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Hotel California Lyrics Trial
Musician Don Henley leaves the courthouse in New York, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. The Eagles co-founder testified this week in the criminal trial of three collectibles dealers charged with conspiring to own and attempt to sell handwritten draft lyrics to “Hotel California” and other Eagles hits without the right to do so. The men have pleaded not guilty. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Don Henley says lyrics to 'Hotel California' and other Eagles songs were always his sole property

Don Henley has finished telling a court why he contends that drafts of lyrics to “Hotel California” and other classic Eagles songs should never have shown up at auctions

By JENNIFER PELTZ
Published - Feb 28, 2024, 06:34 PM ET
Last Updated - Feb 28, 2024, 06:34 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — The lyrics to “Hotel California” and other classic Eagles songs should never have ended up at auction, Don Henley told a court Wednesday.

“I always knew those lyrics were my property. I never gifted them or gave them to anybody to keep or sell,” the Eagles co-founder said on the last of three days of testimony at the trial of three collectibles experts charged with a scheme to peddle roughly 100 handwritten pages of the lyrics.

On trial are rare-book dealer Glenn Horowitz and rock memorabilia connoisseurs Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski. Prosecutors say the three circulated bogus stories about the documents' ownership history in order to try to sell them and parry Henley’s demands for them.

Kosinski, Inciardi and Horowitz have pleaded not guilty to charges that include conspiracy to criminally possess stolen property.

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