Eagles’ manager argues stolen ‘Hotel California’ lyric pages swiped by author writing about band’s breakup

Irving Azoff, the Eagles' longtime manager, on Wednesday testified in a Manhattan court that handwritten "Hotel California" lyric pages were initially "stolen" by Ed Sanders.

Sanders, a nonfiction writer, was tasked with writing a biography about the band in the ‘70s, and was given unfettered access to the group and a slew of their manuscripts. The book was never published, as Azoff claimed both Eagles co-founders Don Henley and the late Glenn Frey were unhappy with Sanders' emphasis on the band’s split in the early '80s.

Azoff, a longtime music industry titan, admitted that Henley and Frey disliked the book's direction, and that "for me personally, all the stuff about the Eagles' breakup was unacceptable," according to The Associated Press.

Henley is expected to take the stand and testify against Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski, who were charged with conspiracy in the fourth degree for allegedly attempting to sell manuscripts, including "developmental lyrics to the Eagles song 'Hotel California,'" according to the original indictment filed by the New York District Attorney's Office in 2022.

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The manuscripts are collectively valued at over $1 million, according to the district attorney.

Defense lawyers claim Henley gave away the documents.

"They have accused three innocent men of a crime that never occurred," Inciardi’s lawyer, Stacey Richman, told Judge Curtis Farber during opening statements.

"All these lyrics are very personal to him, they’re a part of musical history, and it was simply unacceptable to him that they be stolen by anyone else," Azoff testified according to the AP. He admitted that he had never known Henley to give away any of his work, including most of the lyrics he created with Frey.

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When the biography didn't come to fruition by 1982, Azoff remembered Sanders requesting "a substantial amount of money," and said Sanders had "behaved with great reserve" by not giving the story about the Eagles' split to a magazine.

"He had inside knowledge," Azoff said, adding that Frey and Henley "didn’t want some ugly story of the breakup of the Eagles to be published" as they were both pursuing solo careers. They ended up paying Sanders roughly $75,000 so that he could find a new publisher. Sanders later sold the handwritten work to Horowitz, a rare-book dealer, for $50,000.

Horowitz then sold pages to Inciardi, a former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator, and memorabilia collector Kosinski. Inciardi and Kosinski attempted to sell pages of the lyrics through Kosinski's company, Gotta Have Rock and Roll, but were caught by Henley in 2012.

Henley then purchased the "original handwritten lyrics for the Eagles song ‘Hotel California’ written in Don Henley's hand," for $8,500 on April 25, 2012, according to the indictment.

Two years later, Koskinski attempted to contact Sotheby's and sell "Eagles handwritten lyrics in Don Hendleys [sic] hand for New Kid In Town." Shortly after, Inciardi sent a similar email notifying the auction house that developmental lyrics for "Life in the Fast Lane" were also available for sale.

"When Don Henley learned that Inciardi and Kosinski were trying to sell portions of the manuscripts, he filed police reports, told the defendants that the materials were stolen, and demanded the return of his property," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. said in a statement released with the charges in 2022. 

"Rather than making any effort to ensure they actually had rightful ownership, the defendants responded by engaging in a years-long campaign to prevent Henley from recovering the manuscripts."

Throughout 2015, Kosinski and Inciardi continued their attempts to sell 13 pages of developmental lyrics. In December 2016, the DA’s office executed search warrants and retrieved Henley’s stolen manuscripts from both Sotheby’s and Kosinski's New Jersey residence, according to the DA. 

"Shortly thereafter, Horowitz attempted to exploit the recent death of founding Eagles member Glenn Frey to prevent criminal prosecution; he produced a new false statement of provenance, this time claiming that the materials originated from the now-deceased Frey," the DA shared in a statement. "In one email message, Horowitz observed that ‘[Frey] alas, is dead and identifying him as the source would make this go away once and for all.’"

Representatives for Horowitz, Inciardi, Kosinski and Henley did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.