When I saw Don Felder from The Eagles...

Last Friday, I was honored to have been present to see Don Felder from The Eagles at Full Sail University talk about and perform a hand-full of songs he wrote for the band in their early days.  Most known for writing “Hotel California”, Don also shared stories of his beginning in the entertainment business.  Originally from Gainesville Florida, Don is very familiar with the small town atmosphere the southeast United States has to offer and was able to propel himself through those struggles to super stardom with The Eagles.  I’m sure he only shared an extremely small portion of the hardships he dealt with over the years to achieve what he has in the business, but I appreciated what he decided to share with us.  For someone like myself, trying to gain as much momentum as I can before Graduation, his experiences were valuable to me.  I could easily place myself in many of the tales I heard and I was very excited when I noticed my decisions almost paralleling Don’s.  In this blog, I wanted to focus on another part of the biz, equally important to the actual recordings if you want longevity in your career in the music business.  Planning, budgeting, and execution are some of the many aspects of controlling your career path as much as one can.  Don mentioned he started with only a suitcase and a guitar case with about fifty bucks in his pocket.  Even through many of the years he was touring and recording music for others, he was basically broke.  What Don has kept for all these years and what everyone who wants to achieve even a spec of what people like Don have achieved needs to keep is the desire to do what you do.  True, said desire will keep you going through the tough times and impress potential colleagues, but it takes more in the days in which we live to perpetuate self-employment.  Don didn’t have much of a plan when he started except for the drive and passion for what he did, but as the years progressed he definitely forged through any situation that came his way.  I noticed his careful placing of the chess pieces so to speak, as the best musicians and performers of the time surrounded him, he placed himself in those situations for success.  When you don’t know where your next paycheck will come from or when it will arrive, the freelance life most musicians and performers have to live lends itself to very careful budgeting.  Lastly, I think most of the world could agree that The Eagles music is awesome.  Most of the works we all know and love came from Don Felder’s brain and heart.  There isn’t much more I can say about execution that his music hasn’t said to all of us at one point or another.  We were all moved by Don’s performance and I can’t place into words how very fortunate I feel to have witnessed one of the greatest songwriters of many generations in his moment of creation and love for music.  Thank you Don, until next time…