Joe Walsh Admits That He Didn’t Plan The Solos In Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’

The Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh gave an interview to PRS Guitars in which he revealed that he didn’t have a plan in his mind when creating the solos for their ‘Hotel California.’

Formed in 1972, the Eagles are known as one of the most successful bands of the 1970s. Throughout their music career, the band released several chart-topper albums and singles. One of those successful hits was ‘Hotel California,’ which brought the band worldwide success.

The award-winning classic hit appeared on the ‘Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)’ album released back in 1976. One year before the release, guitarist and vocalist Joe Walsh joined Eagles and contributed to the song’s writing process. During a conversation with PRS Guitars, Joe Walsh revealed that ‘Hotel California’s solos weren’t composed beforehand.

This was surprising to many fans since the track’s solo is one of the most memorable in rock history. In the interview, Joe Walsh said that he sat with Don Felder to work on the song. After Don Henley had sung the song, it was time for the solo. They decided who was going to play and when and complemented each other like in a jamming session.

Joe Walsh told PRS Guitars on ‘Hotel California’s solos that:

“Well, Don Felder and I sat down, and we worked all the descending lines. After the basic track was done and Don Henley had sung it, it was our turn. We agreed on who was gonna play when at the end at the big solo, and we tried to complement each other and build it up to the very last part.

So the solos weren’t planned. They were spontaneous playing off of each other. We were really good at that, and the rest of the song was kind of planned out, we put those descending lines on because that was the first set of overdubs.”

You can watch the rest of the interview below.