Almost every life choice requires a sacrifice. If you have an exam tomorrow, you should give up on playing video games. If you want that car, you should not overspend your money on other things. When it comes to the life of a rock star, sacrifices take on a new meaning. They spend most of their time recording in the studio or on the road for tours. But what about their families?
After his affairs with Loree Rodkin, Stevie Nicks, Lois Chiles, and Maren Jensen, Don Henley finally decided to settle down with Sharon Summerall. The two tied the knot with a beautiful ceremony in 1995. Henley’s fellow musicians, including Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Billy Joel, and Tony Bennett, performed at the wedding. Sharon and Don have three children together, a boy and two girls. However, the musician’s busy schedule sometimes separated him from his family.
The Eagles reunited a year before Don Henley’s marriage to Sharon Summerall. The band didn’t record a new studio album in the following years but continued touring, releasing live albums, and introducing several new songs during shows. Following a period of legal battles with Don Felder, the Eagles decided to record a new album after all those years. Titled ‘The Long Road Out Of Eden,’ the album was their first studio record since 1979’s ‘The Long Run.’ As it appears, recording it required a sacrifice from Henley.
The Eagles had to come together to get in the studio to record ‘Long Road Out Of Eden.’ However, Don Henley wasn’t with the rest of the band; he was with his family in Dallas. So, during the recordings, Henley had to make a sacrifice — leave his family behind and enter the studio with his bandmates. According to Glenn Frey, Don’s commitment was what made them excited about the album.
“I’m proud to work with the guy,” Frey told Rolling Stone in 2008. “We don’t see eye to eye on everything, but that’s OK. He’s the one who had to sacrifice for us to finish the album, spending a lot of time away from his family in Dallas. It was when he really decided to commit to the album that the rest of us got excited about it too.”
He continued, “Don has an incredible ability to get a message across and be entertaining at the same time. That’s such an important component of the band. You can’t just go tadummm – ‘We’re all going to hell in a Hummer’ – tadummm. Not being contrived like that is what sets us apart. Without Don, we’d be love songs and harmonies. We’d be Air Supply.”
So, Glenn Frey believes that Don Henley is an essential part of the Eagles, and they would be a band making love songs and using harmonies without his contributions. In the end, ‘Long Road Out Of Eden’ turned out to be a huge commercial success, so Henley’s sacrifices weren’t for nothing.
