According to the New York Post, Henley, 76, was asked about his 1980 arrest as he testified in the criminal trial surrounding a scheme involving allegedly stolen handwritten draft lyrics of “Hotel California” — saying the rock band’s breakup that fall made him depressed, prompting him to call a “madam” to provide him with “some company.”
“I wanted to forget what was going on. I wanted to escape the depression I was in,” Henley said matter-of-factly from the stand in Manhattan Supreme Court when prosecutors asked about his criminal history.
“So, I made a mistake — I called [a] madam and told her I wanted some company. And a few hours later, a young woman arrived at my home.”
Once the groupies left his home, Henley said, a young woman — whom he believed to be “20, 21 years old” — arrived and the two shared intimate details about themselves, including him telling her about the Eagles’ split, he said.
The pair also shared cocaine, which Henley, speaking in a low, raspy tone, admitted that he used “intermittently” at the time.
“We began to talk. We had a little bit of wine. She asked me if I had any cocaine; I said I did. We did some of that,” he told the court.
Don Henley said Monday that he never gave away handwritten pages of draft lyrics to “Hotel California” and other Eagles hits, calling them “very personal"Henley says they were stolen decades ago from his barn in Malibu, California. He testified Monday that he was appalled when the material began turning up at auctions in 2012.
