Interview With Don Henley

"There's too much vapid pablum on the radio, too much airheaded, cliched junk that doesn 't mean anything. There's very little that grownups and thinking people can relate to out there these days."

In commenting on the music industry in general, Henley said.

As everyone knows, the music industry today is going through some serious changes. It's not in very good shape. The business as we have known it, has been forever changed by the advent of the digital age. Copyrighted works are being stolen, right and left, on the Internet and this is killing the industry. The Internet is basically destroying Copyrights altogether and, apparently there isn't much to be done about it. Congress is siding witht the digital companies for the sake of commerce, and intellectual property is the big loser in this game.

I'm just thankful that I'm not just starting out in the business now because the traditional income streams are all drying up. Soon, touring may be the only means of real income for a musician and so those acts who can't deliver a great live performance will be in trouble. The public needs to understand that internet priracy doesn't just affect rich rock stars or the people that they see on televison all the time. It takes the biggest toll on the little guys, the songwriters in Nashville who only write for a living and don't perform. The people who have second jobs just so they can crank out a song or two every month. It also affects the roadies and the truck drivers and the people who work at the CD pressing plants and the retail outlets. The collapse of the record industry will have a ripple effect that is wider and more far-reaching than most people can imagine. They say that in four or five years, the CD will disappear and that we will get our music via some kind of elctronic, digital device. I lament the day that I will not have something I can hold in hands. When I was a kid I was always fascinated by the covers of the vinyl albums and I read every word of the liner notes When all that got shrunk down to CD size is was disappointing, but at least there was something to look at, something to hold and to read. If the CD does disappear, I think that the whole experience of listening to music will be diminished, but maybe other people don't see it that way, I don't know.

In any case, this is another reason we decided to go with Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. We knew that we had millions of good, honest, hard-working fans out thee who would want to go and get this CD-and we were right. We are extremely grateful for all of our fans and we consider ourselves to truly fortunate and blessed. Without them, we wouldn't be here. They are the reason we continue to do what we do. That's the bottom line."