Hotel California Trial: Stolen Lyrics And Prostitute Overdosing

Tonight’s mystery, The Case of the Stolen Lyrics.

Back in 70’s The Eagles were working on a song, a song that would be played constantly in pubs and bars the world over for decades to come.

And that hit song was Hotel California. A song full of cryptic meanings.

Strange stuff was going on in the 70’s, especially in Hollywood.

Fastforward a few decades, and the ownership of these lyrics are in question.

Three men have been accused by singer, Don Henley, of stealing the lyrics to that hit.

Eagles Stolen Lyrics Trial: What We Know

The trial for three men accused of stealing handwritten lyrics to songs on the band's Hotel California album begins this week in New York.

More: https://t.co/3p57TWw6xe pic.twitter.com/vj6wxcIGA9

— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) February 19, 2024

But there’s more to the story.

Turns out the lead singer, Don Henley, can be questioned about an incident involving a 16 year old prostitue overdosing.

Daily Mail reports:

A Manhattan judge has ruled that legendary Eagles singer Don Henley can be questioned over an incident in 1980 in which a 16-year-old prostitute suffered a drug overdose in his Los Angeles home.

The musician, 76, has accused memorabilia dealer Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski of stealing handwritten notes and lyrics for the Eagles’ blockbuster 1976 album Hotel California.

All three have been accused of trying to sell the materials, worth more than $1million, and lying to auction houses, prospective buyers and cops about how they obtained them between March 2012 and December 2016.

Horowitz, 68, of Manhattan; Inciardi, 59 of Brooklyn, and Kosinski, 61, of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and criminal possession charges, and Horowitz to an extra charge of hindering prosecution.

Attorneys for Kosinski will introduce a statement from 1981, seen by DailyMail.com, written and signed by singer Henley in which he admits to trying to have sex with the underage girl and that he shared cocaine with her before she overdosed.

‘I did the coke so I could ‘deliver’ after I just didn’t feel like going any more,’ Henley said.

‘It seemed to work for a while but now I think it has just turned on me. I did fine without it in the early days and I’m sure that I can again.

‘Keeping my health is enough reason to stop, my career notwithstanding.’

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In the criminal trial over the theft of handwritten notes and Eagles lyrics, which begins on Wednesday, prosecutors claim author Ed Sanders working on a potential Eagles biography stole the materials from Henley in the late 1970s, and then sold them to Horowitz, a rare books and rock memorabilia dealer, in 2005.

Horowitz then allegedly sold the materials to Inciard, then-Curator and Director of Acquisitions of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Kosinski, then-President of the rock and roll memorabilia auction site Gotta Have Rock and Roll.

They allegedly tried selling them at auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s or coercing Henley into buying them back.

Welcome to the ‘Hotel California’ case: The trial over handwritten lyrics to an Eagles classic https://t.co/AnpvB3qlTD

— Fox 18 KLJB (@YourFox18) February 20, 2024

Yahoo! News added:

“We believe that Mr. Henley voluntarily provided the lyrics to Mr. Sanders,” attorney Scott Edelman said in court last week.

Sanders told Horowitz in 2005 that while working on the Eagles book, he was sent whatever papers he wanted from Henley’s home in Malibu, California, according to the indictment.

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Then Kosinski’s business offered some pages at auction in 2012. Henley’s attorneys came knocking. And Horowitz, Inciardi and Sanders, in varying combinations, began batting around alternate versions of the manuscripts’ provenance, the indictment says.

In one story, Sanders found the pages discarded in a backstage dressing room. In others, he got them from a stage assistant or while amassing “a lot of material related to the Eagles from different people.” In yet another, he obtained them from Frey — an account that “would make this go away once and for all,” Horowitz suggested in 2017. Frey had died the year before.

“He merely needs gentle handling and reassurance that he’s not going to the can,” Horowitz emailed Inciardi during a 2012 exchange about getting Sanders’ “‘explanation’ shaped into a communication” to auctioneers, the indictment says.

Sanders supplied or signed off on some of the varying explanations, according to the indictment, and it’s unclear what he may have conveyed verbally. But he apparently rejected at least the dressing-room tale.

Kosinki forwarded one explanation, approved by Sanders, to Henley’s lawyer. Kosinski also assured Sotheby’s auction house that the musician had “no claim” to the documents and asked to keep potential bidders in the dark about Henley’s complaints, the indictment says.

Sotheby’s listed the “Hotel California” song lyrics in a 2016 auction but withdrew them after learning the ownership was in question. Sotheby’s isn’t charged in the case and declined to comment.

Henley bought some draft lyrics privately from Gotta Have It! for $8,500 in 2012, when he also began filing police reports, according to court filings.

Someone posted that this ‘Hotel’ could be linked to the Standard Hotel.

Hotel California, Song by Eagles

(Adam Schiff and The Standard Hotel.)

Lyrics
On a dark desert highway
Cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas
Rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance
I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop… pic.twitter.com/by11gFYHTz

— Jack Straw (@JackStr42679640) February 15, 2024

I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

Personally, the lyrics to this song always gave me the creeps.

Whatever the real meaning is, truth will out.