Henley testifies about draft pages
Three experts on trial over sheets’ ownership
NEW YORK — Seated in a courtroom witness box, Don Henley opened a large brown envelope Tuesday and paged through the aging yellow sheets of a legal pad.
“Well, it’s got two song titles written on the top,” he explained when asked what it contained. “‘After the Thrill is Gone’ and ‘One of These Nights.’”
Then came another envelope and pad, and another, and one more. They bore 1970s drafts of lyrics to two other Eagles hits, “The Long Run” and “The Sad Cafe,” in what Henley identified as his handwriting and occasionally that of band co-founder Glenn Frey.
It was the first glimpse in court of some of the physical pages at the heart of a trial involving handwritten drafts of lyrics to several Eagles songs, including the megahit “Hotel California,” and Henley’s decadelong effort to reclaim the documents.
After spending Monday telling the New York court about topics from Eagles songwriting to his past personal troubles, the Eagles co-founder underwent more questioning Tuesday from lawyers for three collectibles experts who are on trial.
Henley was asked about the writing of “Hotel California” and how he didn’t notice for decades that the handwritten pages were missing. He was also asked about his past cocaine use — retorting that he was no “drug-filled zombie” — and even about a $96 limousine bill from 1973.
He continued to insist that he never voluntarily gave up handwritten sheets from the Eagles’ 1976 release “Hotel California,” the third-bestselling album ever in the U.S.
“I believed that my property was stolen,” Henley said.
The defendants — Edward Kosinski, Craig Inciardi and Glenn Horowitz — are charged with scheming to conceal the lyrics pages’ disputed ownership and sell them despite knowing that Henley claimed they had no right.