Early bands Around that time, he met
Bernie Leadon, who later became one of the founding members of the
Eagles. Leadon replaced
Stephen Stills in the Continentals, which eventually changed its name to the Maundy Quintet. Felder and Leadon both attended
Gainesville High School. Felder gave guitar lessons at a local music shop for about 18 months, at which time he also learned how to play slide guitar from
Duane Allman. Although Felder claimed that he taught a young
Tom Petty how to play the guitar, Petty said that he was never taught the guitar by Felder, clarifying that Felder instead taught him how to play piano. The Maundy Quintet recorded and released a 45-rpm single on the Tampa-based Paris Tower label in 1967, which received airplay in north-central Florida. After the Maundy Quintet broke up, Felder went to
Manhattan, New York City, with a band called Flow, which released a self-titled improvisational rock fusion album in 1970. While in New York, Felder improved his mastery of improvisation on the guitar and learned various styles. After Flow broke up, Felder moved to
Boston where he got a job in a recording studio.
Eagles In early January 1974, Felder was called by the
Eagles to add slide guitar to their song "
Good Day in Hell" and some guitar solos to "
Already Gone". The first album that the Eagles released after the lineup change was
Hotel California, which became a major international bestseller. Felder submitted "16 or 17 tracks" that resulted in the songs "Victim of Love" and the album's title track, "
Hotel California". For the title track, after the arrangement and instrumentation had been refined, several complete takes were recorded. The best parts were then spliced together, in all 33 edits on the two‑inch master, to create the final version. In contrast, "Victim of Love" was recorded in a live session in studio, apart from the lead vocal and the harmony on the choruses which were added later. Felder initially sang the lead vocals in the many early takes of "Victim of Love", but the band felt that his efforts were not up to the required standard, and Henley then took over as lead vocalist. After the release of
Hotel California and the tour that followed, the Eagles found themselves under tremendous pressure to repeat this success and tensions were made worse by
alcohol,
cocaine and other drugs. Bassist
Randy Meisner left the band after the tour due to exhaustion and he was replaced by former
Poco bassist
Timothy B. Schmit, who had also replaced him in that band. Nevertheless, the fighting did not end with the addition of the mild-mannered Schmit, but it rather intensified during the recording of
The Long Run, which took 18 months to complete, and Felder and Glenn Frey were especially hostile to one another, despite respecting each other's musical abilities. According to Henley, Felder attempted to gain more control by co-opting Walsh so frequently that it was the pair up against himself and Frey when the band was dividing into factions and even Henley and Frey began to have their differences, thus causing the Eagles to disband. At a concert in
Long Beach, California, for Senator
Alan Cranston on July 31, 1980, known as the "Long Night at Wrong Beach", things hit a breaking point in the band. The animosity between Felder and Frey boiled over before the show began, after Felder said "You're welcome – I guess" to Cranston and his wife, thus offending Frey. He angrily confronted Felder, and the pair began to threaten beatings throughout the show. Felder recalls Frey telling him during "Best of My Love", "I'm gonna kick your ass when we get off the stage." After the concert, Felder smashed, according to Frey, Felder's "cheapest guitar". "It was becoming the 'Glenn and Don Show' and they expected all of us to fall in line with their whims and wishes," said Felder. "I hate politics and had no desire to campaign for anybody, plus I never met Cranston before. Being in the band was no longer a fun experience." The Eagles disbanded shortly thereafter.
Post-1970s career Following the 1980 disbandment of the Eagles, Felder focused more on his family, but also embarked on a solo career, concentrating on film composition and session work. He worked on the
Bee Gees' 1981 album
Living Eyes as a session guitarist. Through his association with Bee Gees producer
Albhy Galuten, Felder made session appearances on albums by artists as diverse as
Diana Ross,
Barbra Streisand, and
Andy Gibb. During this time, he also contributed guitar work to
Stevie Nicks' first two solo albums,
Bella Donna and
The Wild Heart. In 1983, Felder released his first solo album entitled
Airborne. The album's single "Never Surrender", co-written with
Kenny Loggins, was a minor hit, having also appeared on the soundtrack to the popular motion picture teen comedy
Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In 1985, Henley offered Felder $5,000 a week (US $ in dollars) to go on tour with him, but Felder turned it down, citing both dissatisfaction with the pay and a desire to not go on tour. Among his musical film credits in the 1980s are two songs on the soundtrack to the 1981 animated cult film
Heavy Metal—titled "
Heavy Metal (Takin' a Ride)" (with former bandmates Don Henley and
Timothy B. Schmit contributing backing vocals) and "All of You", with
Jefferson Starship's
Mickey Thomas as backing vocalist—as well as the title track "Wild Life" from the 1985 motion picture adaptation of
Neil Simon's ''
The Slugger's Wife''. He also penned the song "She's Got A Part of Me" from the soundtrack to the 1985 romantic comedy
Secret Admirer. Felder's television credits include
FTV, a musical comedy show that parodied
MTV and
music videos which he hosted from 1985 to 1986, and
Galaxy High, the 1986
CBS cartoon series for which he scored and performed all of the music, including the series' theme song.
Eagles reformation Sparked by the success of the tribute album
Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles, the band (including Felder) regrouped 14 years later for a concert aired on
MTV, which resulted in a new album,
Hell Freezes Over, in 1994. For the live MTV performance, the band's signature song "Hotel California" was rearranged into an acoustic version and Felder kicked off the set by performing it with a new flamenco-style intro. Felder performed (with all current and former band members) the hits "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California" at the band's 1998 induction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
Manhattan, New York City. He continued as a member of Eagles until 2001.
Band termination and lawsuit against the Eagles On February 6, 2001, Felder was fired from the Eagles. He responded by filing two lawsuits alleging
wrongful termination, breach of implied-in-fact contract and breach of fiduciary duty, reportedly seeking $50 million in damages. Felder alleged that from the 1994
Hell Freezes Over tour onward, Henley and Frey had "insisted that they each receive a higher percentage of the band's profits", whereas the money had previously been split in five equal portions. Felder also accused them of coercing him into signing an agreement under which Henley and Frey would receive three times more of the
Selected Works: 1972–1999 proceeds than would Felder. This box set, released in November 2000, has sold approximately 267,000 copies and earned over $16 million. Henley and Frey then countersued Felder for
breach of contract, alleging that Felder had written and attempted to sell the rights to a "tell-all" book. On January 23, 2002, the Los Angeles County Court consolidated the two complaints and on May 8, 2007, the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Despite the settlement, Felder has since filed subsequent lawsuits against the Eagles.
Heaven and Hell: My Life in The Eagles (1974–2001) was published in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2007. The American edition was published by
John Wiley & Sons on April 28, 2008, with Felder embarking on a publicity campaign.
Post-Eagles Nearly three decades after the release of
Airborne, his second solo album,
Road to Forever, was released on October 9, 2012, with "Fall from the Grace of Love" as the lead single, a song that featured the harmony vocals of
Crosby, Stills & Nash. When Eagles did their
History of the Eagles Tour, 2013–2015, to coincide with their
two-part documentary, it was criticized by Felder for being incomplete. He did not participate in the associated tour.
Richie Sambora,
Orianthi,
Peter Frampton,
Joe Satriani,
Mick Fleetwood,
Chad Smith,
Bob Weir,
David Paich,
Steve Porcaro,
Alex Lifeson and
Jim Keltner, among others. Felder went on a worldwide tour to promote the new album. The title track references artists from
Jimi Hendrix and
Santana to
the Doobie Brothers,
U2,
Bruce Springsteen,
Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Van Halen,
Guns N' Roses and more. == Personal life ==