Don Felder

Don Felder had already built a reputation across both coasts as a veteran session musician and touring guitarist when he first appeared as an Eagles member in 1974, adding his distinctive approach and smooth rock technique to many of the band’s most familiar songs. Alongside Glenn Frey and then Joe Walsh, Felder helped form one of rock & roll’s strongest guitar pairings, whose trademark interlocking harmonies—most notably on the song “Hotel California” that Felder himself wrote—guided the Eagles into their period of greatest commercial achievement. After the group’s initial breakup in 1980, Felder returned to session duties, collecting numerous prominent credits, scoring film soundtracks, and issuing a solo album. He participated once more in the Eagles’ mid- and late-1990s reunions until his 2001 dismissal triggered a contentious legal dispute with fellow members Frey and Don Henley. Felder subsequently performed with the Don Felder Band he formed and released two further solo albums, the second of which, 2019’s American Rock & Roll, included contributions from an array of well-known rock musicians.

Born September 21, 1947 in Gainesville, Florida, Felder first encountered rock & roll through an Elvis Presley appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, prompting him to begin playing guitar at age 11. During his teenage years he performed in several bands, among them the Continentals, which at different times also included Stephen Stills and future Eagles colleague Bernie Leadon. Following the group’s dissolution, Felder moved to New York and played on the little-known 1970 self-titled debut by the band Flow. Although that ensemble disbanded shortly afterward, Felder maintained his skills by performing with other musicians and thereby acquired proficiency in multiple styles. Disenchanted with the New York environment, he next relocated to Boston, where he worked for two years in a recording studio, learning record-production techniques through engineering sessions. When his former bandmate Leadon visited with his new group, the country-rock Eagles, Felder joined an onstage jam and heeded Leadon’s suggestion to move to California, where abundant session opportunities awaited. Felder made the journey in 1972 and spent the following year recording and touring with folk singer-songwriter David Blue. He was then asked to serve as a touring guitarist for Graham Nash, yet accepted an invitation to join the Eagles despite believing internal tensions might soon end the band.

Felder supplied guitar to key Eagles releases such as the 1974 albums On the Border and One of These Nights, though the lineup still lacked an essential element. That element arrived when guitarist Joe Walsh replaced Leadon and appeared on the Eagles’ landmark 1976 album Hotel California, which became one of the best-selling records ever. After the long-delayed follow-up The Long Run emerged in 1979 and its supporting tour concluded—captured on the 1980 set Eagles Live—the band announced its breakup in 1982. Felder subsequently placed solo tracks on the soundtracks for Heavy Metal and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, then issued the star-studded 1983 solo album Airborne, which featured contributions from Kenny Loggins, Dave Mason, and Timothy B. Schmit among others.

In the aftermath of the Eagles’ split and his own album, Felder remained active by appearing on other artists’ recordings, including the Bee Gees’ Living Eyes, Stevie Nicks’ Bella Donna and The Wild Heart, Diana Ross’ Eaten Alive, Bob Seger’s The Distance, Joe Walsh’s There Goes the Neighborhood and You Bought It—You Name It, and Robin Zander’s self-titled release. For most of the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, Felder largely stepped away from the music industry while speculation grew about a full Eagles reunion tour. Those rumors materialized in spring 1994 when the band reconvened for an MTV concert recording, released that year as Hell Freezes Over, which mixed classic material with two new songs. The subsequent tour achieved massive success, yet a projected studio album by the reunited lineup never appeared. Along with all other past and present Eagles members, Felder performed at the group’s 1998 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and remained with the band until his 2001 firing.

Asserting wrongful termination and multiple contract violations, Felder filed two lawsuits against Henley and Frey. When Felder sought to publish his memoir Heaven and Hell: My Life in The Eagles (1974–2001), Henley and Frey countersued, labeling it a band “tell-all.” Although personal relations were never restored, the legal conflicts among the three musicians were resolved out of court in 2007, and Felder’s book appeared the following year. By that point he had already spent several years touring with his own Don Felder Band, and in 2012—nearly three decades after his first solo effort—he released the follow-up album Road to Forever. Over subsequent years he and his band toured with veteran rock acts such as Foreigner, Styx, and REO Speedwagon while he prepared material for another record. Issued in 2019, American Rock & Roll presented an expansive, celebratory collection featuring an extensive roster of rock guests that included Slash, Sammy Hagar, Bob Weir, Mick Fleetwood, and Alex Lifeson.