OCR Text |
Show music Don Henley’s natural obsession Ex-Eagle comes to the rescue: He’s set on saving Thoreau’s Walden Woodsfrom development row to keep developers outof the L.A. canyons that are home to him, Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty and others,and whois working to protect Texas’ Caddo Lake, where he caughthisfirstfish. Says actress-writer Carrie Fisher, “When you go to his house, he has mail piled up; he’s on every mailinglist in the world. And he answers every letter or sends checks. He’s hilarious.” Hegets his friends involved, too, Fisher says. “He’ll call and say, “You have to send $500 to such-and-such cause.’ Or he’ll send us material and explain whatit is — “They're going to pave paradise and put up a parkinglot.’ And he’s so bright, articulate, persuasive and persistent that you just doit.” That, apparently, is how Henley corrals stars like fellow ex-Eagle Glenn Frey for concerts. And big-name friends like Fisher, ex-girlfriend Dana Delaney, Michael Douglas and Meryl Streepfor adviso- ry and fund-raising duties. Henley long has had high- profile friends. In fact, he also couldn’t define for myself. Emerson’s essay on self-reliance also gave me the courage to become a songwriter.” He fans wish he were writing now. His latest album, the 1989 Grammy-winner The End of the Inno- cence, was an insightfulreflection on the ’80s. They've been waiting ever since. Walden, in part, has kept him from the studio — a point he doesn’t mind making clear to those who suggest that, like many celebrity do-gooders, he’s a publicity-seeking dilettante. “Artists always catch flak for getting involved. People think we're doing this to enhance our careers. We're not; it takes ‘time away.” As it stands now, he'll begin work on a ‘new album after the first of the year. He’s also embarking on a book-signing tour for Heaven is Under Our Feet, for which he gathered en- Behing a Mass,, has a permanent, infamous place in presidential politics as owner of the Aspen house in which Democratic candidate Gary Hart met Donna Rice. This incident nearly gives him apoplexy when mentioned, since, as he ex- n the videos for his eloquent, lovesick songs, 44-year-old former Eagle Don Henleyalways is slickly groomed and cool — the videos are shot in shadowy black and white. But on this day in stormy Montauk, out on NewYork's Long Island, Henley comes in from the rain looking like a disheveled mountain man — blue work shirt and jeans, frizzing brown-gray hair and beard. His raspy voice, so effective in songs like Sunset Grill and The Endof the Innocence, sounds so tortured that you want to make him a cup oftea The voice is done in by the pressure ofa five-month concert tour. “My doctor told me notto talk,” he croaks. So whyis he? What's he even doing Colo., when he could be resting? He’s here because he’s a man obsessed with “saving” Walden Woods — a patch of Massachusetts that inspired Henry David Thoreau and now is slated for office development. And because he’s doinghis part in a benefit trade-off gig that such musicians as Billy Joel and Paul Simon have going with each other. Henley had to put in an appearance here, at Joel’s concert for the Nature Conservancy, to get Joel to perform at three Madison Square Garden concerts on Oct..21, 22 and 24 to raise money for Walden here, on the opposite end of the coun- of Walden. This, after all, is the man who organized Mulholland Tomor- try from his homes in L.A. and Aspen, 12 USA WEEKEND * October 13, 199 (Also on the bill: Bonnie Raitt.) H. friends are not surprised at the fervor with which Henley speaks plains, the press put his house under siege even though he didn’t introduce Hart to Rice. “I don’t know who did. Gary was with his wife.” ae n earlier lives, Henley was the drummerfor the Eagles and writer of such era-defining songs as Hotel California and Life in the Fast Lane. In a roundabout way, it was Walden that inspired him. While Henley was growing up in Linden, Texas, his schoolteacher mother taught him to love reading; his farmer father imparted a love of the land. Those loves connected in an appreciation of Thoreau and his crony Ralph Waldo Emerson “Their works articulated things devel ; ii partyne vithHenley, featswelcome 2 about nature and spirituality that I vironmental essays bythe likes of Jack Nicholson and Paula Abdul What Henleyreally wants is to go home, “sleep in my own bed and go for a hamburger at the Sunset Grill.” Still, he keeps plugging away. “Artists have a forum. You should use celebrity It’s not just for getting a good table.” By Laurie Werner Photograph by Gwendolen Cates, Outline |