Eagles co-founder Don Henley testifies ‘poor decision’ led to past drugs and sex worker arrest
The 76-year-old was in court for the ongoing trial over the band's stolen 'Hotel California' lyrics
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Eagles co-founder Don Henley took the stand in a New York court Monday for the ongoing criminal trial over the band’s stolen lyrics.
Henley also addressed an arrest that occurred in 1980 after authorities found drugs and a 16-year-old sex worker at his Los Angeles home.
He testified he had called for the sex worker because he "wanted to escape the depression I was in" over The Eagles break up.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I wanted to forget about everything that was happening with the band, and I made a poor decision which I regret to this day. I’ve had to live with it for 44 years. I’m still living with it today, in this courtroom. Poor decision," the 76-year-old told the court, according to The Associated Press.
Don Henley addressed his past arrest and misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor during his testimony during the trial over the band's allegedly stolen lyrics. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Henley said, as he has in the past, he didn’t know the girl’s age until after the arrest and did do cocaine with her, but did not engage in sex.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I don’t remember the anatomical details, but I know there was no sex," he said.
The girl suffered an overdose, and Henley called firefighters, who checked her condition and found her to be OK. Then they left with the singer promising to take care of her.
According to Henley, as she was preparing to leave with someone she’d had him call, police arrived and found cocaine, quaaludes and marijuana.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Henley described his hiring of an, unknown to him at the time, underage sex worker as a "poor decision" and said he regrets it to this day. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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In 1981, Henley pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was sentenced to probation and a $2,500 fine, and he requested a drug education program to get some possession charges dismissed.
The incident came up as Henley was on the stand to detail his version of how handwritten pages from The Eagles development of their 1976 album "Hotel California" made their way from his Southern California barn to New York auctions decades later.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Henley’s arrest was brought up by prosecutors, apparently before the defense could highlight it.
Representatives for Henley told Fox News Digital he was unavailable for comment at this time.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, MAY 7, 1977, THE SONG 'HOTEL CALIFORNIA' BY THE EAGLES HITS NO. 1
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Eagles, from left, Timothy B. Schmit, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh in 2013. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
The "Boys of Summer" singer testified against Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski, who were charged with conspiracy in the fourth degree for allegedly attempting to sell manuscripts that included "developmental lyrics to the Eagles song 'Hotel California,'" according to the original indictment filed by the New York District Attorney's office in 2022.
The manuscripts are collectively valued at over $1 million, according to the district attorney.
According to the indictment, the defendants acquired the pages through Ed Sanders, a nonfiction writer who was working on a biography of the band that was never published. Sanders reportedly kept the handwritten work and later sold the pages to Horowitz, a rare-book dealer, for $50,000.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Per the AP, Sanders said Henley's assistant had sent him the documents for the biography project in a 2005 email to Horowitz.
The three men charged, from left, Craig Inciardi, Edward Kosinski and Glenn Horowitz, appeared in court last week. (Mary Atlaffer)
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Horowitz then sold pages to Inciardi, a former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator, and memorabilia collector Kosinski. Inciardi and Kosinski attempted to sell pages of the lyrics through Kosinski's company, Gotta Have Rock and Roll, but were caught by Henley in 2012.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Henley then purchased the "original handwritten lyrics for the Eagles song ‘Hotel California’ written in Don Henley's hand," for $8,500 on April 25, 2012, according to the indictment.
Henley testified to a grand jury that he never gave the biographer the lyrics and reported them stolen in 2012 after Inciardi and Kosinski began to offer them at auction houses.
Last week, Irving Azoff, the Eagles' longtime manager, testified that handwritten "Hotel California" lyric pages were initially "stolen" by Sanders.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A writer named Ed Sanders was set to work on a biography of The Eagles, but it was never published. Sanders is allegedly the one who took the lyric pages and sold them to Horowitz. (RB/Redferns)
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"All these lyrics are very personal to him, they’re a part of musical history, and it was simply unacceptable to him that they be stolen by anyone else," Azoff testified. He admitted that he had never known Henley to give away any of his work, including most of the lyrics he created with fellow Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey.
Fox News Digital's Tracy Wright and The Associated Press contributed to this report.