Comment It was the late 1970s and the world was in the golden age of rock and roll. The Eagles made a wave of popularity which reached its peak with the release of ‘Hotel California’ in December 1976. The album cemented the Eagles’ place on the American music scene and the band’s status as rock royalty. But pages of handwritten lyrics and sheet music behind some of his chart-topping songs mysteriously disappeared shortly thereafter — only to resurface nearly five decades later as the first line of a New York State Supreme Court indictment. Three men were charged Tuesday with trying to sell the cache of documents — including about 100 pages filled with lyrics to songs such as “New Kid in Town,” “Life in the Fast Lane” and the iconic “Hotel California” — despite a lack of appropriate rights to the materials. Rock auctioneer Edward Kosinski, rare book dealer Glenn Horowitz and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame acquisitions director Craig Inciardi were accused of plotting to sell the stolen pages – valued at more than $1 million – by lying to authorities, fabricating stories about the where the materials came from and prevent their rightful owner, Eagles founding member Don Henley, from obtaining them. “These defendants attempted to keep and sell these unique and valuable manuscripts, even though they knew they had no right to do so. They made up stories about the origin of the documents and their right to possess them so they could make a profit,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg said in a news release. Attorneys for Kosinski, Horowitz and Inciardi — who pleaded not guilty in court Tuesday — did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post. However, in a joint statement, they found the charges unfounded, Law & Crime reported. “The DA’s office is alleging criminality where none exists and unfairly tarnishing the reputations of respected professionals,” the men’s lawyers said in a statement to the agency. “We will fight these unwarranted charges vigorously. These men are innocent.” How the papers ended up in the hands of three tycoon collectors – and were almost sold by auction giants Sotheby’s and Christie’s – is a story that begins when former Eagles guitarist Don Felder began writing the song “Hotel California” after joining the group in 1974 . Now it’s Eagles vs. Hotel California in federal court Felder shared a demo reminiscent of “Mexican reggae” with Henley and Glenn Frey, the Eagles frontman who died in 2016, and they came up with the concept and cinematic lyrics for the song, which would eventually propel the self-titled album to No. 1 in 1977. Since then, “Hotel California” — which draws inspiration from hotel life and “the dark underbelly of the American dream,” Henley told CBS News — has sparked conspiracy theories about its lyrics and praise for his haunting guitar arpeggio. The process of creating the song was recorded by Henley on pages that disappeared when a writer working on a book about the band got hold of them. The author — who was not identified in the indictment — then sold the items in 2005 to Horowitz, who in turn sold them to the two other men, according to court documents. When Henley realized that Inciardi and Kosinki were trying to sell the long-lost manuscripts, he told them they were stolen material, demanded them back, and filed police reports. However, “rather than making any effort to ensure that they did in fact have legal ownership, the defendants responded by engaging in a multi-year campaign to prevent Henley from recovering the manuscripts,” prosecutors allege. Although prosecutors claim the unnamed writer stole the papers, when contacted by the accused trio, the writer said in 2012 that he recalled “finding the material thrown in a dressing room backstage at an Eagles concert.” He later said he acquired them through Henley’s assistant after a stay at the musician’s Malibu home. In 2016, the author changed his story again, saying Frey had secretly given him the papers — a convenient way, prosecutors say, to claim ownership of the material once Frey died and could no longer dispute the account. Frey “alas, he is dead and identifying him as the source would make it disappear once and for all,” Horowitz allegedly wrote in an email that year, according to court documents. Don Henley says the Eagles are done. It was always Glenn Frey’s band. The changing narratives were part of a five-year effort to auction off the materials, the indictment alleges. While Sotheby’s and Christie’s were initially interested in selling the papers, the items never went to auction. as of December 2016, authorities began executing search warrants to recover materials from Sotheby’s and Kosinski’s home in New Jersey. Now, it looks like the 100 pages of scribbles, notes and lyrics will return to Henley. “No one has the right to sell ill-gotten wealth or profit from the complete theft of irreplaceable pieces of music history,” Henley’s manager Irving Azoff told Billboard. “These handwritten lyrics are an integral part of the legacy that Don Henley created during his 50-plus year career. We look forward to Don’s property being returned for him and his family to enjoy and preserve for posterity.”
