After decades spent shaping the sound of one of America’s most iconic rock bands, Don Felder has no illusions about what’s expected of him. “I think it’s a big mistake for any artist to go on stage and play too many new songs,” he admits. “Typically, they’re there because of your history… when they hear them, it takes them back to where they were when they first heard the song and that time and that nostalgia.”
It’s this balancing act—between legacy and creative freedom—that threads through The Vault: 50 Years of Music, his upcoming album due out May 23. “What happened was, I had my recording studio out in Malibu… and when I finally decided, after fire number five, to leave Malibu and move into Los Angeles, I packed up my console, my tape machines, all my tapes, everything, and I just put it in storage,” he recalls.
The process of unearthing that archive — reels, cassettes, DAT tapes, CDs, many of them untouched since the 70s — sparked something. “I heard some really interesting ideas that I had started but never finished,” Felder says. Tracks originally meant for The Eagles, sketched in the era of reel-to-reel, were revived and reshaped. One, originally dubbed “Slide On”, became “Move On”, reimagined with the grace that age can lend to parting ways. “It was a better, graceful way to say to someone you’re breaking up with, ‘move on,’ instead of just ‘slide on.’”
The personal thread runs deep on the album. On “Together Forever”, Felder brought in his daughter Leah to harmonize, turning a rediscovered chord progression into something timeless. “It was a gift,” he says simply.
There are thematic echoes of his past in “A Hollywood Victim”, a track that flirts with the territory of “Hotel California”. “People are set up wanting to come to LA, wanting to have that stardom… and then all of a sudden, it just smacks you in the face,” he explains. “It’s a story about what this girl does when she’s attracted to the lure of the silver screen… and finds out that it’s really a lot harder than you think.”
His perspective turns inward on “Free At Last”, which he describes as “a glorious thing that’s going to happen… you’ll be free of all these physical and emotional and the scars you have on your heart from going through life.” The track was inspired by his devotion to meditation, his reflections on mortality, and a desire to write about “crossing over” without fear.
Not every song is heavy. “Digital World”, another standout, confronts modern dependence on screens—a concern close to home. “When COVID hit, my son was literally sentenced to two years in his bedroom,” Felder says. “That whole generation… got so absorbed in digital occupation that it’s addictive. It really is.”
Felder doesn’t hide his unease with what he calls the “technically perfect” approach to music production today. “You don’t have to have a human play guitar,” he says. “You don’t have to have a human play drum loops. You don’t have to have a human — somebody that sings out of tune, you can fix that… When we made Eagles records, we made the most technical, perfect songs and productions we could. But it was our playing.”
And yes, he still hauls out the double-neck guitar for “Hotel California”. “There’s only one thing that sounds like an electric 12-string guitar,” he laughs. “So there’s no other way that I could ever figure out how to play ‘Hotel California’ without using a 12-string and a six-string.”
Among the album’s more emotional moments is “Blue Skies”, a tribute to Glenn Frey, his longtime bandmate and frequent creative foil. “I reached out several times… just to maybe have a lunch and shake hands, hug each other, say it’s okay. I don’t want anything back,” Felder says. “So after his passing, it really made me regret that we never really had the opportunity to just, you know, hug each other and say, we did some great stuff together.”
Originally written a decade ago, the song was finally completed with help from a string quartet and Elton John’s keyboardist, Kim Bullard, who arranged the score. “At the very end, all the girls in that quartet are singing, ‘I wish you blue skies.’ Really subtle. But that’s really what I wanted to do.”
Felder’s Rolodex remains impressive. Names like David Paich, Steve Lukather, Greg Bissonette, and Todd Sucherman lend their talents across the record. “I know them well enough to be able to cast who should play on what track,” he says. That attention to casting gives the album cohesion, even though some ideas date back to the Heavy Metal era, which he fully re-recorded.
Touring with Styx and Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon is next on the docket — more than 40 shows through September, paced carefully to avoid burnout. “I love to walk out on stage and play the songs that I helped write, create, record, produce… The reaction from those people is just so heartwarming,” he says. “I guess I’m just a junkie when it comes to playing music for people.”
As for joining another band? Not likely. “You can either look at that as a loss, or you can look at it as that situation did what it was meant to do… And the one thing that I was really appreciative of after I left The Eagles was that I could do whatever I wanted to do.”
At this stage in his life and career, Felder is not chasing anything. Not hits, not validation, not money. “As a matter of fact, I don’t need to make another dollar as long as I live. But I love to play.”
