Photo: Steve Jurvetson / CC BY 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Don Henley occupies a strange and wonderful category for me: the drummer who happened to own one of the great voices in American rock. Singing Hotel California from behind a drum kit is an absurd feat of multitasking, yet he made it sound effortless and weary in exactly the right way. His Texas roots give the Eagles' songs their dusty, mythic quality, and his solo career proved the band was never carrying him. The Kennedy Center Honors felt overdue when it finally arrived in 2016. Whenever I want to understand the melancholy underneath 1970s California optimism, I put on Desperado and let that voice do the explaining.
Overview
Donald Hugh Henley (born July 22, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. Henley is a founding member of the Eagles, serving as a songwriter, drummer, and vocalist for the band. He sang lead vocals on Eagles songs such as "Witchy Woman", "Desperado", "Best of My Love", "One of These Nights", "Hotel California", "Life in the Fast Lane", and "The Long Run".
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Don Henley
- Name (Japanese)
- ドン・ヘンリー
- Reading
- どん・へんりー
- Born
- July 22, 1947 (age 78)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Cancer / Boar
- Origin
- Gilmer, Texas, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- singer / songwriter / drummer / guitarist / musician
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Linden-Kildare High School
- University
- University of North Texas
Awards & achievements
- 2007 MusiCares Person of the Year
- 1997 National Humanities Medal
- 2016 Kennedy Center Honors
- 2015 Americana Trailblazer Award
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
- Official sitehttp://www.donhenley.com
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%89%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%98%E3%83%B3%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC
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7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.