Credits: Sports and Music Photographer via Flickr
Fri 15 August 2025 21:00, UK
Not every voice is cut out to be one of the greatest belters ever. Bob Dylan isn’t necessarily going to be caught trying to sing songs by Adele by any stretch, but it serves its purpose as a voice of the people. But even for professionals like Don Henley, there were limits on where his voice could go every time he got onstage.
Then again, changing up vocal style is pretty much the nature of the beast half the time. No one can claim to sing the same way every single time they get back into the studio for a record, and as the clock keeps ticking, many people would choose to make the best of their voice and see where the proverbial walls are when they go through their vocal exercises. And Henley knew this kind of thing better than most working with Eagles.
After all, the band prided themselves on having some of the best vocals in the business, so if he happened to have an off-night and the band sounded like trash because of it, everyone would note it. There was no room outside of perfection for Henley most of the time, but he always rose to the challenge and made sure that he gave the people the show that they came for. But that only came from years of trial and error as well.
Because as much as Henley was a great vocalist, there were many artists that were outside of his grasp. Sure, he has a golden voice that no one can match in his field, but it’s not like he was going to go the way of Rob Halford and start shrieking or throwing caution to the wind and channelling his inner Steven Tyler. And given the number of times he coughed it up live, the world of soul would be a little bit difficult for him.
It’s not like some of country was that far away from soul, though. Ray Charles had made a living out of singing the greatest country ballads of all time, but whenever Henley tried to impress a lot of his friends in his pre-Eagles days, he remembered trying his hand at singing along to people like Wilson Pickett and then finding himself musically limping his way through the set for the rest of the night.
“I got hoarse singing that music four hours a night, trying to sound raspy until my voice blew out.”
Don Henley
Henley probably had a lot of fun doing those songs justice, but he knew those kind of vocal acrobatics were best left in the past, saying, “The frat boys would all want James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding music, which I had to learn. I got hoarse singing that music four hours a night, trying to sound raspy until my voice blew out.” When he eventually got his own band of singers, Henley finally had a place where he could refine his soul chops further down the road.
While the band would never make a pure R&B song from back to front, hearing Henley work through a song like ‘Wasted Time’ proved that he had learned something from those belters. He didn’t need to hit those Otis Redding screams, but all the emotion they packed into their songs was channelled into what he was doing, almost sounding closer to people like Teddy Pendegrass.
Fans could have been confused listening to Eagles stepping out of their comfort zone like that, but Henley knew it was better to keep the audience guessing than give them what he knew they already wanted. Any artist should want that kind of freedom to explore new things, but Henley knew better than to go back to the same artists who left him with half a voice after the night was over.
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