Sorry Don Henley
This YouTube short SAYS the song Dirty Laundry is based on that time a sixteen year old DIED at Don Henley's house. The Wikipedia entry about the song SAYS:
The song was inspired by the intrusive press coverage surrounding the deaths of comedian John Belushi and actress Natalie Wood, and Henley's own arrest in 1980 when he was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and possession of marijuana, cocaine, and Quaaludes after a 16-year-old girl overdosed at his Los Angeles home.
At first blush, that kind of agrees that a teen died and kind of doesn't and definitely doesn't agree that's the sole inspiration. A tiny bit more digging gets this:
Henley called paramedics to his home on November 21, 1980, and there they found a naked 16-year-old girl claiming she had overdosed on Quaaludes and cocaine. She was arrested for prostitution, while a 15-year-old girl found in the house was arrested for being under the influence of drugs. Henley was also arrested and subsequently charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He pleaded no contest, and was fined $2,500 and put on two years' probation. Lois Chiles, who was no longer in a relationship with Henley at the time of the incident, later said, "I was shocked to hear about it. He didn't have drugs around the house. It was an accident, I'm sure". The media attention from this incident was the primary inspiration for the 1982 song "Dirty Laundry".
So she's probably NOT dead. If she died and he got a fine and probation and no manslaughter charges or similar, that would be fucked up. Hello YouTuber: Do you make money off your SHIT channel?
Irony: failing to do your due diligence and check this MINOR detail in the headline of your clip about a song saying crap is king.
Frankly, someone who is apparently an ex-girlfriend expressing shock at the presence of drugs looks more suspicious to me, not less, but there's a LOT I don't know as this is news to me. Most likely, the sociopathic stalker YouTube algorithm is feeding me this garbage because I recently quoted the song on one of my blogs.
On the other hand, HE CALLED the paramedics, which doesn't sound to me like a guy guilty of anything. And that fits with the opinions expressed by the song that if you are famous, it doesn't matter how well you behave. Fuck you coming and going.
The Wikipedia entry for the band The Eagles says:
On July 31, 1980, in Long Beach, California, tempers boiled over into what has been described as the "Long Night at Wrong Beach". The animosity between Felder and Frey boiled over before the show began, when Felder said, "You're welcome – I guess" to California Senator Alan Cranston's wife as the politician was thanking the band backstage for performing a benefit for his re-election. Frey and Felder spent the entire show telling each other about the beating each planned to administer backstage. "Only three more songs until I kick your ass, pal," Frey recalled Felder telling him near the end of the band's set. Felder recalls Frey telling him during "Best of My Love", "I'm gonna kick your ass when we get off the stage."It appeared to be the end of the Eagles, but the band still had a commitment with Elektra Records to make a live record from the tour. Eagles Live (released in November 1980) ...
So there's conflicting stories about whether or not this was kind of a goodbye party and I'm sort of curious now how the demise of the band really relates to this ugly incident. But not THAT curious.
For the record:
1. I'm for the decriminalization of prostitution, in part because my understanding is criminalizing it promotes prostitution and makes it harder to escape.
2. Age of sexual consent in California currently is 18. I can't be arsed to check if that was true in 1980. It's sixteen in a LOT of places and sometimes younger. I'm surprised to see the land of fruits and nuts is more conservative on this detail, not less, frankly.
I got divorced in California. My divorcing spouse came home one day and said "Do whatever you want (with regards to seeing other people). It's California. It won't impact the divorce proceedings."
Then HE proceeded to get regular massages after work hours at $60 a pop cash for his bad back. Pretty sure that wasn't a PT appointment given he was career military and blah blah blah, BUT I said nothing. We were getting divorced. Not my business.
3. The movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has a plot point of the main character being sent to an insane asylum because of being with an underage girl and saying he didn't KNOW. The First Wives Club also has a male character sleeping with an underage girl and he doesn't know. Liar, Liar also has a marriage to an underage girl and the husband swearing that's news to him.
It's a meme that suggests some men genuinely do not know she's underaged. I don't sleep around casually. I don't know how you can readily resolve this without insisting you only have sex with people you know well personally before it gets to that stage.
Arabs probably do more or less insist on that and Westerners rag on them for marrying cousins and you people are FUCKED UP, you incestuous creeps! I wrote a little about that recently.
4. I'm increasingly of the opinion that if our child welfare system worked and parents got adequate support etc. you shouldn't see any 16 year old prostitutes. They shouldn't exist. She's probably not trying to save for college. She's probably trying to survive on her own.
5. Emancipation eligibility is 14 in California. I considered going to California as a fourteen year old who heard on the radio they recently lowered it to fifteen. By the time fifteen rolled around, I was a basket case and forgot about it and yadda, but I will suggest a sixteen year old prostitute in California is potentially a runaway or throwaway from another state IMAGINING she will be legally emancipated and then surviving as best she can after she arrives.
So you can be declared a legal adult at FOURTEEN, but can't agree to SEX until age eighteen? California: land of fruits and NUTS, indeed.
I'm not REALLY trying to defend Don Henley.
I'm just a blogger going What the hell, man? in reaction to some crap video that seems to not be AI schlock while we wait for the world to REALLY go to hell when AI by Sam Altman and Elon Musk take over.
It's a shame to see his song seems to have accomplished less than NOTHING in this CESSPIT of a planet.