning on Monday, Henley was asked about the infamous 1980 incident, when a sex worker (who turned out to be 16, something Henley said he didn’t know at the time) suffered an attack in his home. Both were eventually arrested for drugs and Henley pleaded guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor and served two years of probation.
When Edelman asked if Henley knew the girl’s age, Henley responded: “It never occurred to me that she was a minor. “I don’t ask for identification when they come to my house.” That response prompted Edelman to reply: “Do sex workers come to your house often?” Henley responded: “It was just a general statement.”
Henley was also questioned about his drug use at the time and whether it could be considered significant. “Significant?” Henley replied. “Sex, drugs and rock and roll are not regulated. We did cocaine during the ’70s… If I were some kind of drug-fueled zombie, I couldn’t have accomplished everything I accomplished.” When asked if he continued to use cocaine after the 1980 incident, Henley said: “I used it less and eventually stopped.”
More moments of lightness!
During a conversation about the recording of “Hotel California,” defense attorneys asked Henley about the number of guitars used in the song, apparently as a way to further demonstrate the involvement of Felder, who also co-wrote the song with Henley and Frey. When Henley said there were four of them, including a bass, Judge Farber said: “I don’t know how important It is, but it is interesting.”
When the first batch of lyric pads appeared on Kosinski’s Gotta Have Rock and Roll memorabilia site in 2012, the Eagles were on tour. “Let’s go back to South Africa,” announced lawyer Bach. “I’d rather not,” Henley replied.
Assistant District Attorney Aaron Ginandes concluded his initial questioning of Henley by asking him about the ownership of the sanitary pads, from the time he purchased them at a stationery store to the present day. Each day, Henley responded, “I did it.” As he left the room for the last time, he passed the table where the defendants were sitting and nodded slightly in disapproval.