Explained: What's Eagles' 'Hotel California' stolen lyrics trial all about?

Eagles and a criminal case? Well, that’s news. In a curious turn of events, a criminal case involving handwritten lyrics of the classic rock hit song “Hotel California” and other favourite songs from the massively popular rock band Eagles have gone to trial in New York. 

Those accused of theft of the lyrics are not your regular conmen but well-known personalities from the collectibles world. They have been accused by Eagles co-founder Don Henley of stealing the lyrics and plotting to sell them off for a hefty sum. 

The trial which began on Wednesday (Feb 21) concerns 80 pages of drafts of the words to songs from the famous album of which “Hotel California” is a part. The album was released in 1976 and is today the third-biggest-selling disc ever in the US. The allegedly stolen documents include lyrics for songs like "Life in the Fast Lane," "New Kid in Town" and, "Hotel California”.

“Hotel California” is one of the most streamed songs from the Eagles, skyrocketing the rock band’s popularity worldwide. The Grammy-winning song is part of the playlists of every rock lover. 

So who stole the “Hotel California” lyrics?

Three famous people Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi, and Edward Kosinski are accused of stealing the handwritten lyrics. As the lawsuit was filed, they pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and other charges levelled against them. Who are these people, you ask? Glenn is a rare book dealer, Craig is a former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator and Edward is a widely known memorabilia seller who deals with authentic exotic and vintage things, mostly concerning the music world. 

So how did they get accused of theft? The case was brought in 2022 when some of the pages from the documents (concerning lyrics) started sprucing up for auction. Eagles co-founder Don Henley took notice. He bought some of the material for $8,500 but also reported the documents stolen, according to court filings.

At the time, the documents having the lyrics were in the hands of Edward and Craig, who had brought the same from Glenn Horowitz. Glenn had meanwhile (according to court documents) purchased them in 2005 from Ed Sanders, a writer who had worked with the Eagles on a band biography that was shelved in the early '80s. Ed Sanders is also known for having founded a rock group the Fugs, (Ed isn't charged in the case so far).

Tracing the lyrics documents, Ed Sanders told Glenn Horowitz that Don Henley’s assistant had mailed along any documents he wanted for the biography. It was however mentioned that the writer was worried at the time that Henley "might conceivably be upset" if they were sold, according to emails recounted in the indictment.

As the trial began, serious doubts were raised in the court on how Ed came to own these documents with the lyrics – whether he acquired them legally and had the right to sell them. 

While the court first started doubting Ed Sanders’ intention, it came to notice that Glenn, Craig and Edward too had contradictory statements as to how they came to possess these lyrics. According to the indictment, the trio gave different versions of how they acquired the documents from Ed Sanders. The explanations ranged over the next five years from Sanders finding them abandoned in a backstage dressing room to the writer getting them from Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, who died in 2016.

So it all boils down to no one truly remembering where the documents were bought from originally and how Ed found them before handing them to Glenn, Craig and Edward. 

Listen to the song here:

There’s more to this trial than what meets the eye – Missing clue in Eagles biography

An important link to this trial is an unpublished Eagles biography by Ed Sanders. The biography was to detail the band’s 1980 breakup. Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey had hired a friend in 1979 to write a band biography for $25,000 and enjoyed extensive access. 

Eagles manager Irving Azoff, testified that band’s co-founders disliked the manuscript. The project was ultimately stalled but by then this person got to know of the impending split that was not public knowledge at the time. Ed Sanders tried using this to his knowledge and asked Irving for "a substantial amount of money” as mentioned in a 1982 letter. The letter said that the manager should pay him this sum since he’d "behaved with great reserve" by not approaching a major magazine with a story about the Eagles' split.

This worried the band members since Glenn Frey and Don Henley were working on their solo careers amid a split, and they didn’t want the news of the split to affect their new ventures. They ultimately paid Sanders about $75,000 and agreed to let him look for a publisher, comfortable that any book still would need the band's approval under his 1979 contract, Azoff said. The book never found a publisher. Sanders' contract said the Eagles owned any material they furnished to him for the book. 

Here’s a little snippet of the much-in-news “Hotel California” 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 for the night
There she stood in the doorway
I heard the mission bell\
And I was thinking to myself
"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell"
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor
I thought I heard them say
Welcome to the Hotel California”

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