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Credit: Michael Helms
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DON
FELDER
Press Release, September 18, 2017
Press Release, February 16, 2017
Press Release, August
22, 2016
Press Release, May
11, 2016
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Release, May 22, 2014
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Release, April 23, 2014
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Release, March 11, 2014
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Release, February 4, 2014
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Release, May 22, 2013
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Release, March 18, 2013
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Release, November 5, 2012
“When
I was 14, I saw B.B. King at a show in a giant barn in a part of
town I wasn’t supposed to be in. I was the only young person
there. He was amazing. Women were screaming, and he was playing
his ass off. I had to shake his hand afterwards. That moment changed
my life.”
Don Felder is renowned as the former lead guitarist of The Eagles,
one of the most popular and influential rock groups of our time.
The band’s record-setting compilation Their Greatest Hits
(1971-1975) sold over 29 million copies in the U.S. alone and was
awarded by the RIAA the top-selling album of the 20th Century. A
member of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 1998, Felder served
as a key member of The Eagles for 27 years, putting his mark on
numerous Eagles milestones. Felder originated and co-wrote The Eagles’
biggest hit – the iconic, Grammy-studded smash “Hotel
California” – along with fan favorites like “Victim
of Love” and “Those Shoes.” He became immediately
celebrated for his lyrical, signature guitar work on legendary songs
like “Life in the Fast Lane,” “One of These Nights,”
“New Kid In Town,” and numerous more.
After leaving that group
in 2001, Felder also became a New York Times bestselling
author when his riveting confessional memoir Heaven and Hell:
My Life in The Eagles proved a major commercial triumph upon
publication in 2008.
Growing up in the Gainesville,
FL local music scene, Don Felder would incongruously encounter a
number of the greatest talents that would go on to change rock and
roll history. In high school, he formed a band with a young Stephen
Stills; Felder also gave guitar lessons to a teenaged Tom Petty
at the local music store, and The Allman Brothers were also local
pals. “Duane Allman was first person I ever saw play electric-slide
guitar,” Felder recalls. “I said, ‘You’ve
got to show me how to do that,’ so we sat on his mother’s
floor in Daytona Beach and Duane taught me how to play slide.”
Florida is also where a young Felder would first meet Bernie Leadon,
a founding member of The Eagles who would be instrumental in bringing
his childhood friend into the band. In fact, it was Leadon who encouraged
him to come out to Los Angeles, where Felder found himself working
both with The Eagles and in both sessions and live performances
for numerous music legends spanning the musical spectrum: The Bee
Gees, Bob Seger, Michael Jackson, Alice Cooper, Kenny Loggins, David
Crosby, Graham Nash, Boz Scaggs, Warren Zevon, Joni Mitchell, Stevie
Nicks, Vince Gill, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Paul Simon, Diana
Ross, Barbra Streisand – and even and old friend, Steven Stills.
“On some level, Bernie is really responsible for all this
craziness,” Felder laughs.
Putting all the tumult
and glory he’d experienced to that point into perspective
gave new urgency to the creation of Road to Forever–
only Felder’s second solo effort in a storied, four-decade-plus
sojourn through rock history. Road to Forever represents
the culmination of a personal journey of introspection that Felder
began over ten years ago. In 2001, he suffered an emotionally-devastating
double blow – separating acrimoniously from The Eagles for
the last time while facing the end of his first marriage, which
had lasted 29 years and produced four children. “Every identity
I’d been attached to – musician, husband, and father
– was being taken away,” he says. To heal, Felder began
writing down as many memories as he could, putting his past in perspective.
Finding these musings compelling, Felder was inspired to write a
book, and connected with legendary Hollywood dealmaker Michael Ovitz
to set it up. “Two weeks later, I went to New York with a
three-page synopsis, and received four offers from publishers,”
Felder says. “Now I was forced to reflect on my life.”
That introspection inspired him to “write out the stories
of my life as songs. After I collected myself, I found I needed
to go out and play music again, and that’s how I began recording
Road to Forever.”
“Who would ever
thought that a guitar player from Gainesville would go on to be
in The Eagles, and then become a best-selling author?” Felder
continues. I had to figure all that out for myself, and I’m
glad that I did. In the process of making Road to Forever,
I found out who I really am – I had to find out what happened
when I almost lost it all.”
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