Life in the Fast Lane

The Eagles’ Reckless Ride Down the Rock & Roll Highway

"Surely make you lose your mind . . ."

So the Eagles warn us about the outrageous and ruthless lifestyle of the ambitious rock-n-roller. In fact, Don Henley could barely listen to the track "Life in the Fast Lane" when they were recording it. He was so high that it made him sick.

The band that embodied the American dream with globe-straddling success, impossibly luxurious lives, and almost supernatural talent also descended into nightmare with bloodletting betrayal, hate-filled hubris, the skeletons of perceived enemies, brutally discarded lovers and former band mates left unburied in the road behind them. The Eagles' story is a truly gothic American fable: one of ultimate power and rivers of money; of sex and drugs at a time when both were the lingua-franca of sophisticated So-Cal living; of a band who sang of peaceful easy feelings in public while threatening to kill each other in private.

Now, legendary rock journalist Mick Wall delivers definitive insight into America's bestselling band of all time, exploring their meteoric rise to fame and the hedonistic days of the '70s music scene in LA, when American music was taking over the world.

©2023 Mick Wall (P)2023 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Tells both sides

Gives the point of view of all members much more in depth than don Felder book

The story is good but

The narrator sounds like a robot , no feeling like other books read by humans, a lot of “ shit “ use. It’s OK if it’s part of the actual dialogue but I doubt it was.

Nothing New Here

If you are Gen X or over there is probably nothing in this book that will come as a surprise to you as most of it is pretty well known.

the narration is only a step above a eye and I feel any other person on the face of this Earth and probably have read better.

it does nothing but reinforce my opinion of Don Henley and Glenn Frey being the two most reprehensible human beings in music history, Well maybe aside from Jimmy Savile--but I'm not sure if you would consider him a musician or not. However they are responsible for so my favorite songs of all time.
Not every dirty detail is here but there is a lot to contend with.

Welcome Overview

For those of us who grew up in the 50s -60s,
the music of the 70’s defined our young adulthood. We could pretend we were living the 70s rock life while going to college and grad school (medical school in my case) and live “life in the fast lane” the one night a week we could spare to let loose. This book reflects the true price our “Rock Gods” paid to entertain us and allow us brief vicarious images of what our lives might have been if we hadn’t put down our guitars to pursue our more earthly dreams. Great read!

Ironic chapter titles

It’s hilarious that the author’s 1st 2 parts of the books are titled “Don Henley doesn’t like books about The Eagles” and “Nobody’s Favorite Band”. It’s obvious very early on that Mick Wall doesn’t like Eagles’ books nor are they anywhere close to his favorite band, which makes you wonder why he wrote this. It’s even more a wonder when you figure out that there’s no new interviews or ground covered; he’s just doing the reader a favor and taking stories, quotes & history from previous books and articles & cobbling them together to tell a story similar to Marc Elliot and even Don Felder. Mick’s writing is very creative and clever (not to mention profane), so it spins it differently, but that tends to make it as much a blog as a bio. The narrator - who is as close to AI as a human who swears a lot can be - is definitely not suited for this style of writing, and takes some getting used to. The book itself does as well, and unless you’re a diehard Eagles’ fans who’s used to hearing the band get slammed, the Felder bio and “To The Limit” are more comprehensive than this one.