The famed lyrics to “Hotel California” were written by Eagles band members Don Henley and Glenn Frey in the late 1970s.

Today, the rights to the album’s original lyric sheets, handwritten on yellow notepads, are in question. Los Angeles Times contributor Nate Rogers joined “LA Times Today” host Lisa McRee to explain the legal wrangling over the lyrics.

The band wrote out the lyrics for several songs on their “Hotel California” album, reworking them as they went. But a biographer stole the lyric sheets while working on a book about the band in the 1970s. Eventually, other people became involved as they tried to sell the lyric sheets. 

“The papers were sold in 2005 to a man named Glenn Horowitz," said Rogers. "Glenn Horowitz is a famous, rare book dealer who specializes in literary archives. Glenn purchased the papers, according to the indictment, and then he sold them to two other gentlemen, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kozinski... Glenn, Edward, and Craig were working together to try to sell these papers. According to the DA, that was conspiratorial, and that they were operating with known stolen material. So, they’re being charged with pretty serious crimes."

After the papers were put up for auction in 2012, The Eagles’ Don Henley became aware of the scheme. Rogers detailed his reaction.  

“At that point, Don Henley purchased a set of these papers. There were 100 pages in total, and only a handful of them ended up on this initial auction. Don Henley said these were stolen and reported to the LA County Sheriff’s Office the fact that they were stolen. But he still purchased a few of them back. That was the beginning of this whole thing that’s been drawn out for ten years now, which has led to charges being filed."

Legal documents show that the men trying to sell the lyric sheets conspired to create narratives of how they came to own the papers. If the case goes to trial and Henley triumphs, he could get his drafted lyrics back. 

“If these three men are found guilty, and they face real jail time if they are, the documents will be returned to [Henley]," said Rogers. "So that would be, I suppose, a happy ending for Don Henley if that was to happen. If not, it’s my understanding that, if they’re all found innocent, then the case is thrown out. He would not get the papers back unless he wanted to buy them like he did the initial set."

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