Joe Walsh Talks Hotel California and Eagles Flight Plans

06/22/2012
. (Gibson) Joe Walsh talked to Gibson about making his new album with producer Jeff Lynne, his distinctive guitar style and how he and Don Felder pushed one another during the recording of the Eagles' classic, "Hotel California."

People always want to know about the guitar interplay on "Hotel California." Did you and Felder spend a great deal of time working out your parts? Not a great deal. Once Don [Henley] had figured out the words, and once the vocal was sung, so we knew where not to play, Felder and I decided we would have multiple guitars playing together, doing the same thing, in different voices. We wanted to build that up within the body of the song, so that it would gradually become more complex. And we decided that, at the end of the song, we would have a go at one another. Felder and I pushed each other. It was competitive. It was like, "Okay, watch this!" We did that on purpose, because it created tension, that effort to be the tougher guy. You can hear that in our performances.

How far along are The Eagles' plans for next year? We're working on a documentary. We've looked at all our archives � lots of archived video and interview footage that dates back even before I joined the band. It's going to cover the entire lifetime of the band. Everybody on the perimeter is interviewed, and we're all interviewed. We've got great people producing and directing it. My best guess is that it will come out around the end of the year. The plan is to put together a new show based on the theme of it being our 40th anniversary as a band, and based on the documentary project. With all that content, we'll go out and have a "Happy Birthday" tour sometime next year. Read the full interview here.

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